It's been blistering hot lately. 90+ really(What is with the weather??). So hot, that my lettuce started to bolt to seed. Arrrrgggghhhh. So I brought the containers inside for the time being to try an extend the season a little. It's a jungle in here! But every cloud has a silver lining and I must say, the tomatoes and peppers are LOVING the weather. As long as I keep watering regularly, I think we'll all be just fine.
I've been spending a lot of time indoors. Paul and I went to Jungle Jim's recently to procure ingredients for my kimchi adventure. We stayed away from any public places though (Memorial Day weekend!) and mostly got caught up on Dr. Who
and Castle.
So between my Matt and Nathan, I've been blissfully glued to the TV... I do love my ruggedly handsome men.
But being the fidgety, overactive person that I am, I also managed to get some knitting practice in (yay for idle hands) as well as some reading.
My latest project was this hat.
I'm not sure if I have this Fair Isle knitting down quite all the way yet but it's definitely coming along. I just don't like how in the English method, you have to kind of let go of your project to throw the yarn around the needle. It's so slow.
I ended up liking the project OK (haha, my dogs love to photobomb). I don't have a ton of different colors of yarn so I had to kind of play it by ear (by eye?) but the colors work decently together
and I enjoy Paul looking like a mushroom.
The last hat I knitted, I had only learned to k2tog (where you literally just knit 2 together) decrease so it looked a little weird but this time I used both k2tog and SSK so the patterns look more even. Also magic loop method = win. I just checked out some books at the library about amigurumi knitting and sock knitting. I'm hoping I'll be able to do this guy soon.
I still don't understand how to do the dingly dangly legs and ears. I bet if I knew how to crochet, it would be so much easier, but I can't seem to get that down at all. Welp, one thing at a time.
Mom promised me a sewing machine for my birthday....
I'm paying homage to my ancestors today... Yes, today, I am basking in the vast culinary knowledge of my Korean lineage. Today... is... Kimchi day.
Kimchi and I have an interesting relationship. As the national identity of the tiny peninsular country of my birth, Kimchi was pretty much my 3rd parent. This dish is so much a part of the culture that the ministry of Korean Spirit and Culture has deemed it the 49th wonder of Korea. No joke. It even gets it's own day in the Korean calendar, November 22. Supposedly everyone makes their winter supply of Kimchi on November 22 (since you know, there aren't local Korean cabbages available during the harsh winters and how could you go for 6 months without Kimchi-are-you-insane?!). If anyone remembers, last year there was a huge shortage of cabbage that almost created a riot. My Korean contacts furiously FB updated the woes of having to eat subpar Chinese cabbage in their Kimchi.
Anyway, when I went to do my weekly share of farmwork at Stoney Hedgerow, I was told that there was an abundance of 'Asian Greens' this week.
This is what I imagined.
Yes, sackfuls of cabbage.
This is what I got...
One head of cabbage... :( My mom would make fun of my pitiful supply. But I understand - to those with a weak stomach, I guess one head of cabbage WOULD make your head explode trying to decide what to do with it all....
So despite my ongoing national-identity crisis, the first thing that popped out of my mouth when I saw cabbage.... I CAN MAKE KIMCHI!! Yes, for real. Darn, my genes.
Even though I can't do this
in my heart and soul, ajummas, I am there in spirit.
For those that have never heard of Kimchi... the closest, and best, explanation I've been able to come up with is... a spicy asian version of sauerkraut. In essence, it's a lactofermented cabbage that has been flavored with spicy peppers of doom (amongst other things)....
I've had several people in the past ask me if I knew how to make kimchi... and I basically was like "no". Why? Because it's something mom makes 4 times a year. She goes to the Korean grocer, buys 2 giant boxes of cabbages (usually about 40 heads, I think) and then makes it in these giant sterlite 20 gallon containers and then fills our garage fridge with it. Americans have deep freezers, Koreans have kimchi fridges.
And these things are no joke. They can blow any American deep freezer out of the water. They're temperature and humidity controlled vessels with built in silver nano-particle containing containers that maximize the flavor of your kimchi while keeping it as fresh as possible for as long as possible. I swear, some of them are sentient....
