Tag Archives: 2013

Sunday Cooking

I didn’t realize until recently that I collect cookbooks. I didn’t set out to do so…it sort of just happened. I can always remember fussing to look at my grandmothers red binder of hundreds of recipes she collected over the years. It’s so silly, I still sort of fuss to see that red binder when I visit her, I chalk it up to being sentimental. To this day I really enjoy reading new cookbooks almost like a chapter book. It might sound a little strange but I can start from the very beginning and work my way to the very end. Each new page making me think of a new meal idea or challenge. I also enjoy books on culinary school…I’m often swept off into a daydream of what if’s and thoughts of wouldn’t that just be incredible to attend Le Cordon Bleu?

I grew up not really knowing how to properly cook. I think it is safe to say that I was fairly spoiled because I always had someone making me a meal. I believe that is where the intimidation of cooking started for me. I loved the idea of end result where the food was served, admired, and enjoyed like a piece of beautiful art. It was just getting to that end result that I lacked for many years.

Thankfully as I’ve grown so have my taste and curiosity to make and create something new. The fear is still sometimes there looming in the back of my mind when a recipe looks very challenging, however I keep that little voice in check by reminding it that I wont get to enjoy or share something that could be incredibly delicious unless I try to make it first.

Can you relate? Have you ever been intimidated by cooking? Do you find it easier and have more confidence to cook with friends rather than alone? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. For now, no Le Cordon Bleu but I’ll leave you with two very simple but delicious recipes that I pulled from two of my cookbooks.

Blueberry Crisp
From: Bread & Wine

Ingredients:

4 Cups blueberries (or any fruit, really)

Crisp topping:

1 Cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 Cup pecans
1/2 Cup almond meal (available at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, health food stores, or made by putting almonds in food processor until fine, but before they turn to almond butter)
1/4 Cup maple syrup
1/4 Cup olive oil
1/2 Tsp salt

Directions:

Pour four cups fruit into 8×8 pan. Spread crisp topping over the fruit. Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 minutes, or longer if topping and fruit are frozen, until fruit is bubbling and topping is crisp and golden.

Serves 4

Basic Hummus
From: The Super Baby Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 Can chickpeas (or the equivalent amount of chickpeas you have cooked yourself)
2 tbsp tahini (omit this altogether if you prefer)
2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 to 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Drain the chickpeas and combine all the ingredients in a food processor.

Blend on a low-speed until the hummus is completely smooth. If the mixture seems very thick, add in some extra olive oil or water to loosen it up.

Let me know how they come out for you. Enjoy!

Jeju Island Getaway

This past weekend we got the opportunity to again enjoying a brief getaway on the beautiful volcanic island of Jeju, only this time for a low-key friends meet up/ no real game plan kind of weekend.

Summer is officially over and clearly Fall is knocking on the door. Even on the tropical like island of Jeju the much brisk temperatures are starting to settle it. Saturday was dreary and rained, or misted rather, but we made sure we didn’t let the weather stop our fun. We took full advantage of checking out all the places that our group didn’t get to see the first time each of us visited Jeju in the past.

Get ready for some Korean cheesiness. Ready? Jeju Island Teddy Bear Museum….yes… told you.. we are clearly all about the cheesiness here, O’ Sulloc’s tea Plantation, Manjanggul Cave, Cheonjiyeon waterfalls, Jeju Starlight World Park and Planetarium, and Jinjie Cave.

We sipped green tea, coffee, ate some bingsu, ate green tea frozen yogurt, hiked part of the island coast where we got to check out 15 man-made caves ranging 15metres wide and 20metres long leftover from the period of when Korea was under Japanese rule, had the hubby believing that some of the teddies in the teddy bear museum were recovered and came from the Titanic, visited chocolate land where we later discovered we overpaid and were taken on the price of our boxes of chocolate (live and learn), and of course ate the Jeju speciality Jeju Black Pig (heuk-doe-ji). Overall a good time!

So, What were your plans over the weekend?

Feel free to check out photos and follow along on Instagram too!

Other Side

The original plans were to dive this weekend at the east coast, relax, stroll on the beach and get carried away with a good book. That fickle mother nature had other tricks up her sleeve. The waves and wind were definitely ideal for a surfer, not a diver. We decided to improvise, road trip and meet up with a new couple along the way.

