Tag Archives: Dinner

Our Late Octoberfest Celebration

Over the weekend we celebrated Octoberfest with some friends…yes, yes.. a tab bit late…but eh whatever. We raise our “steins” to our favorite German flavors like sausage, pretzels, warm German potato salad, German Beer Cheese, rotkohl, apfelkuchen and yes, beer. Prost!

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Special visit

The past few days have been a busy blur of copious amounts of good food and buzzing all around Korea like we were tourist again. This time the only difference was, we had bumblebee and Kelsey along for the ride!

Yes, Kelsey, this young woman has more depth, kindness, loyalty, boldness, grace, honesty and wisdom than I ever knew could exist in a person! Oh! And she’s family to boot!! Cousin Kelsey, you my dear are nothing short of amazing and we are SO happy you chose to come visit us again before starting your new exciting adventure on the East coast! We cannot wait to watch you go on to do big things!

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Scrumdiddlyumptious

Another summer slow cooker meal coming at ‘cha. Scrumdiddlyumptious slow cooker salisbury steak! Say THAT 5 times fast…. Whew!

Salisbury steak makes me think back to the Kid cuisine frozen meals from childhood. Do you remember those? The brownies….mini corn on the cob…You might be rolling your eyes at the mention of a frozen meal, but hey let’s be real here, we were 90s kids growing up in America, we ate them occasionally, along with Gushers, DunkAroos, Sunny Delight, and Fruit By The Foot. Talk about things that rocked our jean jacket and jellies off and was total bliss in the eyes of a 90s kid! Blast from the past, huh?

Whatever would make me want to recreate a frozen meal you ask? Possibly nostalgia? Possibly part curiosity of the taste as an adult? I’m really not sure? Whatever the case, I’m salivating thinking back on the smells that wafted through our home when these little guys were simmering away in the slow cooker. Mmmmm just imagine the combination of beef, mushrooms, onions and that au jus mix magic!

We served the salisbury with a nice fresh head of locally grown broccoli, herbed stuffing, and sous vide black truffle pomme purée. It seriously turned from a good ‘ol central Pennsylvania go to frozen dinner classic to a simply gorgeous meal with minimal effort (….minus the black truffle pomme purée).

You guys…. It was GOOD! Sooooo good! I swear all that was missing was a sisterly fight over what we were watching next, Rocko’s Modern Life or The Fresh Prince….

Enjoy the blast from the past!

Slow Cooker Salisbury Steak
Recipe source slightly altered from Here

Ingredients:

1.39lbs Lean ground beef
1 (1 ounce) Envelope dry onion soup mix
4 Tbls Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tbls Lactose free milk
2 Tbls All-purpose flour
1 Tbls Safflower oil
1 (10.75 ounce) Can of condensed cream of chicken soup (low sodium)
1/2 of Packet dry au jus mix
3/4 Cup Better than chicken bouillon broth
Hand full of mushrooms, sliced
Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, onion soup mix, bread crumbs, and milk using your hands. Shape into 8 patties.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Dredge the patties in flour just to coat, and quickly brown on both sides in the hot skillet.

Place browned patties into the slow cooker stacking alternately like a pyramid.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup, au jus mix, and chicken broth. Throw in chopped mushrooms.

Pour mixture over the meat. Cook on the Low setting for 4 or 5 hours, until ground beef is well done.

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Importance of sorts

Thursday evening I prepared THIS meal with Bumblebee.

Okayyyy it’s pretty obvious that she realllly can’t jump in and assist me just yet, BUT I feel that she does truly enjoy hearing and watching us bounce around our kitchen space chattering and singing to her in silly little voices and making funny facial expressions. Most of the time she sits smiling watching us, or chews on her Very Hungry Caterpillar or hands (hehehe).

We try to explain what we’re making and the importance of fresh healthy ingredients.

We want her to grow up knowing how to cook and not be afraid or shy away from wild ingredients like foie gras, pink peppercorns, Korean or Thai peppers, or even smoked sea salt. (wait…are those ingredients considered wild??)

Together we’re striving to impress upon her the importance of good locally grown food, pairing a nice glass of wine with a meal, taking and making time with family and friends as we do Thursday evenings to relax, enjoy and eat together. Most of all to savor this short sweet life we’re all so blessed to live.

This dinner was almost too good for words! Seriously! It was SO simple and has to be one of the best weeknight meals that’s been served at our table. Oh boy, the gravy was so savory! The meat literally melts in your mouth and also makes your entire home smell all homey and delicious!

Slow cooker Balsamic Rosemary Beef Chuck Roast

(Should serve 4 comfortably with other sides of course)

Ingredients:
4 lb Beef Chuck Roast
1/2 Tsp Better than Bouillon Beef Base
4 oz Hot water
1/2 Cup Balsamic vinegar
2 Fresh rosemary sprigs
2 Bay leaves
1/2 Yellow onion, cut in half
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 Large cloves of garlic, minced

Gravy:
All purpose flour to get a thick gravy consistency
2 Tbls Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste (you’ll need it if you’re salt and pepper hounds like we are)

Instructions:

Slice the chuck roast meat into nice stew-like cuts.

