Food

Kimchi II With a Side of Cold Noodles

After surviving another Saturday morning of cross country and a lunch of warmups, we solicited volunteers to take the lead on dinner. Fortunately, our Korean exchange student stepped up. As she did her online research and threw out things like “spinach root” and a few other things we had available in our refrigerator or knew we could get OR were pretty sure a substitute would be necessary, we started to pull together our grocery list. Since her shopping list was written in Korean, I had to make sure the “must have” items made it onto my English list.

When the grocery trip was announced to include Whole Foods, all of the girls wanted to go. And, when there was a pet store next to Whole Foods, everyone but me was really happy. Before we made it into the pet store, there were adoptable kittens, cats, and dogs all along the sidewalk. My exchange daughters barely made it into the store. Although the cats and dogs were in cages, they were reminiscent of their pets in China and Korea in mannerisms if not in appearance. My daughters immediately went to the guinea pig and hamster area. They rattled off facts of both creatures like they had studied them in their native, non-domesticated nests. After visiting the geckos, birds, snakes, chameleons, fish and assorted mammalian life at the entrance, I announced to the girls it was time to get Rachel’s birthday present and head out the door. They obeyed pretty well; I ran interference with the birthday girl as the purchase was made.

After the pet-related gifts made it to the car, we poured into the Whole Foods produce department. (When you have 5 or more, your movements are somewhat more flowing than otherwise…) The pineapple and melon samples were soon vanquished. The mushroom options were reviewed with a portabello decision being made, and the spinach root was put in the unavailable category. Other than needing to spend $25 to qualify for using our coupon, the rest of the 1/2 was spent exploring. Our Korean student liked the natural sunscreen and related items. Our Chinese student liked the apple juice with the special delivery mechanism. (I didn’t look at it, but I am assuming it still involves the mouth.) My girls were all over the healthy snacks. Whether it was bulk trail mix or some sort of otherwise unavailable flavor of a food bar, they were just happy to take in the experience. As we checked out, it was nearing 5:00. The errands were over; the dinner prep needed to begin!

If we would have known at the beginning of prep the 2 hour wait necessary until we dined, we might have chosen another dinner option. Since the ingredients were there and cooking also provides some entertainment, we went for it! Of the two menu items our Korean student made, these were the key things I thought were interesting (If you are seasoned in Asian cooking, it may be of absolutely NO interest to you. I am okay with that. Since no real recipes seem to be used by either of our students, a list of techniques and guidelines are all that seem necessary):

Fried Kimchi Rice: When we made the rice to be used in the fried rice, it was “dry” and not sticky. Sticky rice would have made the frying process excessively difficult. (All vegetable prep was done previously. I am only referring to them as if they are already cut and waiting to be cooked. The smoked sausage was also cut up and ready to go into the heat.) The two batches were basically made the same way. 1) The vegetables needing a little extra cook time were cooked first. 2)The rice and sausage were added after some oil was put in the bottom of the pan. (if necessary) 3) The special tube of “special” pepper paste was squeezed into the pan and blended with the ingredients. 4) The kimchi was put in after being sliced according to ancient Korean secrets. 5) Any remaining veggies were added. Since the onions were sliced thin and cooked before, there may have been some thinly cut (and small pieces) carrots, green onions, and celery or some such item. When I have fried rice in the past, I get worried about all of the sticky stuff that really adheres to the pan. I was told this is normal. It is to be scraped off and eaten–very flavorful–before doing the next batch. (The eating is optional and does not have to be done immediately.)
Pork with Cold Noodles and vegetables: This one was not to hard to follow. She cut about a pound of pork into thin pieces maybe a couple inches or so long. (She added salt and pepper and made sure all of the meat was satisfactorily seasoned.) The vegetables were all prepped and cooked separately with minimum oil. (The veggies included: carrots, mushrooms, green onions, onions and maybe some celery and some other similar veggies.) They were set aside in a bowl waiting for the pasta. The pork was cooked in a similar fashion, and also set aside. The pasta was an Asian starch based noodle. (Not sure what the noodles were made from. I think she mentioned sweet potatoes….??? Whatever they were, they cooked up clearish.) Before putting the pasta in, she added a significant amount of soy sauce to the water. She monitored the pasta pretty close; she wanted to make sure it was just right when she declared it done. It was immediately drained of the hot water and bathed in cold water. All of the pork, veggies, noodles, some garlic and extra soy were added to the mix and tossed.

