LemonGrass & Lavender #47

So far I gave 3 cooking classes, the first I wrote about already, see here.

But yesterday was my third, the theme was Terrific Thai! I made a homemade drink, I always make one, every week a different one.

This week it was Lemongrass, Ginger and mint green tea. Then a spicy, sweet and sour soup ~ Tom Yam Kung, a Spicy Beef salad ~ Yam Nua and a mushroom version for the vegetarians among us and stir fried noodle dish called Pad Thai. These are real Thai classics and a favorite all over the world. For dessert I made tropical fruits in a coconut jelly.





It is a learning experience for me, not the cooking part, but explaining and trying to follow each recipe like I give them out. Because these dishes I make at home often enough, but never follow a recipe to the T. But if you are teaching that is a different thing, so now I have to follow the recipe in order for my friends to follow what I am doing.

Today I was BBQ'ing the meat for the Spicy Beef salad, and I opened the gas, but forget to fire the flame. Normally I let the BBQ heat up a bit and then put the meat on the grill, so when I opened the gas BBQ again, it was not hot but smelled like gas. So I realized I forgot to push the fire button and then when I did.... of course you can guess what happened... a HUGE flame came up and burned my eye lashes and my first row of hair around my face! Big mistake!! Luckily that was all and I have not a complete burned face!!

Pfew! a big scare!!.... now I am thinking: Are these cooking classes worth my life?? Just joking... it all went well... just a few burned hairs ;-) They will grow back again, and I was planning a trip to the hairdresser anyway soon. LOL

Last week I made Asian Appetizers, I had 8 of them, a bit too much to make in those few hours, although it was yummy I took on too much dishes for 1 lesson. Well, I learned and will not do 8 dishes in one week anymore!

We had: Thai Mieng Kam, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls, Chinese lettuce wraps, Asian Ceviche, Spice crusted Almonds, Maple Tamari Cashews, Miso Aubergine dip, Avocado Wasabi dip and as a fresh drink Indonesian Es Juruk, an orange lime drink.

So you can see that I covered a few countries of Asia with these appetizers. It was a lot of work for one lesson, but I got some help and we all pitched in making the fresh spring rolls and some cutting of the vegetables to make it on time to have lunch at noon, and it ended up real yummy!



It is fun to give these cooking classes and I hope that my friends who come to learn a bit more Asian cooking enjoy this as much as I do!

I am planning the menu for next week today, so if you like to keep updated on my lessons go to FACEBOOK and type in the search colom: LemonGrass & Lavender. What comes up is the CLUB and the EVENT, at the weekly event page you can sign up your name to be part of it.


Have a Terrific Thursday!
Mireille xx

Reading is cool #39

I am busy today with my cooking classes, so not much time for blogging....

So here a picture of the girls with their all time favorite hobby... READING!

You will see them with a book in their hands at ALL times!!

No kidding.... at all times!



And it started early, way before they could read, they would love to PRETEND, or just look at the pictures... then later they would remember the story because I had read it many times to them and they would just 'read' out of their heads... so cute!!

I am glad that reading is still a favorite hobby of my girls.

BTW... Ila, do you remember these PJ's?? You made them! They loved to wear those :-)

Enjoy your Wonderful Wednesday!

I am cooking Asian Appetizers today for 9 ladies :-)
More about that later....
M xx

Back in South Africa!

OK, I have been back in South Africa now for a while now, but so behind blogging that it only seems I come back now... so just a recap of what I have been doing these last weeks....

380 boxes were waiting for me to unpack, put into the right place and decorate the new house... LOT OF WORK!! hence, the no blogging updates on a regular basis... sorry! But better times ahead. Still some boxes left, but I put them all in one room, so the rest of the house is at least decent, not all the pictures are hung up, because some of it has to grown on me. I can't decide in an instant where and what is the right place. This is a work in progress.... pictures will follow as soon as the progress is done :-)

Kids starting back to school, regular life for them and for us, which is nice in a way. We went to the movies on a Wednesday at Monte Casino, which is an Italian village/shopping centre, since that is a short day at school and the girls had fun with their 3-D glasses, took out the lenses and pretended to be NERDS!



Cathlynn, Juliet & Jasmine being nerdy with their 3D glasses :-)





Had a few cooking classes, which I love and keep doing, because you are never to old to learn some new tricks and learn more delicious dishes!! So here a few pics of that.

Cooking class with Karen a friend of mine from Singapore, she also is a blogger, check out her blog here, fantastic tales and photographs! She taught us how to cook Glutinuous Rice in Lotus Leaf, Chicken Satay and Portuguese Egg Tarts. All these recipes we learned that day and MORE you can find on her blog here. She also made that day a fish curry for us just to enjoy. YUM YUM, thanks Karen it was a wonderful morning!!





The other cooking class I had was Japanese by Sumie and the theme was MISO. We learned how to make a Miso dip, Nasu No Nabeshiki (Eggplant w/Miso sauce), Chicken marinated in Miso, Sushi & Miso Soup and for desert: Strawberries w/red bean paste in a sticky rice pancake. It was DELISH ~ Thank You Sumie for this wonderful class!!

















In the meantime I went already on 2 more safaris, and posts about that will follow soon!

We had the International Food Festival at school and the Parade of Nations, which I have loads of pictures on that as well, so separate posts on that too to come, and then after that I am up to date... pfew!

Not easy keeping a daily blog, which of course isn't that daily anymore and moving, traveling, cooking, entertaining, having a life, but I am trying... honest, I will do my best to get into the ritme again!!

Enjoy the pics, and hopefully your life is more in order!!
Tell me, what are your biggest hurdles?? I love to hear, that I am not the only one!!

