Spicy celebration

About a week and a half ago, I submitted my thesis. This is very, very exciting, a seriously major milestone.  But it's not quite right to refer to it as a one-day event, because it stretched over a few days (even weeks, maybe).  I finished a draft before Christmas last year.  I finished revising in April or so of this year.  I made my final edits a few weeks ago.  I waited around while we sorted out examiners (still waiting on that one, actually).  Then my supervisor said "submit anyways".  That was a Friday.  I had to come in on Saturday to print out the required four, single-sided copies of my thesis for examination, because it took about an hour and stealing the work printer for that long would make me very unpopular in my new, upstairs, staff office.

That night, Andy and I had a mini-celebration for the submission which was due to happen on Monday morning.  We opened the bottle of Ginger Wine that we purchased from Shannonvale Winery the week before our wedding.

This wine is seriously yummy.  And vegan.  And it's made where the ingredients are grown, on a farm which uses no sprays or other yucky things.

The winery owner suggested that ginger wine is perfectly suited to spicy foods, because it has its own kick.

So we crafted a spicy dinner to go along with it.

First up, spring rolls.  These are storebought, frozen spring rolls (Woolworth's homebrand, I think), with cabbage, noodles, and little TVP chunks inside.  With these, Andy made a very spicy dip (and had a plate of cucumber on the side, in case things got a bit too hot).

After that it was time for a stir fry, made with chillis, chilli bean sauce, homemade tofu, reduced-to-clear bean sprouts, and a few other veggies, all served over jasmine rice.

This was a yummy way to celebrate, and a good excuse to drink that wine.