I liked both meals. The rice was very flavorful with an expected texture. The pasta was good. However, it had a somewhat rubbery texture. Whenever I bit into it, it felt much different than normal pasta. Chewing this pasta involved a bit more of a chewing commitment. Although it did offer slight resistance to being consuming, the overall flavors were very good.

Our first Korean meal was good, but the Korean chef was much more confident on this meal. She was very decisive as she chose her ingredients and did her cooking. As exchange parents, we selfishly get to benefit from the great meals they have made us. (The corollary, of course, is we have to be pleasant and enthusiastic when the meals are not so good, too. 😦 ) It is great seeing our students mature as young ladies! They continue to surprise us with the skills they have acquired through parental osmosis. Our fear is what obvious and less than obvious skills and/or vices they might acquire after a year in our household. As we are tempted to play favorites between them (this is a challenge we also juggle with our bio kids), we have to alter our view of the immediate. We need to climb up the ladder a few rungs and get a view of the situation in the light of future perceptions rather than the moment. We have been entrusted with these kids. Their parents have willingly allowed them to come into our homes and allowed our whole family to grow from the experience. We are not told to pull out the cookie cutter and make them into kids that would have come from our families kid factory.

As with all relationships, there is give and take. Both they and us will be changed from this 10 month exchange experience. It isn’t only our palettes that will expand during this time. We are obligated to use all of our senses and embrace the cultural exchange in its fullest. We probably won’t realize the vacuum created when they leave until we participate in one of the things shared with them. Then we will realize how this experience changed us and made us richer people and a richer family. So many months to go, and only one blog to try to capture the moments and meals of the experience!

Milk To The 4th

We like milk. Well, at least we used to. Now it seems regular milk is simply not good enough for our population of mammals. Where once we had a total of 3 types of “cow” milk (Our kids drank 2%, my wife(on the rare occassions she drank milk) and I drank skim milk, and our undernourished foster child drank whole milk) living in our refrigerator, we now, today as I write this, have a variety of things that have never seen the inside of a cow.

The milk-ish products in our frig include the following:

Gallon of 2% milk: Our only shout out to the milk of my youth. (Growing up, we got milk directly from our neighbor who milked the cows. We got whole milk that was unpasteurized and unhomogenized. Once the milk settled out, my mother scraped off the cream that rose to the top and made yogurt. I don’t remember eating any of the yogurt, but she told me she used the dehydrator to make it. My daughter has heard this rumor and wants me to put the dehydrator on my Christmas list so she can experiment. Since getting the blender for Father’s Day, she has had far more fun with it than I. Why shouldn’t she ask for it?)
Almond milk: My mother has been buying Almond milk at Aldi’s for a number of years. She has been cheering its merits for quite some time. I have tried it, but remain a traditional mammal. The non-traditional mammals will drink it knowing full well there is no guarantee when or IF the carton will be replaced when emptied.
Soy milk: This one was one I did not really ever planning on drinking. Our Chinese exchange student doesn’t ask for much, so when she requested the soy milk, it seemed hard to turn her down. She drinks it very diligently….a cup in the morning and at night. [I believe.] (My experience with Chinese students [I am guessing adults, too.] is they are very disciplined. And she certainly is that. She likes sweets, but limits (at least she gives all appearances of limiting) her consumption of them. She may sneak an extra cookie into her lunch, but she is rarely seen getting a snack after dinner.)
Coconut milk: This one is my fault. I had this incredible plan to make a Caribbean feast for dinner. I had 15 or so skinless, boneless chicken thighs marinated w/ a bottle of Caribbean Jerk marinade. Since I was such a good planner the night before, I had set 4 cups of beans in a bowl with 12 cups of cold water. They expanded nicely and after cooking in the crockpot all day, they were ready to be blended with some rice in an INCREDIBLE (or not) Caribbean Beans w/ Rice. Since last time we made rice, I doubled it and there was barely any left over for school lunches. I determined I was going to get ahead of the curve and double it. The plan was good, but I failed to factor in the impact of the coconut milk on the flavor of the rice. Needless to say, the rice wasn’t a hot mover at dinner. When the containers came out for pre-packing tomorrow’s lunch, the rice was almost completely absent from the festivities. Only one container had the rice paired with some broccoli. I don’t fault them for not being more enthusiastic. A happy, satisfied cook is much more likely to experiment and sometimes hit one out of the park. Right…..a half gallon of coconut was purchased for the bean and rice experiment. It was cheaper than buying 2 cans, and it may tempt us into other experiments.
Hazelnut creamer: We have had one of these in the frig for quite some time. I am NOT a black coffee drinker. My wife sometimes dances with the black brew. I am also a recovering sugar user–why does my wife stay married to me? I usually don’t use full strength creamer. I will splash the creamer and make up the difference with milk. I have attempted to take walks with other flavors of creamer, but I usually reach the bottom of the cup unsatisfied.
Chocolate Caramel creamer: Since my son moved back home while commuting to school, he has revealed a variety of new habits. The habit that pleases my wife the most is his graduation to coffee drinker. As an added bonus, he usually has coffee in the morning and another cup in the nightish time. The chocolate caramel is definitely his creamer of choice. My daughters have also been known to make an iced coffee where this creamer is an ingredient. If our youngest son would only start drinking coffee, my wife would know her job as mother was a successful one.

