A Korean Dinner.

A couple of posts ago, I told you I won a giveaway, Korean marinated meats and dumplings from Green Chopsticks. I have tasted the dumplings from Green Chopsticks before and I just love them, just hoping Costco here in Salt Lake will get them back permanently. Anyways...... I was adopted from South-Korea when I was 3 1/2 years old, I don't remember anything from there. And even tho my adopted family cooked dishes from around the world: Indian, Chinese, Italian, Norwegian, England, Spain and so on. My mother went to Seoul when I was 10 to escort kids who were going to be adopted to Scandinavia, and she got some Korean snacks. Can't remember what kind they were, but some I liked and some I just hated. But other than that I hadn't had any Korean food since I was adopted. So when I moved to USA in 2005 a friend told me I had to try Korean BBQ, so my husband and I went to a Korean BBQ restaurant in Arizona.   And the flavors from the dishes tasted familiar to me, even tho I couldn't remember anything. But from that day I wanted to try Korean food again and find a cookbook and make some dishes out of it. And when we lived in Long Beach I loved shopping at the Korean markets, got to make beef Bulgogi a few times. And it was easy to find good kimchi. Here in Salt Lake I haven't found an Asian market yet that has good selection of Korean ingredients.

But back to the Korean dinner, I started the rice cooker with some good rice. Then pulled out the 2 packs of meats chicken and beef bulgogi. The chicken bulgogi is not like the beef one that is soy based, it's made with the chili paste they use. It wasn't as spicy as I thought, it had some heat to it but it was also sweet. I really liked it. As I told hubby I want to get my hands on some chili paste and make it my self. The Beef Bulgogi was very mild, I wish it had more of the flavor from the marinade after I cooked it. Don't get me wrong,  it's was good the meat was nice and tender just wanted a bit more of the bulgogi flavorings to it.
The chicken bulgogi was my favorite of the two, and it tasted familiar to me. So who knows, maybe I ate something like that when I was a little rug rat back in Seoul many years ago. The dumplings are very good too, yes they're frozen ones. But they are the best frozen dumplings I have ever had, full of flavor. All of us love them here, and we're hoping that one of the Costco's near us will start selling them again. If not I'll just have to order them now and then from the Green chopsticks online store. And if I can't find the hot chili paste, I will also order the chicken Bulgogi from them.

Beef bulgogi, rice, kimchi, dumplings and chicken bulgogi.

If you want to try Korean dumplings and marinated meats check them out.

https://www.bbqmeatsanddumplings.com/

Also look them up on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenchopsticks
They do roadshows at Costco's and other stores, so check if they're doing one near you. They will list the dates and places on their wall.

Thanks to ://www.pinkdandychatter.com/ . & Green Chopsticks

Have a great day.

Best Easter Egg Ever.

One of my grandmother in law's closest friend gave us a great Easter Egg, 3 boxes delivered on our door from Honey Baked. They have stores all across USA, and known for their amazing Honey baked hams. we normally get a ham from them for Christmas. They are so yummy, for dinner, salads sandwiches. They are kinda high priced, but you can find coupons on their site that reduces it a tad.

http://www.honeybaked.com/

But if you have the money to spend for a Holiday dinner, give them a try.

It was like Christmas opening these boxes up.

Champagne Mustard, Mustard w/horseradish, creamed corn, cheesy potatoes, 

Cranberry& apple salad & honey baked ham.

I tried my best to wait until husband came home to make a ham sandwich,

I lasted almost 2 hrs then I ran to the fridge.

Easy Jambalaya!

When we went shopping the other day we picked up some home made chicken sausages from Sunflower Market, they have them on sale now and then so we stock up and freeze. We get their apple & maple syrup and basil & garlic. But this time we also decided to try their Chicken Cajun sausage, and husband asked me if I could make a jambalaya. So I decided to share my recipe, it's not to spicy. And if you don't have a butcher that makes really nice fresh sausages you can swap it out with some Kielbasa. Also since I am using this Cajun sausage I skip the Cayenne pepper, so it won't be too spicy for the kids or my grandmother in law, or me even.
And like today, I saute the meats first to get color and seal in the flavor. Then I move it over to my slow cooker and add the rest of the ingredients turn it on and walk away. But anyways here it is.

2 tsp olive oil
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb Kielbasa (or Cajun chicken sausage), sliced and cut into half moons.
1 onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (skip or add only a dash if you have the Cajun sausage)
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt & pepper to taste
2 cups uncooked rice ( I use Jasmine or Basmati)
4 cups chicken broth
2 bay leaves

Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat, Saute chicken and sausage until lightly brown. Stir in onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Season with cayenne, salt, pepper and onion powder. Cook for 5 mins, or until onion and celery is tender. Add the rice and stir in  the chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let it simmer for about 20 mins stirring now and cook until rice is tender. If you like more heat you can add 1-2 tsp of hot pepper sauce.
Serve and enjoy.
 

