Monthly Archives: January 2013

Crunch, crunch, crunch

Greetings from my kitchen, again!

Do you ever start the weekend thinking that you are going to accomplish all sorts of things? Only to realize that you have no motivation, or inkling in your body to get out and do it. Well, that was me. It’s now Sunday and I’m a bit ashamed to report I only left my cave this weekend once, recycling. Hey, at least I’m keeping it green! Haha!

Anywho, I guess I shouldn’t shortchange myself. This weekend wasn’t completely a flop. I did clean up and move around Mr. B’s office space, make Dak Dori Tang, and this yummy granola. Mmm gosh was it yummy! …You know I’ll share with all of you.

Ingredients:

5 cups Oats (I used steel-cut oats)
5 cups Cereal (I used heritage flakes)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup mixed nuts
1 1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk powder
1/2 cup oil (I used coconut oil)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all of your ingredients up. Spread ingredients on greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes

Stir after the granola is slightly cooled. Seal up the mixture in an airtight container.

Enjoy with your morning milk, on top of Greek yogurt, or handfuls at a time afternoon snack….not that any of us here know anything about that…crunch, crunch, crunch.

I can’t describe the amazing aromas wafting through our home this afternoon!

What are you waiting for? Get mixing! Don’t forget to share your wealth, and recipe too!

A Little Spice

Isn’t the color of this stew is insanely appetizing? Who would have thought that ingredients like a little honey, soy sauce, garlic, onions, Korean red chili pepper paste (gochujang), Korean red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru), and some other key ingredients, would slow cook so nicely?

I made this very popular Korean chicken dish called, Dakdoritang 닭도리탕, in my slow cooker tonight for dinner. Its chicken cooked in a spicy red sauce with vegetables. Ah! I just cannot get enough Korean cuisine. So, what are your thoughts? Would you dare? I’d love to share! If you want the recipe, just let me know.

My “little helper” bahaha! Yeah right. I think the better name would be snoozer.

Cold Snap

It’s too cold! These words are all to familiar here in South Korea as of late. It’s basically replaced the common greeting of a simple “hello” or “hi” to your neighbors or acquaintances. We are experiencing quite the cold snap again, so much so that it literally burns my little ear lobes if I’m outside, and they are exposed to long. That little taste of almost Spring like temperatures the last week seem like such distant memories now. How’s the weather where you are?

Luckily we’ve got heated floors to warm our chilled bones up when we are out at a restaurant or even while snuggled up at home. Speaking of restaurants, Mr. B and I enjoyed a really nice dinner Thursday night this past week with some good friends. We ate huge bowls of Bibimbop, and sipped on Hobakjuk, a delicious Korean Pumpkin Porridge. Mmmmm the Hobakjuk was so velvety smooth! I believe I’ll attempt to make it rather soon (perfect cold weather comfort food). Stay tuned…

Splendid Extended

How was your weekend? I hope it was splendid extended weekend!

Ours surly was!

Some of the highlights from the weekend included:

-Juicing. I’m getting more creative, trying to incorporate sweet potatoes, ginger, etc. so delicious! I can’t help myself. Mmm! If you have a juicer, please share your thoughts and favorites with me. Pretty please and thank you!

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Sweet potatoes, carrots, pineapple, red grapes, and jeju oranges. ( I loveed this one! )

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Apples, cinnamon, and fresh ginger. ( Mr. B loveed this one! )

-Hair trim. Goodness, my mop desperately needed one! Fuzzy ends…need I say more? Pretty typical trip, except….drum roll….I drove myself for the very first time! No train this time around. If you ever get the chance to drive, or take a taxi in Seoul, you will know why this act in itself was quite the accomplishment! Mr. B was so worried about me driving alone for the first time. He made sure I had a GPS hooked up ready to go, with the route pre-programmed in too! What a guy! Thankfully
I also had a co-pilot. My dear friend accompanied me on the journey. (Girls day!). Woo-hoo! We successfully made it there and back, safe and sound!

-Skype session with my lovely Grandparents. My family always makes me feel so grounded. I treasure all the moments I get to chat with them via Skype, almost as good as being in person.

-Mr. B came home from being away on the East Coast…Hallelujah! Miss that guy a smidge when he’s away.

-Tied up some more of the loose ends of the Cambodia trip with Habitat for Humanity in March. Visa, plane tickets, a bit of research…check, check, double-check.

-Cooked up some fantastic homemade beef stew with Mr. B. Sometimes the best creations come from on the whim ideas. We had left over beef stock from a roast, it was just fitting to make soup. Plus, we’ve still got a white winter backdrop here from our little South Korean living room windows.

Here’s to many more splendid extended weekends in 2013!

Huge News!

I’m super excited, I’ve got huge news to share! No, no, I’m not pregnant, sorry family.

Why so excited? Well, MY BEST FRIEND IS ENGAGED TO GET MARRIED! Yes! I got to hear it straight from her mouth in person while home on Christmas vacation. How lucky am I? What a wonderful memory and celebration to be involved in.

