The Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Soup That Never Made it to Cookbook Club

In the last month, I have listened to Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness four times. Yes, four. I will also be checking it out of the local library or purchasing the actual book, because I love it that much. It all started with The Gift of Imperfection, another book I have listened to several times. I’m slightly obsessed. Did I mention that I just bought the Power of Vulnerability by her as well?

I am a reader, and like my music playlist I can’t really say I am a one genre gal. I mix it up, all the time. That said, I love a non-fiction book that combines down to earth advice, from an authentic person, and where I learn that no matter how imperfect I may be or perceive myself to be, I am still lovable. I am still grounded. I am still Chrissy. Make me laugh while I am reading it? Even better.

Because, I am extremely imperfect. This isn’t horrible life sentence, but it isn’t my ideal either.

I have this awesome quote, I am not sure who the author is, but for a while, it was on every surface I could post it:

“You will be too much for some people. Those aren’t your people.”

If you have ever felt like your personality and your ideas were bigger than your body, then you get me. I have so much that extends beyond who I am as a person. This could probably be a diagnosis in the works…but I have been living this way for a really long time. So, I understand who I am, and who I need to be. I’m also too old at this point to pretend to be somebody else.

So who I am? I am perfectly imperfect. Hey, I read once that in Japan the cracks in precious pottery are filled with gold. The imperfections are highlighted and make the piece more valuable. Sign me up for the gold fillings.

I consider myself incredibly blessed to be able to surround myself with an amazing group of people. This is monumental. I love my quiet, but I need human contact. The laugh-out-loud, share your stories, build each other up kind. Give me authentic. Give me people to laugh and cry with. Those are my people. In this circle there are my family people, my life time friend people, my sports mom people, my work people, my book club people, and my newly found library cookbook club people.

What is a library cook book club? Exactly what it sounds like. Last year my friend (who is the librarian who coordinates this club in addition to other countless great programs) invited me in October. I had already committed to another leadership committee that met monthly on the same night. So every month I would think about this club with a forlorn feeling. Finally, in June, on the last meeting of the academic year…I got to go.

Oh the joy of collaborating with a group of people you don’t know other than that they love to cook. All age groups, all different careers, coming around a table with food to share. We pick a theme or a book, select a recipe, and bring it to a potluck at the library. I get to bring food into the library. Now haters who don’t get this…realize I am a Language Arts Consultant. I teach reading. I will be heard telling students that books are treasures. So, bringing food into the library is like that childhood dream I had of getting locked into the mall overnight and being able to have free reign.

Back to book club: We discuss how we changed the recipe; we talk about the flavors. We are there until the other librarian comes back to kick us out. It is A-MA-ZING. and I get to go.

This month the pick was from 365 Slow Cooker Suppers by Stephanie O’Dea. Now, if you are like me, when you present your food at any event, you want it to be stellar. Especially if it is at a cookbook club. Specifically if you have a food blog.

So, imagine my total dismay when even though I got up early to prep, and make this recipe, and leave it on low for the time it would take to cook in time for me to add the noodles and go to cookbook club…I get home and realize I NEVER PLUGGED THE CROCKPOT IN. Turned it on, but never. plugged. it. in.

Total shame. If imperfection had a sound track. Man, I would be lead singer.

I sent an emergency ALL CAPS TEXT to the coordinator.  CROCKPOT WASN’T PLUGGED IN!

Her response? “That happens, come anyway.”

Emergency run to the grocery store to buy baked goods that someone else made so I could at least show up with dessert. Even though I blog about desserts, all the time.

That being said, and all shame aside…the cookbook club was ever so gracious. They accepted that I was imperfect and welcomed me to their table and ate my store bought babka. I was humbled but I was blessed. Sometimes, we just fall short. We fall short and we make amends and life goes on.

This soup, which ended up being more of a noodle dish because I added so many more noodles, was delicious. Peanut chicken, with red peppers, and a little spice, and rice noodles that absorb the broth the longer you cook it.

So easy, so quick to prepare. Most of the ingredients I already had in my pantry, I didn’t find bean sprouts, so I left them out of mine. The hardest part of the recipe is cubing the chicken and slicing the red peppers. Everything else is thrown into a crock pot and left to cook. At the final twenty minutes I put in my rice noodles, and dinner was done.

My children and I ate this dish the next day. The day after cookbook club. And, it was pretty perfect. If I can dare to say it. (I am laughing as I write this).

Next month we all will bring our favorite cookies to the cookbook club table, and boy is that a hard decision (I am a girl with a serious cookie love list). I can guarantee this, I won’t disappoint. Those cookies will be stellar, and I will blog about them as well. But for today, I will rest in the fact that this soup is good the day after you are supposed to share it, and cookbook club people are very kind. In fact, if you look for kindness, you will find it almost anywhere. I may not be perfect, but I can be kind.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

Click below for a printable recipe!

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