Part of our unplanned road trip led us to visit the most northern point of South Korea’s east coast. The area we traveled was the Goseong Unification Observation Centre. If you recall from past post, we’ve seen the DMZ from the west coast along the 38th parallel, however this was the opportunity to check it out from the east coast. The observation platform is a small educational center about the North with the history about Korea’s divide. I felt like it was much more relaxed and less tense (if that is even possible) in comparison to the west coast observatory. For example you can drive your own almost right up to where you will get to view North Korea!

From the platform you get to see Mount Geumgangsan, Haegeumgang, and islands of the coast in the distance. I stood there for a long time just staring through the telescopes to the other side of Korea. I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful the beach and view were but how ugly the other side truly was.

The holiday weekend wasn’t a complete bust, Sunday the sun greeted us bright and early, Mr. B got in some diving while I returned to my original plan of getting wrapped up in my book and taking a stroll along the beach. This day was truly a reminder of how life is good.

Happy Labor day to everyone out there, enjoy! No cookouts on the grill for we Bees this year…but I do see Johnny Rockets in our near future… 😉

Goseong Unification Observation Centre address:
457, Tongiljeonmangdae-ro, Hyeonnae-myeon, Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do
강원도 고성군 현내면 통일전망대로 457

Find out more information here:
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264161

Around The Table

“It’s about what happens when we come together, slow down, open our homes, look into one another’s faces, listen to one another’s faces, listen to one another’s stories. It happens when we leave the office and get a sitter and skip our workouts every so often to celebrate a birthday or an accomplishment or a wedding or a birth, when we break out of the normal clockwork of daily life and pop the champagne on a cold, gray Wednesday for no other reason than the fact that the faces we love are gathered around our table. It happens when we enter the joy and the sorrow of the people we love, and we join together at the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it’s not strictly about food, it doesn’t happen without it. Food is the starting point, the common ground, the thing to hold and handle, the currency we offer to one another.” ~ Bread & Wine, by Shauna Niequist

F o o d. F o o d is four little letters that make up a word, that is sometimes overrated but often underrated. Think about it, no matter what language you speak, where you come from, or how far you go, food is made as an offering, an extension. Its used when words cannot be expressed due to sadness, or in times of celebration and happiness, or even as simple as when there is a language barrier. Ah food.

I turned my friends down earlier in the week when invited out for dinner because I was just to sad, upset, and feeling guilty to even fathom enjoying fun or enjoy food. I cashed in my rain check this evening and tonight I met around the table with a few good friends. We of course dined and enjoyed Saengsun jun (Korean pan-fried fish). After a really hard week, it was nice to just sit back relax, share memories, chat, and dine together in one anthers company at this dinner table. The older I get (I can say that now with another birthday under my belt as of August 14th) the more I realize how much I love to gather around the table with my family and good friends.

I even took along my camera to capture the moment and share with you all. Enjoy!

Messy

The original mastermind behind the recipe I am going to share with you all stated that this dish looks like the inside of her car. Messy, unorganized, basically a chaotic mess…. I have to say, this dish easily applies quite well to our current state of mind too.

Messy.

We have had a really challenging past few weeks, topping everything off with losing our beloved family pet, Bean cat, yesterday morning. She fell very ill and passed very quickly thereafter. We still can’t believe that she is actually gone, nor do I ever know if we will ever be able to accept the harsh reality of it all.

A gigantic ball of a mess.

I really like that this blog is positive and uplifting showcasing our experiences and the good memories of our life as we live and travel around the world. However, I feel that I, we, are in a really messy state of mind dealing with our loss. I’m not sure how this post is going to go.. I can hardly form complete thoughts from moment to moment, but typing or writing out things in the past has always been therapeutic and added a little peace.

There are still so many questions that we know will never be answered. Still so many things that race through our minds. All of the what ifs. All of the things we are beating ourselves up inside over. The guilt, the remorse, the anger of it all, not getting the chance to tell her goodbye.

