Week of Menus

Glazed Blueberry Lemon Pan Cake: More than the loser mom in the snapshot

2013-06-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

For all the moms who try to do it all and more...without cracking. For KY and her encouraging words.

The pressure for moms to be great reaches a feverish pitch at the end of the school year. With the "wrap up" activities surrounding graduations, promotions, yearbooks, end-of-year parties, boat cruises, end-of-year teacher's presents and juggling full time work, husbands, family, and other commitments, the chance to do it all dramatically reduces to a statistical impossibility.

My solution during this time is to hide in a hole. That's actually what I'd like to do, but I don't do that. I did, however, in the midst of a crazy teaching day, have to schedule 3 dental appointments, 3 doctor's appointments, and 3 allergist appointments, and I chose to do that by turning on the TV for Children and shutting the door to my office so I could speak, uninterrupted, and try to put 9 different appointments in a two week period into a calendar that threatens to blow up every time I open it up. Son came in to ask me if he could watch one more show, and I thundered at him, "DO NOT INTERRUPT ME WHEN I'M ON THE PHONE" to which he looked abashed and began to cry. It was not a good moment.

And over the weekend, I heard another story from my friend who sheepishly told a group of moms her loser mom moment, when she ignored a series of blaring reminders on email to order yearbooks for the end of the year. She ignored the emails, forgot to order a yearbook, and on the second to last day of school, her daughter walked in, with a seriously dismayed look on her face, and says, "Mom! How could you not order me a yearbook? The teacher gave us 10 minutes in class today to sign other people's yearbooks and I was the ONLY ONE WITHOUT A YEARBOOK!" Bear in mind that her daughter is the sweetest, most undemanding child I've ever met. (When she was 2.5 years old, if she was tired, she just put on her pjs, walked into her own bedroom, crawled into her own crib, and would go to sleep. On. Her. Own. ) Her daughter finished with, "I never ask you for anything, and there is only one thing I asked for all year long, and that is a YEARBOOK." My friend called it her loser mom moment.

Just the other day, I had our pastor come to our house, and somehow, in the flurry of emails that were sent between us all, I somehow missed that the Pastor and his family would be eating dinner at our home. I had a particularly grueling teaching day going on 5 hours, and I managed to get a cake together for the pastor's visit, and a simple dinner for the kids of fish sticks and roasted potatoes. I didn't even really prepare dinner for myself. What ended up happening will go down as a mildly mortifying moment of my life. The pastor's family hadn't eaten, I dug in my fridge and came up with kale soybean stew, and I offered what I had, a very very simple rice and soup dinner with kimchi. It was graciously accepted, but inside I was very red in the face. How did I miss this key fact that I was cooking dinner?

But it was today, as I berated myself for losing my temper during my marathon doctor's appointment scheduling fest, my friend gave me some lovely words. "You are not a snapshot. You are a sum total of all your actions." And I realize that oftentimes, moms are judged and judge themselves most harshly for their snapshots rather than the sum total of their actions. I yelled at my son, but the entire day we had a wonderful time together. I apologized for yelling at him and he understood. My friend forgot to buy her daughter's yearbook, but has never forgotten to feed her, clothe her, or pick her up from school. She is more than the mom who forgot the yearbook. I forgot to feed my pastor. I'm mortified. But I've also baked for my church almost every single weekend for the past three months. I am more than the woman who forgot to feed my pastor.

So I leave you, my fellow overworked, underpaid, over-stressed, under-relaxed, over-committed, under-leisured moms with encouraging words as we finish out a hectic month of the end of the school year.

We are the sum of our actions, not the snapshot. And the sum of the actions of the women and mothers I know are pretty phenomenal.

As a side note, this is the cake that I made on the day I forgot to feed my pastor. And I think that THIS cake combined with the missing dinner makes me a pretty decent person. (This is how I justify my actions to myself at night.) It's light, lemony, simple to make (in a pan) and the light glaze on top is the final simple touch.

Glazed Lemon Blueberry Pan Cake

Makes a 9x13 pan, serving about 12 people

Cake

Ingredients

2 cups regular sugar

2 tablespoon lemon zest

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

4 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)

1 cup buttermilk

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups washed fresh blueberries, picked over

1 tablespoon flour (to sprinkle over blueberries before adding blueberries to batter)

Method

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan.

In a food processor, pulverize together lemon zest and sugar. (Doing so releases the lemon oils.) In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend softened butter and lemon sugar until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined. and add half of buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining buttermilk. Mix until just combined.again. At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake. (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)

In a small bowl, toss blueberries with flour. Once the blueberries are lightly, gently fold them into the cake batter.

Pour batter into greased 9x13 pan. Bake cake for 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Once cake is cool, then make glaze. (Do not glaze cake until completely cool.)

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

ONLY make glaze once cake is completely cooled. Mix together powdered sugar and lemon juice. After mixture fully comes together, pour over cake top and spread with a knife. Allow sugar coating to settle onto cake, with a bit of a shell.

Printable recipe

End of Year Teacher Gifts: When you're not ready to say good-bye

2013-06-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

For JH - missing you

It's here. The final last day of school. It's my last day of preschool ever, as Children will all be in elementary school next year. Tomorrow I'll say goodbye to a community of teachers, staff, parents, and children who have loved my family and me for the past six years and a part of me breaks.

I'm not even sad that Son is growing up - because, you know, it's TIME. His preschool years were amazing, fun and awesome, but we're ready for some new learning and new growth. It's not like I wish that he could stay longer as a preschooler.

It's that I wish I could stay longer as a community member of the school. And saying good-bye has never ever been my strong suit. I'm not worried about Son, I'm worried about ME. Son has already announced to his teacher, "My mom is going to cry tomorrow" and I'm sure I will. I'll bawl with tears streaming down my cheeks. I'm readying the kleenex and the ice packs because I don't think my heart will be able to handle it.

It becomes a question of how one says goodbye to a community. I'm not sure. This community was there for me when we arrived from Korea, not knowing anyone, and my first new friends in California came from this community. My first parenting support and help came from this community. And the friends that Children love best came from this place, so the ties are strong.

I decided to say my good-byes today in small ways. For the office staff, I wanted to give them something small to take home that they could enjoy, and usually I make them a bunch of cookies. This year the office staff universally is getting in shape and trimming down, so I decided on these gorgeous succulents that I found ($5 at Trader Joes) and wrote simple cards to all.

For Son's teachers, I went the route of humor. This year has been one fraught with a lot of changes and flux at the school and the teachers were amazing and wonderful. I wanted them to know that I KNEW that they needed time to recover from their work this year, so I decided to take this idea that I bounced off of my friend blogger over at Sillie Smile. I wanted little prescription pads with space where I could tell the teachers how I thought that they should relax.

Sillie Smile came up with the bottle labels, prescription sheets, and the cute idea to put movie tickets (I purchased mine from Costco) into a medicine bottle as a form of packaging. I loved the idea and I have to tell you that the teachers all did as well. Check out her post with all the details here.

The cookies I made for the prescription were the Oatmeal Brown Butter cookies. They are Husband's current favorite cookie, and the flavors and textures are awesome. I made the dough ahead of time, rolled them into logs, and then sliced them. It definitely works just as well to simply make them and make round balls of dough and bake them immediately.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll say goodbye. I'll try not to embarrass Son with snotty face and red eyes, but who knows. I only have an ugly cry and that will be the one that comes out. I may need to write my own prescription pad, "How to recover from saying goodbye" and it will say, "Profuse amounts of chocolate and caramel. French fries. Chips."

Asian Chicken Salad: Similarities between Sunday School and urban school teaching

2013-06-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

To all the Sunday school teachers I know - your work, sacrifice, and effort is amazing, and blessed by our Father above. To my beautiful Sunday School kids - thank you for your smile every single week.

Last week, as I sat in my sweltering Sunday School classroom and tried to get my class of 16 three to five year olds under control, I was instantly aware of how my years teaching in an urban school (which served the most under served communities of San Francisco) and my suburban Sunday school classroom had in common. I do believe God used my years as a high school English teacher to prepare me for my challenges with three to five year olds in Sunday school.

This is what I realized. In both my urban school and Sunday school...

Kids like to put their feet up on their desks. Sometimes they like to take their socks off too.

It's hard to get everyone to pay attention to you. Sometimes you have to resort to some unusual tactics. Humor generally goes very far in grabbing attention. So does making crazy faces.

Kids know when you care and respond to your caring. Compliments on their clothing always make them smile.

When kids don't get their way, there is often times pouting, throwing of objects, or a child lying on the ground having a fit. (This happened often in high school believe it or not.)

Well-rested children make better students. Students that did not sleep well the night before often disrupt the lesson or will fall asleep right in class.

When kids are bored, they go to the bathroom. This is just as disruptive in high school as it is in Sunday school.

Students love their teachers to bits and pieces.

I'm exhausted at the end of a lesson.

There is oftentimes a lack of appreciation by parents for the efforts of teachers.

And finally, teachers aren't teaching for the fabulously high pay or the prestige - they're teaching because they believe that kids can be taught and there is wisdom that they have to impart to the students.

God uses all things for the benefit of His kingdom. My crazy years teaching high school trained me for teaching my 3 to 5 year olds. And even though I'm tired out, tuckered out, and oftentimes VERY sweaty after class, I'm grateful for the opportunity to use my training to serve my beautiful students and God.

After my teaching is over, the first thing I often think about is lunch. I'm usually starving and last week, during the crazy-heatwave-with-no-air-conditioning-day, I wanted a cold salad. I wanted something refreshing and reviving, and had I had the ability, this is what I would have made.

As it is, I ate it three times today. Once for my lunch, once for snack, and once for dinner. I just love all the textures, flavors, and overall crunchity crunch of the salad. If you are looking for your typical, sweeter Asian chicken salad, this is not it. This has more complex notes with the lime juice and fish sauce, and is a bit of a nod towards a Vietnamese salad.

