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As desolate as ever. 

A new year's resolution unlikely to be resolved: take more photos in 2012.

My short lived obession with couscous salad.

This summer has been one of sweltering heat.  I am fortunate enough to be living on top of a barber shop this summer - albeit one that is open only two days a week - but these are two glorious days of the week, because the air conditioning that comes from downstairs seems to miraculously leak into my unit.

However, the other five days are pretty torturous, and I have found myself escaping to Starbucks far too often not just for their internet or coffee, but for their air conditioning.  The heat has also discouraged me from using any appliance that will produce heat of any sort - in short, I use the stove or oven as little as possible (which is kind of gross when you think of it - I will have you know that I have not been living solely off microwaveable foods!)  Rather, I ate a whole lot of salad for two weeks straight. Specifically, couscous salad.

Growing up in a Chinese household, I never had heard of couscous until I was probably eighteen. If I let my parents try it now, I highly doubt they would know what it is.  However, I soon discovered its goodness in so many forms!  Having couscous as one of the main components of my salad made them more filling (breakfast-lunch-and-dinner material!), not to mention it was extremely quick to prepare, and was extremely refreshing to eat during a hot day.

Generally, my salad consisted of:

• cooked couscous (1-2 cups - prepared according to package0
• cherry tomatoes, diced
• cucumber, diced
• corn kernels
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar

Mix it all together and TADA, an oh-so-delicious salad! 

STIRFRY UDON NOODLES

This is a savory and rather salty meatless dish with chewy udon noodles, tofu, snow peas, red pepper and oyster flavored sauce.

Stir fried vegetables with noodles has always been one of my favorite foods, ever since I was a kid, and my dad would whip up a savory stirfry noodle dish to go along with congee for brunch on Sunday mornings.   I was probably nine or ten the first time I tried Udon noodles (a fat, chewy Japanese noodle) and my most vivid memory on the subject of udon noodles (aside from the fact that I've always loved them) is my nine year old classmates squealing at me that I was eating worms while I was eating my lunch of udon noodles in peace while they were eating their 'lunchables' and PB&J sandwiches ..... Anyway, the great thing about strifry's is that you can put just about anything in them and they will still taste delicious, as well as being super easy and fast to make.

You will need:

Also, missing from the above list - you'll also need snowpeas (or another vegetable of your choosing, say brocolli!) and a few dollops of oyster sauce, as well as salt and pepper to taste.   Since it's a stir-fry, the quantities of everything is basically to your choosing, whatever vegetable-to-noodle ratio you'd prefer.

THE NOODLES:

The problem I've had with stir-frying udon noodles in the past is that they're quite dry and tend to break apart into a billion pieces when I'm trying to incorporate it with the vegetables and such.  What I did this time, and what I'd recommend is to soak them in boiling water for a few minutes before adding them to the vegetables in order to loosen them up first. 

THE STIR FRY:

1. In a pan, add oil and chopped up green onions, cook over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until you can smell the onions.
2. Add chopped up tofu, salt and pepper, as well as a few spoonfuls of oyster sauce.  Stir continuously, until tofu is coated with oyster sauce, for about 4 minutes.
3. Add snow peas and red pepper to the stir fry, cook for about 5 or 6 minutes.  
4. Add udon noodles that you have previously soaked (drain them first) to the stir fry - add more oyster sauce for a stronger flavor.  Cook for another 3 minutes or so (just eye-ball it, really).  
5. Top with chopped up green onion as well as crushed peanuts.