Pad Thai and a visit from Mark

This last weekend I had a visit from a great friend--Mark! Mark and I have been friends for over eight years. It is pretty crazy to reminisce and reflect on all the memories and experiences we have together. We go through phases of seeing each other more and seeing each other less and thankfully these last two months we have been in the seeing each other more phase (twice in two months!). 

One of my favorite things about Mark is the quality of our conversation. We can talk about anything, and usually end up talking about fun, slightly philosophical and totally interesting conversations. Our latest theme has been on the technological revolution and how Facebook has completely changed and revolutionized our relationships with each other. We talk about how our generation is the last generation to make friendships with limited technology intervention and how our concept of relationships are forever changed. I'm not articulating it as well as we did mid discussion, however, perhaps that's because I worked a ten hour day?

Friday night we romped around Capitol Hill--this is Mark enjoying the Seattle style hot dog in the back of a cab!

Proving Mark actually did come to Seattle. I love Pike's Place Market!

Saturday night we played darts at a bar called The Zoo. 

Anyways, having Mark here in Seattle was wonderful! We did some touristy fun things and just enjoyed each other's company and conversation! I love having people visit me because I am much more inclined to try new things and get out and explore. 

One thing we did, which was really fun was visited this huge asian market called Uwajimaya. There we picked up the ingredients to make Pad Thai (a personal favorite). Uwajimaya also had recipe cards, so it made the whole process super simple. And, let me tell you our Pad Thai turned out pretty good. Mark called it restaurant quality!

Ingredients:

8 oz dried flat rice noodles

3 tbsp oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 egg

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup fish sauce

2 tbs sugar

Soy sauce for flavor

1/2 crushed red pepper flakes

1-2 Green Onion, cut one inch

1 cup bean sprouts

1/4 cup ground roasted peanuts

Lime wedges

Add bottled pad thai sauce for more flavor

To Prepare: 

Soak rice noodles in warm water until soft, drain. Heat a frying pan until hot and add oil. Add garlic and brown slightly. Add egg and scramble until done. Reduce temperature if necessary. Add rice noodles to egg mixture. Turn temperature up and stir fry noodles until translucent, adding some water if needed. When noodles start to stick, add fish sauce, sugar, pepper flakes, soy sauce and green onions. Continue to cook mixture until dry. Garnish with bean sprouts, peanuts and lime.

Try it out! 

This weekend, I have another treat! Teryll, my long time neighbor and dear friend (practically a sister) is staying with me Friday night! Teryll and I have been friends for over 14 years (wow, that makes me feel old :) ).

I hope your week is going well. Wednesday, here we come!