Tag Archives: Dongducheon

What’s cooking?

Continuing on with our new year quest for meal prepping and planning, consuming better foods and striving for less food waste, we’re glad you found your way back into our kitchen and home again for our food recap.

There’s just something very meditative about weekly food preparation, perhaps it’s my OCD coming out? Seriously…coming home after a long week of work and preparing/ menu planning for next weeks round of breakfast, lunches and dinners has a calming and relaxing end result when you really let yourself enjoy it. It also helps that the Mr. supports and recognizes the importance of it too. (I have express and give my pure gratitude to this man too! Feeling under the weather this week, he cooked almost all of the deliciousness for us shown below).

^Homemade buttermilk scones served with a nice cuppa vanilla honey rooibos tea.

^ Homemade oven baked chicken kiev, with a side of crispy curried carrots and sun-dried tomato and feta spread served on top of homemade rye bread.

^ No bake 5 minute brownie from Minimalist baker. Slowly trying to curb my crazy sweet tooth, plus I’ve been itching to use up my cacao powder Healthworks Raw Certified Organic Cacao Powder, 1 lb This was very different texture wise, not terrible, but filled the temporary void, left out the espresso the recipe called for.

^ Spicy Japchae, jabchae, chapchae, chop chae, or chap chae (Korean: 잡채) (glass noodles, peppers, sesame seeds, onions and veggie-meat) and Maneul Jangajji (chili paste and pickled garlic scapes). Served with a side of korean purple rice.

Lots of pickling, preserving and burning our mouths this past week! Mr. B Made some garlic scapes Korean style. If you don’t know, garlic scapes are the green parts of the garlic, do NOT throw these away, instead make Maneul Jangajji!

Maneul Jangajji

12 hrs total (11.5 soaking)

Directions:
Pepper mixture:
1 cup dried pepper flakes (ideally Korean peppers)
1 cup Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
3 Tbs white vinegar
2 Tbs fish sauce (or to taste)
6 garlic cloves minced
3 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup hot water (may have to add slightly more if scapes are very well-drained)

The intent is to have a thick paste with a consistency of cream spreadable peanut butter or very slightly watered down.

Scapes:
cut off whiter tougher parts of scapes and trim to 3″. Boiled salted water. Pour over scapes in an insulated bowl (glass/ceramic etc) and leave sit (make sure to cover with a plate) for 11-12 hours or longer until they start to yellow. Drain and cover with pepper mixture (easiest to do with gloved hands).

These can be eaten immediately or saved if packed in the mixture for several months in fridge.

(Best compliment ever was when Our Korean foodie friend was over eating dinner with us and said that this was better than her moms! Mr. B’s Korea cook level awesomeness was achieved!)

^ Spaghetti and our homemade meatballs! You know.. Plenty of garlic and basil, you know, a nice dose of nerve-steadying herbs.

^ Shared a meal with our dear friend over our ground beef patties seasoned with our own special blend of spices. The burgers had oyster mushrooms, red onions with torched sharp cheddar cheese, fried egg and foie gras flavored with homemade BBQ sauce and horseradish mayo. The buns were coated with foie gras oil and toasted in the pan for finishing. Annie’s White cheddar Mac and cheese and salads on the side (you know, keeping it classy).

^ Homemade almond biscotti from America’s Test Kitchen (Household favorite!)

^ A delicious mediterranean steak salad!

And last but not least…. freezer meal prep for the unknown weeks that are to come. Chuck steaks ground, seasoned and formed into 1/2 lb burgers. Not pictured, because someone fell asleep on the job, vegetable beef stew and slow cooker pork BBQ with homemade BBQ sauce.

Click, Ship & treat yourself

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What’s cooking?

Welcome back to our kitchen! Pull up a chair at our kitchen island and get comfy. Outside of our mini Mardi Gras feast and unbeetable Valentine cake, we’re sharing the recap of what we whipped up in our kitchen over the past week. We’ve got some exciting nostalgic dishes we’ve made a bit more modern to share with you!

Drumroll please..we tested out four more family recipes from Mr. B’s grandparents handwritten cookbook that dates back to 1949! It’s so special thinking about and picturing Howard and Rose cooking these very recipes together back then in their kitchen, perhaps doing the same exact things were doing in the present day.

