Krabi, Thailand
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Visiting the elephants
Today we woke up to sunshine and papaya, and a 45 minute truck ride heading south on the island to ride elephants, do some hiking, and see old town.
This was one of the elephants we rode. He was 25 yrs old and "easy to guide" according to the guide, who sat on his head. What I didn't expect was such a bumpy ride!! I was holding on to that bench(and Timon) with all my might! This little boy was feeding the elephant and really shy about touching it. Elephant skin is like cement-leather! Super rough and thick and hairy.
Riding elephants is also really bumpy and sometimes they walk under trees with low branches and you really gotta watch out! One of the guides also had a slingshot to help "encourage" the elephant. One of our pals was saying they have chains on their ankles since babyhood, so when they get real big, they won't run away, b/c they are so trained to thinking their stuck on their chain.
So the elephants dropped us off where we began 1 km hike to this cave, which had a Banyan tree growing through it- literally. It was really cool! The roots went down thru the rock looking like poles. The cave itself actually wasn't very "cavey" it wasn't very deep, but we saw some little bats. A waterfall was supposed to be part of the tour, but it was all dried up (first time in 25 years!) so we just headed back and managed to catch a glimpse of a flying lizard going tree-to-tree!
Lunched in the old town (which I don't recommend for its 40 minute ride). Its just a town, with a beautiful view..
This was one of the elephants we rode. He was 25 yrs old and "easy to guide" according to the guide, who sat on his head. What I didn't expect was such a bumpy ride!! I was holding on to that bench(and Timon) with all my might! This little boy was feeding the elephant and really shy about touching it. Elephant skin is like cement-leather! Super rough and thick and hairy.
Riding elephants is also really bumpy and sometimes they walk under trees with low branches and you really gotta watch out! One of the guides also had a slingshot to help "encourage" the elephant. One of our pals was saying they have chains on their ankles since babyhood, so when they get real big, they won't run away, b/c they are so trained to thinking their stuck on their chain.
So the elephants dropped us off where we began 1 km hike to this cave, which had a Banyan tree growing through it- literally. It was really cool! The roots went down thru the rock looking like poles. The cave itself actually wasn't very "cavey" it wasn't very deep, but we saw some little bats. A waterfall was supposed to be part of the tour, but it was all dried up (first time in 25 years!) so we just headed back and managed to catch a glimpse of a flying lizard going tree-to-tree!
Lunched in the old town (which I don't recommend for its 40 minute ride). Its just a town, with a beautiful view..
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Hello from Thailand!
We arrive on Friday in Bangkok, to humid hot weather and hot pink cabs.
I think the typography/lettering of the thai language is really cool looking, with its curls and turns.
Satuday visited the Jim Thompson house, an American who helped in building up the silk industry. We toured his house, which was a bit dark, but interesting mix of Thai, western, and chinese influences.
Last night we arrived in Koh Lanta, an island about 15 hrs by car from Bangkok- scenic green and amazing. n our road trip, we saw many car dealerships, and brightly collored multi story homes as well as trucks of durian.
I think the typography/lettering of the thai language is really cool looking, with its curls and turns.
Satuday visited the Jim Thompson house, an American who helped in building up the silk industry. We toured his house, which was a bit dark, but interesting mix of Thai, western, and chinese influences.
Last night we arrived in Koh Lanta, an island about 15 hrs by car from Bangkok- scenic green and amazing. n our road trip, we saw many car dealerships, and brightly collored multi story homes as well as trucks of durian.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Heading to Thailand!
This weekend we are heading to Thailand! Beaches, friends, catching up on blogs, and WARM weather!
A little clever bit I wanted to share a while back when we were setting up home were these awesome spice jar rack set we got as a wedding gift. (Props to my husband who picked them out for the registry!!)
Zevro Magnetic Spice rack! But when we arrived in Shanghai, our kitchen was all tile, and we didn't want/know how to drill into the tile, lest we wreck everything. My mom had pre-filled a majority of them with "American" spices: lemon pepper, garlic salt, other things hard to find locally in China- so I was pretty bummed. And then, voila!
