Last night was the family dinner and open house to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday. Thank you to all my food blog friends who have left comments sending good wishes to my father. My dad is a faithful reader of Kalyn’s Kitchen, although I am not sure if he reads the comments. But I’ll certainly pass on the good wishes to him.

Our family celebration was truly a wonderful evening. There are 84 members of the extended family, and most of them were able to be there. We did miss those who were far away and weren’t able to make it, but with a family that large we’re always excited when even most of us can get together. This was the first time all ten siblings were able to be together for quite a few years. We even managed to re-enact a group photo from many years ago to memoralize the event.
 
Since I’ve been busy coordinating this event and celebrating with my family, and also checking out the participants for Weekend Herb Blogging, I haven’t done much cooking for the last few days. For the party, I did make macaroni and shrimp salad, one of my dad’s all time favorites. My secret to this recipe is saving some of the “juice” from the frozen shrimp and mixing it with mayo, celery seed, and sometimes a bit of fish rub, smoked paprika, or Old Bay Seasoning to make the dressing. For the party I made the going all out “who cares about carbs or calories” version with regular pasta and full-fat mayo, but if you’d like to see a lower carb and lower fat version of my shrimp salad I posted it earlier this summer.
 
I did mention earlier in the weekend that Rand and Bradley were coming to town. For anyone who might not be a regular reader, my brother Rand and his partner Bradley have been my creative/technical advisors since I started this blog in April. Friday I took them to dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant. Rand always claims he’s part Thai, but since he is well over six feet tall and has blondish hair, that seems doubtful. Joining us for the dinner were Bradley’s mom, Bonnie, my nephew, Jake, and my friend, Robin.
 
This dinner was at Thai Siam, a tiny little Thai restaurant smack in the middle of downtown Salt Lake. (The restaurant is now called Siam PT, but the food is still great!)  The food there is always fabulous. It’s a place I haven’t visited as frequently since I’ve been eating the lower carb way, but tonight I was pleased to learn that you can ask for “genuine” Thai when you’re ordering and they will prepare the dishes with less sugar. I’m sorry I didn’t remember to get a take-out menu so I could give you more authentic descriptions of each dish, but if you’re a Thai food lover, I’m sure you will recognize them. You can check out their online menu if you want to see what’s available. This is a restaurant where I’ve truly never had a meal that wasn’t just delicious. If you ever get a chance to visit Salt Lake, I greatly recommend a dinner at Thai Siam.

Tom Ka Soup

Green Papaya Salad

Red Curry With Chicken

Pad Thai Noodles

Chicken with Thai Basil

 

Thai Siam Restaurant (Now Called Siam PT)
1435 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115
801-474-3322

Blogger Disclosure:

We paid for the meal at Thai Siam and they have no idea I’m writing this post about the restaurant. 

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