Valentine's Day

I didn't plan to write a post about Valentine's Day.  You may (or may not) have noticed that my holiday posts have been rather lacking.  But as it turns out, Valentine's Day has been one of my best holidays here yet.

Despite being a little bit behind in my lesson plans (I have 2 weeks for the last unit and some of those days will not go as planned) I always knew that we would be celebrating Valentine's Day in my class.  My kids have been working hard and I always remember celebrating Valentine's Day in elementary school.  So I asked Nong to buy some candy for them and I purchased stickers and ribbon for us to make Valentines! Well, little did I know but Valentine's Day is actually celebrated in Thailand (unofficially of course).  Today when I came into class my kids ambushed me with stickers and candy and flowers and love!  The sweetness was overwhelming!

All the stickers on my jacket.  You can see they also pin candy to you with a safety pin!

And at the end of class I had planned for them to give their valentines to each other but I ended up getting most of them!  My students are just so cute!  Plus there's the abundance of hugs and "I love you Teacher" and seeing me in the hall you'd think I was Santa Claus!  My heart is just full of love for them.

some of the valentines I've recieved

just some of my new candy stash - I will definitely be re-gifting it as prizes in class! 

my flowers - 2 were actually real!

Anyway, tonight G and I are going out to dinner to celebrate.  All and all I think it will be an excellent day!  I hope that everyone, no matter where you are or who you are with, has a wonderful Valentine's Day filled with love.  Cause that's what today is all about, ya know?

Didn't use to

That's what my lesson for my P4s was on today: Use to and Didn't use to.  I kind of hate the way the book presented it.  Here, want a visual?

So I don't like it because I think it is rare that you would hear anyone say "In the 1950s people didn't use to have computers in their houses."  You would just say "In the 1950s people didn't have computers in their houses."  And I now understand (it actually took writing this blog post for me to get to this point) that they are trying to do a Then versus Now comparison.  Now, people have computers in their houses but Then they didn't.  However, just reading it I feel like there is the suggestion that at some point in the 1950s people had computers which is obviously not true.  Anyway, it ended up being kind of a fun page to do.  My kids understood the concept immediately so it was pretty much just establishing whether each statement was true or not.  

Did people have computers in their houses in the 1950s?  "Yes Teacher"  

Hehehee - they learned that lesson right quick!

My favorite part though was the question about Elvis.  

Do you know who Elvis Presley is?  "No Teacher"

Ahhh!  Well let's show you a picture then!!!  

Now do you recognize Elvis? "No Teacher"

Ahhh! Well let's listen to a song then!

Anyway, I think Elvis went over their heads a little bit but at least by the end I was able to get across that Elvis was a superstar and that the girls went crazy over him.  And while I know you'd all love to see my impression of a girly Elvis fan unfortunately I don't videotape every class.  So you'll just have to imagine it and maybe do a crazy fan-girl impression yourself. :)

Thinking about you

This is not a sentimental post contrary to what the title might suggest.  I just wanted to write something to say that I am thinking about this blog and I know I'm due for another post.  Unfortunately today is a bad day for me to be writing since I have a bunch of grading to do.

So just as a quick update, I've had a good last couple of days.  Last night I fell asleep super early and it felt wonderful.  Well, it felt wonderful as soon as I turned off The Master which I had been attempting to watch. Note that I didn't fall asleep cause the movie was boring, I was just tired, but that being said, the movie was kind of tripping out my subconscious while I was falling asleep to it.  And why was I so tired?  Well, I spent the weekend in Bangkok with G!  I had a great time.  We baked, we went out with her friends, we saw a free concert in the park - it was all a lot of fun.

Free Concert in the Park

So that's it for today.  Don't worry, I have a few real posts in the works - there are definitely things going on in my life that I want to document!

Rice Cookers are Made of Magic

Before I moved to Thailand and into an apartment with no kitchen I dismissed the rice cooker as an unnecessary toy that took up too much space in the kitchen cabinets.  After all, at home I was able to make perfectly good rice on the stove - no rice cooker needed.  Now of course, I don't know what I would do without my rice cooker.  Between it and my fridge it is the entirety of my kitchen here and figuring out the different things one can cook in a rice cooker has been a fun challenge.  Mind you, I have never actually cooked rice in my rice cooker.  Rice is not my favorite carb and eating it at lunch nearly every day plus dinner if I eat out pretty much fills my rice quota to excess.  In fact, I'd say the sole purpose of having a rice cooker is to avoid eating rice!

So, what do I make in my rice cooker?  Well, since I have a steamer I make a lot of vegetables.  Mostly kale.  But if you've ever tried steamed kale versus sauteed kale there's really no contest (sauteed takes the cake!).  So can you make sauteed kale in a rice cooker?  Well, not technically, but you sure can make it taste like sauteed kale!

Step 1: boil water in the base of your rice cooker.  If you're having pasta or boiling potatoes or pumpkin (these are pretty much the starches I eat from my rice cooker) now would be a good time to cook those things.
Step 2: add kale to the steamer part
Step 3: LIGHTLY drizzle olive oil over the kale (you want the kale to have olive oil but if you put too much its gross)
Step 4: get creative!  I personally have tried salt and pepper, chili pepper, a chili seasoning mix (meant for pork but who's cares?), even a teaspoon of sugar!  I've also tried adding some garlic - this still need to be perfected as steamed garlic is not even close to sauteed garlic but it still adds some nice flavor. Oh, and white wine - this is what I would use at home and its not quite the same (kind of like the garlic) but again, better than not having it.

my rice cooker in all its glory

steaming chicken

boiling pasta

kale goes in after pasta and chicken come out
like my cleaver? 

