Plum Jam From Our Own Trees!

Last week our plum trees were full of ripe plums. I went out to pick them and brought in a bowl containing two and a half kilos of plums! About 30 minutes later, there was a soft knock at the door. It was some little neighbor boys asking if they could pick some plums too. So cute! They’ve been coming back almost everyday to pick more plums, but I’m pretty sure they’ve picked all of them by this point.

I’m back!

“I keep checking your blog, but every time, you’re still searching for your grandma’s rolls. You haven’t posted since November! Did you run out of new ideas?” exclaimed many of my friends and relatives.

I know, I know, I haven’t posted in half a year. There’s a good reason though. I ran out of space on my computer and simply could not fit one more picture on there. It got to the point where my computer was barely working because it was so full. And what good is a blog post without a picture?

James and Sarah around Christmas time

But now the problem is solved because we got a tiny little backup storage device to hold all of my pictures and now I can blog again! I have no more excuses and will be blogging more often. Tomorrow there will be a post about amaranth leaves.

By the way, if you have the problem of constantly checking on your friends’ blogs only to find they still haven’t updated, Google Reader is a solution to that problem. If you have a Gmail account already, it’s really easy. You sign into Gmail and click on “Reader” at the top. Then you enter all of the blogs you want to follow and Google Reader tells you when anyone has a new post. I know this is old news for some of you, but it might be helpful for others.

A lot has happened since November – I got canning jars for Christmas, taught twin boys how to read, and went to New York City for a good friend’s wedding. I’m also thinking of starting a cake baking service since most Lao people don’t have ovens, but do like cake. I think you’ll be hearing more about canning and cakes in the future.

Spicy Pickled Okra

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!