Late breakfast....???

Who ever said you can't have breakfast food for any other meal, need to live a little. Today's menu was Hash browns with bacon, bell peppers, onions and cheese, apple chicken sausage from the deli at Sunflower Market and scrambled eggs. Very warming for a cold winters night in Utah, and I had some "help" in the kitchen today from my 14 months old snuggle bunny. She was sitting happy in her high chair claiming mommy's whisks and mixing bowl and drumming like a champion. So some fun company for me while cooking.And the food tasted yummy too.

My little drummer.

Oh, I can play Peek a bo with this too.

Ready?

Where's the baby??

And a snap, before we dig in.

Jalapeno butter!

So it's summer and we're enjoying the summer days with bbq and dinner parties outside with great company and great food and beverages. A big hit in my home is grilled white corn cobs, but I pair it with an upgrade of just plain old butter Jalapeno butter that I make and freeze.
It works great in baked potatoes, on fish, chicken and meat, just adds that little extra to your meal.

What you need:

1 stick butter
1 fresh jalapeno
1 garlic clove
1 lime
And your food processor or mini food processor if you have one.

Deseed the jalapeno, peel the garlic clove, zest and juice the lime and put it all in the processor with the stick of butter and pulse until it's all chopped and blended together. I roll the mix into a sausage and wrap it in plastic and freeze it. Then when you decide to add some with your dinner you just cut off what you need for that meal and let it defrost before your meal.
I got this recipe from my grandmother inlaw, and since I met her 6 years ago I always make a couple of sticks each spring and summer.
An other quick tip for grilling corn, wrap them in bacon so you get the salty smoky flavors on the corn cobs and remove the bacon before you eat. Won't be a waste of bacon you can top them on  burgers or just use them with your breakfast the morning after.

Haul from Williams & Sonoma!

I love looking in the catalog from Williams & Sonoma, so much I want to order from there. I keep telling my husband: "When we win the Jackpot, I'm so gonna go crazy and order stuff like crazy." But I decided I wanted to make my first order and since I have two boys there are some really cool cookie cutters that I have been wanting for some time now. So I finally went online and clicked on the items that I wanted. I had to wait 4 days and then there was a BIG box outside my front door. So what did I order from w&S? Cookie cutters, pancake molds and aprons with Star Wars motives. I tried to take pictures of the aprons but didn't turn out well at all, so I have the picture of one from the W&S site. Here are the pictures of the cookie cutters and pancake molds. The cookie cutters are of the stamp spring - loaded kind, and the details are amazing. I can't wait to try them out. Here are the name of the sets & prizes on the items:

Plain adult Star Wars Apron                                $ 29.95

Plain child Star Wars Apron                                $ 19.95

Star Wars Heroes & Villains Cookie Cutters       $ 19.95

Star Wars Vehicles Cookie Cutters                     $ 19.95

Star Wars Heroes & Villains Pancake Molds      $ 19.95

Pancake molds: Darth Wader, Storm trooper & Yoda.

And now the cookie cutters:

Storm trooper & Yoda

Boba Fett & Darth Wader

Millennium Falcon & Wader's TIE Fighter

Death Star & X-Wing fighter

I got an adult size and child size.

My oldest son has started to dig Star Wars so I thought this would be cool, and it will only be a few years until my youngest boy start to dig Star Wars too. So I am well equipped to make the coolest cookies and pancakes.

A new food item I tried.

So after seeing commercials for this product the last week, I decided to try it out this weekend.

Philadelphia Cooking Creme and the Santa Fe blend. So I cut up some chicken breast, some white onion and a red bell pepper and tossed it all in my big skillet with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Once the chicken was lightly browned and almost fully cooked I added the tub of cooking creme, and left it to simmer for a few minutes until the chicken was fully cooked. Then I served it in flour tortillas with cheese, salad greens, and salsa in bowls so we all could pick our fillings.

I must say it was a fast and easy way to get good flavor to your chicken and it kept it moist and tender. I will so get these again to keep in my fridge for the days I only have 30 minutes or so to make dinner. There are 4 flavors Santa Fe, Savory garlic, Italian cheese and Herb & Original.

Bulgogi!

If you haven't tried any Korean dishes before this is the one to try. I tasted Korean food for the first time since I got adopted (But don't really remember much, since I was a" rugrat") in 2005.

