Spirals and American Hustle Soundtrack

 

Two things I am obsessed about this week:  My new spiralizer and the American Hustle soundtrack. 

We saw American Hustle a few weeks ago and at the time, I thought it was pretty entertaining, but didn't think about it much more than that.  Yet in the last couple of weeks, I have found myself thinking about the performances, the story, the music, and I have decided that I absolutely love this movie.  It does wax fairly nostalgic for the 70's and happens to make that time period look a lot sexier than I remember it to be. (Side note: I can't get over the facts, for some reason, that Christian Bale and I are the same age and that it seems that Bradley Cooper keeps playing the same roll over and over.) 

I was only a little kid in the seventies but I didn't see anyone with clothes that fit that well or hair that perfect.  The one thing I remember being really good about the 70's was a lot of the music.  I am a semi-luddite.  I still prefer to buy albums as CD and then copy them to my computer and IPod but then have a hard copy to keep in my messy studio to listen to.  I really enjoy listening to albums in their entirety.  A well planned album can really create a mood in a way that listening to one hit song cannot.  I focus better when there is a full album, whether rock, hip hop, or opera going on than jumping from song to song in a playlist.  Anyways, I ordered the spiralizer and the soundtrack at the same time but the great thing about Amazon now is that I was able to download the digital version immediately and I have been listening to it on repeat for the better part of 3 days and the actual CD just arrived yesterday afternoon.  Now I want to get to work in my studio and listen to it some more.



Back to the spiralizer: it also came yesterday with the CD and I put it to use immediately.  I made oven baked sweet potato fries last night and a zucchini noodle salad with peanut dressing today for lunch.  This salad was delicious. I can't really tell you the exact recipe because every single time I make it a little bit differently. 

But here is my rough recipe and I am sure you can come up with your own version.

Zucchini Peanut Sauce Noodles
serves 2

For the salad:  Spiralize 3 medium-small zucchinis. Add in a handful each of chopped Italian parsley and cilantro.  Add 1 large carrot shredded with a julienne peeler or your preferred method.  Add 1 finely chopped red bell pepper.

For the sauce, blend in food processor: 1-2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter, 1 Tablespoon each soy sauce, unseasoned rice vinegar, catsup.  Add some sesame oil, freshly shredded coconut and red pepper flakes if desired.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your liking.  Thin with water.

Toss salad with dressing.  You can eat it just like this or add tofu or nuts.  I decided to fry up some limp looking cauliflower hiding in the back of my fridge and it turned out delicious!