Thai Night @ Our Home

When you live in a very rural setting anytime you can experience a new cuisine, it is going to be a great time. We just don't have the opportunity to try new things unless we do it ourselves. So when our young friend, Prem, who I introduced you to here, wanted to share some food from his homeland we jumped at the opportunity. It began a new tradition in our home, one Saturday a month we are going to serve something authentic from another country or region and invite several couples we haven't yet had in our home. Next month it will be Spain, I think, and our young friend from Spain will share some food from her country with us. As with Prem, we will let her choose who the guests will be.

I have to admit, I fed my children mac & cheese before everyone came over because I knew spicy Thai would not be something they would enjoy. They gladly complied and after they finished their supper went to the boys' room to watch a movie and fell asleep.

Our young friends came over in the morning and we made sure we had everything we needed and went to the store to find what I didn't have. Another thing about living in very rural America, rural as in 2 1/2 hours from the closest Walmart, you do have to plan ahead some, because many times ethnic things are not available in the local grocery. Thankfully, we have a great friend who runs one of the grocery stores and he does his best to order in special items. Well, back to our day, when we finished our shopping we took a break before we went to work since we discovered that most of the five items they would prepare did not take much time. I enjoyed having a kitchen full of chopping, slicing, washing, cooking activity when I just needed to provide a small amount of guidance from time to time.

It was a wonderful memory maker for me as well as our guests. Laughter was in great supply as many people kept their chapstick close by to cool the burn and my eldest was ready in the kitchen to bring milk or bread for anyone who thought the heat was too much. Thankfully, it wasn't needed. We did have a lot of spice and heat and some took VERY small portions of meat and large portions of rice, but every person there enjoyed everything they tried and they tried it all.

Here is the menu for the evening:

• Tom Yum Soup, a spicy shrimp soup
• Laab, a spicy ground chicken served on rice
• Chicken Pad Thai, pictured above
• Pad Prik Khging, a spicy chicken and green bean served on rice
• Tom Ka, a coconut/chicken soup

We had a wonderful time and enjoyed great food prepared by some great kids. If you love to have people in your home, please consider hosting a foreign exchange student for a school year. It is a wonderful experience for all involved. EF Foundation for Foreign Study is a great company to contact, they have been placing exchange students in homes since 1979.

I also want to let you know that I am going to be doing my first give-away so please check back in the next couple of days for an opportunity to win something for your kitchen.