Asian Chicken Cabbage Salad

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons (or less) sambal oelek (chili sauce - this controls the heat)

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon grated peeled ginger

Kosher salt

6 cups of shredded cabbage

3 medium carrots, peeled, shredded

3 cups chopped rotisserie chicken

2 cups baby spinach, thinly sliced (roll up leaves and julienne)

6 scallions, chopped

½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

½ cup sliced almonds (optional)

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Method

Whisk together vegetable oil, lime juice, sauce, honey, sambal, fish sauce and ginger. Taste and add salt if desired.

In a large bowl, add cabbage, carrots, chicken, baby spinach, scallions, cilantro, almonds, and sesame seeds. Pour dressing over and toss. Serve immediately.

Printable recipe

Definitely a favorite kitchen tool of mine. Been using it to whisk dressings.

9th Birthday Party: Friendship and Fun

2013-06-03T23:19:00.002-07:00

Daughter #1 is very undemanding when it comes to her birthday. She doesn't want a lot, doesn't demand a lot and is very simple in her needs. She doesn't know name brands, doesn't ask for specific items, and in fact, this year, she earnestly asked if she might have her very own pack of altoids as a birthday present. She said that it was the only thing she could think of that she might want. I'm guessing this is because she wants fresh breath? Not sure.

Even when it came to her birthday party, she had very simple requests. Now that she is in the third grade, she has begun to truly understand what close friends are and the joy of having a few good friends to make her laugh and support her. What she wanted was a playdate with her few closest friends and she didn't need much more than that. Together we discussed what it could look like - whom she would invite, and what the activities would be. At one point I offered to cook her and her friends a lovely dinner that they could eat together, and she liked that idea. But before that happened, I got a bit burned out on cooking big meals (had a bunch of events to cook for) so I didn't really want to do it. In the end, I told her we'd do a bunch of fun crafts celebrating her friendships, and she was very happy with that idea.

I'll have to say, this is one of my favorite birthday parties we've had. I didn't stress much and didn't have to prep for weeks in advance. It was SOO mellow, with the girls just sitting around and enjoying themselves, and aside from the totally funny guest who made up silly limericks on the spur of the moment, it was mellow and easy-going.

Decorations
Normally this is one of my favorite parts of the birthday parties, but with the return of Husband, my time has shrunk considerably. I simply didn't have enough time (or any good ideas, although my friend Sillie Smile had me thinking I'd like to do a rainbow theme). I did make her a simple birthday banner, and made #1 put it together for me (since I didn't have the time.) She willingly obliged and it was the extent of the decor.

Friendship Activities
Pendants and Magnets
I came upon this great tutorial on Sun and Moon Crafts website. I thought that these necklaces would be perfect for the girls to make together and design. I ordered the supplies, all through Sun and Moon (spent about $60) and then took some time to practice myself. I wanted to make sure that I would be able to produce what the girls were going to produce before putting them through the process.

Turns out it is very simple to execute and the girls had a fantastic time figure out how to get little images under the glass and essentially "cropping" certain images and deciding what would go under the glass. I found Martha Stewart Magazine to be extremely popular as the pictures in there - vibrant patterns, beautiful flowers, gorgeous prints all lent themselves well to the project. The funniest hit of all the pictures was the idea of putting a small dog under the glass - and suddenly pet food ads were coveted as often times there was a cute tiny picture of a dog somewhere that they could add to their glass.

We made pendants and little glass rounded dome magnets.

The only caveat to this project is that it is time sensitive. You need lots of drying time. You need lots of organized drying time. Initially I wanted the girls to finish their projects and take home completed projects, but within 10 minutes, it became clear that it wasn't feasible. I knew that I could finish the projects on my own, so I told the girls to take their time and choose the images that they were going to like best to put under the glass. We set them out to dry and that was it. The rest was up to me. I took me about 1.5 hours over two days to finish up the projects. I had to cut out the glass from the paper, and then glaze the backs of the pendants, and then attach the bail (the loop) to each pendant. The drying time was significant, and so was keeping the pendants separated. But it was all manageable and I was able to send back the finished projects to school in an unmarked brown lunchbag after school so that the girls could take their projects home.

Photo Keychains
I had this great idea that the kids could make photo keychains of the group, especially since one of the girls is going back to Korea this summer and will not be apart of this group. I thought it'd be fun for them to have a momento of their time together, so I snapped photos of them and got ready to print them on my printer. Unforutnately I ran into a huge technical snafu where the photos wouldn't print and the girls started to get a bit antsy. I told them to find other pictures that they'd like to put in their keychain from the magazine and this seemed to make them happy and they did so.

Photocards
I managed to resolve the printer problem, and there was enough time so I had the girls make photo cards instead of the photo keychains. This was simply printing out the photographs and having them mount them into a card and then the girls spent time writing little notes to each other on the cards and put them in envelopes. It did give me a great idea for a future birthday party, which would be a time capsule project that I think I'm going to have at the 10 year birthday party. (Wait for that one in a year.) The girls loved this too and it was simple and fun. Cards, markers and photographs printed out.

Menu
Daughter #1 had few requests for food. Namely she wanted there to be string cheese, rice krispy pops in strawberry and cupcakes of her choosing with pearl sprinkles. I added bottled water, fruit salad, pretzels, popcorn and the refreshment table was done. She asked for a vanilla cupcake and I experimented with a buttermilk vanilla cupcake which isn't quite perfected, but I'll get a recipe up for that as soon as I can.

Buttermilk Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting (coming soon)
Strawberry Rice Krispy Pops
Fruit salad
Popcorn
Pretzels
String Cheese

I coordinated the food (my only other bit of decor) by using some fabric tape and making little flags (made #1 and #2 do this) for the cupcakes as well as the rice krispy pops. I also embellished the water bottles with more fabric tape.

The tape I got was from Korea, but this is the same idea. Very easy to use and simple to make some coordinating decorative food embellishments.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: Bittersweet

2013-05-30T23:10:00.001-07:00

To all the teachers and staff at the PJCC who have been with my family for the past 6 years, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today was my last time preparing food for the teacher's luncheon at the preschool where Son and Daughters have all attended for the past 6 years. As I helped out at the luncheon today, I gave many of the teachers who have been with my family big hugs and held back tears as I almost wanted to lose it - repeatedly.

Different teachers came up and talked about special memories of my kids, with one teacher remembering how much Daughter #2 adored art and was so artistically inclined. Others remembered Daughter #1's cute smile and inability to speak any English when she first arrived. (Straight from Korea we stuck her in this school.) Still others had a warm word to say to me, including, "Just have another baby and you can come back." Which I actually would consider if I didn't feel my womb protesting.

The time with the teachers was nothing short of bittersweet. There were were relationships in the room that I've built up over this time, and so many wonderful teachers and administrators who have touched the lives of my children sincerely and lovingly. I know that Son and Daughter had experiences here that I wouldn't change for the world. They have been prepared for the future and watching their development, I have been blessed.

I just want to cry right now. But I won't. I'll only say to this wonderful preschool, I wish I could stay forever.

To celebrate (can one celebrate when your heart is breaking?) I made these lemon cupcakes for the teachers and staff to enjoy.

(one of Daughter's teachers is retiring after many years at the school, and we decided to do a tiny little recognition of her - Thank You bunting)

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes 24 regular cupcakes, 48 mini cupcakes

Lemon Cupcake
Ingredients
2 cups regular sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs (taken out of the fridge the same time as the butter)
1¼ cup buttermilk
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat oven to 350. Line either regular or mini sized cupcake tins.

In a food processor, pulverize together lemon zest and sugar. (Doing so releases the lemon oils.) In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend softened butter and lemon sugar until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, one at a time and beat until well mixed, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is well blended.

Add half of flour mixture and mix until just combined. and add half of buttermilk and mix until just combined. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add remaining half of flour mixture, mix until just combined and then add remaining buttermilk. Mix until just combined.again. At this stage, the less you mix the better for your cake. (too much mixing makes for a tough cake.)

Divide batter into prepared tins. Bake for 20-24 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently pressed with finger tips. Cool for 20 minutes, then remove cake from pans and cool on wire racks until completely cool.

Lemon Frosting
Insgredient
1 cup of butter, softened
8 oz of cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons lemon zest
5-6 cups of confectioners sugar

In a large mixing bowl, mix butter until it is softened and uniform. Add cream cheese and beat together until it is uniform. Add 3 cups of sugar to the mixture and mix. Add lemon zest and 2 more cups of sugar. Mix again until mixture is creamy and spreadable. Add more sugar if necessary, otherwise prepare to frost cupcakes. Use either a pastry bag and a piping tip (I like the Wiltons 1M since the lemon zest sometimes can clog other tips) or spread with a knife.

Printable recipe

Cute cupcake liners - love this brand.

Macaroni Salad: When I'm not prepared

2013-05-30T21:41:00.002-07:00

Yesterday the entire family was invited to a Memorial Day barbecue pool party, only it was overcast and kind of sprinkling. Our family chose to swim in our local indoor pool as a family and then showered and headed over to the pool party just to enjoy food and conversation.

When we arrived, quite a few children were already in the pool and jacuzzi jumping back and forth and having a blast swimming. The clouds were grey and the water was definitely cold but they didn't seem to mind. I thought smugly to myself that I was happy to have swum with Children earlier in a warm pool and could avoid the ice cold bath under grey skies and slightly drizzling skies.

After the meal, as I sat and relaxed and chatted with old friends, Daughter #2 and Daughter #1 came over and asked if they might dip their feet into the pool. "It's cold. Just be careful and don't fall in." As both girls are strong swimmers, I didn't need to worry much and I just let them be.

After a few moments of rest however, I heard a splash, a screech from #1 yelling at #2, and I got up to investigate. What I found was #2 fully clothed, in the water, trying to stay calm and nonchalant as #1 screeched and worried like a mother hen on the outside. I walked over calmly, told #1 to calm down, and asked #2 to step out. As I maintained my calm exterior, because I did not want to alarm #2 into a tantrum, I calmly walked over to a changing area, and stripped off Daughter #2's clothes. Meanwhile Daughter #1 couldn't stop exclaiming over what had happened and I could tell Daughter #2, who is by nature sensitive and tense, was getting tenser and more upset. I asked Daughter #1 to leave, and I sat Daughter #2 and laid out some hard facts.

