I have a soft spot for Peanut Butter M&Ms not only because of the peanut butter/chocolate combination but also because they remind me of an old boyfriend whom I still sometimes pine for. Anyway, I was happy to find festive Peanut Butter M&Ms in Sultan Center the other week during my great candy haul.
I do not have much to say about York Peppermint Patties except that they are one of my favourite candies ever. Considering I consider them a favourite, it’s actually shocking how often I don’t choose these when trying to select a candy bar.
I’m sure candy cane kisses aren’t new to most of you, but I have spent the past nine and a half years abroad. Last year was my first Christmas in Canada in six years. Lots had changed in that time, and there was a lot that I had missed because it’s often very hard to get certain things (like specialty Christmas candy) abroad. Surprisingly, Sultan Center in Kuwait has an excellent selection of Christmas candy (that’s surprising because it isn’t what you’d expect from a supermarket in a Muslim country so strict that alcohol and pork are forbidden for everyone, even non-Muslim foreigners). Anyway, this is my first experience with candy cane kisses and I’ve gotta say that I am completely smitten.
These are not a new thing (I definitely saw them in a magazine a year or so ago), although I still think they’re cool enough to warrant a mention: Ninjabread Men! Yep, you read that right, and these ninjabread men totally kick ass, no? For however cool I think they are, though, I also think it’s best if I leave them at the store because, for however much I like to bake, I’m not terribly artistic. I like to make delicious food, but I could care less about wasting time piping little icing lines onto cookies to show to all my friends on pinterest. If you do like this kind of activity, that’s totally cool, too. To each his or her own, amirite?
The Ninjabread Men cutters even come with a recipe. Unfortunately, the antitheft device obscures most of the method, but if you’re an experienced baker, you can probably guess at most of it anyway, so I’m going to share it.
Since Krispy Kreme in Kuwait had not gotten into the holiday spirit, it never really occurred to me that Krispy Kreme in other countries DO get into the holiday spirit until I was in Siam Paragon standing right in front of Krispy Kreme staring down some snowflake donuts and snowmen donuts.
As I waited in line, I had to put up with a mother and her very annoying young son behind me. Steven (or Stephen) was the kids name. He kept running around wild all over the place. Sure, he was only about 5 or 6, but I firmly believe at that age, kids ought to understand a little about boundaries and respect and leaving strangers the fuck alone, but he had no respect for my personal space and kept bumping and crashing into my knees and bum. Not once did his mother suggest to him that he should leave the nice lady in front of them alone. The kid also suggested to his mother no fewer than five times that there was a faster way to move through the line if only they just moved ahead of all these other people, and he attempted to demonstrate his point at least three times by actually going off on his own and standing near the front of the line. When all was said and done and we had all arrived at the front of the line, his mother said to him, “Well done Steven (or Stephen)! You’re SO good at waiting in lines!” I wanted to turn around and give that woman a piece of my mind, tell her that enduring her son bumping and crashing into my entire backside throughout the wait in the line had not been pleasant and had indeed bordered on obnoxious, tell her that any kid who insists over and over again on cutting the line is actually not good at waiting in line, and also tell her that it’s irresponsible to congratulate him on behaviours he is not actually good at because then when he goes to school he thinks he’s a master at behaving because his mother said so and it is me, the teacher, who now has to deal with this kid who is convinced that his poor behaviour is actually the prime example of excellent behaviour. But I didn’t say any of that. I just rolled my eyes and walked away with a sigh in my heart.
Anyway, back to doughnuts. By the time I got around to actually buying any doughnuts, they had run out if snowmen, which is how I ended up with the holiday tree and a snowflake. Actually, the holiday tree was probably a happy accident, because it turns out it was filled with delicious chocolate. I don’t know for sure whether the snowman would have had a filling or whether it would have just been a big doughy snowman, but I can promise you that the snowflake most certainly did not have any filling. A doughnut without a hole in the middle that has no cream or jelly filling lacks a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. It lacks joie de vivre. Krispy Kreme, you did alright this Christmas, but you could have had even a little more Christmas fun.