Bean holds such a special place in our hearts. We adopted her as a kitten in our home state of Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania Bean traveled and lived with us through all of our marriage monumental moments. She moved from our first home in PA, to our first apartment in VA, to our first overseas home in South Korea. Gosh she was such a brave spitfire of a cat! She was always with us, no matter what! Always there to greet us when we got home every evening, and always there to wake us up every morning (oh was she was good at that!) she kept us both company earning two Masters degrees with us (Trust us, she earned those two Masters degrees too, she put many hours sitting patiently in our office on the desk or chair alongside of us). When Mr. B would travel for work, or when he moved to South Korea for the first six months without us, she was there with me through it all. She kept us laughing, kept our spirits lifted, and rarely was bad.

Last night going to a place we call home, feels no longer like a home. There is such an emptiness in my heart and in this space. The silence is just so loud and feels so hard to deal with. This is the first time in over five and a half years that I have ever felt so incredibly alone. I know that I have a loving partner who is always there for me, a loving caring family, and amazing friends that are all over the world, however…I am so alone without her here. Everything we do reminds us of her. Any sounds that we hear from our neighbors makes us think its her getting into something or jumping up onto the table, but it’s not.. We went to bed last night so badly wanting to call her in to jump us with us… but we couldn’t.

It’s always such awkward feeling when you have a dear friend that loses a pet of family member. You never quite know what to say to them. You know that no matter what you say never is going to really help, but you offer those words of encouragement, blessings, prayers, etc. However, those words, thoughts, blessings and prayers were dearly appreciated. We truly are so thankful for everything from everyone and want to say thank you to the masses as best as we can. Knowing that you all were sending those prayers Bean’s way and for us meant the world. Thank you all so much.

As I said earlier, messy… perfect dish to sum everything up.

Brown Butter Garden Vegetable Pasta Bake

Recipe slightly adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pasta, like ziti or rotini
1 zucchini, chopped
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1 small red onion, chopped
2 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, or whatever you prefer

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare water for pasta and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add pasta to cook. Drain when finished.

While pasta is cooking, heat a large pan on medium-low heat. Add in olive oil, then add in onions, zucchini, corn and tomatoes with salt and pepper, stirring to coat. Cook for 10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally, while softened.

While pasta and vegetables are cooking, heat a small saucepan oven medium heat. Add in butter and whisk constantly, stirring until bubbly and brown bits appear on the bottom, about 5-6 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Turn off heat under vegetables and add in pasta. Drizzle in brown butter and add in cheese, stirring well to coat. Put pasta into oven safe baking dish. Pop the dish on into the oven and cook for 10 minutes, or just until cheese is all melted and bubbly. Remove from oven, pop open a nice bottle of champagne or wine and please say a toast in remembrance of our dear Bean cat.

Slow Cooker Pigeons

You don’t have to tell me, I know, I know. I’m crazy and that it’s totally opposite of slow cooker season.
However, I needed some good old Pennsylvania cuisine, plus it’s Sunday, we’ve got a whole rainy afternoon to kill. It’s the darn monsoon gloom, July tends to get bad around these parts.

Pigeons it is!

While Mr. B and I took advantage of some new and old comedy movies, the pigeons were simmering and steaming away in the slow cooker. Gosh, y’all! The house smelled simply amazing and had us both reminiscing of our Sunday dinners at home.

We vegged as the heavenly familiar aromas just wafted through the apartment and then finally at 5 on the dot, we indulged! These pigeons were packed with delicious flavor. Heavy on the pepper, garlic, onion, green peppers, and of course cabbage leaves.

Slow Cooker Pigeons

Slightly adapted from Pioneering Today

Ingredients:

1 small cabbage head

1/2 cup uncooked Korean rice

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 small green pepper, chopped

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. pepper

1 lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey

Sauce

1 15 ounce can Newmans Own marinara sauce

2 Tbs. brown sugar

2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Boil a pot of water and add cabbage head, steam for 3 minutes and drain.

Combine the uncooked rice, egg, milk, onion, garlic, green pepper, beef, salt, and seasonings in large bowl. Place meat mixture in center of cabbage leaf and roll, tucking and folding all ends. Place seam side down in slow cooker.

Mix ingredients for sauce together and pour over rolls. Cook on low 8 hours in slow cooker.

Just One

Can you ever just have one cookie? Does one cookie ever suffice? Nope. Not in my book. You at least need two. It’s got to be a pair, equal, one for each hand. Right? Right!

It’s Tuesday night, I’ve had a lot on my mind these past few days. Korea has a major storm set to blow in over the next few days from China.

What to do?

What to do?

Bake cookies!

