Another Year Older

We celebrated Lee's 14th birthday last month. She's almost as tall as I am, but I couldn't fit into her shoes. She wears a size bigger than me now. We love living in the country, there's plenty of outdoor space and room for Max to roam around.

Kohk & Sahk Laotian Heavenly Jerky

I received my perks today, 2 packages of Laotian Heavenly Jerky from Thip Soulisak at Kohk & Sahk and I have to say it's saep lai, simply delicious. The beef jerky has a bold flavor, unlike any beef jerky I have tried. I would love to get a hold of the recipe but I'm sure…

Kohk & Sahk – Authentic Laotian Cuisine Campaign

One of my favorite Lao foods is beef jerk, we grew up eating my dad's beef jerky and it's the best until I heard of Kohk & Sahk Laotian Heavenly Jerky, and the slogan of "mmm mmm saep lai" it's simply delicious made me want to try Kohk & Sahk beef jerky. Tharathip Soulisak is…

Tum Rutabaga and Green Beans

It's hard to find green papaya this time of the year to make tum mak houng or spicy papaya salad, so I substitute it with Rutabaga instead. I actually didn't discover this dish, many Thai and Lao people living abroad discovered that Rutabaga tastes equally as good as papaya, and some said it's even better…

Jay’s HS Graduation Party

We went to Bo's nephew's graduation party yesterday.  Bo is very proud of Jay, he was the class president in his senior year, won prom king, and recently came in first place for a teen bodybuilding competition. Money is the gift of choice for a Laotian party. There's plenty of food. Bo's mom is a…

Spicy Bamboo Shoot Salad

Click here to watch this video on YouTube Most of my co-workers are gardeners.  It has been cold and raining so much that their gardens drowned, it's so tragic. I'm fortunate that I have raised beds and the heavy rain falls drained well. One of my co-workers told me about her bamboo shoots, that it's…

Camping Weekend

It's nice to comeback to a familiar place and if the woods could talk it's probably would greet me with a smile and ask where have you been Nye? I didn't know you hibernate like the bears. This is my first time seeing an antenna looking like an outer space craft. The mountain flowers are…

Blessing Ceremony for Maetou Gaisorn

We missed Maetou Gaisorn at Wat Greensboro during the last few events, and yesterday her family nimon (invited) Phramaha Somsak Sambimb, Bhikkhu Pannadharo (Darrell Kitchen) and two monks from Wat in Morganton and also Wat in Lexington to perform a blessing ceremony for her. We took this opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving the Buddhist way, and…

Thanksgiving 2012

This year's Thanksgiving lunch was at Grandma's house, the hens and roosters were fearful that they might be the chosen one. Inside the chicken coop was dark and I had my ISO set to Auto, the above and below images were shot at ISO-10000 and they actually look real good for such high ISO. Grandma…

Lee’s Eleventh Birthday Party

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/51967381 w=515&h=290] Click here to watch this video on YouTube Lee's Birthday Party was last Saturday.  We had a full house, and of course it was a Lao Birthday party that started before 1 pm, and lasted until 7 pm. Lee turned 11, and I have noticed that she has grown so much this year.…

It’s a Lao Birthday Party

One of the things about a Lao Birthday party is that being punctual is not a big deal and the party seems to last forever. You get there whenever and there's plenty of food. I think I got over my food allergy, funny that the last time I had it was in 2005, a reaction…

Ross’s Graduation Party

I went to Ross's graduation party on Saturday, he recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I decided to pack light and only brought my 50mm lens, it's great for indoor with low lighting and food photography. The foods were delicious and my only problem was that I have  recently developed food…

Visiting Grandma

One of the best things about visiting Grandma is her home cook meal. I was hoping to learn a new Lao dish this visit but we didn't have enough time.  There is always the next visit.   I've recently developed food allergy amongst other things,  and dinner at her house was one of the best…

Favorites Photography – April Photo Hunt

This is my contribution to Karma’s When I Feel Like It Blog’s April Photo Hunt. This month's hunt is to get to know us a little bit better, and she has two objectives in this month’s choice: 1) to give you a creative spark and 2) to find out more about you! Karen is asking…

February Photo Hunt

This is my contribution to Karma's When I Feel Like It Blog's February's Photo Hunt. The deadline was yesterday and I hope a day late is okay since we have 1 extra day this month. Flake, we were fortunate enough to get some snow this month on February the 19th, it couldn't have come in…