The hood of our stove is metal, and a perfect accessible location for our spices! yay!
A little clever bit I wanted to share a while back when we were setting up home were these awesome spice jar rack set we got as a wedding gift. (Props to my husband who picked them out for the registry!!)
Zevro Magnetic Spice rack! But when we arrived in Shanghai, our kitchen was all tile, and we didn't want/know how to drill into the tile, lest we wreck everything. My mom had pre-filled a majority of them with "American" spices: lemon pepper, garlic salt, other things hard to find locally in China- so I was pretty bummed. And then, voila!
The hood of our stove is metal, and a perfect accessible location for our spices! yay!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
yummy dinners
Seems like this blog is really turning into a cooking blog... I promise you it isn't. Timon has some great ideas for tech topics he wants to blog about.
Tonight for dinner we made sloppy joes and very delicious bread sticks (aka Salt and Pepper Grissini )
My parents own a bread machine, we only use it ever so often- the loaves often came out really yum the first day and then hard and dry quickly thereafter. The only other good use was when I was designing products out of bread for a competition, freshman year? Anyways-
I got both my recipes from Epicurious, one of my favorite iTouch apps. We cooked for 4 people, and sloppy joes was super easy, esp when I normally get home from work at 6:30. We bought some crusty french hoagie rolls from Tesco, (on promo!) for buns which were delicious! Bread alternatives here are great, but not like home. There's not really hot dog or hamburger buns- and they've got the rad sliced bread, but once you put condiments on they soak it up and get crushed to smithereens.
Our sloppy joes had ground hamburger, bell pepper green, mystery green pepper (wasn't spicy like I thought), yellow onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and garlic salt, chili powder, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar, white sugar, and a tad of starch.
Okay, cinnamon and sugar? Yes, I think everyone knows kristina and timon have HUGE sweet tooths, and kristina's favorite cereal IS Cinnamon Toast Crunch....so here's the explanation: The recipe called for ketchup, and I wondered- why can't I just make it? Isn't it just preserved tomato sauce?? So when on eHow for a recipe and added the ingredients into my sauce- including vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar! Sweet n Tangy! Maybe next time I'll try my hand at making ketchup. When I went to Germany, we would snack on currywurst on the train platforms- sausage with curry ketchup! so good :)
The grissini ("The what?": Timon) aka crunchy bread sticks were an inspiration from Ultimo restaurant in Bali. Located on the swag Oberoi street in the Seminyak area, this very affordable Italian restaurant was SO good, we ate there 3 days, two nights in a row. Upon being seated they bring you a basket of bread with long pencil thin bead sticks sticking out like the branches of a tree in the winter, and garlicy pesto butter to eat with it.
This recipe was a hit! It had fluff, crunch, spongey, bubbly texture. We substituted heavy cream for the buttermilk it called for, and accidentally added the egg white in, instead of brushing it ontop. It reminded me of buttermilk biscuits, and would prolly work pretty well. The dough was really soft and sticky when I was rolling it out. My baking pan is little, so the some the bread sticks became "J" and "c" shapes to fit. Would be fun to make cute shapes and serve in a soup! Maybe I will try that next time when I make chili...mmmmhmmm. The only disappointment with this recipe was that it was so small- only 10 or so little pencil bread sticks. Perfect for two people, but as an appetizer I'd have to double or triple the recipe, which I may do for our Easter brunch coming up this Sunday. Right now, we've signed up for salsa + chocolate dessert (left over from my birthday) so we'll see. I'm super behind on posts.
