Where we have been…

Where have you been, you might wonder?  It has been a while.  Well, let’s see.  We sold our house, bought a really old house, reno’ed the house, moved into the house, moved the chickens, reno’ed the house, tackled some of the yard work, enjoyed summer holidays, reno’ed the chicken coop, started school and currently we are finishing reno’ing the house.  And we have some more yard work to do. 🙂

chicken coop

The chickens new palace under construction.

You see, we haven’t really ever moved since we settled down in our little house once we moved back to Canada.  And there we settled, accumulated belongings, accumulated children, collected memories and collected chickens.

So moving was a big deal.  Now if you are thinking, what is the big deal?  Lots of people move.  People move all the time.  I totally agree with you.  I was with you all the way… until we moved.  I don’t think I had enough sympathy for people when they moved.  Now when I hear that people are moving, I put  my hand on their shoulder and give them the knowing nod.  And we connect on a mutual understanding of just how horrible it really is. There is something special about complaining to someone who just gets it.

And I had a hard time leaving our little house.  We loved our home, we loved our neighbours, we loved our neighbourhood.  We had brought all our babies home to that house.  It was the first house we owed, the only house we owned.  And now we were going to just pack up and leave it all behind.

come for tea

Pop over for a cup of tea.

So now here we are in our new house.  I have declared that I am never going to move out and you will have to pull me out of this house in a pine box.  But as the memories of the stress fade away, the strength of that conviction is less.  Just like after delivering a baby you swear you will never forget intensity of the curse of Eve in labour.  And yet, after a few months of baby cuddles, the memories of the agony lessens. Not saying I’m moving anytime soon though. 🙂

I have learned that a house is just a house.  The memories are in our hearts and head  (cue the violin music) and the people who we share the house with is more important than the four walls that surround us.  We like our new house.  It has more room (yay!), it has lots of character and is a little more in the country.  We have big trees, big spaces and big dreams in this place.  But I like the people I share it with; that’s what makes it so wonderful.

kids

Best of all, it has a big kitchen!  So here is to many more fabulous meals to be made and recipes to be shared! 🙂


Mornings

mornings

I remember as a kid waking up reeeally early Saturday mornings to watch cartoons and those coloured bars would still be on the TV.  We would sit and watch the bars till CBC turned on. Anyone else remember that?

We don’t have a TV so I can’t even send the early risers to go and watch cartoons.  Instead they all crawl into our bed and try to stay quiet until mommy is awake.  And then this happens – comic! 🙂

 

Bean sprout side dish – kongnamool muchim

bean sprouts

A simple yet delicious side dish of blanched beansprouts seasoned with sesame and garlic.

Beansprouts are one of my yobo’s favourite vegetables.  In his opinion, any dish is made better with beansprouts.  So when I made this big batch of seasoned sprouts, thinking they would last a meal or two, I shouldn’t have been surprised when 2 lbs of sprouts were polished off!

I have yet to convince the kids of their deliciousness.  I’ve tried to sneak sprouts into ramens or chowmeins where I think they can easily be disguised and camouflaged by the noodles.  But alas, the most discerning of the children spots the sprouts a mile away and carefully tries to pick each one out. The least observant yet with the most acute taste-buds child, fishes them out of his mouth half chewed and hands them to me with a smile.

So as it goes with most foods, if the kids don’t eat it with reasonable well, it doesn’t get made very often.  Nobody likes a fight on their hand, especially if they have been working hard at making a yummy dinner. On the whole the kids are fabulous big eaters and are not too picky about food.  But I am keen on introducing them to a wide variety of flavours, so I will continue to try and entice them to eat their sprouts. Don’t let the kids reservations about them scare you, give this recipe a try.

In the meantime, my yobo and I will enjoy them… the whole bucket of them!

Bean sprout side dish

Bean sprout side dish

Ingredients

  • 300g bean sprouts
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 green onion chopped fine
  • 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
  • ½ tbsp sesame oil
  • ½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp gochu garu - red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. Blanche the bean sprouts in a pot of boiling water for 1-2 mins
  2. Drain the water and place in a bowl
  3. Add green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds and pepper flakes
  4. Mix well
  5. Enjoy
  6. It can be stored in the fridge for a few days... assuming there is any left over!
https://koreainmykitchen.com/?p=2054

*This is a fabulous addition to bibimbap and a great side dish with bulgogi.