"I have no clothes for you. Your clothes right now are soaking wet. I'm not sure what I'm going to be able to do, but for now, you'll have to stay here in the towel until I can figure it out."

In the meanwhile, my head began whirring as I thought of what clothing I had available in the car. Yoga mat. Nope. Teaching bag. Not likely. Reusable grocery bags. Not helpful. I ran to the car with the thoughts that perhaps, I had stuffed, unbeknownst to me, a pair of underwear and an extra change of clothes somewhere in my vast minivan. My hunt in the van gave me two sweatshirt tops and a pile of cereal that Son had spilled a couple days prior. Underwear and dry appropriate clothing were nowhere to be found.

I came back holding the sweatshirts and got Daughter to wear her own sweatshirt in lieu of a shirt and whatnot, and I managed to create a fabulous skirt with two side pockets out of Son's sweatshirt, but Daughter #2 balked. She broke down in tears and said she didn't want to wear it and wanted to go home right then and there. A part of me was frustrated and the other part was just tired. I asked her to stay and I walked over to my friend and asked if she might have some clothes that I could borrow. Fortunately she did and the problem was solved.

When we got in the car to return home, with Daughter #2 wearing borrowed clothing, I asked Children what today's lesson was. Daughter #2 piped up, "Never lean over a pool." I added, "When going to a pool party, even if you aren't going to swim, bring a change of clothing anyways."

This macaroni salad was something I had planned to bring to the party but somehow didn't get around to it and instead took Asian Quinoa Salad . I ended up making this today to satisfy this rather strange and bizarre macaroni salad craving that I've been fighting for a week. It captured the exact flavors that I was looking for and made me happy to eat it.

Macaroni Salad
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
1 lb of macaroni
8 eggs

1 cup of celery, diced (smaller pieces are better)
1 cup of onion, diced
1 cup of dill pickles, diced
¾ to 1 cup of mayonnaise (more if you like it super creamy, less if you like it a bit lighter)

1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Cook pasta according to package directions. Make sure to salt the water. Drain, rinse and set aside.

Cook eggs. Place eggs in a heavy saucepan. Cover fully with water. Bring to boil. Once water is boiling, cover pot, turn off heat, and set aside for 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes have passed, rinse eggs in cold water, and peel. Chop and set aside.

In a large bowl add drained and cooled macaroni, chopped eggs, celery, onion, and dill pickles. Add mayonnaise and begin to toss together. Carefully fold in all the vegetables. Add more mayonnaise if desired. Add paprika. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and refrigerate. Before serving, check seasoning one more time. Season with salt and pepper if necessary and sprinkle a little paprika for color.

Printable recipe

Momento App Winners: My four winners!

2013-05-22T23:52:00.002-07:00

I did a quick timed giveaway this time, and in that respect I also forgot to remind my winners basic rules regarding giveaways - namely, let me know how to email you the app.

My winners...

Lisa - counting down to Korea
YumMum - coutning down to kids' holiday
HJ - counting down to California
Anonymous - counting down to sanity

Could y'all please email me at joanne UNDERSCORE choi AT yahoo DOT com and give me an email so I can send you instructions on how to get the cool app Momento so you can make cool images like the one above. YAY!

If you didn't win, but still love the fun of Momento - definitely buy it. Again - only available for iOS. Available here.

Countdown: End of school year preparations and Momento App Giveaway!

2013-05-22T00:15:00.000-07:00

If you're like me, you're counting down the days until the end of the school year, not necessarily because you're looking forward to it (heh) but maybe because, like me, you're looking for a hot air balloon to whisk you away before things become too intense.

The countdown to the last day of school is typically so insane, filled with end of school year activities, parties, celebrations, and last minute scheduling of EVERYTHING before kids are fully yours for the summer. Our countdown happens to be longer than 30 days, but we're at a year round school, so I'm guessing that most of you are at fewer than 30 days. (In case any of you are wondering how I created that cool countdown above - I found a super fun app called "MOMENTO" and it allows you to create fun little countdowns.)

It becomes the time of year that we begin thinking about how we honor our teachers, and believe me I'm thinking the same thing. I've got a little plan in works with my friend over at Sillie Smile, and hopefully in a few days we'll have a fun and neat project for you to do for your teachers. I'm thinking some yummy cookies (if I could only perfect my popcorn cookie) as well as some movie tickets or coffee gift cards. For me, the most important thing that teachers do (this includes me of course) is RELAX and not think of students and just rest their brains after a grueling school year. I like to give them things that will allow them to do this - hence this year's idea of movie tickets and coffee. (If only I could guarantee they aren't going to run into students at the theater - because when I was teaching, I always ran into mine.)

This was the first round of something I tried, and it is going in the direction I wanted, but isn't complete. I'll come up with something a bit cuter I think in the coming week or so.

Giveaway details!
And for a little bit of fun - the creators behind Momento are allowing me to give away 4 free apps! In the essence of time, I'm just going to give them to the first four people who leave a comment below. Be advised, Momento is currently ONLY for iOS, so if you're not on an iphone, it's not as useful. In the comments, please let me know what is one thing you're counting down right now! The first four commenters, I'll be emailing you a redemption code and instructions!

If you want to buy the app, after I have my first four winners, click here.

Asian Quinoa Salad: Late nights in the kitchen

2013-05-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

Because Husband works long hours, I often have to serve a second dinner (I eat with Children at a normal hour) closer to 9 or sometimes even 10 pm. This means setting the table a second time, laying out dishes, reheating, or preparing another meal at the later hour, and as Husband is particularly against eating alone, sitting with him while he consumes food.

The other evening, as he sat in front of an uninspired meal (his opinion not mine) he suddenly lit up and said, "Oh! I ate this REALLY yummy thing, kind of couscous like, but not really, kind of rice like, but not really, kind of pasta, but not that either. It was AWESOME!"

He looked so excited I began racking my brain and asked, "Was it quinoa?"

"Keen who? I have no idea with that is."

I rummaged around and showed him a couple of pictures, and said, "Was it something like this?"

He nodded slowly and said, "I think so. This one was AWESOME! It had orange segments and some sort of dressing" and he waxed on and on about the number of servings he had of the dish as I mentally thought, "Quinoa? I've been making it for you and you keep rejecting it."

And so, because of my nutty need to be the source of all yummy food, I set out to make a yummy WOM version of quinoa. I wanted light and bright Asian flavors, and just something that would taste good next to nearly everything. I wanted it to be sturdy enough to take on picnics and bbq's this summer, and mild enough that everyone could enjoy.

This is the salad I made, and it is yummy. I do think it tastes better chilled as it is refreshing and the little crunchy bits of bell peppers just make it taste extra fresh. If you wanted to venture out and add cilantro (I would love to only Husband is not a fan) I think it would also taste really good.

Asian Quinoa Salad
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup finely chopped scallions
1 cup finely chopped bell peppers (red, orange or yellow)

Method
In a large heavy saucepan add quinoa, water, and salt. Bring to a boil uncovered, and once boiling, cover, and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Check to see that quinoa is translucent and the germ is visible (the fine line). Remove from heat and remove quinoa from pot to cool. Set aside.

While quinoa cools, whisk together oil, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, and salt and pepper. Pour over quinoa and toss. Add bell peppers and scallions. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Can be served at room temperature or chilled (which I think tastes even better!) Allow to cool and then refrigerate if you want to have it cold.

Printable recipe

The measuring cups where I love to whisk my dressings. Awesome kitchen tool.

Avocado, Tomato, Quinoa Salad: The C-Word

2013-05-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

To my warriors - I love you all so much.

In my life, right now, I have four friends who are battling cancer. There are various types, various stages, various treatments, but at the end of the day, I have four friends who have found out something is happening to their bodies that they cannot control.

As my friends shared their situation with their loved ones, immediately my head began reeling as I thought of these women. Mothers. Wives. Daughters. Sisters. Friends. Teachers. Mentors. Caretakers. The roles that these women fill are myriad and they are AMAZING at what they do.

The C word makes me SO mad. I started getting angry, and because I am always a little bit obsessed with words, I began thinking of all the C words that I could that could fight Cancer.

Crush. I want to crush cancer out of these women's bodies.

Cure. I want them to be cured.

Cut. I want to cut off any cancer from taking over anymore of their bodies.

Care. I care what happens.

Conviction. I have conviction that I can make a difference.

Christ. In Christ, all things are possible.

This same day, a Vacation Bible School song came on and the words struck me as right. "Don't worry, about anything, but just pray, about everything."

I have been been praying fiercely that God will crush, cut out, cure this cancer, and that these women get the right care. I know that God will answer my cries, and the cries of so many other people who love these women. I wrote to one of these women, that in times of great adversity, God has a chance to do something amazing. I'm going to sit right here, praying hard, waiting for God's amazing, because I KNOW it will happen.

This quinoa salad - it's something I want to make for all of these women. When God's miracle happens, I'll be cooking for and eating with them.

Avocado, Tomato, Quinoa Salad
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water
½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

1 ripe, yet firm avocado, diced (you want it ripe, but not so mushy that it will fall apart.)
1 ½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ cup chopped scallions

Method
In a large heavy saucepan add quinoa, water, and salt. Bring to a boil uncovered, and once boiling, cover, and reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until all water is absorbed. Check to see that quinoa is translucent and the germ is visible (the fine line). Remove from heat and remove quinoa from pot to cool.

While quinoa cools, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, and salt and pepper. Pour over warm quinoa and toss. Add avocado, tomatoes, cilantro, and scallions. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Can be served at room temperature or chilled (which I think tastes even better!) Allow to cool and then refrigerate if you want to have it cold.

Printable recipe

Korean Kale Soybean Paste Stew (Kale Doenjang Jjigae 된장찌개): On giving the rice cooker the night off

2013-05-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

Since Husband's return to regular hours with the family, Children have been slightly disgruntled, as they say,"It's ALWAYS rice mom."

