How I amend a dry chicken breast

I don't know if this problem occurs in every house, but when I buy a grilled chicken, no one picks up the breast part! I don't ofen buy one but when I don't have time to cook or when I run out of ideas for dinner, I end up buying a grilled chicken!!! (Obviously not for my husband who's vegetarian!) Well, the poor and pale meat of chicken breast is always there...but I'm not that desparate because I've a very juicy dressing for it, and here we go...

Yes, I'm going to introduce you some of my other top ingredients (you can see my top ingredients in previous posts): mint leaves, coriander leaves and shallot. Italian people say that the coriander leaves smell like a bug but my husband don't say so. He loves its scent (maybe he has to!!!)

This's a very Thai way to dress meat. All you need is a handful of mint leaves, another handful of coriander ones, half (or as much as you like) shallot, 1-2 red chillies, a piece of lime or lemon, 1 table spoon of fish sauce (or a little bit of salt) and 1 tea spoon of sugar.

Slice the dry and tasteless grilled meat that no one wants to eat and place it on a dish. Chop the shallot, mint and coriander leaves and chillies and put them in a small bowl. Add the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice in the bowl and mix them well. Now the hot, spicy, colourful and aromatic dressing is ready! Pour it on top of the sliced chicken breast and here you are....

The result is: a new dish of juicy and tasty chicken you will love ｡◕‿◕｡

Halloween surprise...with my interview!!!

H A P P Y  H A L L O W E E N ! ! !

Prepared for a trick-or-treat??

This funny tradition is now very practised in Italy and Thailand too!

I've seen many pictures of my friends' kids in costume this morning when I accessed to Facebook.

But...I'm going to treat you with an article ;-)

Go visit this link if you're curious ☻

http://www.expatsblog.com/articles/1285/thai-expat-in-italy-expat-interview-mee

See you then!

If you love my blog, please check out ;-)

I've got a surprising e-mail informing that my blog was selected to the nomination for the Expat Blog Awards 2012 organized by http://www.expatsblog.com/

If you enjoy reading my blog, please kindly leave me a comment. I'd appreciate it a lot ;)

Just click here












A BIG thank and a hug,
Mee

Conversations with Italian people about Buddhism

Several times, Italian people I met talked to me and asked me about my religion, for this reason, I got the idea to write about it. I find it very positive that they (Christians) have shown their interests towards a non-Christian and are curious to learn my point of view. Once in a waiting room, a priest introduced himself to me and asked if I would like to exchange some ideas about my religion...and I did say yes, why not?

The first question they all asked me is: "How do you Buddhists most look so peaceful and composed while we (Christians) tend to be nervous and rather frightened? I gave them my own perspective; that I live the religion as a philosophy of life. "There's no need for temples...our own brain and our own heart is our temple...", cited by His Holiness Dalai Lama, is my way of living. I had been taught to see things beyound its appearance and to keep in mind the "middle path" as the best way of living. Certainly it's not that easy to practice in real life but I really feel grateful for my family to have been cultivating these teachings into me.

I'm also convinced that our mental force is very important. A strong mind makes a strong person. Meditation is a very good practice for our mind. Nowadays, many people world-wide are interested in this Buddhist art. (for me it's an art!) My husband too has been eager to learn this art in these few years. He has read many books and tried it somehow in his way. I realised only when I became adult that the meditation lessons in primary and secondary schools were very helpful. Stillness, concentration and patience are very important virtues. These are the discipline which I'm trying to teach my son, hoping that he might have absorbed a little bit of my character.

Another question people often asked me is: "Do you ever consider converting to Christianity so that you, your husband and your son belong to the same belief?" I don't think I need to simply because we're a very united family. Different relegions doesn't impede us to live a happy life. On the contrary, I consider it a fortune because my son will learn that people from different nations, different beliefs, different cultures...can live together without problems. We only need to respect each other. I accompany my family to the Christian church and my family goes to the Buddhist temple with me when we visit Thailand. In the conclusion, I find such a balance in family life this way.

My son in front of the Pagoda of Wat Arun temple, Bangkok

My other top ingredients: black & white sesame seeds!!

Who of you loves the sesame seeds? I'm addicted to them! Unfortunately in the past period I had to quit having them in order not to aggravate my hay fever. Just a week ago I began to use them a little bit. I usually roast them and put them in my salad bowl (together the grated fresh ginger they are irresistible). Moreover, I often cook chicken with the sesame seeds. I prefer mixing the black and white ones because they present better and it's too hard to see when the black ones are roasted enough. When the white ones become brown then the black ones are ready too.

The sesame seeds are not only decorative and aromatic, but they are also very healthy. Sesame seeds help reduce blood cholesterol. They are a good source of calcium and contain a high amount of antioxidant phytic acid. The nutrients of sesame seeds are better absorbed if they're ground or roasted before consumption.

Today I'd like to introduce you one of my quick, easy and yummy recipe of spinach and sesame seeds. All you need is: about 500g. of spinach, 1 onion, 2 spoons of olive oil, 1 tea spoon of sesame oil, 1-2 spoons of Japanese soy sauce, a little bit of salt and a handful of black & white sesame seeds.

- Firstly, roast the sesame seeds in a small pan until they get brown and let out the fragrance.

- In a large pan, warm the olive oil, put the sliced onion and after some minutes, put the spinach little by little. Mix them well and let them cook for about 10 minutes.

- Then add the sesame oil, the soy sauce and a little bit of salt. Stir well.

- They're ready, serve the yummy spinach in a plate adding the roasted sesame seeds on top.

My top ingredients: Thai basil, chillies and garlic

I'm back with a hot & spicy tip ;) There're some ingredients I must keep in my kitchen such as chillies, garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce, fish sauce, Thai basil leaves, coriander leaves, black & white sesame, curry powder and limes. Thanks to the Mediterranean climate, I'm able to grow many Thai plants. Some days ago, I was watching the TV program "Masterchef Junior Australia", I felt proud to see the kids using Thai basil, which is my favorite herb!

The combination of garlic, chillies and Thai basil is superb. They're great with meat, fishes, seafood, eggplant, pasta, spaghetti, in a few words they fit well with what you want! In these days I had many Thai basil leaves and chilies to use, so I've been cooking everything with them each day. Believe me, they're delicious and digestive.

For this plate, I simply stir-fried a little bit of chopped garlic and small cattlefishes with a spoon of olive oil. Then I added the Thai basil leaves and sliced chillies and continued to stir-fry for some minutes. I added a spoon of fish sauce (you can replace it with salt) and served them with Thai jasmine rice. Very easy but superb!

This's fine for vegetarians. I stir-fried chopped garlic, Thai basil and chillies with beans, mushrooms and Jasmine rice. Adding some soy sauce makes the rice tasty and brown.

These are all for now. I'll be back with some more ingredients ;)

Visiting Thailand in 2.54 minutes

This's too cool and I just have to share!!
Thanks to my friend Som who found it out...
and a big applause for the video's creator
Bangkok is always my paradise (despite its chaos)

Please enjoy....