Thai shrimp salad

Ahem. Well, it's been a while.  

As I've looked through my bank statements, I can't help but wonder at why I keep paying for a blog service that I obviously don't use.  Ah, but those old posts...what to do with them. Print them out?  Bind them in a blurb book?  Copy and paste into some obscure file that I won't remember to open?

Then there is the bigger question of what exactly I wanted to have a blog for.  

I have a thin skin.  Very thin.  I don't necessarily want people to really know what's going on all the time because I don't want to be thought badly of.  I don't want to be misunderstood.  I don't take criticism well.  I read other people's blogs, the famous and the not so famous, and I cringe when I read about an unfavorable comment.  Even when there it is only one out of a sea of postive ones.  It has kept me from writing here.  Too much going on.  Too much to misinterpret.  Too much to share. 

Then again, why blog then.  To keep a record somehow of what is going on?  A journal of sorts that has only the happy thoughts and the focused photos?  Even the photos start to bring up questions of privacy and how much of the kids' faces/identities/etc. to share.  I'm not sure of anything anymore.  

So, we'll start small. We'll start with food.  I like food.  I like making it, I like eating it, and evidently from the 20 pictures I took of the thai salad I made, I could like photographing it too.  I had to stop myself when I found myself thinking I would have to nudge the cucumber slice just a hair to make it look more natural.  Or as natural as 11 pm at night with only the light of the computer to illuminate things can be.  I am in awe of food bloggers with their beautiful, colorful, artful pictures of food.  

Thai Shrimp Salad - based off of the yummy beef version we get at our favorite Thai restaurant - but without any spicy peppers so that the kids could eat it.  

Thinly peeled and sliced cucmbers (I used 3),thinly sliced onion (I used 1), thinly sliced celery (I used 3 small stalks), 2 chopped tomatoes, cooked and peeled shrimp, bunch of chopped cilantro and garlic, fish sauce, lime juice and salt to taste.

And speaking of kids...

Hopefully now that I've gotten one post out of the way I can find my way to doing this more regularly.  See you soon.  I hope.