I suppose milk to the 6th might also have been an appropriate title. Having sometimes been overly a purist, I was not sure exactly if the creamers qualified for a “power of milk”. In my desire to be accurate, I may have inadvertently offended any whose entire dairy consumption comes from their coffee cup. (Better milk than those little, non-dairy creamer cups–yuch!)

Also, I have failed to address any cheese present in the frig. For those who are curious:

we have mexican shredded cheese for our frequent tacos, carnitas, and fajitas
cream cheese for any of those bagel purchased at the discount bread store,
American cheese-we really don’t eat it. It is only to show our support for America–kind of like putting out the flag on various holidays,
Provolone-one of the best cheeses ever. When it goes on a hamburger, the meat gives it a big hug and takes a bite out of its neck in a pseudo-vampirian embrace,
Mozzarella-the pizza cheese of choice–as long as it hasn’t already gone moldy,
Parmesan- a nice thing to have around for those Italianish things us Americans think we do so well.
The final holdout…sour cream– not a cheese, not a milk. It is a big glob of dairy goo that is all too necessary when I make banana bread.

Maybe at some future day, I can give a tour of the vegetables presently residing in our frig. (Even more exciting, the ice cream and dairy products residing in our freezer.) It is not as good as an adventure movie, but may compete with “Honey Boo Boo”. (I doubt they have many vegetables in their refrigerator.) Making a milk “suicide” (in my youth, a suicide was a little bit of each soda/pop available at the fountain. Cream soda was essential for a good one.) might just be the right way to bring closure to my dairy adventure….

Spicy Hands

As a father and “exchange” dad of 2 to 4 daughters (depending on how you want to count them—presently, there is a very strong case to be made for the 4), I don’t make it a habit of smacking their bottoms. (The teenage years are challenging years as the “new” father/daughter dynamics emerge, but it certainly is not as often as it used to be.) After some events of this weekend, I find out the kids (I am hoping it does not cross gender boundaries.) play a game called “hot hand”. (Maybe “kids” is throwing the net out there too widely…it might just be my daughters or whatever other girls are inhabiting our house at the moment…) Apparently, the winner in hot hand is the one who is capable of using their hands to smack some one in the rear and have in sting significantly.

The whole “hot hand” thing only came to my attention when I heard the girls talking about “spicy hands”. Our Korean exchange student claims this is what they call someone who has the American equivalent of a “hot hand”. (After dinner last night, the 4 girls were in the family room together trying to come up with “girl” stuff to talk about. Once they got started and spicy was mentioned, three or four more spicy body parts were mentioned including spicy foot, spicy elbow and I know I definitely heard “spicy toe”. ) It is worth mentioning at this point what “hot hand” meant in my youth. A hot hand was the star basketball player who was having a difficult time missing the basket. (Rarely me…although I am pretty good at killing flies. The key to killing flies with your hands is not swinging where they are at, it is swinging where they will be. Flies typically spring backwards a little before taking off. So, my fly killing success comes from clapping my hands about an inch above the surface they are sitting on. I don’t always get them, but since I am such a good clapper and have my eyes clouded w/ fly blood, I often have a “hot hand” after either an attempt or a success.) And, when boiled down, “hot hand” was just someone with a good streak of luck going. Regardless, our Korean exchange student was going to get her definition of “spicy hand” broadened…..

(I am sorry this is another blog post that mentions carnitas. They will not be the star; they are only a necessary evil to justify the “spice” for the broadened “spicy hand”.)