Tonight for dinner we made sloppy joes and very delicious bread sticks (aka Salt and Pepper Grissini )
My parents own a bread machine, we only use it ever so often- the loaves often came out really yum the first day and then hard and dry quickly thereafter. The only other good use was when I was designing products out of bread for a competition, freshman year? Anyways-
I got both my recipes from Epicurious, one of my favorite iTouch apps. We cooked for 4 people, and sloppy joes was super easy, esp when I normally get home from work at 6:30. We bought some crusty french hoagie rolls from Tesco, (on promo!) for buns which were delicious! Bread alternatives here are great, but not like home. There's not really hot dog or hamburger buns- and they've got the rad sliced bread, but once you put condiments on they soak it up and get crushed to smithereens.
Our sloppy joes had ground hamburger, bell pepper green, mystery green pepper (wasn't spicy like I thought), yellow onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and garlic salt, chili powder, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar, white sugar, and a tad of starch.
Okay, cinnamon and sugar? Yes, I think everyone knows kristina and timon have HUGE sweet tooths, and kristina's favorite cereal IS Cinnamon Toast Crunch....so here's the explanation: The recipe called for ketchup, and I wondered- why can't I just make it? Isn't it just preserved tomato sauce?? So when on eHow for a recipe and added the ingredients into my sauce- including vinegar, cinnamon, and sugar! Sweet n Tangy! Maybe next time I'll try my hand at making ketchup. When I went to Germany, we would snack on currywurst on the train platforms- sausage with curry ketchup! so good :)
The grissini ("The what?": Timon) aka crunchy bread sticks were an inspiration from Ultimo restaurant in Bali. Located on the swag Oberoi street in the Seminyak area, this very affordable Italian restaurant was SO good, we ate there 3 days, two nights in a row. Upon being seated they bring you a basket of bread with long pencil thin bead sticks sticking out like the branches of a tree in the winter, and garlicy pesto butter to eat with it.
This recipe was a hit! It had fluff, crunch, spongey, bubbly texture. We substituted heavy cream for the buttermilk it called for, and accidentally added the egg white in, instead of brushing it ontop. It reminded me of buttermilk biscuits, and would prolly work pretty well. The dough was really soft and sticky when I was rolling it out. My baking pan is little, so the some the bread sticks became "J" and "c" shapes to fit. Would be fun to make cute shapes and serve in a soup! Maybe I will try that next time when I make chili...mmmmhmmm. The only disappointment with this recipe was that it was so small- only 10 or so little pencil bread sticks. Perfect for two people, but as an appetizer I'd have to double or triple the recipe, which I may do for our Easter brunch coming up this Sunday. Right now, we've signed up for salsa + chocolate dessert (left over from my birthday) so we'll see. I'm super behind on posts.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Adventures in cooking!
Tonight we had a savory version of bread pudding- which ended up being more like stuffing- the thanksgiving kind.
We try not to overbuy at the grocery store, esp when its jam packed with grammas in jammies. All we had was chicken breasts, stale baguettes (again, an overestimation for dinner party) orange juice, 3 eggs, and 5 carrots.
We threw it all together in a cassarole dish, with garlic salt, lemon pepper, and onion flakes (courtesy of my mom!). I pan fried the chicken in oregano and tossed into the mix, of chopped carrots and bread (we opted for 1 carrot instead of 5)
And it came out quite pleasantly! yum yum! crunchy crust on top, with custardy juicy bread plus chicken and (rather) crunchy carrots. Next time I'll put the carrots on the bottom with the meat in the juices, so they'll steam better.
In the meantime, we'll head to the grocery store.
We try not to overbuy at the grocery store, esp when its jam packed with grammas in jammies. All we had was chicken breasts, stale baguettes (again, an overestimation for dinner party) orange juice, 3 eggs, and 5 carrots.
We threw it all together in a cassarole dish, with garlic salt, lemon pepper, and onion flakes (courtesy of my mom!). I pan fried the chicken in oregano and tossed into the mix, of chopped carrots and bread (we opted for 1 carrot instead of 5)
And it came out quite pleasantly! yum yum! crunchy crust on top, with custardy juicy bread plus chicken and (rather) crunchy carrots. Next time I'll put the carrots on the bottom with the meat in the juices, so they'll steam better.
In the meantime, we'll head to the grocery store.
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