recipes and festivals

[eveninglily]

I realized this weekend that in the last three weeks, I've been to three big festivals: Hats Off Day in Burnaby, Car Free Day on Main Street, and the International Dragon Boat Festival. And here I was complaining that Vancouver had no culture! Well, this summer has proven me wrong already. The rain stops here for a few weeks and Vancouverites are all over the place. I'm a bit relieved to see a bit of life in this city.

The Dragon Boat Festival was great! I was working with CBC at their promo booth (because of my good friend Sean McLaren, a fellow dialoguer). Turns out I know more about the CBC than I thought I did - or maybe just more than the average Vancouverite? Hm. We handed out lots of balloons to kids, played some knowledge-testing trivia games, and just generally tried to share lots of smiles. I enjoyed getting a chance to watch the races, too.




On Friday night, I took my time making dinner and made a Thai chicken pizza with soy chicken and cheese and a homemade peanut sauce. The soy aspect was a bit of a fluke - I ordered some soy chicken strips from SPUD in my last order, and they seemed a natural fit for the pizza. The soy mozzarella was just 1/2 as expensive as the real mozzarella, and served the exact same purpose. Mmm. The pizza had diced carrot, onion, and green onion, and I sprinkled fresh cilantro on the top. (Parsley would go well too.) The onion and carrot were both raw in the oven, and came out just a little crunchy. It kept well, too--Hilary and I had it again for dinner the next night, and I had a slice for lunch in class today too. Serve it with a little extra peanut sauce on the side, and you're good to go!



Thai Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 frozen cooked pizza crust (I used the basil pizza shell from Pzazz Fine Foods via SPUD)


• ~3 tbsp peanut sauce (see below for homemade recipe)


• cooked chicken in bite-sized pieces (I used 1 package of soy chicken strips in this recipe, it tasted the same!)


• 1 medium carrot, cut in julienne slices


• 1/3 onion, chopped loosely


• 1 green onion, chopped loosely


• mozzarella cheese (I also used soy mozza in mine, and again, it tasted delicious!), any other desired cheeses


• fresh cilantro

Let pizza crust thaw slightly. Spread peanut sauce on crust until covered well. Sprinkle cooked chicken across crust, and distribute carrot, onion, and green onion around it trying to keep the coverage even. Sprinkle with desired amount of cheese(s) and some basil or oregano or fresh pepper. Bake in 400 F oven for 10-15 minutes, or until desired doneness. (At a lower temp for slightly longer is okay, as the carrots and onion need time to cook. Feel free to add garlic if you desire, if your sauce doesn't already have some in it.) Remove from onion, sprinkle with fresh cilantro, and enjoy! Serve with a little extra peanut sauce on the side for dipping, if you're a sauce afficionado like me. :)

Basil & Maria's Homemade Thai Peanut Sauce

This recipe is from my friends Basil and Maria who live in Victoria, BC. We were visiting for dinner last November and they made this amazing peanut sauce for our chicken. Luke and I stole the recipe right away!

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp oil


• ¼ c sherry or white wine or water (not "Almond" sherry!)


• ¼ c soy sauce


• 2 cloves minced garlic


• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar


• 2 tbsp brown sugar


• ½ c peanut butter


• 3 tbsp ketchup


• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix thoroughly and enjoy!