Wok and Talk {and a little about me!}

 . . . . We interrupt this blog talk about exercise to bring you an update on the Wok and Talk . . . .

Last night we had a fun little activity for the women at our church. It was a cooking demonstration on Asian foods.  The women at my church are so adorable!  I mean even the title Wok and Talk was darling and look how cute the taster's table was!

We had people demonstrate how to make sushi and how to make Thai spring rolls.  Then some of the women had brought some of their own Asian dishes for the taster's table.  There were so many yummy things to try!  I wanted to bring an Asian dish that was based on vegetables {because hello!  I love vegetables!!!}.  So I made Soba noodle salad.  It's pretty easy!

Soba Noodle Salad

The salad:

8 ounces soba noodles {get at an Asian market} OR whole wheat spaghetti noodles

1 english cucumber, halved and sliced

1 medium carrot, cut into 2-inch matchsticks {or buy the pre-shredded carrot matchsticks}

1 chunk daikon {about 6 ounces}, cut into 2-inch matchsticks

1 red bell pepper, halved and thinly sliced into matchsticks

1 yellow bell pepper, halved and thinly sliced into matchsticks

4 green onions, sliced diagonally

The sauce:

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  Drain, cool and pat dry with towels.  Combine the noodles and vegetables in a large serving dish.  Mix up the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and pour half over the dressing over noodles.  Toss well to coat.  Serve remaining dressing on the side.

I pretty much tripled the recipe to take with me and just started throwing vegetables in without really measuring those too much.  This recipe is pretty forgiving like that.   You can use more or less of any of the veggies according to your tastes.  I actually went pretty noodle heavy this time and wish I had put more veggies in. 

And I am pretty much in love with daikon with all my heart!  It is so tasty!  I love it in this salad!  It doesn't have a real strong flavor of its own and it blends in perfectly into the salad so that certain people at my house don't even realize they are eating a vegetable.  It just blends in incognito with the noodles!  Love that!

On a separate note, Adrienne over at The Rich Life {on a budget!} gave me The Stylish Blogger award today.  She is so darling!  Please go pay her a visit ~ I think you will really enjoy her!  

Thank you Adrienne!

So as part of my "acceptance speech" I am supposed to tell you a little more about myself.

01.  My real name actually does start with a B.  It's not just a catchy signature to match my blog!  It just happened to work out that way!

02.  I love vegetables.  Oh wait, you probably already knew that!  But maybe you didn't know that I tend to eat mostly vegetarian {for health reasons}, though I do sometimes still eat meat on occasion {my husband is a carnivore to the core!}.  

03.  I am passionate about organ and tissue donation.  I was blessed to receive a cornea transplant four years ago and have had friends and family members who have also received the gifts of kidney and bone marrow transplants.  

04.  I love old etiquette books.  Doesn't mean I am proper all the time.  In fact, I'm probably far from it.  I guess I just hope that some of it will rub off on me!

05.  I love the Beatles.  I probably would have been one of those crazy screaming fans too!

06.  I speak Portuguese.  Though I have forgotten a lot of it over the years. 

07.  I design eveningwear in my head.  All the time.  But I lack absolutely any skills to bring any of them into real life.  

So there you go!  I would now like to nominate a few fellow bloggers for their fabulous stylish contributions to the blog world:  

Mary at This is M.E. ~ she is my cute little sister learning to make her way in this world.  She is ever stylish and a budding photographer too.

Sarah at I Heart Pretty Things ~ She is my adorable cousin and I love her musings on life and family, like this adorable one, plus she creates fabulously crafty things like this gorgeous chore chart.

Loralee of Loralee's Looney Tunes ~ she is a friend of mine from high school.  I adored her then and I adore her now.  I love and appreciate her honesty and she always has the darndest things happen to her!

And a few others who write more private blogs or have already been given the award ~  I am blessed to have so many amazing women in my life ~ I love you all!

Please drop by and pay them a visit.  You won't be sorry!  And as always, if the above don't want to play along with the "7 things" it's no big deal ~ just know that I appreciate you!

 . . . . Ok now back to our regularly scheduled programing! . . . .