It's summer time and the livin is easy.

Truer words were never spoken.  Lately I've been grilling some meat or fish and serving it along side some farm fresh steamed veggies usually tossed with butter or maybe a salad from the lettuce and tomatoes out of my garden.  There really is only one appropriate summer cooking method - KISS - Keep it Simple Silly! 

I finally found some soba noodles at the grocery store recently so I thought I'd make some of those wonderful snow peas into a Japanese inspired stir-fry.  And the leftovers for lunch would be awesome.  I toasted up some sesame seeds in a dry wok first and removed them from the pan.  I made a sauce out of hoisin, soy, chili sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and water. I was psyched. 

I set a pot of water on to boil the noodles.  I figured I'd cook the whole package since it indicated it was for 4 people and I wanted leftovers for lunches.  Once the water was at a rolling boil I snipped the top off the package and dumped the noodles in the pot.

Anyone see what's coming?

Yeah soba noodles come tied up in bundles with a thin paper wrap around each one. These paper wraps were now keeping my noodles together in an nice organized fashion as they twirled around in the pot.  I said a few swear words, grabbed my tongs and started grabbing bundles of noodles out of the pot.  Not only were the noodles starting to soften but they were also friggin hot.  I managed to get the paper wraps off but not before the noodles started to stick together forming noodles gluepy noodle masses.  Back into the water they went and I called for back up. 

Mom tried to seperate the gluepy masses while the noodles finished cooking in the pot.  Never to throw food away, I finally said "enough" and I pulled the looser ones out of the pot and tossed them in the stir-fry. 

I currently have a container full of glumpy noodles sitting in my fridge.  I intend to freeze them and use them later in a soup.  I figure they'll work well there. Waste not, want not!  And now I'll go back to simple grilled meats and fish with sides of farm fresh steamed veggies for what's left of our summer.