I needed something mindless, stress free, and relaxing. Peanut-butter oatmeal cookies were just what was in order. We’re a huge fan of oatmeal cookies and peanut-butter part was just a bonus.

I know when my grandfather reads this blog post he will crave oatmeal cookies and pester my grandmother to bake him some. Oatmeal cookies are his favorite cookies. I guess the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree. There is nothing quite like a fresh batch of baked cookies and a tall glass of milk to wash it all down.

I remember baking cookies various times throughout my life. The best memories of course were licking the cookie dough from the spoon afterwards. Hopefully there weren’t any raw eggs in those batches…uh oh spaghettio.

Honestly, I wish I would have paid more attention to baking and cooking from my grandparents when I was young. They are such awesome resources and have so much culinary experience. As I’ve grown up I’ve realized that I really enjoy learning to cook and bake new things. I always look forward to cooking and learning something new when im home visiting them. i always leave excited, eager to try what I learned at home with Mr. B. Sometimes I even ponder culinary school to learn real techniques and more kitchen confidence when venturing way outside of the normal weeknight spaghetti or chicken dish. What about you? Have you ever given culinary school a thought? Perhaps someday?

Back to cookie baking. I’ve included the recipe below adapted from various peanut-butter oatmeal recipes just for you.

Enjoy!

Peanut-butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1/3 cup natural, chunky, unsalted peanut-butter
1/3 cup almond milk, soy milk, or regular milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup oats
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees or 190 Celsius.

Mix in a mixing bowl the sugar, milk, peanut-butter, butter, and vanilla extract until everything smooth.

In separate bowl, mix both flours well, oatmeal, baking soda and salt.
Pour both separated mixes together. The wet and the dry, and mix until the ingredients are just mixed enough together.

Next drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet, gently flatten cookie tops with a fork to bake evenly.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until cookies are set.

Now…while the cookies bake, we tackle the dishes….

Rainy With A Good Chance Of Meatloaf

Meatloaf… It’s one of those foods that you either absolutely love, or absolutely loath. There isn’t much argument in the middle. We just so happen to love the stuff! How about you? What are your feelings on meatloaf?

It’s Sunday, it’s been pouring rain for days. Actually, it’s been every day since we landed back in Korea from our world tour over the 4th.

I don’t know about you, but days and days of rain eventually get to me. I start craving comforting things. I start going into a sluggish, lounge around mood. Sometimes a craving happens and you just gotta roll with it. Sometimes it’s weird, sometimes it ends up being FABULOUS! Like the meatloaf I’m going to share with you all.

A little background on our meatloaf situation. We have only ventured away from Mr. B’s mom’s meatloaf recipe ONE time during our married life. BIG MISTAKE! It was icky, bland, gross. There are many other words I could go on using, but I think you get the point. Please also note this attempt was about three years ago or so. I guess you can say we were scarred. We continued to stick to the family meatloaf recipe ever since. Well, that is until now…thank you Eatliverun!

Kicked Up Turkey Meatloaf
(Taken and slightly adapted from Eatrunlive)

serves 6

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground turkey

1 cup cooked black or green lentils (Don’t fear the lentils)

1 large carrot, diced

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups mushrooms, chopped

1 1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

1 tsp salt

1/2 T olive oil

1/4th tsp black pepper

3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, slightly beaten

Glaze:

2 T ketchup

2 pads of butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the diced onions and saute for about six minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the carrot and garlic and cook for three minutes. Add the chopped mushroom and cook for another five minutes or so, until the mushroom has turned soft and all the veggies are nice and juicy.

Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Add the cooked lentils, salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce and ketchup and mix well.

In a small bowl, combine the milk and panko bread crumbs. Let sit for three minutes so the breadcrumbs can absorb a little of the milk. Add to veggie mixture.

Add ground turkey and beaten egg and mix well. It’s easiest here to use your hands. Transfer to a greased loaf pan and press down to smooth top.

Spread the two pads of butter on the meatloaf top. Make a nice zigzag line of ketchup on top of the meatloaf. Cover with foil. Pop into the oven and Bake for 55 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. We typically remove the foil off the top and then pop back into the oven for 15 more minutes. Enjoy!