Korean fried chicken – President’s choice review

korean fried chicken

Korean fried chicken, the other KFC, the best KFC there is.  It is sticky and spicy and sweet and so delicious! If you haven’t tried Korean fried chicken, you need to stop what you are doing and give yourself a whack in the head.  This is the one thing you need to accomplish this year.  Forget your new years resolutions, long forgotten and abandoned.  Promise yourself that this year you will do something for yourself, you will self-care, you will eat Korean fried chicken.  It is hands down, the best thing you can do for yourself that doesn’t involve too much energy (like exercising), hard work (like learning a new language) or self restraint (like dieting).  It is is just treating yourself right!

World of Flavours gochujang chicken

So I have been craving KFC ever since my daughter and I watched nonstop cooking shows in the hospital when she had her appendix rupture, but that is another story! Then I saw that Superstore had President’s Choice Sweet & Spicy Gojuchang Chicken Wings in their World of Flavours brand and I knew I had to try them!

President's choice chicken

I must admit, I was disappointed when I opened the box and found that is was just breaded chicken wings with a little packet of gojuchang, spicy red pepper sauce and some sesame seeds.  I’m not sure if I was expecting them to be pre-seasoned, but I felt let down.

gochujang chicken

I carefully followed the cooking instructions which simply involved putting them on a tray in the oven.  Once they were cooked, I put them in a mixing bowl and added the gojuchang sauce.  Now this is where it came in handy that they were not pre-dressed.  I made some really spicy ones for me and my yobo, some lightly seasoned ones for the kids and even left one plain for our littlest guy. After sprinkling on the sesame seeds and adding some green onion for garnish, I have to say they resembled the box pretty closely! 🙂

So the verdict, they are good.  They were not a.m.a.z.i.n.g but I didn’t really expect them to be.  They were prepackaged and frozen after all.  The kids liked the less spicy version and they were all eaten.  So if you are wanting to try Korean fried chicken for the first time and want the socks blown off your feet, I recommend you go to a restaurant or wait for the recipe I hope to post.  If you need something fun and fast to eat or share, this is a good tasty option.

New Year’s Resolutions

New Years Resolutions

It is that time of year again when you look back over the last year, count your blessings, try to see purpose in the pain and take account for how you did. Time to reevaluate how you are doing and what you need to do. It is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts.

And it is time for New Year’s resolutions.  I love resolutions.  I am all over them.  I am a band wagon girl; why not get on when everyone else is?

Every year I make lofty ambitions to exercise more, drink more water and sleep more.  I occasionally even attempt to limit my caffeine intact (gasp!). I resolve to be kinder, be more patient and pray more.  And this year, I am going to attempt all those things again.  I figure if I don’t give up trying, at least I won’t head in the opposite direction! 🙂

Decorating the Christmas tree

Tree with kids

And yet… I still decorate with them every year.  I go in with dreamy expectations of a picture perfect event and there is always a moment like this where I am tearing my hair out.  This year the boys were wrestling, not fighting granted, but wrestling in front of the tree as we are trying to decorate it.

So, why do I keep doing with them?  Because they love it.  And in the end, Christmas is about the kids.  And really, I love it too, broken ornaments and all.  It is the making of wonderful Christmas memories, even if they are not facebook worthy! 🙂

Korean egg rolls with bacon

egg rolls

Egg-cellent egg rolls with bacon and chives.  Does it get any better? 🙂

When you have lots of chickens, you get lots of eggs.  Except of course when the weather changes and the chickens molt and they go on an egg strike in efforts to stay warm and grow new feathers.  Then they don’t bother laying you eggs, and you get grumpy because you are still buying them food and now you are buying eggs as well.  But I digress.  Besides eggs, when you have chickens, you also start to collect something else… chicken decor.

20151121_122128

I tell you it is true.  Go into any good chicken mama’s house and it won’t be long before you spot some sort of hen or rooster knickknack.  It is inevitable, I tell you, for two reasons.  When you get chickens (especially if you get them as chicks and you raise them from tiny little fluff balls), you start to think that cheesy chicken trinkets are cute.  They remind you of your little girls at home in the coop and you eventually end up with a few on your shelf or on your mantle.

20151121_122048

The second reason is that everyone who knows you have chickens and love them in the same weird way that cat people love their felines, picks up delightful chicken things for you.  For your birthday, you get cute canisters, for Christmas gifts, charming teapots and before you know it, you are getting sweet hen tea towels ‘just because’ they thought of you.  And don’t even get me started about the size of your collection if your yobo or children like to thrift store shop!

