Here’s my best recreation of a dish from a favourite local Vietnamese restaurant. Cab be bit hot, depending on how much yellow curry paste you add.

Vietnamese Curry Chicken

•vegetable or peanut oil
•3 big Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, halved and sliced ¼ inch thick (you can use sweet potatoes). I generally cook about 4 cups of gold slices and add more coconut milk if needed.
•1 stalk fresh lemon grass, peeled, top removed, cut into 3 cm pieces
•2-3 cloves garlic
•1 onion, sliced into thicker chunks
•2 T yellow curry paste (at Man Lees – use yellow not red)
•4-6 chicken breast halves, sliced ¼ in.
•1 can (400 ml) coconut milk (the good brands will have lots of cream on top)
•½ cup chicken broth

In large frypan or wok:
1.Fry potatoes in oil till browned but not cooked through. Remove from pan.
2.Add a bit more oil and saute onion, garlic, lemon grass a few minutes.
3.Add chicken and chili paste. Stir long enough to sear the chicken slightly and to ensure the paste coats the chicken.
4.Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer covered for 10 minutes.
5.Uncover and add the fried potatoes and coconut milk.
6.Cover and simmer gently another 10-15 minutes.
7.Serve over basmati rice beside green beans seasoned with fish sauce.
8.Garnish with basil leaves.

Since you cook a lot of halibut, there’s a good halibut with cilantro and lime dish ( I omit the garlic and do the red onions at the end or they go gray). Someone submitted it to local DFO station recipe book. Here it is online: http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/halibut-with-cilantro-and-lime-recipe.htm

Make sure you sue low sodium soy as it can get a bit salty.

PS- I’m also really jealous you live somewhere with seasons. I live in Tucson, AZ- not so much in the way of seasons there I hope to move to Washington after college though