A few weeks ago, I got to try pho for the first time.  The first thing I thought about it was: I love this!  The second thing I thought was: I’m going to have to try to replicate this.  Unfortunately, all the pho recipes I found online were highly complex.  They required too much time and effort for me.  In addition, they required ingredients that would be difficult for me to find.  (Especially since I keep a kosher kitchen.)

Luckily, while browsing the supermarket shelves, I stumbled upon Pacific Foods’ mushroom broth.  Now pho isn’t usually made with a mushroom broth, but the vegetarian pho recipes I read mentioned cooking the broth with mushrooms before straining them (and some of the other ingredients) out.

I decided to come up with a quick and easy pho recipe.  Now, I know this isn’t traditional pho.  That’s why I like calling it Faux Pho.  (That and I’m a big fan of alliteration thanks to years of watching Good Eats with Alton Brown.)

First, we start with our ingredients:

For the record, that’s 1 package of broccoli florets (around 12 oz), 2 packages of mushroom broth (64 fluid oz total), rice noodles (16oz), snow peas (about a big handful), and onions.  (In my case, I selected 2 small Vidalia onions thinking they’re sweeter and my kids might be more likely to eat them.)

First, I cooked the rice noodles according to the package directions (boil water, toss in noodles, cook for 4-5 minutes, drain and rinse),

Next, I trimmed the snow peas, sliced the onions into rings, and then sliced those rings in half.  Quick tip: to avoid the "onion cry", freeze your onions for a bit before slicing.  Not so much that you’re trying to cut into a frozen-solid onion, mind you, but just enough that the enzymes that make you cry don’t get released as much.

After that, I sautéed the onions in a little olive oil.  (I remade this yesterday and added some garlic too just because everything tastes better when cooked with garlic.)

When the onions began to caramelize, I tossed in the broth and increased the heat.

After the broth began to boil, I turned the heat down and tossed in the broccoli.

Two minutes later, I tossed in the snow peas.

A minute later, I removed the soup from the heat entirely and pho was ready to be served.

To assemble the pho, first put some rice noodles in a bowl.

Next, add some veggies from the soup pot.

Finally, top off with broth.

Serve with hoisin sauce and/or Sriracha sauce or neither if you prefer.  You could also toss some bean sprouts and/or jalapenos in just before serving depending on how you like your pho.

So how does it taste?  Well, it won’t ever replace real pho, that’s for sure.  Don’t make this and expect that you’re going to get the same pho that you’d get in a good Vietnamese restaurant.  (If they made pho this way, they wouldn’t be a good Vietnamese restaurant.)  Still, it’s a decent facsimile especially if you only have a short time to prepare dinner, are craving some pho, and can’t go to a Vietnamese restaurant to get some.

One of the things I like about spring is that I get to walk around with my camera taking photos of the flowers.  Another thing I like about spring is taking said photos of flowers and looking at them on my computer to see all the little details that you usually don’t see when you normally look at the flowers.

All of the shots below are just crops of the larger photo to highlight the smaller features.

This last one isn’t a straight crop.  I took a macro shot of the flowers and cropped from there.  The first photo is a further-away shot to illustrate what these "heart-like" flowers looked like.

Have you walked around to take photos of flowers?  Make sure you get in close to capture the details you would normally miss.

Tomorrow is May the Fourth, also known as Star Wars Day.  ("May The Fourth/Force Be With You.")  This seems like the ideal day for some geeky activities.  Thankfully, tomorrow is also Free Comic Book Day.  Yes, tomorrow, comic book shops all over the United States, Canada and many other countries will give out comic books for free.

I’ve taken NHL and JSL to Free Comic Book Day two times.  Three years ago, we went for the first time.  That first time, we wandered into the room and the kids jaws dropped when they saw the array of comic books before them free for the taking.  We gathered up some comics, picked up a package of superhero cards and headed home to read our new acquisitions.

The next year, while B was off on a "Mom Field Trip", I took the boys to Free Comic Book Day again.  This time, some people were there dressed in costume.  They got their picture taken with a storm trooper, a Tusken Raider, and Spider-Man.

Like the previous year, we got some comic books (this time limited to five each) and later had fun reading through them.

Last year, Free Comic Book Day landed a few days after we had just returned from a trip to Disney World for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.  In addition, we had to plan a birthday party for JSL’s upcoming birthday.  With all of the post-vacation/pre-party chaos, we didn’t make it to check out the free comics.

This year, we’re planning to return to Zombie Planet to see the selection of free comics.  I can’t wait to browse the selection with my boys and check out the other geeky goodness that only a local comic book store can provide.

Are you going to Free Comic Book Day?

For awhile now, B has been exclaiming how wonderful a Vietnamese dish called pho is.  Unfortunately, since it is usually made with a beef broth, it looked like I wouldn’t be able to partake.  Then, we found a local place that had vegetarian pho!  Yes, this pho contains a vegetable broth.

B went with her mother one day and raved about how good their food was.  She wanted to go back to eat more pho and I wanted to go try it out as well.  Recently, we got the chance to do just that.

We started with some My Linh summer rolls.  These have rice paper wrapped around noodles, lettuce, cucumber, bean sprouts, mint and basil.  We added in shredded tofu and a vegetarian sauce.

These were delicious.  Very light and refreshing.  There’s a lot in an order, so this could be either a meal in itself or an appetizer for two.

Next, came the pho.  Pho is basically rice noodles and onions in a broth.  Bean sprouts, basil, jalapeno, lime, hoisin sauce, and Sriracha sauce are served on the side so you can add as much or as little as you like.

Pho can also have various add-ins.  B had her pho with beef broth and added in beef brisket.

I added tofu, snow peas, and broccoli to my veggie broth pho.

The pho was amazingly good.  You definitely need both a spoon AND fork to eat this soup.  I added all of the sides to my pho, but went easy on the Sriacha.  Still, it had a good kick to it.  I’ll definitely need to get some rice noodles from the store so I can try making my own pho one day.

Have you ever tried pho?  Have you ever tried making it at home?

Since the weather’s been nice and warm, I took the boys to the playground.  It’s the same place we’ve gone countless times before.  There was nothing new there this year and yet, something seemed different.

Maybe it was just my newfound Doctor Who fan status, but this climbing tower seemed different to me.

It looked a little menacing.  Like it might EXTERMINATE me.

Thankfully, my boys were undaunted and conquered the playground Dalek.  They celebrated as brothers do.

I’m looking forward to many more warm days to take them back to the playground.  I’m sure that playground Dalek will be there for them to conquer time and time again.