Crazy as ever but still hungry for Pad Thai
Every night is insane. Every day is insane for that matter, but fun for the most part. Noah still has school for a few more days, but Sasha just has morning camp. By the time I got home and made Virginia lunch it was time to start the pickups. When we got home we couldn’t help notice a number of woodsy looking people a few houses away all looking up at a tree. Upon closer inspection we saw a man at the top of one of the largest oaks in the neighborhood. He looked like a tree man, but was obviously not using a chain saw and seemingly he was fixing a nest. Quickly Sasha and I were able to find out that a baby red shouldered hawk had fallen from his nest and somehow Owlmoon Raptor Center was called to aid this beautiful bird. It really wasn’t what you would call a baby. It was probably about 16″ and had a a very nice and sharpened beak but hadn’t learned to fly. After fixing the nest, the baby hawk, who I must say was very compliant, was hoisted nearly 100 feet into the oak canopy and gently placed into the nest with a dead mouse for dinner. The rescue worker then started a CD on a portable stereo with the sound of a baby hawk calling it’s mother. During this process we were enlisted to observe the nest and the baby and see if the mother found it. The rescuers had other work to do so they left the observation to my five year old Sasha who took the job very seriously. Every five minutes he needed to go down the street to see if the Hawk had fallen or the mother hawk had found her son. Hard to get much done while hawk watching.
This back story dominated the day that had another school pickup, pool run and dinner to cook. Everyone wanted Pad Thai and the prep, cooking and rainforest temps added to the bird watch, made for an interesting evening. At this point I was starting to focus on what wine I would serve with dinner.
Since it was still blistering hot I decided to grill all the veggies first and then only assemble them together and season in the wok. This cut the inside cooking down to 5 minutes and helped keep the house cool. Snap peas, scapes, asparagus, green beans, tofu and basil were all combined after grilling and seasoned with a black bean, soy, sesame oil and curry paste sauce. Run to check the hawk nest. The dish was insanely good and even a meat eater would have been satisfied with our vegan dish. We are vegans. No meat, fish, chicken, dairy or eggs. Just to complicate things a little more, Virginia has Celiac. That means no gluten. No wheat, barley, bread, most soy sauces.
Most people send their sympathies as soon as they find out about our diet, but let me assure you, we eat well. It tastes good. Every non veggie who dines with us is more than satisfied and always comes back wanting more. We also love to drink wine with our meals and great food and great wine help at the end of an insane day. Goodnight hawk. We will check on you in the morning.