Pad See Ew (in other words Yummm)

I just made this tonight.  It is a testament to how good this was that I got out of my non food blogging rut and decided to alert you all to this terribly easy, delicious, specimen of vegetarian thai cuisine (though it is not vegan because I use fish sauce and egg).
The reason I have not been blogging is that I have been making roughly the same 10 dishes for the past...uh...a lot of months.  But I had a left over package of rice noodles and thought "what the heck-- I have some vegetables.  Lets see what kind of food I can put together with this"  I looked up some rice noodle recipes and found this one on "about.com" under "thai food."  It was originally supposed to have chicken in it, but I obviously just took it out and modified the ingredients accordingly.  The result was that I already had all the ingredients on hand, and it cooked up in less than 30 minutes from start to finish including prep time.  And what is more-- it actually tasted like it could have been made in a restaurant...which maybe isn't saying much since there are some really crappy restaurants out there.  But I loved it folks and I am already salivating for my leftovers lunch tomorrow so I can have it again.  Kids, keep eating your macaroni and cheese because this grown up food is all for me!

Pad See Ew

16 oz dried wide rice noodles (you can also use fresh-- just skip the soaking part)
1 large head of broccoli separated into small florets
8 oz of mushrooms, sliced
1 red pepper, chopped into large pieces
2 carrots sliced on a bias
2 eggs
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 TBSP oil
cooking sherry
Fresh cilantro
Stir fry sauce
2 TBSP soy sauce
3 TBSP fish sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
2 TBSP lime juice
1 tsp chili sauce or siracha
1 TBSP brown sugar

Bring a large pot of water to boil and turn off the heat.  Immerse the rice noodles and let them soak for about 7-8 minutes until they are softened but still kind of firm and al dente.  After you have finished soaking them, rinse them with cold water and set them aside until you are ready to add them in.
While they are soaking, combine all the stirfry sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  Heat a wok or very large pan over medium high heat.  Add the oil and then add the vegetables and garlic and stirfry a few minutes until the vegetables have softened slightly but are still vibrant and colorful.  While the vegetables are cooking, add a couple of TBSP of sherry so that the pan does not become too dry or start burning the garlic or vegetables.  When vegetables are also al dente, remove them from the pan (or if you have a large wok, push them aside), add a couple of tsp of oil to the pan and crack the eggs directly into the pan and quickly scramble them and fry them for just a little bit.  Add the noodles and pour the stirfy sauce over them.  Gently toss the noodles around the pan with the sauce until the noodles separate and are nicely coated with the sauce (about 2-3 minutes).  Taste test the noodle and add more lime juice (if it needs more acidity) or fish sauce (if it needs more salt).  If you like your sauce sweeter, feel free to add more brown sugar too.  I found I liked a little more lime juice and a little more fish sauce. This is not a soupy dish and there is no excess sauce, but the noodles were very flavorful (they kind of soak up everything!)
Add in the set aside vegetables and toss together.  Serve topped with fresh chopped cilantro.