Yakisoba

Columbus Day Weekend, 2008.  The place: Candlewood Lake, Connecticut.  The cast of characters: ten thesis-crazed Amherst students looking for a little R&R.  We spent four days at a friend's house on the lake, surrounded by sparkling water and fiery New England autumn hills, doing our best to forget about the work awaiting us back at school.  We slept until noon and spent the afternoons drinking beer and lounging on the dock.

And, taking advantage of the huge and elegantly equipped kitchen, we cooked.  We cooked like the hungry young fiends we were, overwhelmed with delight at our temporary freedom from dining-hall blandness.  We bought everything we could get our hands on at the local Costco, and put together elaborate communal dinners full of fresh vegetables and bright flavors.  And by far the most successful meal we had that weekend was our friend Shaylon's yakisoba.

Go-To Stir-Fry

My first post was a little bit of a challenge. I'm writing from my parents' place in Grapevine, Texas, where cooking the way I like to can be difficult for me. I like to cook with local, seasonal ingredients, and otherwise vegan. Right now, though, I'm in the land of Texas-sized grocery stores and Texas-sized steaks. Plus, my family's tastes are pretty different than mine, so what to make that everyone would enjoy?

My mom loves American-style Chinese food, but it's something she'd rarely try to make for herself, so I decided on the perennial vegetarian go-to: a simple stir-fry. It's simple, it's a crowd pleaser, it's pretty healthy, and it's very flexible: I did up some veggies and tossed mine with fried tofu, while Mom added some chicken for herself and my brothers.