Husband loves his Korean food and it seems that since he's spent a majority of the past 10 years in Asia, that desire for a hearty Asian meal is not at rest. It is, in fact, more fired up than ever, and what he wants ALL the time and asks for ALL the time is some sort of soup with rice and kimchi. Every. Single. Night.

I can't even handle the daily rigor of a full Korean meal for dinner as I often don't have the ability to pull one out every single evening, and Children are also just DESPERATE for something different. "Anything mom, just not Korean." I've taken to batch cooking some Korean comfort dishes and preparing some non Korean dishes on other nights, so that Children get a break from the onslaught of Korean meals. Husband will come home, and on some nights ask, "What did everyone else eat?" and I'll tell him and he'll politely say that he'd like both menus - Western and Korean. Sigh.

On a recent weekend, after I had not gone to the market to replenish a variety of supplies, Husband declared that he needed to have some sort of soup with his dinner that evening, which I was trying to keep simple for the sake of simplicity. I held in the exasperation because on some level, it's rather reassuring that Husband thinks that I can bang out dishes at his request. Only this time, I didn't have very much to make and so I began scrambling for ingredients, and what I came up with was kale, tofu, onions, and a bit of meat. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I was pretty sure that a kale soybean paste soup had great potential to be tasty.

Turns out - very tasty. And Children happened to really like the kale in the soup (with Son declaring that he ATE IT ALL loudly) and the picky Husband slurped the soup like it tasted good. Daughters even enjoyed it despite their protest of Korean AGAIN, and it was a great find. I've taken to making a large pot of this so that I can have it at the ready should Husband need his daily Korean fix and the kids are in rebellion mode.

Korean Kale Soybean Paste Stew (Kale Doenjang Jjigae 된장찌개)
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
1 tablespoon sesame oil
¼ lb of steak, or some sort of lean meat, chopped into small pieces
1 large onion, chopped into 1 inch pieces
4 scallions, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 jalapenos, sliced
1 teaspoon crushed sesame seeds
1 bunch of kale, tough stems removed, and roughly chopped
½ cup of Korean soybean paste (된장) - but there is great variances in the flavor of doenjang so you may have to adjust accordingly
6 cups of water
1 large block of firm tofu, cut into chunks

Method
Heat a heavy pot over medium high heat and sesame oil, meat, onion, scallion, garlic, jalapenos, and sesame seeds. Saute and cook until meat is browned, onions, translucent, and entire mixture is fragrant. Add chopped kale all at once and begin wilting kale until it is slightly softened and more pliable. Add Korean soybean paste and stir until it is mixed throughout vegetable meat mixture. Add 6 cups of water, and cover, reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes, until kale is tender. Add chunks of tofu and bring to boil again.

Serve with rice and kimchi.

Printable recipe

Avocado and Tomato Pasta Salad: This is summer

2013-05-09T22:09:00.001-07:00

Right about now, when the heat begins creeping in, and the long sleeves and long pants and jackets make way for short sleeves, shorts, and flip-flops, advertising everywhere turns our thoughts to summer.

And suddenly everyone begins thinking about what the summer "it" thing is going to be.

Already the LA Times wrote about this summer's song, Beautiful by Mariah Carey. (By the way, I had no idea that Mariah Carey was still around.) I listened to it a few times, and found the tune a bit catchy and fun (although the lyrics EXTREMELY worrisome with motorcycles and no helmets and boys doing things) but maybe it is the summer song. I can see people enjoying it on the beach, in the car, or at a bbq.

There are also summer fashion themes. Bold graphics, boho chic, shiny metallic looks and peekaboo cutouts. Yeah, whom am I kidding? Summer fashion to me means shorts and a tshirt, and maybe a new swim suit. But you know that summer will bring out new and fun outfits for the rest of the world and you'll see me in my khaki shorts and black tshirt uniform.

There are the summer "it" vacation spots - Hawaii, Mexico, Europe, Thailand. These are the places to which people travel in order to enjoy some rest and relaxation.

I know not enough about music, fashion, vacations - but I DO have this summer's PERFECT "IT" pasta salad. It's this one. Bright, citrusy, cilantro, avocado tomato - and with pasta. It is so perfect to bring to any picnic you have and it goes with literally everything. I've had it with chicken, beef, and fish, and each combination is too yummy to pass up. You could also shred some rotisserie chicken into it and call it a meal salad, but I'll let you decide to do that on your own. It's simple to put together and it will taste great at your next gathering. The best thing about this "it" summer pasta salad is that it's easy to put together and easy to eat.

Avocado and Tomato Pasta Salad
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients
1 pound rotini or another curly pasta

¼ cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup olive oil

2 cups red and/or yellow teardrop or grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup chopped green onions
2 avocados, peeled, and diced

Method
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse well and set aside to drain and cool.

Whisk vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, pepper, in small bowl or measuring cup. Gradually whisk in oil. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.)

Mix tomatoes, cilantro, green onions with pasta. Add vinaigrette; toss to coat. Add avocado. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

Printable recipe

Kale Kimchi: The dishwasher is broken

2013-05-04T23:51:00.003-07:00

For HYK - thank you for the inspiration!

It seems that my life is forever peppered by appliances in my kitchen that break. Since moving to the US, I've gotten a new oven (I actually need to replace my oven again, because the glass is broken, but that's for another time), a new stove with two different sets of repairs, and now - the crowning achievement in my kitchen breaking appliance coursework...the dishwasher.

THE DISHWASHER!!! I can only scream it aloud because it is, by far, my MOST USED APPLIANCE!

I need to write an ode to my dishwasher, because after 7 years living in Asia without one, the thing I wanted most in my kitchen in the US was a dishwasher, and is the appliance I repeatedly use, again, again, and again, and again.

Last night, however, as I ran the dishes, I came upon a very not so good smell of burning plastic - and opened the dishwasher to find the heating coil had melted through the plastic liner. Even that description should tell you - it is not a good situation. Right after I made that discovery and with a look of shock and dismay on my face, Husband walked through the door.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly. "Is everything okay?"

"NO! It's not okay! The dishwasher is broken!"

"Oh. Well, just buy a new one."

I don't think Husband understood my panic with my non-functioning dishwasher. My dishwasher is my best friend EVERY SINGLE DAY in my kitchen. I check in on her first thing in the morning, unloading her and stacking the dishes and putting them away before the kids wake up. Right after breakfast, I begin loading her back up full of all the empty plates and whatnot. After I eat my lunch, Son comes home with his lunch box full of things to wash, and all my dinner prep is done, I generally finish loading her and wash again. If I bake, there is an extra wash for the dishwasher to do. If I do a lot of leftover eating, then there are tons of containers to do. If I cook with milk or egg, large pots and pans make a visit into the dishwasher. You get the picture. My run down, old dishwasher is my sidekick, my bestie, my most reliable in the kitchen.

Just buy a new one?

How does one replace their sidekick? Not easily it turns out. Since it takes me such a long time to decide to befriend a person, it's obvious that such difficult would come with the territory when choosing my kitchen sidekick. Suddenly I was faced with price, efficiency of the machine itself, color, maintenance, style, functions, stainless tub or not, heated dry or not, German or domestic and the final question of how quickly it could make it into my kitchen.

There are no easy answers it seems. My own personal level of stress regarding this replacement of my best friend has led me down the path of tears twice in a day, with one good friend saying, "You need to grow some thicker skin" and Husband bellowing on the phone, "JUST BUY THE ONE YOU WANT" and of course, my being stymied by it all.

Actually, what I want is for my old dishwasher to just keep on chugging away, as she did, getting my dishes as clean as she did and working for me faithfully, as she has for the past 6 years. Why did she leave me in the first place?

Kimchi, for many people, is something that they expect in a certain way, with a certain cabbage, and a certain flavoring. I grew up refusing to eat anyone's kimchi except for my own mother's or grandmothers' and the rest were pushed aside with my nose in the air. That has long since changed since Mom no longer makes kimchi and mom in law makes it for me or I buy it. Kimchi, my long trusted sidekick, has also had to be replaced.

I've been experimenting with kale in Korean food these days, as I do think that kale works well with the stronger richer notes of Korean cooking. My most recent attempt was turning kale into kimchi, which I did a couple of days ago to great success. I used dinosaur kale, and I found that the leaves stayed crisp and crunchy and the bitter notes were off set by the spicy garlicky flavors of the kimchi itself, and it was the perfect condiment to my Korean meal. It's relatively simple to make and you can make a jar for yourself and your sidekick with no problem.

Just don't expect your dishwasher to always stick around for you.

Kale Kimchi
Makes 4 cups kimchi

Ingredients
2 bunches of dinosaur kale, toughest white part of the stem removed, washed and roughly cut into bite sized pieces (if you can get organic, this is nice to use here)
¼ cup fish sauce (possibly more)
¼ cup mochiko (sweet rice flour)
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons Korean red chili powder (gochugaroo)
¼ cup finely chopped garlic

Method
Place chopped washed kale in a large bowl. Drizzle fish sauce over the entire bowl and toss, lightly coating all the leaves with fish sauce. Set aside. The fish sauce will help draw out some of the water and being “wilting” the kale.

In a small saucepan add mochiko powder, water and sugar. Place pan and begin heating rice flour water mixture of medium high heat. Whisk and stir constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Continue whisking for another minute longer. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

After kale has been resting with fish sauce for about 45 minutes, and rice flour mixture is warm, carefully drain the fish sauce in the bottom of the kale bowl into the rice flour mixture.

To rice flour mixture add Korean red chili powder and finely chopped garlic. Mix together making a red paste. Taste. Mixture should be salty. Add a bit of fish sauce if necessary. Using your hands (covered with disposable glove), mix red rice flour paste with kale, using a gentle touch, until all kale leaves are coated.

In nice wide mouth jars, pack kale kimchi in. Do not over stuff jars (leave some room at the top for fermentation process) and leave outside for 2 hours until fully cooled. Refrigerate.

Flavor of kimchi changes the longer it ferments. Check after 24 hours to see if you like the flavor. Try again in 48 hours, and keep tasting until the flavor you like comes out. Some people prefer a less fermented flavor, so eat it sooner and those who like a more mellow fermented flavor, eat later.