Love & Happy Monday!
Mireille xx

Cooking classes

Every month I have at least 1 or 2 cooking classes, and I just LOVE it!!

There is always something new you learn, some new techniques, some new spices, some new combinations or flavors. And then on top of that, you get to hang out with other women with like minded interests.

So I am part of DISC ~ Dainfern International Social Club that has once a month a coffee morning and we talk about events, we meet a lot of new people and we form groups. These groups can be anything from quilting, to hiking, to photography, cooking, sewing... you name it and there is a group.



One of these groups I am part of and that is.... you guessed it right :-) the cooking group. A French lady; Johana is giving these cooking classes. She went to a culinary school in France, so she knows all the techniques and methods to create classical French dishes... yum yum!! She creates a menu and if you are interested in that particular menu you can sign up for the lesson, and the best part eating of it after the class is done. And as the French do... with a glass of vino... of course!!

Last time I went we learned how to make risotto and tiramisu. I don't need to say... we had a wonderful time! Each time we meet at a different house, and each time it is with a different group of women, and each time of course a different menu... so it never gets boring, and I can do this forever. Because good food and good company is always fun!!

Pretty good life I lead as an expat wife... you don't hear me complaining :-)

Do you have such a good life as well?? I hope so!!

Ciao Bellas,
Mireille

DOT ~ Diversity On the Table.

I am part of a cooking group; DOT (Diversity On the Table) and every month we have a cooking class.

Yesterday I had a Nigerian cooking class, and our teacher was Dunke. We are a group of 9-11 women, some are a bit more regular than others. Since we have 7 different nationalities there is a lot to learn between us. So each of us cooks and teaches their favorite weekday dinners, things that are easy to cook and things that the kids like. Or things that we request, since we had it once at their house and we just LOVE it!

So far we had a Vietnamese, Pakistan, Korean and Nigerian lesson. And we have so much fun, we talk, cook, eat and laugh a LOT! Since our backgrounds are SO different we have a lot to talk about and I don't know why but in a combination with food preparing, hanging out in the kitchen a lot of topics come floating by and we LAUGH and share a lot of intimate details, so this group is such a great moment in the month, I am always looking forward to it!

Let me introduce you to my friends (from L to R)

Maryam (Nigeria), Candice & Marta (Brazil), Tehmina (Pakistan), Stella (Korea), Dunke (Nigeria), Hyun (Korea), Felicity (Swaziland) and me (Dutch). The only one missing in this picture is Schuyla and she is from the USA.



Yesterday was no exception to the rule: we start at around 9:30 am and I got home after 3, we learned to make a

Chicken & Beef stew in a tomato sauce
Dried & smoked fish stew with palm oil
Jollof rice with hot scotch bonnet peppers
Cooked brown beans
Garri drink
Yam chips and boiled Yam
Chin Chin for dessert

Of course normally you don't eat ALL of these dishes at once, that would be too much work and also too much food, but we had a taste of everything and it was DELICIOUS! So now we have a good feeling how Nigerians eat and I must say they have a great cuisine!!

Thanks Dunke for this wonderful lesson and yummy food, we all had a great time!!

Today I need to pack for our Beach & Mountains trip that we are leaving for tomorrow morning, but first it is time for a haircut, mani and pedi... so busy enough again!!

Have a FABULOUS FRIDAY y'all!
Mireille

Korean sushi is named Kimbob 한국 초밥

Yesterday I learned how to make Korean Sushi. It is not named sushi, but Kimbob. There is in general no raw fish included.


The girls have some Korean children in their class and they always get the most yummy and colorful lunch boxes to school. So the girls asked me one morning if I could give them Kimbob to school. Yeah, right! I just make some Kimbob for you... no problem!! Of course it is a problem, I don't know how to make that or even what goes into it!

Well, Anita another mom from JJ's class had the same request from her daughter Sonia, so we asked Hyun the mother of Jeongwoo if she could teach us. And she was more than willing to do so! We went to her house and not only did she teach us how to make Kimbob, she also prepared some other yummy Korean snacks and dishes for us to try. Like Korean pizza and some rice sticks wrapped with bacon. How fun is that!! We had a blast and we decided to do this more often.

Making Kimbob or sushi (it is the same just different ingredients and just a different name since Kimbob is in the Korean language and sushi in Japanese) is harder than you think. There are many tricks and special ways to do it, to make the outcome nice and sticky and not fall apart. But we finally got the feeling for it and last night me and the girls had Kimbob for dinner. Dirk was out with his boss for dinner, so he missed this treat. But we saved a few for him ;-)

We made 2 kinds of Kimbob, one was with tuna and sesame leaves, named Chamchi kimbob, see this website I found where you find easy steps to make it, if you are interested ;-) But since Hyun's children don't like this version, I thought it was yummy! we also made a few roles without the sesame leaves and tuna, just with crab, egg omelet, carrot, cucumber, yellow pickled radish strips, sticks of seasoned edible burdock root, and spam (ham in a can).

Here is a video how to make the Kimbob, we didn't use beef but crab meat instead. But it gives you an idea what we learned yesterday. Easy peasy lemon squeasy would Jezzy say :-)

This will be a new dish on our menu. Next week Hyun will take us to the Korean market and we will buy all the necessary ingredients to make it ourselves at home. How fun and yummy!! Thank you 당신을 감사하십시오! Hyun for this yummy and interesting morning :-) 명. 고맙습니다

We are planning to give each other cooking lessons, since Anita is from India but lived a long time in Sweden, she can teach us some Indian and Swedish recipes. And I will be giving some Thai and Dutch cooking classes. We've started a new tradition for our class moms ;-)

당신의 저녁식사를 즐기십시오 = Enjoy your dinner! (I hope translation is correct ;-)
Mireille