^
This super crunchy coconut granola! It’s been perking up our morning Greek yogurt and fruit routine. Try it! Next time I’m thinking I’ll use coconut extract instead of vanilla.

^
Chicken Marsala with homemade garlic bread and garden salads.

^
Seared tuna, a fairly regular staple at our table, was served as the main dish alongside of diced oven roasted rutabaga.

^
The first family recipe tested was parsley curried corn. Originally we prepared as directed straight from the recipe, but in the end slightly altered it to more of our taste. SPICE! Yeah, we had to kick it up a notch and make it a bit more modern with the addition of hot madras curry powder. This dish was absolutely delicious and is a new favorite for sure.

^
The second B family recipe tested was, pork tenderloin in cream sauce. Again, after preparing as originally directed, we modernized and altered by seasoning to our taste, it just didn’t have the pizazz we were after. We ended up adding green peppercorns and chopped onions.

^
We paired the pork tenderloin with garden sweet peas, sautéed mushrooms in a pepper sauce and puréed sweet potatoes seasoned with maple, butter, pepper. D-licious!

^
Oven roasted eggplant halves stuffed with zucchini, yellow squash, spicy Italian sausage, onion, and gorgonzola cheese. Like spaghetti, these were even better served as leftover for lunch, the flavors just popped even more!

^
The stuffed eggplants were served with a side of roasted garlic butter mushrooms sprinkled liberally with salt and cracked black pepper. These little guys were like a vegetarian alternative to Escargot! The mushrooms gave the texture and the butter, garlic, salt and cracked black pepper brought the taste. Plus who doesn’t like the fact that the caps hold in all that buttery goodness? It’s all about those vehicles for butter 😉

The third family recipe tested was “Boston Baked Beans” and “BBQed Chicken”.

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The Boston baked beans used dried beans and minimal ingredients which consisted of molasses, sugar, salt and a bit of pepper and home cured bacon. The Flavor was fantastic!

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The BBQed chicken was a chicken quartered and the sauce was from scratch. The sauce simmered away for quite a bit of time on the stove, then it covered the chicken and was baked. This recipe was delicious with a delightful blend we were not accustomed to. Oh! the chicken came out super moist too!

^
Then there was a quick last-minute dessert created. Inspired by our recent trip to Manimal in Itaewon, Mr. B halved bananas and drizzled them with homemade caramel and then topped it all off with fresh vanilla whipped cream. Boom! Front runner to the Bananimal!

Alright folks, we will meet you back in our kitchen again soon!

Unbeetable Valentine Cake

Any guesses what we’re hiding in our chocolate cake??

….No, it’s not arsenic. Ha-Ha! Geesh….

This chocolate cake features one-off the wall ingredient that makes it extremely moist. Yes, it literally melts in your mouth on contact.

So what is it?

Beets!

Yes, as in red beets

The chocolate in the cake hides the beet flavor amazingly well, you absolutely cannot taste even a faint flavor of a beet. Plus, we’ve got beets hiding out in our frosting too! O.M.G! Now that’s unbeetable, or unbeetlivable. Ha-Ha! I’ll stop while I’m ahead.

Beets are naturally a fall root veggie and were a staple at my grandparents dinner table quite frequently. Growing up in central Pennsylvania you could always count on someone bringing along pickled eggs and red beets. I feel like people either love or hate them, and unfortunately they often get labeled as tasting like dirt. I for one always enjoyed red beets, but never had the TRUE appreciation that I have for them now. Who would have guessed how versatile beets really are?!

Chocolate Beet Cake with Beet Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes one 8 or 9-inch layer cake
Originally adapted from Fine Cooking November 2001
I only slightly modified the recipe from Joy The Baker

For the Cake:
3 small-ish sized beets, unpeeled but trimmed of their greens
1 teaspoon safflower oil
6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

For the Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated beets
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons milk, depending on desired consistency
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
A pinch of salt

We really hope you give beets a chance and bake this little festive guy over the weekend! For the full baking directions pop on over to Joy The Baker’s Blog and show her a little love on Valentine’s Day too. Xoxo!

Mardi Gras!