Have I ever talked about the Stickhouse before? They make a mojito popsicle that will make you melt. The first time I ever had their mojito popsicle, I was left reeling for days from how good it had been. I just could not stop thinking about it. Maybe later, I’ll show you a picture of a mojito popsicle from the Stickhouse, but for now I want to focus on all that is good about Christmas at the Stickhouse. First, they decorated their giant popsicles with knitted toques, which I thought were adorbs. Then, they had quite a big selection of holiday popsicles which made it very difficult to choose just one (but you must choose just one, not only because you don’t want to appear gluttonous, but also because at $4-5 per popsicle, it’s no cheap treat. I ended up choosing the lone little merry berry Santa and he was delicious, but before I got a chance to actually eat my chocolate Santa, he fell to the ground. If I were three instead of thirty, I might have cried, but instead I just kept on mosying over to Krispy Kreme, which is right beside the Stickhouse in Siam Paragon (okay, I was being just a bit gluttonous that day– you caught me).
Being in Asia, I get Christmas lunch a little sooner than a lot of you do. Since I’m currently in Chiangmai, I’m sitting here at a nice Italian restaurant called Da Stefano. I’ve walked past this restaurant before and noticed that it’s always crowded, which is a good sign. An even better sign is that, now that I’m actually sat down, I’m noticing that a lot of the customers are actually local expatriates: always a good sign when it’s not just a tourist trap.
I kind of went to town ordering my meal, ordering more than I would normally order, ordering more expensive mains than I would normally order, and in general ordering dishes I would not normally order (it is Christmas, after all). I had a caprese salad, pumpkin soup, and a fish fillet in white wine sauce with spinach cooked in butter. I had a generous glass of red wine with my meal and a cappuccino to finish it all off with.
Lemme assure you that, after months living in dry Kuwait (and I’m not talking about the climate here), one glass of wine has me feeling so tipsy that I’m actually glad for the autocorrect function (for a change).
Merry Christmas, y’all! Feel the Christmas love!!
So, it’s been my winter break from school for awhile now. I have not stayed in Kuwait during the winter break. No, no. I came away to Thailand. Anyway, I check my stats page on this blog from time to time, and I see that my other posts about lays in Thailand are my most popular posts (by a gazillion miles), and I’m sure that everyone who reaches my post about lays in Thailand was totally interested in what types of chips/crisps one can consume in Thailand, so I thought the people who come here eagerly checking out Thai lays would be happy to find that the Lays here in Thailand have got right into the holiday spirit.
When I was a kid, I always loved receiving candy fun books at Christmas. Back then, there wasn’t the same variety of candies available for fun books as there is now; we only ever got Lifesaver fun books.
The other day, as I was checking out the Christmas candy available in Sultan Center, these Fun Dip Fun Books brought me all the way back to me childhood in two different, delightful ways: (1) they reminded me if the Lifesaver Fun Books which I loved receiving as a child and (2) they had Fun Dip inside, which is another candy I used to absolutely love as a child.
Way back when I was still living in Burma, I became enamoured with this recipe for Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls over at No 2 Pencil. Being in Burma, certain ingredients (like red velvet cake mix) were hard to find. So I did what any sensible person would do and adapted the recipe using ingredients I could find. And, boy, did I go to town on it. I used a box of spice cake mix. Then I figured, you know what goes well with spice? Apples! Apples go nicely with spice! So I diced up a bunch of apples and spread those over the dough before I rolled it. Then I thought of carrot cake and how people often put raisins in it, so I generously sprinkled a bunch of raisins over the dough before I rolled it as well. When the rolls were finished, I topped them with a glaze. Delicious, no?
After making these delicious cinnamon rolls, was I satisfied? No, no! I still wanted to have my red velvet cinnamon rolls, so I promised myself that when I went to Canada for Christmas, I would whip up a batch. Again, a promise any sensible person would make to herself, no? But when I actually got to Canada for Christmas and started gathering ingredients, disaster struck! Red Velvet Cake mix was impossible to find! Now, I’m not usually a cake mix kinda gal (I make my red velvet cake from scratch), so it had never occurred to me that I might not have an easy time getting red velvet cake mix, because I’d never had occasion to actually look for it before. I still had my heart set on making these cinnamon rolls again, though. I probably should have just stuck with the adaptation which I knew would turn out really well, but I can’t help myself when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen, and when my brother suggested that he liked funfetti cake, I grabbed a box of that and decided to try funfetti cinnamon rolls.
Unfortunately, the funfetti in the cake mix gave my fresh rolls a slightly moldy appearance. The taste was alright, but I don’t like serving people ugly food. I wish I had known about Chef in Training‘s cake batter cinnamon roll recipe when I’d made the funfetti rolls because I have a hunch they would have turned out better that way.
Things I Eat 