When we go to Sams and buy pork shoulder butt (it is the carnita meat of choice), it comes in a two pack. With one of the butts being quickly spoken for, the second one is too expensive a cut of meat to sit too long in the frig. So, we make another batch of carnitas and freeze it. A key ingredient in our carnitas is the jalapenos. Since our Chinese student cut the jalapenos last time, I felt it was fair for me to ask our Korean student. (They already have both told me they will not cut onions, so I have to find something for them to do in the kitchen.) Fortunately, she jumped right in. There was 15 or so jalapenos, but I only showed her 6 of them before revealing the rest of them. I showed her “my” technique of cutting off the ends before slitting them up the middle. A spoon is used to clean out the seeds so the contact with the juices can be minimized. It is not a completely pepper juice free experience, but it makes it pretty safe.

As she slogged her way through the peppers, she decided to try some cream cheese icing my daughter was mixing. As she dipped her finger in the icing and licked her finger, she said, ” Cream cheese icing is hot.” I let her know it was the pepper juice on her hand, but she complained no more and finished up all of the peppers. She easily transitioned into cookie icer/decorator without making any more mention of the peppers. (At this point, I had chopped all of the jalapenos and onions up in the food processor. The crockpot was set up for a long cooking on “low”. As I went to bed, my brain was completely “spicy hand” free.

As everyone assembling in the kitchen to eat breakfast before church, I heard those fateful words, “I will never cut jalapenos again. My hands were so spicy. I touch my face and hands, and I could not sleep. I like to eat carnitas, but I cannot cut the peppers again. I do not like spicy hands, Sam-I am.”

With the exception of the Dr. Seuss reference, this is pretty much all true. I wanted to be a fiction writer once, but decided I did not have the imagination for it. I have found a much happier marriage when my mind takes reality and warps or twists it into some sort of sausage. It closely resembles the meat I started with but with a couple of extra spices and a casing that holds it all together.

Grilled Cheese With Waffle Iron Included

Another one to clear out of the “draft” folder….

After last weeks cruise, the emphasis this week was on improving our diets. (Although cruises are infamous for throwing a few pounds on the hips and any other place they will stick, a combination of exercise and minimal additional meals [the always available pizza and hamburgers does seem to make our decisions more like fish stories, but they are true!!] allowed us to not get to far off of the scale.) We had two meals using spinach tortillas. Chicken and lots of those green leafy, onioney, and peppery things with a touch of salad dressing made these pretty healthy choices. The girls made a new batch of red roasted pepper hummus. They invited me to join them for their carrot/celery/pretzel dipping feast. As a reward and because it just does not seem right to let a week go by without serving our taste buds something new, my daughters fulfilled their wish to re-purpose the waffle iron.

Without much guidance but a pressing need to use a non-stick spray, we treated the waffle-grilled cheese just like how we would have treated it if on a griddle. The waffle timer was mostly irrelevant. And, our waffle iron “likes” to have everything squashed together pretty tight before it will allow the waffle iron to do a half flip. The first couple sandwiches were not fully embracing their waffleness. We were reluctant to force everything into the very tight space demanded by the waffle iron. As the successes continued, we took more risk. By the 5th one (my oldest son ate two), we were pretty confident in the latitude allowed us.

This was not a diet meal, but it was fun and not too bad for us. (We did use wheat bread!) With the carbohydrates being watched (breakfast food tends to be heavy in the carbs and the grease – pancakes and sausage or french toast and bacon or donuts.), it is good to take one of the those appliances that has to compete for shelf space a chance to shine. And, shine it did! Although we were tempted to fill the waffle dimples with syrup, we were very content to consume our sandwich with a side of chips and salsa.

Maybe the waffle quesadilla will be our next attempt to give the waffle iron a little higher place on the appliance shelf. (I don’t know if there is a pecking order with appliances, but I am sure the non-electric ones [manual can opener] are constantly dealing with self-esteem issues.) Regardless of the appliance or ingredients, lunch is better with my girls and the enthusiasm they bring to nearly everything.

Adventures In Boboli

We are fortunate to have a discount bread store close by. (We think of it as our fortune. However, all the bread may not be so good for us.) They sell buns, bagels, fruit pies, specialty beds, and regular bread available at discount prices. With the discount prices, also comes accelerated expiration dates. All of the above listed items have been quick to go “bad” while they sit on our counter waiting to be consumed. (Bad = mold. Getting a loaf at half price is still expensive if the bread goes moldy in only a couple of days. 😦 )

The discount Boboli (In case you didn’t know, Boboli is a wonderful pre-made pizza crust. My wife is not exceptionally fond of them, but they sure do help a meal come together quickly.) is an exception to this “bad bread” phenomenon. There are a couple of different sizes (they even had a football shaped crust once.), a couple of different thicknesses, a couple of different flavors (regular and whole wheat) AND they thaw quickly while taking minimum space in the freezer.