Wow! Did you guys realize that February 9th was Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), Pancake day, chocolate day, pizza pie day and national bagel day?! How does a girl decide what event to observe?!

How about you? Did you do anything special on the 9th? Oh, wait… and we cannot forget sweet Cupid knocking on the door to this weekend too, huh? Whew!

While I’ve never officially experienced Mardi Gras in New Orleans, I like to think of myself as slightly indoctrinated into the festival and of course the feast! Yes, my dear friend Mary, born and raised in New Orleans, and her family would celebrate and make a big shebang and invite us on over to partake. When I say shebang…. I’m talking full-scale! The glitz, glitter, beads, masks, Mardi Gras decor, and of course good ol’ N’awlins food!

AH! Each year I looked forward to it! I could practically taste the King cake as the month of February approached each year. You know, looking back and reminiscing, I’m pretty sure she always made sure that I got the baby in my piece of cake too. Mmmmm such sweet memories to savor for a lifetime.

Unfortunately my friend Mary and her family moved onto another country and I feel like it’s my duty to uphold the our little tradition, even if we cannot enjoy it together. Sooooo… deciding what we’d celebrate on February 9th wasn’t a big deal after all. Bring on that good ol’ N’awlins colorful feast!

All of the recipes I used were passed onto me by Mary herself.

^Creamy Cajun Deviled Eggs

^Black-Eyed Peas Salsa served with multi-grain tortilla chips

^Shrimp Creole served with steamed rice

You could practically hear the New Orleans jazz and brass bands in the background couldn’t you? Haha! I feel like we represented well and made her proud this year flying solo? Perhaps next year I’ll snag her King Cake recipe and give it a go and snag some beads for an even more festive feel.

Here are some inspirational Mardi Gras recipes to tickle your fancy. Enjoy!

Charlie’s Wok

Typically I brown bag it everyday at work, however a building mate asked me if I’d like to join him for lunch nearby at a friends restaurant. Although my peanut-butter, banana, topped off with local honey on whole wheat sounded very satisfying, lol, I said sure!

So we went to Charlie’s Wok, an American Chinese restaurant, where I was introduced the main man himself, Charlie.

The restaurant is located off the Main Street and tucked away in an alley near the Bosan subway station and US Army installation Camp Casey. When we pulled up to park, I quickly realized why I had never seen the restaurant before, it was because of the discreet location.

Don’t let the unassuming exterior and location fool you, once we stepped inside my nose immediately told my belly that I was in for a treat. I learned that the food is always freshly made after you order, so be prepared for a bit of wait. You do have the option to place a take out order, as well as call ahead to place your order to eat dine in. If Charlie isn’t available, the restaurant does not open, it is a one man wok show. You see the pride Charlie takes in his food quality, the prices are very reasonable and you are served generous portions.

^
I ordered a 2 entrée combo meal because I couldn’t decide between the beef with broccoli, and General Tso’s chicken. With the combo you also decide if you’d like fried rice, or chow mien. I ordered chow mien based off of recommendation. The recommendation was spot on!

^Building mate’s garlic chicken and General Tso’s chicken

Overall, I was pleasantly pleased with my order. The menu offers a small variety of standard Chinese American staple choices and price points. Sure, this isn’t a gourmet 5 star restaurant, but it definitely is a great little neighborhood find!

Enjoy!

Give Charlie a call! 031-866-8656

Gather. Eat. Drink. Repeat

Friends, we certainly missed you at our table over the weekend!

We gathered, ate, drank and repeated all evening. Nothing better in our book!

These friends are friends that have cooked a special birthday meal for us and have given us such wonderful gifts, we’re very blessed to have met them all, so we certainly wanted to return the favor with a special treat for them!

The menu was French themed and featured the following:

^L’Apéritif (Drinks): Assorted beer, cocktails, homemade mulled wine

^L’Entrée (Appetizer): Pan seared foie gras served on homemade whole-wheat toast

^Le Plat Principal (The Main Dish):
Sous vide duck breast, served with fresh steamed broccoli, and pommes frites (french-fries)

^La Salade et le Fromage (Salad and Cheese):
Seasonal dinner salad and assorted cheese plate (served on my favorite Pennsylvania board)

^Le Dessert (Dessert): Vanilla-bean crème brûlée with local strawberries

Le Café (Coffee) : Coffee & tea

Bon weekending!