All the years of waiting for each other has truly paid off! I couldn’t imagine anyone else for you Rebecca. Josh, I just adore you too! We wish you both nothing but the best.

They were just so cute to watch together. Both beaming ever so brightly, how beautiful!

While home, our days together were mostly spent, reminiscing, sipping tea, cooking together, taking photos, breakfasting, giggling over old inside jokes, shopping, checking out the outstanding possible wedding venue, admiring the gorgeous ring bling (great job Josh!), and of course girl talk. (Check out some of our fun below)

It was wonderful!

Time together was nothing short of pure perfection!

Love you B!

 

Little Lady

Yes, this little lady gave us quite the scare last night…

Thankfully, after a trip to the Korean vet, an exam, x-rays, two magical shots, this little lady is back to her good old self.

I say magical because, within the hour after we got home, she was already on her way to recovery! Whew!

Cost? Take a guess….Are you ready for this?  45,000 WON… In terms of dollars think $45.00. for all of that! EEK!

The vet was wonderful! Can you believe he even asked that I call and update him the next day twice on how she was doing. What compassion!

Have we said how much we love Korea yet?

In Need Of Antidote for Too Many Christmas Cookies

After one to many Christmas cookies, a nice hearty soup was in order for we Bees. With our recent trip home, I knew just the antidote!

Chicken corn soup with rivels!

Have you ever tried chicken corn soup with rivels before? It’s absolutely wonderful!

Rivels? Scratching your head yet? No, no, these are not little bugs or anything crazy like that. Think of rivels as a homemade pasta. Little, perfect, delicious, little pasta’s.

In Central PA, typically we eat this soup towards the end of summer with freshly picked ears of corn. Oh how I just adore fresh sweet corn! We Bees were truly spoiled because my family would always kindly share the corn from their fields with us too. Sigh…

Speaking of family, I skyped with my grandparents this weekend and had to tell them what a proud little baker I was with my chicken corn soup accomplishments. I mean we are talking about homemade chicken stock folks! That’s serious stuff in my book, or maybe just serious time? Nevertheless, well worth it in the end! Anyways, it turns out my grandparents were cooking the soup the following day as well. Guess you can take the Bees out of Pennsylvania, but you’ll never take Pennsylvania out of the Bees.

January 6th 2013

Three families, visits with close friends, pounds of cookies consumed, and six beautifully decorated Christmas tress later, we Bees have made it back safe and sound to our little humble abode in Korea. We truly cannot express or thanks enough to our dear families and friends for all that they did and helped us with during our stay.

Okay, who’s coming over to visit us next?

Upgrade Me

I’ve must admit… the flight home was really nice! I mean really, REALLY, nice! We upgraded to business class. I’ve never flown business class before, so it was an eye-opener. Flatbed seating and leg room for days. The in-flight meals weren’t shabby either. I’ll take it!

Have you ever flown business class? What were your thoughts? Wait… is that even a question?

Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips and Bacon Strips

Really America? Deep fried snickers wrapped in bacon? Triple patty cheeseburgers with slices of bacon? Panera Bread serving a simple salmon croissant sandwich to include a slice of bacon. Oy… America…our society is already in such an extreme obese state and now we have this brilliant idea to top everything off with a bit of bacon. Eek… I’m curious, what are your honest feelings or thoughts on this?

I can’t fib to you, we have been no exception to the rule with our food intake. To be frank with you all, we’ve gained collectively around five to ten pounds since landing back on our US soil. Everything has revolved around food on our trip. I felt like we barely would be finished with one meal and we’d be planning or chatting about our next. Truly the American way, right?

I wish I could tell you that we stuffed our little bellies to pure bliss, however while yes we did stuff our bellies, we honestly didn’t find the same satisfaction or fulfillment that we thought we’d have afterwards. Food now tasted much more rich, sweet, salty, all around different.

Poor Mr. B ate a Wendy’s cheeseburger on the way home from our flight arrival into the airport. The first thing out of his mouth was that it tasted like eating a stick of butter. I never did get a burger from Wendy’s while I was home so I really couldn’t concur or deny his thoughts.

Has the food really changed this much over the past two years? Or, is it us that has changed so much in our taste and diets while living abroad? Whatever the case, the best meals to us were our good old fashion families home cooked meals. Our central Pennsylvania Dutch and polish cuisine roots. Yes, pork and sauerkraut, chicken corn soup, chicken and waffles, pittsburgh chicken cheesesteak salads, raisin filled cookies, shoofly pie, sweet lebanon bologna sandwiches, hot lettuce, whoopie-pies, fresh beef burgers from my families livestock, soupies, capicola ham, Troutmans ham spread, dry beef gravy, and ice-cold birch beer. Mmmm Mmmm!

Prepare yourself for the following… these are just a few fun food photos we  got to savor  while home.

Thanks Brad for the blog title inspiration from your tee.