Enjoy!

Printable recipe

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies: Post-it sized messages

2013-04-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

Husband - even when you make me nuts, I'm glad it's you who makes me crazy.

This June, Husband and I will celebrate 12 years of marriage, and this October, we'll celebrate 19 years of being together. 19 years is almost half my life, and it's a good chunk of time to spend with another person. I left Parents' home at age 18 and never went back, so in some ways, I've been with Husband longer than my own parents.

This means, ahem, that we have our fights, our disagreements, our squabbles. I accept that in any relationship, conflict and tension is par for the course, and that usually, such fights blow over. I liken the tempers in the house to tropical storms that often are ferocious, but once over, the skies are blue and clear.

I'd say that Husband and I have pretty open communication, and although I'm not a "yes" wife, I'm a nice wife. I think Husband wishes I were much more of a yes wife, but hey - that's just not where I am. He's not a "yes" husband either, so let's just say that opportunities for mini explosions are there.

Most recently Husband has been miffed because of my continual refusal to use this cheap bolt on the front door. We have a sturdy deadbolt (which is difficult to break in demonstrated by the lock smith who failed to open both my garage and front doors) and above that is a simple slide lock that we installed when the kids were young so that they couldn't just fling the door open. It's still high enough that even Daughter #1 can't reach it yet. I've always thought of it as a way to prevent the kids from getting out and not as a way to deter people from coming in, as it's not Fort Knox strong.

However, Husband insists that it needs to be bolted and time and time again, I've forgotten/failed to slide the upper lock and this is majorly frustrating to Husband. Upon his return from work, he'll walk over to the front door, see that it's not bolted and come and find me and ask, "Did you see the front door lock?"

"Yeah, I locked it of course."

"BUT NOT THE TOP! Why can't you bolt the top?"

Instead of being the good wife and saying, "Okay. I'll try harder to remember to bolt it next time" my response continues to be, "That's not the important one to lock. It's not going to keep anyone out."

Husband generally throws his hands up in the air and stomps off frustrated at his lack of a "yes" wife. I know, I should, but now it's become more of a way for me to torture the Husband at his expense.

Yesterday, Husband came home, noticed the unlatched top slide and called from the foyer that I hadn't slid it into place, to which I responded, "Okay okay, I'll try and remember," while keeping my fingers crossed. However, when I went up to bed, I noticed something stuck to the door and went over to investigate. On the door, near the lock was a small yellow post it with the words, "Lock me plz."

At first I was stunned. A POST IT WITH INSTRUCTIONS? However, I didn't respond, and merely went upstairs and didn't comment to husband. Today, however, I carefully thought of what my response should be. Clearly the doorlock is the single most annoying thing that I do, so I needed to find the single most annoying thing Husband does. Believe me, the list was extremely long, but I wanted to keep things short and sweet. I decided to put a post it, on the bed, and it said, "Don't eat here please." (Husband's desire to snack in the bed has made me completely bonkers. I can't stand it.)

Today, Husband came home from work, and I heard him bellow again about the front door "WHY ISN'T IT LOCKED? Didn't YOU SEE THE NOTE?" I heard him go upstairs, and then I went upstairs as well and then I heard, "YOU THINK YOU ARE SO FUNNY, don't you?"

Well, ahem. Yes I do. Snort.

Smaller than a post-it note, with more of a message than a post-it note, with a longer lasting effect than a post-it note, are these cookies. I basically took the Brown Butter Cranberry Cookies and switched out the cranberries for chocolate chips to see what I'd get. What I got was way better than a post it sized message. Packed with flavor, not too sweet, with complex notes and a crispy finish - these cookies are yummy. I love the oat texture, the flax seed interest, and the chocolate richness. Perhaps if Husband had taped one of these to the door, he'd get a "yes" wife. I'm sure I won't be putting these in the bed however. That'd just defeat the purpose of my own note.

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 5 dozen

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter cut into pieces - either melt and turned into brown butter or room temperature butter
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can also try dark choocolate or bittersweet chips)
¼ cup ground flax seeds (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350.

Make brown butter if desired. Heat a heavy pot or skillet over medium heat and add butter pieces. Whisk frequently to ensure even melting of the butter. After about 5 to 6 minutes of melting, the butter will foam up and subside. At this point, watch the butter carefully to see if the bottom of the pan is becoming covered in brown specks and the color of the butter has turned from yellow to warm brown. The difference between brown butter and burnt butter (which is used in other recipes) is about 15 seconds. Set aside and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon in another bowl set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat brown butter (or regular butter) and brown and white sugars until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl and beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat again.

Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, carefully so that flour gets mixed into dough. When flour is just mixed, add oats, chocolate chips, and flax seeds.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough, separating them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press down balls of cookie dough to help spreading process. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Printable recipe

In case you also want to leave notes for your spouse. These colors might make such a form of communication more appealing.

The Art of Leftovers: Marketing, packaging, marketing, packaging

2013-04-21T23:43:00.001-07:00

I'm notoriously diligent about eating up leftovers in my house. By eating up, I mean that food gets consumed, and I try to spread that burden to more than just me. Everyone in our house shares in the leftover consumption. This evening for example, I pretty much depleted the rest of the leftovers that I had left from the week and now tomorrow, I get to start afresh building my stock of leftovers.

I'm lucky as I have Husband who isn't opposed to consuming leftovers, especially if they are the ones that he likes. He needs a steady supply of Korean food, so I always have some sort of gook, or kimchi something, ready in the fridge so that I can provide a Korean meal for him at a moment's notice. Children also are very good at eating reheated soups, reheated pastas, and leftover chicken and vegetables. I'm lucky that no one protests too vehemently against the leftovers.

But I'm also very very diligent at keeping leftovers looking their best. No one likes to be scraping the bottom of the bowl to finish off leftovers, and no one likes the feeling that the leftovers are just that - leftovers. You can change the perception of a leftover through careful marketing and packaging which is what I do.

I regularly repackage leftovers. Instead of eating from the same container until you're picking out the dregs, I tend to move food into smaller containers as we consume more of it and less is left. I always use a clean dry spoon to do the movement and I always move it into a clean dry container.

Here are some examples of how the food looks different after you move them into smaller containers.

Chili

Rice Porridge

Brownie (Okay to be truthful, this probably doesn't need to be moved around to be consumed, but it does look much cuter in the smaller container...more decadent and more special.)

I wish I had a great picture of my fridge with a bunch of single serving portions laid out, but alas, this week, I forgot to take the picture on Saturday before we ate them all up.

Ideally, you want to be able to have single servings of a variety of leftovers so that people can pick and choose their choice of leftover to help you eat out the fridge. Placing them in microwaveable glass dishes with sealing lids is also advantageous. It LOOKS better. A bowl with a bunch of food in it, haphazardly covered with some saran wrap just isn't that appetizing. One that is placed in a glass, tightly locked lid, is far more appealing. If someone gets the munchies (Husband) you can easily offer him one of three choices of things to eat, and he can easily consume another neatly packaged leftover. It's like a tidy little meal.

Saturday lunch is my favorite day to pull out all my single servings and to eat up what we have. I don't cook, we pull out the leftovers, and as a family collectively enjoy the food that was cooked carefully on another day. No one complains, because there is some choice, and everyone gets a little bit of something they like.

I hear the protests - Joanne, all those extra dishes, all those containers. This method isn't for everyone. I know. The act of washing additional containers may not be desired. However, I can honestly say that we consume all of the food that I cook in my house and everyone participates in the leftover consumption. It's definitely worth a try if you're willing.

Here are my choice of glass containers. These are handy because they have some great "single portion" sizes, completely with a lid so you are ready to go.

Spicy Kale Salad with Tofu and Avocado: Getting Away

2013-04-21T23:09:00.003-07:00

For HYK- for the inspiration

For the first time in many many years, Husband and I have been actually discussing a real "getaway" vacation. I say discussing because we aren't anywhere near coming to an agreement about where to go and what we will do, but we've been throwing ideas back and forth at each other for the past few weeks or so.

Upon further discussion and examination, it became very clear that Husband and I definitely have two different ideas of what a vacation is.

Husband's idea is to stay at home, not wake up, not go anywhere, sit in his sweatpants and just be at home, eating home cooked food, playing catch with the kids, and overall not moving from where he is.

My idea of a vacation is not cooking, not cleaning, not teaching, not telling the kids to do their homework, piano practice, or extra work, and being able to experience something different from the repetitive nature of motherhood. A few days of a completely different life is my idea.

Husband, as a way of challenging his own notion of a vacation, suggested that we rent a house somewhere and just spend time in the house. I explained that recreating my daily life, just with a change of locale isn't a vacation.

For now, we still haven't agreed on what we will do, where we will go, or when we will do it, but I'm moderately hopeful that there is some sort of getaway in my immediate future. I'm looking for a change of pace, a change of scenery, and a change of lifestyle, even if it is for a brief, limited period of time.

In the meanwhile, I decided to try something entirely different with kale. A good friend, HYK sent me a text of kale kimchi at a farmers market back east, and it immediately got me to thinking that kale would probably taste great with a spicy dressing on time - hence the birth of spicy kale salad! With the crispy warm tofu, and the rich avocado, it's a meal that leaves you completely satisfied, no joke. It's not the same sort of satisfaction I'll get from being on a island somewhere (hint hint husband), but a satisfaction just the same.

As a note, anti-fish sauce man (Husband) ate the salad dutifully but informed me afterwards that he didn't really like it. Children and I, however, devoured it. Even the spice didn't turn them off to it.

Spicy Kale Salad with Tofu and Avocado
Serves 4

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Vietnamese fish sauce
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seed
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
2 tablespoons Korean red pepper flakes (gochugahloo-고추가루 )

1 bunch of kale, thicker part of the stem removed, washed and chopped into bite sized pieces
1 block of tofu, cut into one inch pieces, drained on paper towel
1 avocado, sliced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 sprigs of cilantro (optional), finely chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped

Method
In a jar, (or in a bowl) mix together fish sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seed, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. Mix together well. Set aside to allow flavors to meld.

