Pho

Saturday we got together with our new friends from Vietnam, Mai and Khanh (Kim).  It was the first time that Mai had a chance to come to our house, since she was studying for a test last time Khanh came over.  Both Khanh and Mai wanted to cook a special Vietnamese food for us, called Phở.  (If you want to know how to pronounce it properly or more about it, check out the entry on Wikipedia here.)

Since they needed ingredients not found at our local grocery store, we took a trip to the Asian market in Oklahoma City.  Then we came home and Mai and Khanh started cooking.

Mai (left) and Khanh (right)

The phở takes about three hours to cook, so while we were waiting, Mai also took some time to get to know our family better.  She loves babies, so she really enjoyed Maddox.  Unfortunately, Maddox was cranky and tired and wouldn't take his nap, so he wasn't at his best.

Maddox & Mai

Mai also got to meet another member of our family: Trixie.  Khanh had already met Trixie and knew what a friendly, lovable dog she is.  However, Mai was a little afraid of her at first, despite the fact that she kept rolling onto her back to get her belly scratched.

By the end of the night, they were fast friends.

Kelsey gave Mai a picture she had drawn for her several weeks ago.  Olivia had drawn a picture for Khanh at the same time, but Khanh received hers when she came to visit a couple of weeks ago.

Shortly after Khanh and Mai began cooking, they asked me if I had any chopsticks.  Unfortunately, I didn't.  Ben was out at the store, so we asked him to try to find some, but to no avail.  As a result, Khanh and Mai had to eat phở with a fork and spoon for the first time in their lives.  I can only imagine how strange it must have felt to them!

Dinner was delicious!  I probably loved it the most, but Ben said it was really good, and even Olivia and Connor loved the noodles part.  Kelsey wouldn't try more than a nibble.  Picky eaters sure do miss out on great food!

While we were waiting for the soup to cook, I showed Mai and Khanh how to make one of their American favorites: chocolate chip cookies.  I even pulled out some molasses cookies to bake, too.  I'm glad I did, because Mai especially loved them, and she had never tried them before.  After dinner we had ice cream sandwiches on the cookies - another of our new favorites.  They can be a little messy, but they are so worth it!

We had such a good time with our new friends!  We sent them home with cookies (and promises to make more if they wanted them), and they left the Phở leftovers with us.  Leftovers don't get any better than that!