Around The World In One Week

Okay, maybe it wasn’t around the world…but it truly felt like it! It ended up that we went back to the states for a wonderful whirlwind of the fourth of july week. We tackled DC, PA, 3 full days of work, a best friends wedding, family, and a scuba diving certification. I think its safe to say, been there, done that, got the tee-shirt. LOL! We still wouldn’t have traded the time for anything in the world.

How blessed am I? I got to see two of my childhood best friends in one week! Cassie and Josh drove up from North Carolina and toured DC with me for three days. Don’t worry, I’ve got some photos to share of our adventures from the DC duck tour, and yummy sweet treat to ourselves at DC cupcake. Yep, we were the crazies that stood in the rain, but I’m telling you….Mmmm…the carrot cake cupcake was absolutely divine! We then went to Arlington cemetery to visit the tomb of the unknown soldier, so surreal!

After we said so long to my best friend and her husband, we headed North for our hometown in Pennsylvania. My other best friend, who you might remember from her visit here with us in Korea, was getting married. The wedding was perfect! Everything was so simple but elegant. You are going to love this… the reception was at a small local airport, inside of a hanger. It gets better folks, whoopie-pie wedding cake tower! If you are not familiar with a whoopie-pie… first, I’m so sorry you have been deprived this long, second, google the word and drool! The reception also featured stations from Danville, PA (where the reception location was), Seattle (where the groom is from), and Istanbul, Turkey (where the honeymoon destination is). These stations consisted of sliders, salmon, seafood dip, pidgeon and perogies, hummus, chicken kabob, and the list just keeps going on. It was one of the best memories of my life for my best friend and her husband. As we speak, the newlyweds are relaxing in each others company somewhere in Turkey. Gosh, I cannot wait until they get back so I can get the lowdown on the trip!

So how was your fourth of July? Did you travel far? See fireworks? Maybe it was more low-key and all about grilling and chilling? Whatever the case, I hope that it was a great one and I hope to hear about it from you all.

Positiveness & Pasta

I am going to apologize for my corniness upfront, sorry everyone.

Do you ever think about all of the blessings in your everyday life? Gosh, we just have so many things to be eternally grateful for each day in and out. I’ve said this before and I will say it again, you have to be the captain of your own boat. Positiveness starts within YOU. Now, I am not saying that life is always a bowl full of cherries. Life can absolutely throw you curb-balls out of the left field. In the end what matters is how YOU chose to handle that curb-ball and move forward.

I started reading a book that’s suppose to help transform the way you think in 28 days. Each day I begin my mornings with my breakfast fork in hand and “homework” for the day. Each day I list 10 things that I am grateful for. Each night I use my gratitude rock and go to bed with the most important thing that happened to me that day, saying thank you, counting my blessings. Told you I was going to get very corny on you with this post. No, but really, I am enjoying making myself acknowledge all the wonderful things in my life daily.

As I close tonight, know that you are on my list of things I am grateful for. Your friendships, support, following, and comments are always welcomed and very much appreciate. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, who’s hungry for some homemade baked penne rigate with sausage? (Another thing I am grateful for… my amazing chef of a husband who knows his way straight to my heart <3). Go ahead, help yourselves!

Bee’s Baked Penne Rigate with Sausage

Ingredients:

1 Package of (sweet or hot) sausage, we typically use hot.

1 Box of penne rigate pasta, we opt for the Dreamfield brand, or whole wheat

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 Onion, diced

8 Mushrooms, sliced (optional)

1 Jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1/2 Lbs of shredded mozzarella cheese

6 Slices of provolone cheese

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Boil sausages until cooked on stove top. Saute onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil until almost cooked and remove from pan, place into large mixing bowl. Next saute mushrooms in 1 Tbsp of olive oil and once cooked place in mixing bowl with onions, tomato sauce, combined with 1/2 of the shredded mozzarella cheese, mix thoroughly. Next boil penne rigata pasta until al dente. Drain and combine with your onion, tomato sauce, and cheese mixture. Now the sausage should be ready to be sliced and put into a pan to be cooked until slightly browned. Once sausage is cooked place and mix in with your other ingredients in the mixing bowl. Pour everything into a 13 x 9 greased pan, level, and place the provolone cheese slices on top. Place into oven for 350 degrees uncovered for 10 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown.

Don’t forget a to pick up a nice freshly baked baguette and bottle of wine to accompany your dinner. Enjoy!