Heat a skillet over high heat. Add oil and drained tofu cubes and fry on all sides until golden, about 8 minutes. On a paper towel lined plate, remove golden tofu and drain. Set aside.

In a large bowl, add kale, scallions, and cilantro and add two or three heaping spoonfuls of dressing and using tongs or your hands (with a glove on it) toss until kale is well coated with the desired amount of dressing. The dressing is spicy so adjust accordingly. Add more if you like more spice. (You will have some dressing leftover. Use it on top of some sliced cucumbers.)

Arrange salad with dressed kale, chunks of tofu and slices of avocado. Enjoy.

Printable recipe

Turkey Arugula Meatballs (gluten, dairy, egg free): The end of an era

2013-04-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Since 2004, with the birth of Daughter #1, I have been non-stop with diapers. For the past nearly-nine years, I have had in some way shape or form diapers on one, or two, and at one point, three children.

However, and I'm a bit scared I'm about to jinx it, I think that my diaper time is over. I think Son is finally out of his nighttime diaper. For the past 10 days, he's been waking up to a dry diaper, so last night he said he wanted to try not wearing one and this morning he woke up dry. He asked to try again, stating, "It's much more comfortable not sleeping with it on," and it's faster getting to bed so I allowed him to try again.

Hopefully I won't be writing another post to the contrary of what I've said here, but I do feel it is an end to the era. Although the diapers only took up one moment of my evening and a quick check in the morning, it is a signal of something far crazier - a time where I will no longer be buying diapers and dealing with "baby" stuff. The last one, my last baby is no longer that, but now grown up.

Today I picked up Son, held him in my arms the way I used to when he was a baby, only now he overflowed out of my arms, legs dangling, with barely his torso making it into the lock of my arms, and he asked, "What are you doing Mom?"

"I'm holding you one last time like the baby I remember you as."

"But I'm not a baby anymore. I don't even wear diapers now," he announced proudly.

I practically burst into tears at how quickly time has flown. But I know that it's all good and environmentally wonderful that he's no longer using the diapers, (not to mention a $20 savings each month that I may put towards something completely frivolous like chocolate!) but still - I wish, I just wish they could stay babies for a little bit longer.

Who knows, maybe he'll regress and I'll be ranting about how he can't get OUT of his diapers, but for now, I'll mourn a little at the loss of my baby.

In honor of Son's accomplishments, I decided to make something that he loves - pasta. I've made meatballs for him before, without egg and milk but wanted to experiment with more gluten free and dairy free options for my friends who are still struggling with their gluten intolerance. These meatballs are herbaceous, delicious, light and tender (because of all the herbs and arugula) and are flavorful just in tomato sauce on their own. I've also roasted cauliflower and served it with roasted cauliflower for a completely gluten and grain free option.

Turkey Arugula Meatballs (gluten, dairy, egg free)
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
2 cups arugula leaves
1/2 cup basil leaves
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 lb ground turkey
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

1 jar or a quart of your favorite tomato sauce.

Method
In a food processor chop onion, arugula, basil until finely chopped. Combine onion arugula basil mixture with garlic, turkey, salt and pepper. Mix with hands. Roll turkey into 24 to 30 ping pong sized meatballs. (Meatballs will be less firm than other meatballs as there is no egg or wheat to help pull things together. However, be gentle when cooking and it’ll be fine.)

Heat tomato sauce in a large pot. Reduce heat to low.

In a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat, heat olive oil. Cook meatballs in skillet in batches, leaving enough room to turn meatballs to brown the sides. 10 minutes per batch of meatballs. Add meatballs to simmering sauce and partially cover pot. Continue cooking meatballs in tomato sauce for an additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with your choice of pasta or for a totally new option, roasted cauliflower.

Printable recipe

seeking and finding some solace in this plate of food

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies: New friends in old places

2013-04-05T23:18:00.002-07:00

For SN - and our budding friendship

It takes a long time for me to build a friendship. I'm mostly friendly to a lot of people but I don't open myself up to a lot of friends. I'm incredibly slow to warm up and it takes me a while to be ready to get to know new faces. But when I do open up, the excitement I feel from opening my life up to another person to have fun with, share my life with and grow old with makes me giddy. It's similar to that feeling that you have when romance first begins - the excitement of seeing that person's face and wondering what he or she will say next. (Husband - of course you still have my romantic spark and adoration, but this is different.)

In the last few weeks I've gotten to know another mom from school and it turns out that although we have very little in common (except for a bit of that tiger mom roar) we totally get each other. She's skinny but I'm not. I'm funny - and she might be a little funny. (I'm funnier for sure.) She loves to eat more than she loves to cook and I definitely like to do both. I'm more relaxed that she is, which is very hard to believe and on any given day, you'll find her volunteering at school while you'll find me doing something at the gym.

But it's nice, the building of new friendships. I often forget how nice it is to open myself up to new relationships as my general shyness and fear of people overtakes me on most days. But having a new relationship means new chances at finding someone else who is like you in your nuttiness and understands that you're not perfect, even on the best day. I think that's what I like best about building a new relationship; the goal isn't about showing how perfect you are, but rather allowing all your imperfections to show and have the other person accept you anyways.

I made this cookie and it reminded me of new friendships. It has a richness, a wholesomeness and a tart sweetness which pretty much epitomizes the best of friendships, don't you think? There is a mix of whole wheat and regular flours, a hefty amount of oats and the special addition of ground flaxseed as well. These cookies end up not being overly sweet because of the bulk of oats, flax and flour. The texture has a bit of softness but still structurally chewy. I love the brown butter back notes, but you can certainly NOT do it as brown butter, and simply just make them with room temperature butter.

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter cut into pieces - either melt and turned into brown butter or room temperature butter
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned oats
2 cups dried cranberries
¼ cup ground flax seeds (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 350.

Make brown butter if desired. Heat a heavy pot or skillet over medium heat and add butter pieces. Whisk frequently to ensure even melting of the butter. After about 5 to 6 minutes of melting, the butter will foam up and subside. At this point, watch the butter carefully to see if the bottom of the pan is becoming covered in brown specks and the color of the butter has turned from yellow to warm brown. The difference between brown butter and burnt butter (which is used in other recipes) is about 15 seconds. Set aside and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Whisk both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon in another bowl set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat brown butter (or regular butter) and brown and white sugars until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl and beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat again.

Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, carefully so that flour gets mixed into dough. When flour is just mixed, oats, cranberries, and flax seeds.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough, separating them 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Press down balls of cookie dough to help spreading process. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Printable recipe

Steak and Noodle Stir Fry: When the days are long and they just get longer

2013-04-02T22:57:00.002-07:00

For CLH - thank you for suggesting the honor jar.

Because Daughters go to a year round school we have a 3 week spring break. Unlike the summer break of 5 weeks where I usually plan something like camp, or Christmas break of three weeks where we go somewhere on vacation, our spring break tends to be "stay-at-home" heavy.

Stay at home with Daughters translates into MAYHEM. The periods of peace (short periods) were engulfed by periods of bickering, tattling, and overall unpleasantness. Visions of a very unhappy mother when puberty, adolescents and PMS enter the home haunted me and I knew that I could not fathom more time with these two at each other and my own throats. I often felt that my last nerve was being stomped on by two rambunctious, albeit small elephants who just would not leave my last nerve alone.

Then Son (who attends a different school) ended up on vacation, and the minutes of peace in a day dwindled away to mere seconds. Husband would come home from work and ALL Children would jump to him, happy to see him, cuddling him and oozing over him, and Husband could not UNDERSTAND why I looked strung out, anxious and completely exhausted. Hey - you try getting all three to do what you want, when you need, and to keep the house relatively neat. Hmph.

I knew that things could not continue along this vein, and I knew that I wanted some sort of positive reinforcement for behavior, versus something punitive, like "Stop hitting your sister. Now go sit in the corner for 10 minutes." If I was going to go punitive, I would be spending the ENTIRE day punishing Kids and spend very little time reinforcing the good. I needed some sort of solution only I wasn't sure what it was.

Enter the Honor Jar. Suggested by my friend CLH, who had seen tremendous transformation of her own two girls from using one, it was like the beam of light that I needed. Often times "jars" have to do with penalties (I have one in my classroom for leaning on the chairs - charging $.25 for leaning) and aren't about filling them up for good. The Honor Jar comes with the idea of filling up for GOOD and I loved it. At the end of the day, Children and I gather around and share the different ways we saw others honoring and being honorable.

The day before I actually implemented, I spent time with kids trying to talk about what we were going to do. I like a good warm up before change and I knew it'd be helpful to discuss before actually slamming down the jar and saying, "FILL THIS WITH YOUR KINDNESS AND GOODNESS!" It allowed me time to get my head around how to reinforce things, like saying "Wow, that was so kind" or "Buddy, that was way honorable" or "That's just great" so that Kids could also understand what were the behaviors I was looking for. This website also had some great posters where they clearly outlined what was acting with honor, what obeying looked like, and how to have a good attitude. I printed them out and reviewed them with Children as well.

Today we started our jar, and it was interesting to see how much Daughter #2 transformed. Her quick temper immediately seemed to mellow and her normally sweet nature seemed to appear. She was extra helpful to Son and especially helpful to me. I don't believe that she was simply pandering to me in order to get recognition, but rather she made the connection that her good behaviors and attitudes were far more desirable than her spastic, whiny, less-pleasant behaviors.

After dinner and before bed today Children shared what they thought was honorable and it was amazing to see what they picked up on in terms of behaviors. Son's were definitely the most immature and simple "Sister #2 helped me with my reading" while Daughter #1 had more complex ideas of being honorable: "Sister had a good attitude when she was told no." I'll keep you posted on how the behaviors change, as my friend said it took a good two weeks for behaviors to really settle down and form. I'm looking forward to it.

