I Did Not Make Any Sandwiches Today

So glad I saw this at nine in the morning.

   Met Drexler's son, daughter-in-law, and two grand kids. The daughter-in-law is French and spoke an interesting mix of English and French. Plus the three and a half year old also spoke French. I'm the morning I thought of them like I think of most younger children (RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!) but by the afternoon we bonded over the cats at the kitchen. And if you're a really little child who is not yanking on the cats tail you're a good kid. 

    Today we learned how to cook some Thai dishes. Started off by going to a market to pick up some ingredients and to show us what to buy. Then all twelve of us piled into the songthaew (squished together) and headed to the farm. The cooking school is on an organic farm so all the ingredients are as fresh as can be. We wandered around looking at and tasting all the different ingredients we were going to be cooking with today. Some people discovered pineapples don't grow on trees.

    Then we got down to business. We started off making jasmine rice and sticky rice then we each made a different type of curry paste, mine was yellow. This is not making the actual curry, just the paste. Then we made coconut soup which had tomatoes, onions, lemon grass, and a mix of edible and inedible stuff mixed in. With chicken. It was really good. 

Not everyone made the same things. I'm going through my menu but some people, instead of coconut milk soup, made tom yum soup. Or later, instead of chicken cashew made chicken with basil. We choose our own menus and the teacher taught us all the dishes we wanted to learn. She was awesome too. 

    Then we finished our curry. Mine had potato and pumpkin in it. Strange combination. We let the curry sit for a bit and then they told me to stir fry stuff and watch out for the flames. For those who don't know, me and cooking have a bad past. Today I like to think we resolved our issues and worked together. Deanna was the one who lit something on fire, not me. Success!! We sat down and ate our food. The green curry was a bit pale but I was told still good. Drexler played Plants vs Zombies all morning with his grand kids. He hates it now. Some of us passed out after lunch from eating so much food. And we weren't close to done yet. Lilith was overtaken by the heat and spent most of the day 'passed out' on the bench. She had enough energy to complain that the cooking school people made her the wrong dish though. 

    I was woken from my nap by the youngest grandchild crying (he is master of the 'if I cry I get attention' technique. But he's cute so it's okay) and made mango with sticky rice. Found a new favorite: palm sugar. It tastes like maple sugar, but not from maple trees. After we ate that (or attempted to. SO MUCH FOOD) Alessa, Barbara, and I attempted to make spring rolls. Barbara was a pro while mine are deformed clones of the teachers example. Sat around and talked with the adults while waiting for everyone else to finish then we headed home. Where Donna and I slipped into food comas. Which is why I'm up at three in the morning writing this. 

I have watched this multiple times today and decided to share it with you.

Lizard Count: 19                   We had one come out of the bathroom and crawl into the ceiling and another baby on the ceiling which Donna thankfully removed. It suicide jumped out of her hand at first but she got it out.