Spiciness with age

I wasn’t raised on very spicy foods…actually, I’d really label my childhood as pretty “vanilla” when it came to any sort of spiciness. But hey! That’s okay, because my very favorite ice-cream flavor just so happens to be vanilla! Ha-ha! I’m wild, I know!

Most know this little factoid, however some readers do not, my husband and I were both born and raised right in the same area of Central Pennsylvania. So a lot of our childhood experiences with, places, family traditions, and local foods, are very similar and easy to reminisce about together. (The Sub Shop, Knoebels Grove, ham loaves, growing up with grandparents that we’re practically parents, experiencing 4 seasons!)

So that brings me back to us chatting about if he too experienced a similar spice-less existence? Outside of childhood candy like warheads and cinnamon balls, he too was rather “vanilla”. Ha-ha! Womp-womp.

Fast forward to our adventures in Korea and you’d think we were two totally different people! Our taste have done some sort of crazy flip-flop and we crave and cannot get enough spice! We’re always testing our limits ordering more spice, telling the Korean restaurants, “The spicier the better”. Yes, quite the duo we are, what a spectacle when we’re eating spicy squid together.

The spicy thing is just one thing that’s boggling my mind lately when I really sit back and think about it. It sounds so elementary and simple, like, ohhh wow! You are adults your taste have changed.. WOW…

No! They really, really have! Our tastebuds have aged, as we have.

Here’s another fun giggle for you.. We thought we were really “cooking” when we first got married and purchased our first home. We’d take a weekend trip North to SAMs Club and pick up frozen individual breaded eggplants. We’d bake them in the oven and top them off with spaghetti sauce and shredded mozzarella. Boom! We were so proud! (In our defense, they were/are pretty tasty.)

Again, fast-forward and change countries, now we frequent our local vegetable stand weekly, try to stay away from most processed foods, and haven’t purchased an actual loaf of bread in 6 months? We bake our own loaf about bi-weekly. Pantry staples are now giant jars of jalapeños, Coleman’s English mustard, and a plethora of spices to take our foods up another heat notch and flavor (outside of being the chronic black-pepper food coater that I am.)

Perhaps all of the reasons and then some are why we make such a big deal about being together in our kitchen cooking and creating? Whatever the reasons, we’re certainly blessed with this time, the resources, and really hope to continue to encourage our friends, family and readers to get into their kitchen and menu plan, create some foodie-magic too!

I now present to you, a little hodgepodge of our past week spicy meals. Enjoy!

^Homemade spicy chorizo sausage soup with kale pesto and homemade whole-wheat bread.

^Homemade spicy salsa Mexican rice, homemade guacamole and chicken fajitas.

^From scratch gyro meat (ground beef and lamb spiced accordingly), grilled asparagus with an oyster sauce glaze, tomato basil salad and homemade pitas.

^Homemade whole wheat banana muffins from my gal-pal Jenny’s blog. VISIT HER NOW! You will fall head over heels with her style and bluntness!

Weekending and Côte Jardin

Over the weekend we had some appointments are errands to run in Seoul, so we made an entire day of it and met up with some of our very good friends.

We took them to a small cozy French café and bistro, Côte Jardin, located off and away from the main street in Itaewon.

This was the second time we have dined at the bistro and what brought us back was the romantic yet casual vibe, the very attentive staff (each visit the management has struck up a conversation with us and you can just feel their passion for their customers and business) and of course the delicious French cuisine!

On this trip, Ms. B ordered the burger for the second time, not a typical move on her part. The rest of the table was so convinced with her past experience, wouldn’t you know that they too followed suit. (Eek! Pressure was on!)

Yes, we DO realize that not many people would associate the French cuisine with a “burger”, but to us, this bistro certainly trophied the burger points on the scorecard for the French! They made their country proud!

So the burger… It was a bit different from the first time we had visited, however the basis of the burger, a mixture of lamb and beef combination, still shone through with its distinctive taste.

