I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. I love how it has allowed me to be connected with many friends that I’ve lost touch with over the years. It’s amazing how many old high school/college friends I’ve come to know again just from looking up different connections. And Facebook also allows me to keep up with all these friends via their status bars. In a time when we barely have time to shoot emails to each other, this little status updates have helped me to find out which friends are having children, which friends are travelling, which ones have just broken up with their significant others or gotten engaged. It’s amazing how much we can know from that little status bar!

But then again, do I really need to know what is going on with everyone? And do I need to get “cyber hugged” and gifted dimsum, or flowers, or good morning wishes or any other “cyber” thing in the one million and one applications that can be found on Facebook? And then, there are all these polls—which city/country/continent should you live on, what superhero are you, what does your color say about you, etc. (many of which are surprisingly accurate, but not so grammatically).

And then there are causes. The (Lil) Green Patch that donates money to save the rainforest (has anyone really confirmed this?), the charities that we can support (I support one called LSV-an orphanage in China that takes in handicapped children). Though a great way to showcase some charities, others are more likely time-wasters.

And the games on Facebook! Like quick trends, some start off really fun and after a while, they get tedious or lose their following. And again, a real time-waster as well as something that will cause your eyes to strain too much and your wrists to get carpal tunnel. I speak from experience. Yes, I’m as addicted as most of you out there to these games. Every so often I tell myself that I’m only going to play one game…yeah, you see where I’m going already right? WHO plays only ONE GAME?!?! C’mon, you know who you are…just for five minutes, you say and the next thing you know, it’s a whole hour that has gone by. Time wasting device at its greatest.

And what do you do when you receive a note in your email saying so-and-so wants to befriend you and you don’t even know who on earth they are? Or even worse, you know who they are but you don’t really care to know them that well and indecision grips you…should you not dis them and accept them as a friend and then they will know everything about you and what is happening in your life OR should you ignore them and hope they have forgotten that they asked to be your friend?

I’ve done both, and now I have too many friends to know what to do with. It makes it hard to be really honest in my status bar so most times I end up talking about what I cooked that day (safe, shouldn’t offend anyone). And I don’t really know how I feel either about those friends that have befriended me and then somehow didn’t think I was worthy and defriended me. Yup, Facebook doesn’t tell you when that happens, but you find out eventually. Ah well…do unto others…(yup, done that too). Sorry if that was you and you’re reading this.

So, why am I going on about Facebook and what does this have to do with House of Annie? Nothing I guess, except this is a blog after all and I have the right to talk about something non-food related right? To make it relevant, I will say that I won’t give up Facebook because of the fact that I can indeed get connected with people I haven’t been in touch with for a while. Case in point, I just reconnected with another old friend from my days in the graduate dorm in Hawaii and I couldn’t be happier. The reconnection helped me to remember the good times we shared in the kitchen and how she shared this Thai dish with me.

So here it is, Nat’s Pumpkin with Egg and Green Onion recipe. It’s a simple homey recipe which calls for kabocha squash (I’m sure butternut will work just as well). Like most Thai dishes, it has that interplay of sweet, salty and savory working. Unlike most Thai dishes, this one doesn’t have any heat to it (which isn’t to say you can’t go ahead and add some).

Pumpkin with Egg and Green Onion

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
half a kabocha squash (or other similar squash or pumpkin), cut into 1 inch cubes
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar, or more to taste
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp fishsauce, or more to taste
3-4 green onions, cut into 1 1/2 inch length pieces

Method
1. In a frying pan, heat up vegetable oil over medium heat. Add garlic and lightly brown for a minute.
2. Add kabocha squash to pan and add water. Partially cover pan and cook till squash is just tender.
3. Add sugar to dish and mix it in.
4. Add in beaten eggs and a little bit more water if it looks like it’s too dry.
5. Season with fishsauce and taste. The pumpkin should have absorbed the flavors of the sugar and fishsauce nicely and the eggs should have a nice savory flavor.
6. Add in green onions and allow to wilt.

Serve over rice and enjoy!

(Sorry, no pics. Next time I make it, I’ll put the pics up.)

Cheers, Annie.

So…Facebook…are you glad for it or mad at its amazing ability to suck up all your time? Share your stories with us!