As mentioned above, my wife does not always participate in our Boboli adventures. Some of our notable Successes:

Bar BQ Chicken Pizza: barbeque sauce w/ sliced grilled chicken. Grated colby jack and small sliced green onions on top.
Carnita Pizza: salsa sauce with the carnita (our carnita is pork shoulder butt done in the crockpot w/ jalepenos and other Mexican spices. Before serving it, we broil it in the oven on the top rack) on top. The same sliced green onions and colby jack are invited to the party, too.
Bread for Italian food: If I am too lazy to make a focaccia, we will put the Boboli on a pizza pan. Olive oil, Parmesan and some italian spices are sprinkled on top.
Chicken fajita: Another favorite….salsa sauce with caramelized green peppers and onions. The sliced grilled chicken meat is nestled in with the vegetables with Colby jack on top.

Notable Fails:

Macaroni ‘n Cheese: Some buffet pizza place do this, but they have perfected it. We took left over mac ‘n cheese and put it on top of a crust. I am not sure what we used as a sauce, and it really doesn’t matter. I don’t think we could salvage this one. Would a sauce of really creamy cheese that easily melted salvaged this fail? I doubt we will even knock on the door of such an idea again.
Country Fried steak: I attempted to make this with a bed of white pepper gravy. The sliced country fried steak went on top w/ grated colby jack on top of that. It just didn’t have anything about it that made our taste buds want to back this way again.

The Future:

Although we still like quick meals, the bread portion of our diet needs to decrease. Our big bread eaters (a.k.a the boys) either don’t or won’t be eating with us as much as they used. My daughters are more aware of the bad side of too much bread in the diet. This week our extra chicken did not go into a pizza. We made wraps w/ the chicken and filled the wrap w/ lots of vegetables. Balancing our dining with the demands of our maturing palettes will likely equal more vegetables and less bread. Glad to have the discount bread store, but the future is likely going to be spent at Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes.

Leftover Breakfast

The satisfaction of cleaning out the cupboard

The kids know I am VERY big on getting rid of leftovers. This is normally a topic that comes up around dinner time. (If it is around the holidays, mom may have made a breakfast casserole that would also fall into the “leftover” category.) In fact, I often announce the night before tomorrows dinner will be leftovers. (This is sometimes determined by the number of plastic containers full of food in the fridges [there is a preferred leftover fridge and shelf in the fridge] or by the kids schedule and my ability or inability to prepare something of value.) During the summer time, I will often offer bribes of Yogurtville or picnics to entice the pool-dwellers to stretch a little extra as they make their dining choices. (Are you sure you want that? If you take a couple scoops of this we can finish it up entirely. Or, similar things a coach might say to his athletes to try and squeeze the maximum performance out of them or their appetites.)

No such excitement occurred today. (However, last night it was announced it would be warmups for supper because their was a High School away soccer game.) Due to the girls needing to get to school early (Rachel is on the scholarship team and had to go over her math problems), I needed to pull together breakfast quickly. And, cold cereal is often the choice of quick breakfast choosers. (I am not a fan of pop tarts. If I was, they would win both the quick and transportable award.)

My viewing of the cereal cupboard convinced me it would not be a normal breakfast. I knew 2 of the 3 open boxes were in the orphan category. (Where there is so little left and what is left is mostly crumbs or in the case of frosted flakes, it is was sugar.) After dumping a half cup or less of the raisin bran and frosted flakes, my bowl still looked very lonely and lean. My daughter volunteered the box of Lucky Charms. Not being particular partial to Lucky Charms (likely some residual belief from child hood. My mother could easily have told me once that marshmallows in your cereal gives you acne or some such thing. Whatever the story, I have not eaten marshmallows for breakfast in decades.) The addition of the Lucky Charms seemed to make the bowl “about right”. Once the milk was added and the “floating rules” were all applied, it looked like I was eating Lucky Charms with occasional variety in flavors.

Would I do it again? Oh, sure. I could choose it, but if it chooses me (or my OCD that demands the consumption of leftovers demands to be heard) I would fill the bowl. My spoon and I would enjoy another adventure.

Walking Down Life's Road With Andy