Whatever, I'm a woman now, mom no longer makes kimchi for me, and I would never be caught purchasing a 5.99 quart size jar of kimchi. Basphemy! Welp, the problem is, as ubiquitous Kimchi is, it also means everyone has their own recipe for kimchi... like how every Mexican wife has her own salsa... and Italians, tomato sauce... and EVERYONE claims their wife makes the best kimchi. Yeah, whatever. OK, so problem - no recipe is ever written down. It just gets passed down through tradition of working in the kitchen. It's supposed to be a big moment.. you know, the moment you learned to speak, walk, get married.... make Kimchi. Well, I didn't have that big day, because.... traditionally, you learn how to make it from your mother-in-law... so that you can make Kimchi how your husband likes it. Hahahahahahhaha. As if I was ever going to marry a Korean man.
OK, so here it is, I'm starting my own tradition of learning how to make Kimchi... learned through the vast knowledge provided by the internet. I have collected, absorbed, and digested all of the information and so now I have my own recipe... I call it Kimchi chez Amy.
I've decided that I want to go with a southern style of Kimchi. Regionally, the south add more red peppers to their kimchi and less seafood (they stick to oysters if feeling fancy, while I think the more northern versions have all sorts of weird stuff like squid and shrimp and stuff... all raw, of course). I'm not feeling that fancy (although I DO LOVE oyster Kimchi.. omg...)
If you want to be fancy even more, usually you leave the cabbage whole and just quarter it, but I'm not fancy. I find that Kimchi is a lot less troublesome to eat if you cop out and just slice up the cabbage before you leave it to ferment.
OK before you start anything, you pretty much need to clean your cabbage. I just washed it under cold water. Then chopped it into two inch-ish pieces,
put into a giant bowl, and filled with a 4:1 brine (4 parts water, 1 part salt).
I then covered this whole thing and left it somewhere safe for about an hour, or until cabbage became a little soft but not completely wilted and rubbery. I think most people leave them to soak until it's completely rubbery, but my mom seems to think that the water expelled by the cabbage actually has a lot of flavor to it so we don't soak our cabbage for that long. I love my mom's kimchi so I thought this was sound advice. While I waited, I also randomly julienned the asian pear/apple, green onion, daikon, and onion (all of these are optional, but if you want at least some flavor in your kimchi, I suggest putting something in). These went into the fridge until the cabbage was ready.
OK, after an hour, I drained and rinsed the cabbage with cold water, and set aside.
Then the fun part! OK, so basically, what I wanted to do was make a paste with the remaining ingredients to put on the cabbage. First I made a garlic paste in a mortar (and ginger too, since I used fresh). To save time, you can just use the jarred stuff but I go shopping enough to have fresh garlic and ginger around all the time (yay me!). I then mixed the rice flower with about a cup of water and cooked on low heat. It formed a nice little paste, which I then took off the heat and mixed in the pepper flakes. Haha, and I should mention that in Korea, you buy pepper flakes and salt by the pound. Here's the smallest bag of pepper flakes I found...
What kind of person would needs LESS than 1 pound. Pshhhht...
I let that cool a little bit, then basically mixed that pepper mixture with the garlic/ginger paste, the julienned veggies/fruits, sesame seeds, and .5 remaining cup of salt. I then tossed the cabbage with all of this stuff. Voila Kimchi! You then store them in jars. Traditionally, it would go in giant earthenware jars (and yes, you have to wear your hanbok when you make kimchi... jk)
Today, they go in plastic bins and right into the kimchi fridge. I store mine in glass jars. I have these great Ball jars
but I felt a little nostalgic so I stored them in a used pickle jar like my mom always used to do :)
OK, this has to mature (and make that yummy tangy flavor everyone loves so much) but this is pretty much ready to eat. I kind of like mine not so fermented, but everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Yum!