The first burger featured mushrooms, beet root, and bechamel cheese very creatively. (Photo on Instagram)

This time the burger was a bit more traditional with a nice cut of bacon, fresh lettuce, tomato, onion, topped with ground mustard sauce, and cheese. Délicieux!

This was the second time that we ordered the French onion soup as well. Mmmmmm… One can never go wrong on a very cold day with slowly cooked, caramelised onions that are both mellow and sweet in the perfect broth, topped off with a crusty bread and thick melted cheese.

Côte Jardin is the quintessential combination of offering a fantastic menu, paired with excellent wines, a caring staff, affordable prices and a personal, inviting, charming environment.

Address: 131-23 Itaewon Yongsan-gu, Seoul
Phone: 02-793-507
Website: Here

What’s cooking?

Oh man am I ever glad you asked!

This year, like many past years, we didn’t make any official resolutions. But, I guess you can say this is sort of something we’ve decided to try to stick to in the new year. I guess you can say that goes along with a form of resolution, right?

Weekly dinner menu planning. Boom. It sounds so simple, right?…It is! So… Uh… Why haven’t we done this in the past? …… clueless.

Anywho. We did our first full week of dinner menu planning and it looked a little something like this.

We’re trying to incorporate a ton of veggies into our meals too. Oh! Plus I got my hot little hands on this really cute weekly menu planner stationary/ a store list. I cannot wait to share with you all! Stay tuned on Instagram. (Thanks Jenny!) We had a really good time sitting down together and planning meals from our cookbooks and must bake/make bucket-lists. I know it’s a time I’m going to look forward to in our future.

Our goals are to incorporate more veggies, take the stress out of any weekday scramble of what’s for dinner tonight, plus try to make fewer trips to the vegetable stand and grocery store. We will promise to keep you posted with delicious photos along the way. Follow us on Instagram if you aren’t already.

Speaking of delicious photos… This is one meal from our past week of dinner planning, minus the dinner salad. Meh. Sometimes you see one, you’ve seen them all.

^ Armenian eggplant caviar. I get the sweetest memories of our dear friend Mary when I take a bite of this stuff! Hi Mary!!

^ Homemade Pumpkin-Sage Ravioli with Browned Butter and Pecans from kitchenAide
(Don’t worry we’re sharing the recipe below. You are welcome!)

^ Homemade tapioca pudding with fresh local Korean strawberries

^ Lamb steaks seasoned with curry spice grilled in a cast iron pan, creamy garlic parmesan quinoa, Korean pumpkin purée

^ Homemade ricotta chocolate mousse from The Forest Feast Cookbook (Highly recommended purchase!)

^ Sous vide pork chop with homemade Asian BBQ marinade, roasted garlic ancho chile potatoes, cauliflower and puréed sweet peas

^Seared ahi tuna (marinated with soy and Worcestershire sauce and sesame oil) with quinoa, broccoli and puréed beets

We hope you enjoy every bite!

Pumpkin-Sage Ravioli with Browned Butter and Pecans
Taken directly from our KitchenAide manual
Yield: 6 servings (12 to 15 ravioli with 1 tbs [15 mL] butter and 1 tbs [15 mL] pecans per serving).

Ingredients:

1 recipe Basic Egg Pasta
1 can(15oz[445mL]) pumpkin
1/4 cup (60 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground sage
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) black pepper
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground nutmeg
6 tbs (90 mL) chopped pecans
6 tbs(90mL)butter

Directions:

Prepare pasta dough; let rest.

In medium bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, sage, salt, pepper, and nutmeg; refrigerate until ready to fill ravioli. Follow directions in “To Prepare Pasta Sheets,“ “To Use Ravioli Maker Attachment“ and “Cooking and Storing Ravioli.“*

On baking sheet, place pecans in single layer. Toast in oven at 350°F (180°C) for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown and aromatic. Meanwhile, in heavy 1 qt
(950 mL) saucepan over medium-high heat, heat butter until golden brown. Serve hot butter over cooked ravioli and top with pecans.

Click, Ship & treat yourself!

#Therewillneverbeenoughtime

I’ll spend forever showing you how much you mean to me.

Vegan Rosemary chocolate chip cookies at 6am.
He adores them, and I adore him.

Click, Ship & treat yourself!