Yum!

And it tastes SO MUCH BETTER than plain old steamed kale - no really, olive oil for the win.  Also, be careful how long you steam it for - I find that perfect kale takes about 1 minute 30 seconds depending on how hot the bottom of the steamer is (how long you've been letting your water boil).  If it's in there too long it gets a little mushy for my taste.

By the way, if you're wondering why I don't just cook the kale in the bottom portion and pretend I'm sauteing it there is a simple explanation.  My rice cooker only turns on if there is enough pressure in the bottom part.  In other words the part that heats up is spring loaded and if there isn't anything weighing it down then it doesn't heat up.  Kale is nowhere near heavy enough to get any sort of heat (hence why I haven't figured out the garlic problem yet).

Previous to last night when I cooked meat in my rice cooker I steamed it.  And with enough seasoning it tasted pretty good even if it looked like steamed meat (by the way, if you've never steamed meat its not beautiful).  However, last night I decided to get creative.  I took some chicken and decided to try sauteing it instead of steaming it.  I took a chicken breast, seasoned it with some salt and black pepper and then put it in the bottom of my rice cooker (right over the weight contraption) where there was some honey, a bit of olive oil, and some chili pepper.  Unfortunately, this was not enough weight to get my rice cooker to heat up so I added the steamer and the lid and voila! enough weight.  Yay!  So last night's dinner was a delicious honey chili chicken with kale.

kale

Honey chili chicken

Dinner! 

Also, I have successfully used my rice cooker as a crock pot  Kind of.  It definitely takes longer and I didn't have broth or anything like that so I was limited in my ingredients.  That being said, the chicken I made was delicious.  And by purposefully wanting very little heat I didn't need to worry about the weight aspect!

So the moral of all these stories is that as long as you have a rice cooker you can steam, boil, saute, and crock pot!  So magical!  Actually, I really want to try making a cake in it too - I don't think it would heat evenly and I also don't want to make a cake just for me so I'm thinking of doing it for the end of the term for my classes... Obviously, this would be a box cake and I will let you know how it goes (if I do it)!!!  

It is time

It is time for me to get back into blogging.  So I start today - the first of February - a month behind the beginning of the new year.  By the way, Happy New Year!  I'll back track to talk about Taiwan and Chiang Mai some other day, but for now there are quite a few experiences and blog posts that I have been ruminating on and I am eager to get them out.

So my innagural post for the new year will be about... Ribbon Flowers!

My TA, Nong, has a cousin who is going to be ordained? (I'm not sure what the right word is) into monkhood in a month.  Part of that includes a large celebration with much food, and drinking, and dancing (all while the new monk sits above it all, peaceful and solemn).  During this celebration, many little ribbon flowers are tossed/given to the new monk* as a gift, each one containing a one or two baht coin.  Apparently they also make these ribbon flower things for other similar celebrations such as the Queen's 70th birthday which happened in August.

Nong was kind enough to teach G and I how to make them so we have all been folding away.  Nong can make 3 or 4 by the time G and I turn out 1 but it is enjoyable and relaxing nonetheless.   So, just like a good blogger I have picture documented the process so you can learn how to make Thai ribbon flowers too!

Supplies: Ribbon cut into pieces 6 or 7 inches long, scissors, and coins

First, take 4 pieces of ribbon and at one end make a diagonal cut. 

Then, turning the ribbon to the other side, take 1/3 of the length (approximately) and fold it over, making a crease.

See, diagonal cut at the bottom and fold at the top

Taking 2 pieces, slide one piece over the other with the edge at the crease.  Then take your third ribbon and add it parallel to the first (the one under the second ribbon) with the long side of the ribbon on top and the short side underneath the second ribbon. Taking the 4th piece, weave it through over piece 3 but under piece 1.  

Got it?  Now you should have a square. Pull each end so that your square is tight!

Then place your coin on top. 

Fold over each long end until you have another square woven together.

And lock it in place once more - over, under!

Then, do the same thing with the short ends - over, over, over, over, under!

A nice tight square. Now put a piece of tape on it to keep it that way!

After its taped, flip it over.  Take one of the long ends and fold it back on itself to make a small triangle.

Then fold it back again.

Then take the long end and fold it under twisting it back and pushing it through the little square loop.  Pull it through!

Do this with all four long pieces.  It should look like the picture below!

Still working with the long pieces, make a loop and slide it through the square loop. It might be a little difficult if you've made your square really tight but that was the point of cutting the diagonal at the beginning so you could get a little corner and then grab it and pull it through. 

loop and push it through!

you can see the point sticking out here

 Unfortunately, from this point on, my pictures are upside down.  And I can't figure out how to fix them (and yes, I tried rotating them - doesn't work).  But anyway, here is what it looks like - pull each side to make it as tight/even as possible.  Also, if you are getting little crinkles with your end loops just wait until you've finished and then rub them out.

Cut off the extra to make it look pretty and there you go!  Your own Thai Ribbon Flower. 

By the way, if any of you try this, I would love to hear how it goes!  Good luck!

*Update: I recently was corrected on this front.  The flowers are not given to the monk, they are thrown by the family of the monk to the other guests to encourage them to keep partying and continue the celebrations!