In the meanwhile, enjoy this wonderful dish. After an exhausting time referee-ing the kids, it was a welcome respite to my day last week. I think I needed the sturdier reinforcement of beef because I have to say, it was substantial and satisfying. I had it with some chopped cucumbers on the side, which are currently Son and Daughters favorite vegetable.

Flank Steak Noodle Stir Fry
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 lb spaghetti noodles
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 lb flank steak, cut into two long strips with the grain
3 scallions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons grated ginger
½ cup + 2 tablespoons water
¼ cup oyster sauce
¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 ½ tablespoons toasted sesame oil

Method
Cook noodles according to package directions, about 1 minute less than is asked for. (If spaghetti needs to be cooked for 9 minutes, only cook for 8)

Heat 1 teaspoon vegetable in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season flank steaks with salt and pepper and cook in pan until charred in spots, about 5 minutes per side. Remove from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Whisk in a bowl or measuring cup water, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar and set aside until needed.

While steak rests, wipe out skillet and heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium heat. Add scallions, garlic, ginger and stir for 1 minute. Add noodles and begin tossing in oil. Add soy/oyster sauce mixture to noodles and toss until coated and sauce is reduced.

Slice steak across the grain into thin slices, and add to noodle mixture. Give a final toss, and serve hot.

Printable Recipe

Sauteed Green Beans with Soy and Garlic: Table Traitors

2013-04-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

For all the home cooks who have a table traitor

There is nothing quite like working hard (or not so hard) to get a hot meal in front of your family only to have someone (or some TWO) eat politely the required few bites and then quietly leave the table to go eat McDonalds or something else that appeals to them. Sometimes it takes the form of a bowl of cereal, other times it takes place in the form of outright treachery when said culprits sneak out of the house to eat something entirely different from what you've worked hard to make.

My new term for these people are table traitors. They leave the table, and what's been prepared for them and run off to the enemy to enjoy the bounty of someone else's work, oftentimes not necessarily the best food for them. In my house, Daughter #2 is the most traitorous as I know, and as soon as she is able to drive a car, she'll be driving off to some location (probably one with food that is bad for her) and eat to her heart's content, spending her hard earned cash, because there is NO WAY I'm supporting THAT. Her number one cause for treachery is the green vegetables at our table, and she just can't get her head around them. If she sees a meal full of vegetables, the whines begin, and the immediate "Can I have rice and seaweed" beg and deny routine begins. (She begs, I deny.)

The face as she sits at the table, needing to eat her vegetables, is one that I see almost every evening, and I know that in that tiny little brain of hers, she's looking for different ways to get out of eating the thing that she hates the most. I'm pretty relentless however, as I continually stick the vegetable on her plate and insist that she consume them. It pretty much doesn't matter what the vegetable is (she does like raw carrots and raw bell peppers), as she'll look for ways to either bolt from the table or negotiate for something else.

Because of this desire not to eat vegetables, I push them more. They make up a large part of our diet at home, therefore increasing her distaste for the food on the table. Her face, when she gets to the table and sees the green, and says, "AGAIN" is not one that sits all that well with me, but I'm stubborn and I figure if she can't join us, she'll be hungry. This green bean dish was consumed by her, albeit reluctantly, but she got down her portion that I asked her to eat. Daughter #1 and Son, however, DEVOURED them, and I ate my fair share as well. It was so well received by other members of our eating team at lunch that I made them again for dinner to Daughter #2's dismay, where Husband ate through a large pile of them as well.

If you too have a table traitor (wait - am I the only one who does?) I want to encourage you to keep trying to feed your family the food that they should eat, and keep up your hard work in the kitchen. Even if your table of eaters doesn't fully appreciate your work, know that I, in some small suburb town, am thinking of you and supporting you in your conquest to conquer the table traitor.

Wish me luck with mine.

Sauteed Green Beans with Soy and Garlic
adapted from Food and Wine, September 2002
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ small onion, thinly sliced
1 pound skinny green beans (haricot vert), cut into 3-inch lengths
½ red bell pepper, cut into ¼ inch dice
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook over moderately high heat, until lightly browned. Add the green beans, red pepper, and garlic and stir-fry until the beans are slightly softened and browned in spots, 5 minutes.

Stir in the sugar. Add the water, cover and cook over moderately low heat until it has evaporated and the beans are tender, 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and pepper and cook for 1 minute. Taste and sprinkle with salt, if necessary.Transfer to a platter and serve.

Printable recipe

Quinoa Apple Blackberry Crumble (Gluten, Dairy, Sugar Free): New challenges

2013-04-01T23:08:00.001-07:00

For SPK, LK, SS, HC

I'm currently surrounded by friends who are experiencing a number of health problems deriving from gluten and wheat intolerance. Although this isn't one of the allergy problems in our home (THANK GOODNESS) the struggles of those closest to me who suffer from excruciating stomach aches and overall lack of feeling great make me pay attention.

I especially pay attention when the person who first demanded that I create a "week of menus" is one of those who is choosing to go gluten and sugar free for a variety of health reasons. Add to it her daughter, my favorite little girl (okay, so she towers over me now, but she used to be the little girl) who is my favorite collegiate golfer also struggles with gluten. When I visited the two of them over the weekend, they both explained how giving up gluten has improved their lives and made them feel better. The number one problem for them was the lack of good recipes that tasted delicious. (Let me just note, that the youngest of the family, who doesn't struggle at all with this silently mouthed to me, "Can you bring me some cookies?" as the entire house doesn't have any gluten or sugar products.)

I saw a recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's new book, It's All Good that I knew I wanted to try. The only problem is that a lot of gluten-free sugar-free recipes rely on nuts to add that extra delicious flavor and nuts don't happen in my house. However, I knew I wanted to at least try to create something and the real test would be if the kids would enjoy it. I took her recipe, adapted it to use carazuc from Stephen James Organics, but her use of maple syrup works just as well. I took out nuts, used coconut oil, added flaxseed and essentially created a crumble that Children devoured and I wouldn't mind giving them for breakfast.

The quinoa and flaxseed sort of became a toasty cereal, not like the stuck together crisps I've made in the past, but rather something that felt more closer to granola than anything. It soaked up the juices of the crumble and became a really lovely sweet purplish mix that the kids ate up.

I'm currently also mulling over a clean diet where I give up gluten and refined sugar for 10 days only, in solidarity and support for friends who are struggling with stomach aches and want to try giving it up as well. (You know who you are.)

Quinoa Apple Blackberry Crumble (Gluten, Dairy, Sugar Free)
Adapted from Gwynethy Paltrow's book It's All Good

Serves 6 to 8 people

Fruit Filling
Ingredients
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups blackberries
3 tablespoons carazuc OR 2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Quinoa Topping
Ingredients
1 cup quinoa flakes (like Ancient Harvest)
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
3 tablespoons carazuc OR 2 tablespoons maple syrup
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons coconut oil melted

Method
Heat oven to 400. In a shallow baking dish, combine fruit, carazuc/maple syrup, and lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, mix quinoa flakes, flax seed, carazuc/maple syrup, salt, cinnamon. Toss together and add melted coconut oil, coating all the flakes. Sprinkle all over fruit.

Bake until top is browned and fruit is bubbling, 25 minutes or so.

Printable recipe

Bulgogi Marinade sweetened with Carazuc: GIVEAWAY!!

2013-03-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

The very very generous folks over at Stephen James Organics have graciously agreed to sponsor my next giveaway and it's a super fabulous package of 2 bags of carazuc, pink Himalayan salt, and a can each of cocoa and regular pili nuts. Not only are they sponsoring one winner but they want to give away TWO! I'm so lucky that these folks are super generous.

I came to know about Stephen James through a friend of mine who lives in HK and told me about a contest that they were having. I ended up entering the rice pudding and by some crazy twist of fate, I ended up winning second prize. With that win, I politely asked if they might be willing to sponsor a giveaway and they completely have been generous and amazing to work with. Their products are organic, unusual, and unfortunately not available in stores in the US (they are in Hong Kong!) but you can find them on amazon.com.

The product I really enjoy using is their carazuc, which is a sweetener but it doesn't spike your blood sugar levels. I've used it as a one to one substitute in a lot of my baking with great success, but I wanted to experiment with it in my savory cooking, and so I decided to marinate some Korean bulgogi (thinly sliced ribeye) and the results were really wonderful. The carazuc adds sweetness and an depth of flavor to the meat and made for a delicious meal that my kids really loved. It dissolves in liquid similarly to sugar (probably a bit faster) and has a slightly smoky hint but tastes great with the meat.

I'm a traditionalist when it comes to marinating my bulgogi, so aside from the carazuc, I marinated the way that my mom taught me and the way that my family loves best. I always makes sure my marinade is fully mixed, carazuc/sugar fully dissolved before dipping each individual slice of meet into the marinade and then adding it to a separate bowl. My mom told me that this is the REAL way of making bulgogi and I have to say it's the only way I do it. I'm not tempted to try and dump everything all together in a bowl - it just doesn't make sense to do it that way. Your chances of getting a nice even marinade on each slice is drastically reduced.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now that you've entered the contest, definitely think about trying out this delicious marinade on your bulgogi. If you don't have carazuc (because you haven't won the contest yet) go ahead and substitute sugar, and then when you do WIN the contest, substitute the carazuc.

Bulgogi Marinade Sweetened with Carazuc
Serves 4 to 6 people

Ingredients
¼ cup soy
¼ cup carazuc or white sugar
¼ cup water
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons sake
2 T minced garlic (or more if you like it more garlicky)
¼ cup green onions finely chopped
1 tablespoons ground sesame seeds
2 teaspoons black pepper

1 to 1.5 lbs thinly sliced ribeye (bulgogi cut, available at your local Korean market)

Method
Mix all the marinade ingredients together making sure that the carazuc/sugar is completely dissolved.

Have a clean storage container ready and dip each slice of bulgogi into the marinade and place into your storage container. Continue until you are done with all the beef.

There are two fry pan methods of cooking the beef - one that gives you lots of extra liquid (which husband LOVES) and one that gives you no liquid and just a really flavorful beef (which is what I love.) The liquid saucy version means that you have to cook the beef in a cold fry pan. Put the beef in a fry pan and then turn on the heat and cook it over medium heat until done.

