Renaming Myself...

When I was little, I hated my name. Of course, maybe some of you don't know what my name actually is. Those of you who've received comments or corresponded in email with me know what it is. Let's just say, for those of you who don't, it's not exactly run-of-the-mill. I have often had it incorrectly spelled or mispronounced for me. Then, there were those who would ask me if it was short for some longer, more common name. I always had to correct people. Set them straight on my name. And, it bugged me. I wanted to have the name of a friend in kindergarten. Her name was Kelly. It sounded good to me at the time - all perky and easy to say. Over the years, I've grown to love my name. I guess all the "hardships" we endured drew us closer together. And, hey, now that I've moved to a foreign country, people are going to massacre my name no matter what it is, if it's English. So, at least I've had years to get used to the idea. I can't imagine having had a really common name like Jennifer all these years. I would have gotten used to people just knowing how to spell and say it. Then, I would have flown on over here to France only to hear their odd pronunciation of it all the time (Jennifer is actually becoming a well-known name here, and along with Keith and Brian, people are starting to name their kids such American sounding names - yes, I'm aware they aren't just American, but they were imported from there).

So, I no longer have any desire to change my name. I guess 30 years with a name will get you used to it. I was thinking, though, that if the current trend of food blogging around here continues, I may have to change the name of my blog. You know something like the Cooking Cuckoo (in keeping with the animal theme). And, surely that name would fit with the craziness of my nature. I don't even want to know how many days I've gone without posting a photo of my knitting (I swear that'll come soon enough). Maybe I'll have to change the blog description under the title. It seems pretty misleading these days, doesn't it? Will I have to unsubscribe from all the knitting rings, or will they just dump me from their systems for leading people on? Oh, the pressure!

'Nuff of that! Can you believe I said all that stuff just as an intro into yet more food chatter? I mean, really. Is that all I think of these days? Actually, yes. It pretty much is. Pregnancy will do that to you. I'm constantly planning meals in advance. So, come along, let's take a little culinary adventure together. Today's is really interesting. Last night, I decided I'd soak some dried beans for today's lunch. I couldn't decide which ones to use, but finally settled on some long-neglected green mung beans. I can't even tell you 100% that they were mung beans, because I've had them long enough and rarely used them that I've forgotten what they were called. I've not used them much, because I didn't really know what to do with them. I soaked them anyway, though, thinking I'd look up a recipe on the net today. So, that's what I did. Before driving Lambchop #1 off to school this morning, I looked around. I got lots of hits for vegetarian dishes, but I was hoping for something more Eastern. When I got around to cooking at noon, I decided to look for something Vietnamese. That's when I stumbled across this recipe for Vietnamese crepes. I had all the main ingredients, believe it or not. I told you I like exotic meals. I cook them pretty frequently, so it's not odd for me to have rice flour and coconut milk in the house. I didn't have some of the filling ingredients, but I improvised for substitutions.



And, here's was the result. Beautiful. And, oh, the flavors were amazing. It wasn't really even all that complicated, though the recipe seems long. The fish sauce plus the coconut milk and seafood (I replaced the pork with some bacon junks since that's all I had). That's why I'm really excited that the kids didn't find it so great, and there's enough filling and crepe batter leftover for two for tonight's dinner. I'll gladly make the little ones something else if it means I get some more of that yummy stuff.