Weeks

We are supposed to be leaving LA in about a month's time. On the one hand I am super excited about the travels that lies ahead of us, on the other I am sad to be leaving, I can see myself settling in here quite easily.

The past couple of weeks have been busy. Visiting sister and friend, birthday, house party etc. Got to see a lot more while we had our guests. Trips to the Getty Museum, both MOCA's downtown, LA Zoo, La Brea Tar Pits and more of LACMA.

I got my first taste of Ethiopian food and fell hard for it. We're going for lunch again tomorrow. Hmmm.

At the moment we're busy with travel planning. Lots of it. Together we are taking a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, via Arizona, Utah and Colorado. On the way we'll be seeing Phoenix, possibly Tucson and the Saguaro Desert, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde and then doing some side trips from Albuquerque.

Early in June we travel in different directions. Alexander will be spending a week in SA while I am heading pretty much straight to Thailand. I'm planning to travel west from Bangkok towards Kanchanaburi and Sangklaburi, close to the border with Myanmar. I saw that it is possible to pass into Myanmar for a day at the Three Pagodas Pass. It's quite restrictive, only one day and you can only go 2km into the country, but it would be worth it just to add another country to the list.

Alexander joins me in Bangkok on the 13th and then begins our trek to Vietnam via Northern Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

So lots of planning. Lots and lots of it.

Going onto another topic. I recently combined some ideas into what turned out to be a kind of chicken stuffed with spicey peanut paste. It did not turn out exactly as I planned, mainly I guess because I ended up using deboned chicken thighs instead of breasts. Alexander made a paste using peanut butter (crunchy add fun texture), cayenne pepper and a banched tomato. I scooped some of this one the thighs and cooked it all on the stove. The thighs did not really contain the paste as well as chicken breasts might have, but it still turned out really well. I made some brown rice flavored with nutmeg and cinamon with this and the too went reall well together.

Tonight I am attempting bobotie. I think I've only made it once before when I was working at a guesthouse. I'm going to try and add cooked rice into the whole business before putting it into the oven. If anybody has done this before with disastrous results please speak up NOW before I ruin dinner.