In slow cooker combine the sliced meat, beef stock, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, rosemary sprigs, bay leaves, onion and minced garlic and stir/ mix by hands to coat everything nicely.

Cover slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or if in a pinch on high for 4-6 hours. (The goal is to slow cook the meat until it melts in your mouth)

Once meat is cooked, use tongs to remove the meat into a separate bowl. Remove and discard the rosemary sprigs and the bay leaves.

In another separate bowl, add flour and slowly mix in about 2 1/2 Cups of the cooking liquid from the slow cooker until it’s smooth. (Be cautious because hot liquid and flour like to make lumpy gravy).

Next microwave until the flour mixture thickens, it’s about 1 minute. Once it’s a nice thick looking paste, whisk that into the remaining slow cooker liquid to create the gravy.

Taste and adjust any seasonings / add in another 2 Tbls of balsamic vinegar if desired, or needed for more flavor.

Return beef back to the slow cooker and stir to coat everything.

This pairs wonderfully with baked potatoes or rice. Don’t forget a nice tall glass of red too!

We served with baked potatoes, creamed spinach, freshly baked homemade pesto pine nut bread and garden salads. Mmmm!

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A love language of dinner and vino

We’ve said it before, but will say it again, our love language is sharing food with our family and good friends. There is nothing like eating delicious home cooked food and sipping on a glass of vino!

Over the past two weeks we’ve entertained a new friend visiting from Thailand, and we hosted a low-key vino night, who doesn’t like an excuse to bust out the cheese board and pop open the vino with good friends?!

Gahhhh we we’re sooooo in our happy place!

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Homemade Pizza

Homemade pizza is pretty amazing stuff. The very best part about homemade pizza is getting to be as creative as you’d like. Am I right? I love the endless amounts of combinations and flavors that everyone brings to the table. Me, I’m a HUGE veggieholic and could pile on the cheese, mushrooms, peppers, onions, olives, brocoli, etc. just give me all the vegetables! Mr. B loves stacking his pizza with meat, more meat and anchovies. Although, I must admit it took me awhile to get use to his salt-lick slices of pizza, but I eat it now ha-ha!

This is my go to crust recipe…it ALWAYS turns out tasty and has been a trusty keeper. If you try it for yourself, let us know what you think.

This past week on family/neighbor dinner night we made homemade pizza and topped one with cheese, homemade meatballs, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms.

The other pizza, per our guest request, was topped with cheese, jalapeños and pepperoni. We paired the two pizzas with a big Greek salad and a nice glass of red.

I adore and look forward to these evenings dinners in with our neighbors, what a treasure. The weather was beautiful and not too terribly hot, a nice little breeze floating through our windows. Bumblebee was hammin’ it up, per her usual, making all sorts of friends with anyone in her line of sight, mowing down on her fist… I just love my little family!

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Weekday Dinner Spontaneity

Welcome to South Korea! We’re halfway through May and it’s practically Summer already. The the temperatures are holding steadily in the lower to mid 70’s. Hey, I’m not complaining about the gorgeous afternoons that I get to share with my bumblebee outside. Nope, I know that all to soon the monsoon season will be upon us. I know! I had to bring it up…complete BLASPHEMY! So you’ve got to squeeze every single sunray out of each day. We decided the other evening for dinner to “grill out” (funny little fact: we don’t own an actual grill, lol) with our neighbor was in order!

Hey, isn’t this is what life is all about!? Spontaneity!! Or at least it calls for homemade spirilized French fries, homemade burgers, homemade bread and butter pickles, and homemade pickled eggs and red beets. Hands down worth the effort in the end! Oh! Don’t forget the cutest little petite roses to set in the center of it all too.

Holy cow I just love our little life! (prepare yourself for food envy and a photo dump)

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Click, Ship & treat yourself!

First Mother’s Day

Yesterday marked my very first Mother’s Day. My coffee cup and heart were filled to the brim with such good stuff! The weather was straight out of Mr. Rogers neighborhood perfect! I’m talking clear blue sky, the sun shining, birds chirping happily, and the evening sunset was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen to date in Korea! See! Perfection!

Olivia and Mr. B made my day so very special and absolutely memorable. Outside of the fact that I get to wake up every single morning to my best friend and my daughter, seriously is gift enough, but I also had a lovely prepared breakfast, freshly brewed coffee, the sweetest little message from “Olivia”, as well as two beautiful charms to add to my Pandora bracelet.

