This is the first pie I’ve ever made. Okay, I’ve made pie crust before for fruit tarts and I’ve made pie shaped things like quiche, but I’ve never actually made a pie. If you know how much I love pie, it’s even more suprising. I love pie so much that at my wedding, I didn’t want a wedding cake, I wanted many kinds of pie (and got what I wanted)!

Sweet potato pie is sort of like pumpkin pie in that it’s an orange pie made from a vegetable and it includes spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.

I made this pie with sweet potatoes that we bought in Vientiane. We can’t usually get them up here yet. The variety of sweet potatoes that we can get in Laos isn’t as rich and moist as the kind in the US, but it still made a great pie.

You can find the recipe here. I made 3 changes to the recipe:

1. I roasted the sweet potatoes instead of boiling them because I love the sweet flavor that roasting adds.
2. I don’t know what percentage of milk I used because the box doesn’t say. I’m pretty sure it’s not whole milk (maybe 2.5%) but it worked fine.
3. I used turbinado sugar instead of white sugar, but I don’t think it matters much.

The Once and Future Apple Cake is a cake with a story. It began with a little girl whose mother baked apple cakes, but then died when the girl was young. When the girl grew up, she searched and searched for an apple cake like her mother’s. Please read the story and recipe here. I can’t tell the story any better than it has already been told.

When I bake this apple cake, I make a couple alterations because of where I live:

1. Brown sugar doesn’t have to be the kind of brown sugar we know in the US. I either use “nam oi” (pure cane sugar paste) or raw/turbinado sugar. It’s not as strong and moist as brown sugar, but it works.
2. I leave the pecans out. You could substitute walnuts, but the walnuts here aren’t great quality anyway. I don’t think peanuts or cashews would be quite right, but I haven’t tried it.

According to my friend who used to live in India, “chai” means tea and there are many kinds of chai – some of them are spiced. So, this is the way that I make spiced chai, but you can alter the spices to suit your tastes. Whole spices are the way to go since they have more flavor and won’t leave powder floating on your tea. I know it’s expensive to use whole spices in the US, but you can get a lot of chai out of these spices. Boil the spices at least twice more for additional pots of tea.

For those of you in Laos – the Indian store “Mumbai Masala” in Vientiane is a great place to buy whole spices. Also try looking at Tesco in Udon and Spice Story in the Bangkok Paragon. Although Spice Story is a fancy looking store in the very posh Paragon mall, their prices are surprisingly reasonable and their packaging is nice. Most of the spices sold there are grown in Thailand.

• 3 star anise
• 5 cardamom pods, slightly opened
• 5 cloves
• 10 black beppercorns
• 1 inch fresh ginger
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• Black tea (1 bag or 1 tablespoon)
• Milk
• Sugar

1. Peel and slice the ginger
2. Put all the spices in a pot and cover with 3 C water
3. Simmer for 20 minutes
4. Turn off the heat and add the tea/teabag
5. Add milk and reheat
6. Strain into a teapot and serve with sugar

I haven’t always known that sesame is a great flavor. I mean, when you only eat sesame seeds on hamburger buns and in granola bars, it’s hard to know what they taste like. Then I discovered that toasted sesame oil is a great addition to Thai food. Just recently I discovered how much I love sesame seeds ground up with olive oil and salt – in other words, tahini. When I was in college, tahini was just an ingredient for hummus that I didn’t include because it was too expensive. Now that I can make my own tahini, I realize it’s delicious and not expensive. Sesame seeds are easy to find and inexpensive over here, but I’ve never looked for them in the US. Are they expensive there?

Tahini is mostly an ingredient for humus, but other things can be made with it as well, like tahini sauce (a great veggie dip or cracker spread). I suggest using the dry mill blender attachment because it keeps the seeds from bouncing around and makes a smoother tahini. A dry mill is a lot like a coffee or spice grinder, but it attaches to a blender and is easier to clean. Some people prefer raw sesame seeds in tahini, but I like mine toasted.

• 1 C sesame seeds
• 5 T olive oil
• 1 t salt

1. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan on the stove. Stir the seeds constantly while over medium heat until the seeds smell great and are just a shade darker (very light tan instead of white).
2. Grind toasted seeds, olive oil, and salt together in a dry mill.

makes about 1/2 C tahini

I love the blog Homesick Texan because I am also a homesick Texan. Maybe I’m not as homesick as the author of the blog though because the last time I lived in Texas was when I was 8 years old. Still, I love a lot of Texas foods, so I enjoy reading that blog.

My grandmother used to grow okra in her garden in Kansas and I can remember helping her pick them. The plants were so tall! Now they’re still tall in my own garden, but not as tall as I remember them. They’re supposed to reach  6 feet!

Pickled okra is one of those Texas foods that I have missed. It sounds strange, but it’s really good (to me). I’ve based this recipe on the one at Homesick Texan, but I have changed a few things. I use white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar, adjusted the volume of okra, and slightly altered the spices.

• 20 okra (3-4 inches long) or 300 grams, stems trimmed short
• 2 C white vinegar
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed with the flat part of the knife
• 6 Thai chilis (or other spicy peppers)
• 1 t cayenne powder
• 1 t whole cumin seeds
• 2 t whole coriander seeds
• 3 t salt

1. Wash the okra and peppers. Arrange them with the garlic in jars.
2. Combine the vinegar, spices, and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil.
3. While still boiling hot, pour the vinegar and spices over the okra.
4. Cap the jars, let cool for half and hour, and then refrigerate.
5. The okra pickles will be ready the next day and will keep for a few months refrigerated.