Cooking Thai Food

Well, the first time in a long time (four months) I tried my hand at keang phet sai fak thong (Red Curry with pumpkin) and chicken satay...with our beloved jasmine rice. It was okay. Nothing to write home about (but I will write on the blog about it!!!). I brought some curry packets with me from Thailand when we moved. I realized recently that I have one of the ingredients for this dish growing in an herb planter my mother in law gave me when we came back to the US. It is Thai sweet basil or bai huaraphra! So, I ran to Publix yesterday and bought an acorn squash (which ended up tasting very similar to Thai pumpkin) and a few other ingredients I needed for the chicken satay. I don't know what happened. The curry just seemed bland. I followed my "recipe" to the letter (and believe me cooking in Thai is not the type of food to follow to the letter). But, it just didn't have that zing. I think I need to add more curry next time. I added plenty of fish sauce and sugar (two staple ingredients in Thai food, along with a sour and spicy component), so I don't think that was the problem. Would it be at all possible that the coconut milk is different here??? Anyone else ever have this problem?

In any case, the satay was a hit. The kids LOVED it. Oh, I also made a Thai egg omelette and they enjoyed eating that over rice (another staple Thai dish...at least for my kids!). In the pictures you can see bits and pieces of what I made...not all the chicken got doused in the herb rub (I ran out and was too lazy to make more!). Anyway here is a recipe for the herb rub for the chicken (I bought Thai kitchen peanut satay sauce since I could not buy the ingredients...it tasted very similar, in my opinion).

2 lbs. of chicken breasts, cut in one inch strips knead with following ingredients, addint one at a time. Marinate for at least two hours. (*I didn't add one at a time, I just combined them all together and then rubbed it onto the chicken)

3 slices of ginger (crushed)

3 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 Tbsp. curry powder

1Tbsp. coriander powder (i omitted this as I couldn't find it)

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter

bamboo skewers

Rub chicken in herbs, thread on skewer and allow to marinate. Broil until cooked or cook over charcoal fire.

Eat with cucumber salad (yah know, the one with vinegar and all), if you like to make it more Thai add red onions instead of white ones, and add one sliced, red bird peppers.

An Interesting Fact...

Before I get to the interesting fact, these first two pictures are of Calvin, me and Adele the night we watched the shuttle launch (see Home School Days post below). Notice how tired Calvin looks...and how awake Adele looks!!!

So, the interesting fact is...there are wild chickens and roosters that walk around our new home town of Oviedo, FL. Yep, here you can see a couple strutting around. They don't belong to anyone and they can be seen anywhere down in the "city center" (for lack of a better word!). Pretty funny...I feel right at home, although, in our neighborhood in Thailand we didn't have chickens running around, we did see them often enough, especially near Maahaadthai Park and at Maahaadthai 3!

My Little Footballer

Another football season has started for PJ. God has worked it out for PJ to play in a church soccer league this fall! He is really doing well this year and enjoys his practice times. This morning was his first game and he did great! (Of course, I am partial!) This jersey has not been off PJ's body since Tuesday when he received it from his coach. The shirt is reversible (white on one side, blue on the other). PJ practices on Tuesday evenings and has his games on Saturday mornings. It's been great for him. They also are learning a verse and their coach sits down with them at every practice and shares with them something from the Bible. It is so different from the league PJ played in in Bangkok, that's for sure, but we are so thankful for all the opportunities he has been given to grow and mature but mostly to have fun! He told me today that he had a lot of fun this morning...that made me so happy.

Calvin is not yet old enough to play league football, but he sure did cheer his heart out for his brother on the sidelines this morning. It was SO precious! He was really getting into it...yelling , "go PJ go!" and "Go Falcons!"

The Falcons coach (the guy on the left hand side) made sure each kid got to goalie for a few minutes. PJ blocked one goal and one got by him. He liked being goalie...we'll see what happens with that!

This last picture was taken on Thursday morning. The boys enjoyed playing a bit of football before home school. (I told you, that jersey didn't come off all week!) Calvin inherited PJ's old shin guards (too small for this year). They had fun together...Calvin can't wait to join his brother on the football field!

Thank you Lord, for these healthy, happy boys.

Home School Days

We've had some fun home school days and nights (as you will see!). We are learing all about ancient history and last week we tried our hand at writing hieroglyphics in clay. PJ did a great job but he, being a perfectionist when it comes to art, thought it was very hard to write pictures in clay...which I agreed! But, I kept reminding him how difficult it must have been for the ancient Eyptians and Sumerans. He finally came up with his own code...and stuck with it instead. I did manage to get these two "leopard heads" that partly represent the word glory in hieroglyphics, before he "erased" them. He thoroughly enjoyed the book, Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

PJ is also enjoying the Math U See curriculum as shown below. He has learned that every value has a place. The blocks have proved to be much fun, not just for him but for Calvin and Adele, too.

And, last Friday night (August 29) we decided to head down to the Space Coast (Cape Canaveral for those of you who aren't Floridians) and see the space shuttle Discovery launch into space. It was launced at 11:59pm. I think our kids thought we had lost our minds, but we really had fun, even if we were bleary eyed. It takes about an hour to get there from our house so we woke them at 10:45 (they were fast asleep, of course!) and drove down there. We walked out onto the beach and about 10 minutes later the shuttle took off. It eventually became just a tiny little blip...much like a star. We didn't stay to see it totally disappear. It was a pretty neat night. The rockets lit up the night sky and the rumble was terrific.