The non-saucy, more caramelized version means that you start the beef in a HOT fry pan. Heat up your fry pan and then place the slices in there and cook over medium high heat, quickly until it is all cooked through.

Printable recipe

Maple Bacon: Simple changes

2013-03-28T23:49:00.004-07:00

The other day, I got a notice taped to the side of my house which read, "Free TV pick up, Thursday March 28" and I was very excited. Inside Children's playroom sat a large, 17 year old TV, one of the big clunky heavy ones, that was basically unused and just hanging out. The opportunity to eliminate it was just too good and so Husband and I decided that we'd lug the TV to the curb as the flyer requested and get rid of it once and for all.

Only it wasn't that easy as since this is one of the OLD types of TVs, the thing weighed more than the two of us combined. I also don't consider myself a weakling but this TV was HEAVY. After barely making it to the front where Husband and I realized that we hadn't opened the door in preparation, we had to set the thing down. Then we decided to push it across the foyer, and then we got stuck in the front door. Husband had the brilliant idea of using a cast off office chair as a type of dolly so I grabbed that and we clumsily hoisted the TV onto the chair and basically pushed/dragged the chair-TV combo to the front. We set the TV down and walked back into the house.

Can I just try and express to you how different the room looks without the big black box? It's totally opened up a new space, and that simple elimination of one rather clunky piece of antiquated technology dramatically changed the space into something phenomenally new. You can see more white walls, you have more space to move around and I have more room to rearrange the lego build area AGAIN.

Simple changes make for something brand new. Even in cooking, simple changes can make something taste even better. I decided to brush bacon with maple syrup and see what yumminess could occur and the result was delicious - salty, sweet, slightly caramelized. It's amazing on a BLT sandwich, delicious with pancakes, and the best part is that you cook it in the oven so it's easy to make.

Maple Bacon

Makes 8 to 12 pieces

Ingredients

12 to 16 ounces of thick-sliced applewood bacon (you can try thinner slices, but it will cook up faster in the oven)

2 to 3 tablespoons maple syrup

Method

Preheat oven to 400.

On a large roasting rack, lay bacon in a single layer. Definitely use a rack as you want the bacon to drain the fat. Place bacon in oven and cook for 16-20 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and then brush a nice layer of maple syrup on top of of each slice. Return to oven and bake for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately remove bacon from roasting pan and drain on a paper towel If you do not remove bacon immediately, the syrup will harden, it will stick to the pan and will be near impossible to remove.

Serve alone, with pancakes, or on a BLT.

Printable recipe

Blueberry Crumb Cake: When the crumbs fall in your lap

2013-03-28T07:54:00.001-07:00

After I finished my lessons today, Daughters came up to me and basically tattled on the behavior of Son, who had, in their words, behaved badly at the park, teasing and being unnecessarily mean to some younger kids who were complete strangers. I was so shocked and stunned I couldn't react. Why would my sweet, adorable, little ANGEL do such a thing?

I knew, however, that their words were true. They were relating the story of my angel as he's growing up and learning HOW to behave in social situations, and this particular behavior I found very offensive and troubling. I came out and looked him straight in the eye and I said calmly, "I want you to think about what you've done, and after mommy cools down a bit, we are going to have a conversation."

"I don't WANT TO HAVE A CONVERSATION!" Son sobbed, through a river full of tears. Good, I thought to myself. At least he feels something and he knows that something is up.

As I collected my thoughts in the shower, I knew I wanted to make a point about the meanness of words. I wanted him to understand the pain that comes from being mean and how words, however small, can cut deeply and often do. I collected my thoughts, thought of the Bible and the ministry of Jesus while He was on earth. Ultimately, I wanted him to know of the damage and pain that hurtful words and teasing cause.

After everyone was clean, calm, and composed, we all sat down on the sofa, albeit #3 was less than attentive as he hates the feeling of being in trouble. But we sat, discussed and I explained what the Bible taught us about how to treat others and ultimately what Jesus taught us about how to treat others. I ended with what it means to be a victim of someone who is unkind and teases and says mean things.

"Mommy writes stories about her life, her work, her food and there are more than a few times where people think that saying mean or unkind things to her is okay. But I want to tell you that oftentimes those words hurt mommy's feelings and just because the person who says them to me is a stranger, it doesn't make it easier to hear. How do you think mommy feels when someone says something mean to her? And how do you feel knowing that people say mean things to mommy?"

#3 proceeded to burst out into tears, some out of remorse, perhaps some out of the relief that it wasn't going to be a super long tirade of mommy explaining all the things that he had done wrong. I tried to take the crumbs of pain from my own life and turn them into something of value and of learning for Children. I'm not sure if they'll remember it the next time the temptation to tease someone but hopefully they've learned from my own crumbly experience and it'll become a small part of their own learning.

I made this delicious blueberry crumb cake this morning, without any thought of the crazy mental gymnastics I'd end up doing in order to figure out how best to react to the afternoon's bullying/teasing situation. The cake is buttery, totally rich and delectable, and if you're a person who likes crumb (like me!) then you're going to love the rich buttery wonderfulness that is in this cake. This certainly isn't low calorie or a diet food, but it's a delicious way to showcase blueberries and a more-than-nice-enough cake to share with others. I shared mine with teachers, neighbors, and friends.

The recipe has two parts as you have to make the crumb topping separately from the cake itself, but making crumb topping (melt butter, add sugar and flour) is so easy you might decide that you want to add a crumb topping on everything. Make the cake, either in a bowl of an electric mixer or with a hand mixer and sprinkle with a ton of blueberries and you're ready to go!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

(adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food June 2008)

Makes 1 8X8 inch square, serving 6 to 8 people

Crumb Topping

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted

½ cup packed light-brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup of all purpose flour

Method

In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar, and salt; add 1 cup flour, and mix with a fork until large moist crumbs form. Refrigerate topping until ready to use. (Refrigeration really helps set the crumb topping so that when you go to bake it you get a gorgeous topping and not a bunch of melted stuff.)

Cake

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), room temperature

1 cup sugar

¾ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

11 oz fresh blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8X8 baking pan with parchment, leaving overhang of paper if possible, and grease well with either butter or cooking spray.

Whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, salt; set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat room-temperature butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; mix in flour mixture.

Spread batter evenly in pan and sprinkle with blueberries. On top of blueberries, sprinkle chilled crumb topping.

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Using paper overhang, lift cake onto a work surface; cut into 16 squares.

Printable recipe

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes: When the glass is half full

2013-03-21T08:21:00.001-07:00

To all the people at BIES and everyone else that came to help out!

Our book fair is a twice a year event, with the opportunity to raise cash funds for our library, so that our wonderful school librarian can purchase books. Our book fairs make a fair bit of money for our library and it's an opportunity that I have where I can talk to kids about books, ask them what they are reading, and essentially berate them into trying something new. You'd be surprised how many kids and parents come back to find the crazy book fair lady (that's ME) waving her hands wildly and encouraging kids to try something new. "Enough of Percy Jackson. How about some Newberry Award Winners?" Yep, that's me. Crazy book fair lady.

I do love the book fair, and each time it occurs, it's a week where Family is completely ignored. I don't believe I cooked a single meal during the week of the book fair. I relied on all my frozen soups, all the food I had frozen ahead of time, left Children to their own devices where homework, piano practice, and extra math was concerned and basically lived and breathed the book fair. I still had to teach my students so I worked around that schedule, but the book fair consumed JA's and my time completely for a week.

The number one problem I HATE dealing with during book fair is the stress over volunteers. We have a signup sheet, but invariably I end up running around school about a week prior, begging friends, acquaintances, strangers to volunteer an hour or two of their time. But even with cajoling, begging and threats I have never filled my 78 volunteer slots on the sheet. I think the closest I ever came was about 50 percent filled, and this time the book fair was no different. I ended up getting my neighbors, the fabulous C family to help out, and this included the father, the mother, daughter and son, who all came out to cashier, watch the door, and run around campus looking for an extra trashcan. I also had to ask people who were busy with the auction from the weekend before, and even though they had just come off of an intense month of planning their fundraiser, a number of them offered to come and help. My close friends who saw my stress and desperation willingly gave hours to me and new faces who just wanted to try something new and volunteer also showed up.

At some point I stopped focusing on the 50 percent of slots that weren't filled and became grateful for the 50 percent of slots that were, and the wonderful set up and breakdown crews, and different cashiers that dashed in from full time jobs to give time for an hour. The people that came to help at our book fair party just rocked it. Sure it wasn't as many as I wanted or needed, but there were new faces this time who were willing to just give their hour.

A huge thanks to people who just came out and helped. I'm grateful. To my co-chair JA - you're awesome and a huge reason I keep doing the book fair. I wanted to make something for people who went the extra mile to help out so I experimented with these snickerdoodle cupcakes. They are super yummy, taste like the cookie with the hints of vanilla and cinnamon, and just satisfy that simple cupcake/cookie craving.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

Makes 24 regular size or 48 mini

Snickerdoodle Cake

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

2 ¾ cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

Method

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add vanilla bean seeds. Mix again.

Measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 2/3’s full. Bake cupcakes for about 22-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. (Minis might take 1 or 2 minutes less)

Snickerdoodle Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup of unsalted butter, softened

1 8oz pack of cream cheese, softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3-4 cups confectioner sugar (I try and use as little as I can, but make sure it's pipeable)

Method

Cream butter and cream cheese together on medium speed until texture is uniform. Add cinnamon and mix again. Add 2 cups of confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. Add 2 more cups and again mix on low speed until sugar is all incorporated. The key to really creamy frosting is to NOT beat too much air into the frosting but rather, on a medium speed, beat it until it is creamy.

When cupcakes are fully cool, spread frosting with a knife or using a piping bag and tip. (Wiltons 2D and 1M are both nice ones to make swirls.)

Printable recipe

Sweet rewards.

Vanilla beans should you need them - this is where I get mine.
T

Two great books that I loved to sell at the book fair this year.