Kimchi chez Amy
1 head of cabbage (napa style, please, none of that round cabbage lest you feel my wrath)
1.5 cups of salt (yes, you read that right, 1 cup. I suggest you just go crazy like my mom used to do when there was a salt sale at the local grocery)
water
1 onion
1 bunch of green onions (at least 5 plants)
1/2 asian pear or apple (optional)
1 small dikon (optional)
1 head of garlic
2T ginger paste
1 t rice flour
1 cup Korean chili flakes
1t sugar
1. Wash and chop up cabbage and put into a large bowl.
2. Mix up water and salt in 4:1 ratio and soak cabbage for 1 hour.
3. Drain and rinse the cabbage well and set aside.
4. Thinly slice and julienne all other vegetables and set aside with cabbage.
5. In a mortar, crush ginger and garlic (if using fresh) into a paste
6. Mix rice flour with 1/2 cup of water and heat on low on stove until it comes to a paste. Take off the heat and mix in chili flakes, ginger paste, garlic paste, salt, sugar, sesame seeds, and various seafoods (optional).
7. Spoon the chili mixture onto the mixed vegetables and mix thoroughly but gingerly (don't bruise the Kimchi!).
8. Carefully move kimchi into your storage vessel, pack tightly, and allow to ferment at room temperature for a day then move into the fridge! It's ready to eat right away or months later, depending on preference!
I always thought my blogging divas were perfect bakers/people. Why? Because of their perfect little posts with pictures of their perfect little kitchens and their perfect kitchen creations. Or craft room... whatever, we all know I only look at cooking sites.
I realized today that there is no such thing as a perfect person. Even on the internet.
Glass bubble = broken.
Anyway, today's post isn't about the perfect creation. It's a tribute to all the lies that are out there. A kitchen nightmare... well, a not-so-perfect-kitchen-creation, anyway.
OK, so I'm not exactly the most precise cook. I'm more of a, "take recipes as guidelines for inpirations" kind of gal. This drives Paul crazy. I think he gets it from his dad... the whole tap the flour cup to make perfect little divits,
then carefully scoop away the top layer from the top of the flour with a level plane.
Hahahahahhahahahahahahahha. FORGET THAT. Wanna see how I measure my flour?
Yes, that is an Amy Lee 1/4 cup of flour. Let's see a closeup of my abomination.
THAT's why Paul doesn't like to watch me bake anymore. It's like pressing all of his buttons....at once. I hold all the power.
Actually, that looks like it fills up a little more than that cup even with that hole on the side.... I'll just have to make sure I get a little less than a full cup in the next fill up. Hehe.
Anyway, I was kind of hungry today. And bored. We've been having the storm of the century here in these parts which makes going out and having adventures outside a bit difficult. So instead, I've been cooking a bunch. Yesterday I made some sourdough bread and peppered molasses cookies... oh and we had shepherds pie last night... mmmm....but I didn't take any pictures... oops. I did feel a little camera-tastic today though, so I made some baked brie for lunch.
Or shall I say.... brie au four....
Every time I tell someone I'm making brie au four.... they get all starry eyed and impressed and stuff. This is one of the best things about knowing a few French words. I can trick people into thinking I'm awesome. Baked brie, I have to come clean, is not that difficult. It's literally taking a piece of cheese, sticking it onto a plate, and putting it into the oven. Wait until it's melty, top with stuff, and serve. If you want to get extra fancy, you can cut the top off, stuff it with whatever before putting it in the oven. I used to make this in college, except I'd rub it with some curry, then top it with mango chutney. It wooed a certain particular someone into falling in love with me. I assume though, it would have worked the other way around so it's totally fair game. I just thought of it first, was all.
Here's the brie I used today.
Actually it's a camembert. GASP! OK, seriously, I know "real foodies" go crazy about the difference between Brie and Camembert, but honestly, unless you go wandering into the French pastures looking for your cheesemaster, most Brie/Camambert at the Kroger deli is pretty much going to be the same thing. Petit brie my butt.
I cut the top a little so that when it got all melty, it would be easier for me to lift the top portion off to get to the yummy gooey inside.
To serve with my ooey gooey brie, I thought I'd make some of my sourdough chips. Basically this consists of slicing a baguette into thin slices and putting it into the oven for 15 minutes or so. Normally it comes out looking like bagel chips. Today, I got a little fiddy diddy, forgot about them... and they came out like this.
Oops.