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my chicken gifts.  I think they are precious, but before I become permanently labelled the crazy chicken lady, I try to reign in my chicken collection.  I’m trying to limit the chickens inside my house to the amount of chickens in my coop.  I guess it is time to get some new girls in the roost! 🙂

Because as I always say, life is too short not to decorate with chickens!!

Egg rolls with bacon

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Egg rolls with bacon

Ingredients

  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1 green onion (sliced length wise) and a few finely chopped for garnish
  • 1 strip of cooked bacon
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Crack the eggs and add water to a bowl
  2. Beat the eggs until a creamy colour
  3. Pour eggs into a pan and top with a long strip on onions and a slice of bacon
  4. Season with salt and pepper
  5. Allow to cook for 45 seconds until the sides start to cook
  6. Carefully fold the end of the egg with a small fold
  7. Wait 10-15 seconds and continue to roll the egg, pausing after each fold, until you reach the end of the egg
  8. Brown the roll for a few more seconds
  9. Transfer to a plate, cool for a split second, slice into bite size pieces
  10. Garnish with finely chopped onion
  11. Serve and enjoy! Repeat as often as necessary!
https://koreainmykitchen.com/?p=2052

Shredded Korean beef tacos with cabbage slaw

Korean beef tacos

An ohhh so yummy Korean beef taco.  Tender sweet Korean beef with a tangy Asian slaw and spicy gojuchang… you will be licking your plate looking for more!

I have been dreaming of these delicious Korean tacos and sunny California beaches since the weather turned and it has been wet windy here. I’ve never made it to Korea town in California but I hear they have the best Mexican Korean fusion.  So while we save up airmiles to make a foodie trip to LA, I’ll just whip us these, crank up the heat and enjoy a little taste of it at home.  Mind you, the cost of heating the house might be similar to the airfare… hmmm…. need to think this through! 🙂

If you have made this delectable Korean beef roast, these tacos are a great left over meal if you managed to wrestle any beef away from the family as they devoured it.  It is also totally worth it to cook up a big beef roast just for this dish!

Shredded Korean beef tacos with cabbage slaw

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Spread desired amount of go ju jang on the middle of the taco
  2. Add shredded Korean beef
  3. Top with Asian slaw (drain for a second or else it will be too wet)
  4. Wrap it up and enjoy!
https://koreainmykitchen.com/?p=2046

Slow cooker Korean beef roast

beef roast

A gratifying taste experience! With notes of garlic, soy and sweetness, this slow cooked beef pot roast is delightfully delectable!

fall

The weather has turned, the days are shorter, the house is colder and fall is definitely here and here to stay.  That means the lawn chairs should be stored in the shed and the furnace needs to be turned on, the BBQ is under cover and it is time to pull out and dust off the slow cooker.

Last year, we enjoyed slow cooker Sundays.  With the busyness of the day between church and family, it was nice to come home to a cooked meal in the crock pot hot and ready. This year, I feel like I could have a hot meal waiting for me every day.  Since the budget does not allow for a live in cook, I have been putting my slow cooker to good use on more than just Sundays.

I happened to be at my mom’s house and made a comment that I was keeping my eye out at the thrift stores for a bigger slow cooker.  With my birthday around the corner, it took my mom less than 24 hours to get herself to Costco and to my house with a fabulous new big crock pot and a hug and a kiss for a happy early birthday! Well, I have been enjoying it immensely!  I have been making bigger batches of my standby recipes (including this pulled pork) and trying new ones, including this one. Thanks mom!  🙂

Slow cooker Korean beef roast stew

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lb beef pot roast
  • 1/3 c brown sugar
  • 1 whole garlic peeled
  • 2/3 c soy sauce
  • 2 cups beef broth
  • 1/4 c sesame oil
  • 1/4 c rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp minced ginger
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp Korean red pepper flakes (goju garu)
  • Potatoes
  • Carrots
  • Onions

Instructions

  1. Cut the onions, carrots and potatoes
  2. Place on the bottom of the slow cooker
  3. Add the pot roast
  4. Mix together the remaining ingredients
  5. Pour over the roast
  6. Cook on low for 8-10 hours, high 3-4 hours
  7. 30 mins Prior to serving, remove the roast, cut the strings and shred the meat
  8. Return it to the pot and allow to sit
  9. Serve with rice and enjoy!

Notes

Increase and decrease the amount of broth in relation to how many potatoes and carrots you are using.

https://koreainmykitchen.com/?p=2044

Stay tuned for a tempting leftover dish from this beef roast!