Sipping on my coffee that morning, I couldn’t help but think about the past several years, the Mother’s Days that passed, that my heart waited, ached, and longed to be a mommy. To experience life being a parent with my husband. I didn’t realize that there was a bigger plan eventually in store for us, it just wasn’t our time. It was a hard pill to swallow and I just didn’t understand why. So this very morning, like all my mornings since becoming pregnant and having our bumblebee, meant so much more to me than anything in the world. As I said on our Instagram account, my husband and daughter are the greatest gifts on this side of eternity to me!

We continued our afternoon with a stroll, snapped some fun photos and picked up potbingsu from a local cafe.

It didn’t just stop there! The Mr. continued right on spoiling and making the day special by cooking the most deliciously moist grilled chicken, Israeli shiitake mushroom flavored couscous, spicy crushed tomatoes, and bread with homemade dipping oil….. I scarfed it down, I had to grab this photo off of the Mr.’s cellphone.

These past few weeks, two months, this very morning, life as a whole has become so much more meaningful to me. There has been no greater miracle than this one to me. So many heartfelt thank yous to my husband and bumblebee for such a beautiful day.

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Yammy & BarbeCooks

We’ve lived and traveled all over the US and have tasted many platters of BBQ. Pulled pork, beef brisket, chicken, homemade smoked sausage, southern style, northern style, mid-western style, heck even Korean style, we’ve sought after and love them all for different delicious reasons.

When I sit and think about the BBQ culture in America the thoughts that come to my mind immediately are that American-style BBQ isn’t just about chucking a hunk of meat on a grill, only then to remove a few moments later. No, American-style BBQ is a prideful, timely, and passionate involved cuisine. We will take the time to smoke our cuts of meats over heat from hand selected seasoned woods and special charcoals to creating a perfect fire for that perfect amount of time, all just to get that perfect end result of BBQ. And when all of these factors are done just so, oh how incredible that end result is.

The owners of a new American style BBQ joint were just getting the restaurant ready, days before their grand opening, when they approached us while we were on an evening walk. They wanted to say hello and invite us to try out their BBQ on opening night. We were surprised and pleased by their openness to approach foreigners like that. (Thank you!) However after tasting many disappointing “Americanized” dish attempts served in Korean restaurants, we initially wondered just how “Americanized” the BBQ would really be? Perhaps it was our curiosity, or wanting to support a local friendly family business owner, whatever the case, when Yammy BarbeCooks officially opened their doors only a few steps away from our own, we thought why not? Let’s give it a go!

Have a hankering for BBQ chicken, or pork ribs? Maybe you are craving the sides like macaroni salad, potato salad, baked beans, or even the little buttery buns you get when you pop your bum down at a BBQ joint. Yammy & BarbeCooks has all of that and then some, to include off the wall additions like, chicken fried rice, shrimp fried rice, combination fried rice, oh and a fresh fruit salad too.

We’ve ordered the BBQ chicken platter and went back and ordered the Yammy platter. We were blown away! The portions were plentiful, you could see and taste the high quality ingredients used, and overall the meal was very decently priced.

The Yammy platter meats includes BBQ chicken, ribs, hot dogs, kielbasa, and little flank steaks.

The sauce that smothers the moist BBQ meat is perfect and packs a bit of heat in each bite (but not too hot). You pick up on a bit of bay leaf flavoring throughout too. Pure perfection!

Both platters also came served with side dishes that are not to be missed. From the perfectly crisp french fries, to the mashed potato salad, the macaroni salad, sweet little pickles, buttery little toasted buns, and perfectly grilled hot dogs.. Mmmhmmmmm. Try them all! Seriously!

The staff is super friendly and incredibly helpful! They are all family and make you feel welcomed and part of their family immediately upon entering. The restaurant is very clean and has an awesome at home in your dining room atmosphere vibe going on from inside, to the large outside wooden deck, where the vibe is like being at your neighbors grilling out on their deck.

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Homemade Foie Gras Burgers

Enough of the Bebe post… although incredibly adorable… Lets talk burgers folks!

Sometimes a burger is MORE than just a burger. Let’s chat specifically about the foie gras burgers you’ve seen featured various times on our Instagram. To us, topping a homemade beef patty with a delicious hunk of perfectly seared foie gras is just sooooo comforting. The two belong together like peanut butter and jelly. Trust us on this one!

Look at that perfect rich buttery perfection. Mmmm!

We had the opportunity to share our homemade burgers with the Mr’s mom while she visited and helped us the first week after the birth of our bumblebee. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as excited to jump on the bee burger creation train (I know she’s laughing if she’s reading this).

If you’ve never had foie gras, we understand that you might hesitate to try, let’s be honest.. it’s intimidating. We also understand that if you do try, its one of those foods that are an acquired taste, you might love or loath. As a workaround we suggest throwing the foie gras on a burger like we do and you might find it less intimidating to try out. Give it a shot!

Have you ever tried foie gras? What did you think if so? We’d love to hear from you!

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