OK, I do this way too often. Normally, I wouldn't eat them and just make a new batch... but I don't have any more bread
So I'm going to eat them.
And later, maybe I'll make some more bread.
Well, when the cheese comes out of the oven, the top gets all puffy like so...
which makes it that much easier to open up to get to the gooey yumminess inside.
yumm!!! At this point, I had to use all of my strength not to devour it right then.
So I had a bit of a sweet tooth today so once I took some local honey, drizzled it on top of the cheese, topped with some dried nuts and fruit, sprinkled some cinnamon....
TADAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Mais madamoiselle, votre brie au four....
YUMMO!
OK, now, what to do about these tires in the middle of the hallway... PAUL!!!!
Brie au four
1 petit wheel of Brie or Camembert
1T organic honey
1/2t cinnamon
handful of dried nuts and fruit
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Take the cheese out of it wrapper, score the top, put into an ovenproof dish, and place in the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Once out of the oven, take off the top (it should be puffed up and easy to take off), drizzle honey, sprinkle cinnamon and nuts, and return to oven for another 5 minutes.
Today was bath day for Tank. Last night, we went for a tiny little walk when Tank found a piece of bird poop. He decided this was the scent in vogue and began to rub himself into it. I freaked out a little, brought him in, tried to Febreeze him a little and sent him to bed. This morning, I decided, he needed a proper washing.
A little information about Tank. So this little guy is a yorkshire terrier.. They're basically a really old breed that were originally bred for their ability to catch rats. Their size is supposed to let them get into the tiny spaces that rats often go into when trying to hide, and they're supposed to be fearless. Haha, we don't know what happened to Tank.
Anyway, yorkshires have this strange hair instead of fur that continues to grow.. just like human hair. For some reason, they also naturally produce less Can f 1, the allergen found in dog dander and saliva that Paul and I are violently allergic to. I digress. This characteristic, along with their cute teddy bear faces was a pivotal factor in us bringing this Tank home and adopting him into our family.
Yorkshire Terriers in shows are required to have floor length hair. This is one of the basis of judging on their coats.
They look pretty ridiculous...
or awesome... depending on who you ask. This requirement goes for both males and females. As you can see in the tiny caption, this DUDE's name is Neale. Haha, look at that thing.
So Tank, being one of these things, I've decided that he should live up to his heritage once in his life. That means growing out his hair. That means brushing out tangles several times a week. You know what they say. No pain, no gain.
Tank used to look like this back when he got regular haircuts....
Yes, he has ALWAYS been a cute little booger. Sometimes I just want to squeeze him and squish him and.... erm..
Ok well, when Tank used to be short haired, his baths were not a big deal. You know how when guys go into the pool, they look the same wet or dry? But then when girls go into the pool they look so different when wet. It's like that for Tank. I guess it's a bonus for having a long haired dog.
I have to say there are very few, if any, things that are funnier than wet long-haired Tank. I'll just let the pictures talk. Hahahahahahahahahahhaahaha.
Usually, on bath day, I fill up the bath tub a couple of inches and sit on the rim to wash the dogs.
But then, today, I thought... well, Tank is less than five pounds... he's barely 8 inches tall... why can't I use the sink? Oh, the pleasures of owning a rat sized dog... It's so great.
I think he knew what was going on.
"omg LET ME OUT"
He soon looked like this.
Haha, he was so angry.
I love it when Tank gets mad. Does that make me a bad person?
After bath time, it was drying time!!!!!
OK, I don't know if all dogs do this, but both of my dogs like to freak out when they're wet. They rub themselves all over anything and everything. Kamja also does rocket puppy where he just runs back and forth in the hallway, but Tank turns into a cat and just flips out rubbing himself on everything in sight.
ZOMG BREAK TIME.
OK, break time over... RUBBBBBB!!!!!!!!
I know a lot of fluffier dogs don't necessarily need to be dried - they do it on their own.. but our little turd dogs don't have an undercoat so it's important to blow dry them. Otherwise, they will look at you and shiver, and be sad. And then your heart breaks :(
Why, mommy? Why?
But trust me, it's all worth it. In the end, you get a shiny new smelly dog that you can squish and love and live happily ever ever with!
