A weekend of Venetian Plaster

Our friend, BH, offered her knowledge in a technique called Venetian Plaster a few weekends ago to beautify our bathroom. After two full days of work, four coats of plaster, a batch of mac and cheese and a little pad thai, our bathroom was completely transformed. The work was well-worth how gorgeous it turned out. Thanks, BH - we love it!

Here's a before and after picture:

Spicy Cucumber Noodle Salad with Edamame

It's been awhile...I know. I've definitely been trying out new recipes over the past few months but I just didn't feel that inspired to post. It may have been that I was worn out from my new job (btw, I'm back at my old job again with a new found enthusiasm...and perhaps more time to blog!). Also, between all of my recently discovered food allergies, I guess I was finding cooking a little less fun and a little more of a chore. So I needed to shake all that in order to get back into the groove. We'll see where this goes...

The weather was awful today; I'm sure it was awful in your neighborhood too wherever you may be. So it was a perfect day to stay indoors and cook. I cracked open my Cooking Light magazine on drive to a restaurant last night and found a rather simple noodle salad recipe that had my name all over it. So today, my husband and I set to work on this for a quick lunch and were pleasantly surprised.

Here's the recipe (From Cooking Light):

8 ounces uncooked soba (buckwheat noodles)
1 cup frozen shelled edamame (green soybeans)
1 cup diced English cucumber
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons white miso (soybean paste)
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon chile paste with garlic (such as sambal oelek)
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
1 1/4 cups fresh bean sprouts

Cook soba in boiling water 2 minutes; add edamame. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water. Drain; cool. Place soba mixture in a bowl. Add cucumber and onions. Combine mayonnaise and next 5 ingredients (through oil); stir with a whisk. Pour over the soba mixture; toss well. Top with bean sprouts.

We tend to avoid mayo at all costs but the mayo was a nice balance with the chile paste. If you hate mayo, there's some really good recipes online for tofu-based mayo which tastes pretty similar to the real thing and more importantly provides the needed texture. Next time, I think we'd cut the sauce mixture in half; the noodles were pretty drenched with the mixture and probably unnecessary calories were brought into the equation. Also, I think I'd make an extra effort to aquire the bean sprouts to have that needed crunch. Sadly, our local Harris Teeter only had about 10 bean sprouts to purchase totaling a mere $0.05. We have leftovers for lunch tomorrow which my husband is convinced will even be tastier cold. He loves his cold leftovers.

It's a keeper.

Oh, here's my current blog crush: 28 Cooks
I have yet to cook a recipe from here that I didn't love. Make sure to check out all the hummus recipes!