For local readers of this blog who subscribe to email updates, I’d encourage you to visit the actual blog from time to time in order to see my new listing of upcoming events in the “Things to Watch” column.  Items that are listed:

Foreign Correspondents’ Club Film Series: Italian film “The Best Day of My Life” on Tuesday 5 June and Canadian film “The Barbarian Invasions” on Thursday 14 June.

Bangkok French Film Festival – 9 to 20 June at SF World Cinema, Central World Plaza.  A selection of eleven new French films as part of the larger La Fete celebration.

The Italian Film Festival is coming up later in June, as well as an exhibition of brilliant black and white photography by Justin Brooks at Gallery F Stop at Tamarind Cafe.  Stay tuned or check back in frequently for details.

This weekend I jumped back into the saddle (so to speak) and made another attempt at Whole Wheat English Muffins.  This may come as no shock to some of you, but actually using whole wheat flour as the recipe directs, makes a huge different in the quality of muffins!

Two things that really helped improve the muffins, besides the use of the correct ingredients:

• I increased the amount of flour slightly and decreased the amount of liquid in order to make a less tacky dough.  With the high humidity here in Khrungthep, it is more effective to use recipes that list the weight of dry ingredients rather than the volume.  A cup of flour here has a lot more moisture in it than it would say in Texas.
• I used nonstick spray on the baking pans so that when the dough had risen, I could remove it without having to work too hard.  Last time this resulted in the muffins collapsing into limp pancakes.  I think next time I’ll try parchment paper instead, since this resulted in more oil that I wanted to use.

I also found some success keeping the skillet temperature on the low side.  I’ll be so happy when I have a new induction stovetop.  Below, the resulting muffins:

Don’t they actually kind of look like real English Muffins?  I’m so excited!

Also this weekend I made a large batch of white bean soup.  This is based on the recipe that is served at the U.S. Senate cafeteria, but I found it to be too watery so added some more potatoes and pureed part of the beans to make a thicker soup.  Lavender creme brulee, while planned, did not get made this weekend.  Stay tuned, though.

House update: Last week we received news from the branch manager at UOB bank that they approved our loan (or, more correctly, Tawn’s loan with me listed as a guarantor as I don’t have a work permit here and cannot hold a loan from a Thai bank in Thailand).  Great news, indeed, but their evaluator had appraised the condo at about 85% of the price we paid for it, and the bank gives the loan of up to 80% of the appraised value of the property.  This means that UOB is willing to give us a loan of 68% of the price we actually paid for the condo.

At first I was shocked.  How could they think the property was worth only 85% of what we paid for it?  The manager explained that their evaluators work very conservatively and that the price we had actually paid was a fair price, but that this is how the bank protects its interests in wake of the economic crash that happened a decade ago, based largely on a huge number of over-valued loans.

Tawn asked Khun Chai to see if there was anything he could do about this, explaining that we have a competing application in with Kasikorn Bank.  He said he would check and we hope to hear something from him this morning.

In either case, it isn’t a huge issue.  Financially, we’ll still be able to afford the condo, but it will mean that any remodeling budget will be decreased significantly. 

One thing we don’t have a lot of is time: the house closes this Friday, 8 June.  We have to have 4.15 million baht to the seller or forfeit the deposit (1.1 million) we’ve already put down.  To top it off, Khun Chai leaves for vacation Tuesday, so hopefully it all gets wrapped up today.

(Do they have a emoticon showing me chewing my nails, metaphorically speaking?)