Hello Bangkok!

When not in Bangkok, we dream about this bowl of soup. The vendor that dishes this up is out of this world! We often wonder if the memory of this soup is better than the real thing. It isn't. My mind can't dream up anything more wonderful than this.

I did it. I tried some of David's bugs. I ate one and threw up a little in the back of my throat. As I have a firm two taste rule, I had to try another one. It was no better the second time around. David is wrong...They don't taste like the world's best potato chips. They taste like cricket. He thinks that the large grasshoppers are better than the crickets, but there was no way in hell I was going to let that squish and crunch through my teeth.

Making Christmas, Making Christmas

For presents this year we decided to make a fancy variety of nuts, like those you find at Western Nut Company. We went down to Sunflower Markets to pick up some raw, unsalted whole nuts and set forth turning them into presents.

First, we soaked a gazillion pounds of almonds in a mixture of kosher salt and water. Ten hours later, we removed the almonds from the water and laid them out to dry.

While they were drying, we worked on other varieties.

Curried cashews.

Chipotle-Spiced Pecans.

A day after we dried the almonds, we loaded our smoker full of hickory wood and set forth slow smoking the almonds. For five hours they smoked. Every fifteen minutes that passed would require one of us to go outside and stir the nuts. After the five hours were up, we personally inspected each and every nut, weeding out any that had been too close to the flame. This step made me realize that there are actually people in the world that do this sort of thing as a job. It was back-breaking, mind-numbing work. Hats off to them as I could never be a professional nut sorter.

Once done, we packed the nuts into assorted sizes of takeout containers, labeled them, and smacked a holiday sticker on the top.

All done.

A Season of Thanks

With the turn of a calendar page, an end is near. Three hundred and sixty five has been reduced to 31, leaving me to marvel at how quickly the year has gone by. It seems only days ago that I was starting the November countdown yet November has come and gone, gracing us with friends and family as it passed.

This Thanksgiving marked a first...two families under one roof. David's mom (Lucille) and one sister (Nyron) made their first trip up for the holidays to join the two of us and my parents. For several days, we gathered around the kitchen table sharing old memories and making new ones. There was none of that tension so common around the holiday table but there was plenty of laughter and love. It was a table of excess: bacon-wrapped dates, goat cheese stuffed dates, filled philo, wrapped olives, tapenade, mashed potatoes, 24 pounds of turkey, fresh cranberry sauce, canned cranberry sauce, spiced yams, brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, stuffing, green beans, rolls, pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan torte, and plenty of wine.

While we dined like kings, we took delight in life's greatest pleasure...a home filled with good food and loving family.