Bulgogi is Korean firemeat, that you marinade for a couple of hours. I normally make a huge batch for a few dinners and freeze in my freezer. Serve it with rice, or use some lettuce and make lettuce cups with Bulgogi filling.

But here's the reicpe, give it a try.

• • • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
    • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
    • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
    • 1 clove garlic, minced
    • 1 teaspoon white sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 
      

      • 1 pound beef top sirloin, thinly sliced
    • 1 carrot, julienned
    • 1 green onion, chopped
    • 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
    
    
    1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, garlic, sugar, salt and black pepper. Place beef, carrots, and onions in the bag; seal, and shake to coat the vegetables and beef with the sauce. Refrigerate for at least 2 1/2 hours. I prefer to marinate mine overnight.
    2. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Remove meat and vegetables from marinade, and place on a large sheet of aluminum foil; seal. Discard marinade. I also sometimes do this on an electric griddle or in a skillet/wok.
    3. Place on grill, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or to desired doneness.

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Cinnamon roll breadpudding.

Wow, 2 posts in one day.... I guess I'm trying to make up for the weeks I didn't make any posts.

But anyways I had some left over mini cinnamon rolls, and you know they don't taste the same after a couple of days. So toss them??? NO!!!

Make a bread pudding out of them, it will be more yummy than a normal bread pudding I promise.

Custard:

4 egg yoks

1 whole egg

2 cups of cream

1 cup milk

3 tbs sugar

I used 17 mini cinnamon rolls and placed them in an oven proof dish, mixed all the ingredients for the custard and poured it over. Preheat oven to 375 F and bake for 20-30 mins.

And let your home get filled with the smell of cinnamon once again. Enjoy a bowl on it's own, pour some cream on top or a scoop of vanilla ice cream and get comfy on the couch and eat.

In the mood for some Indian.

Well, I should have known that my next blog would be about food. I woke up today felling this hunger for some Indian food.. So I went to my local Ralph's store that I just love because it has this sushi bar with 2 really sweet sushi chefs. An one of them made me some for lunch.... It was sooooo yummy. But I got what I needed to make todays dinner, chicken curry with nan bread. I don't have a good recipe for nan bread so got ready made from the store, going to heat it before serving tho. Lol, I guess it's kinda semi-homemade.

2 tbs butter
1 cup finely chopped apple
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbs's cornstarch
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp's curry powder
1 cup cold chicken broth
1 1/2 cup coconut milk
3 chicken breasts sliced thin.

Melt half the butter and quickly cook chicken and remove from pan. Melt the rest of the butter and add apple, celery, onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender. Combine cornstarch, curry, salt and broth. Stir into the onion mixture, add coconut milk. Cook and stir till it thickens and bubbles, reduce heat to low and add chicken. Let it all simmer on low until rice is cooked and ready.


Now for the rice, you may think that it`s easy. But to cook it perfect, and I say perfect.... Not to dry and not to mushy. Sure you have a rice cooker I have one too. But the key is good rice (I get a big sack of rice at an Asian market) and to rinse the rice in cold water before you cook it. And washing the rice with warm water is a big NO, NO you will ruin the rice....

2 cups rice
water

Rinse rice in cold water, drain and put in your rice cooker add 2 1/4 cups water and let the cooker do it's thing. When the rice is done let the rice sit and steam for 5-10 mins before serving.

If you don't have one of these gadgets; Rinse rice in cold water, drain and place in s pot. Add 2 1/4 cups water bring to boil, keep the pot covered. Then lower the heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until done. Rice should stick together but also be fluffy. Remove from heat and let it sit covered for 10 minutes.

If the rice seems to dry add a couple of tablespoons of water, stir, cover and let cook a bit longer. If the rice is to wet, remove the lid, stir and cook a bit longer.

My meatloaf.

Today I'm going to make my meatloaf for dinner and thought I could make a post about it. It's really yummy, always comes out really moist..... Not the most healthy, but it is 100% comfort food so who cares really... I always make mashed potatoes and corn.... Left over meatloaf on a sandwich for lunch your loved ones, will make their day.
I normally make this by eye and taste but pulled out my cups and scale from my kitchen cabinets.I will also write the recipe in metric. This also taste great with ground turkey.


1 cup / 220 gr brown sugar
1 cup / 150 ml ketchup
1 1/2 /700 gr pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup /180 ml milk
1 small onion chopped
1 small red bellpepper/ paprika chopped
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup / 50 gr breadcrumbs


Preheat oven 350º F /175 º C. Lightly grease a loafpan. Saute the onion and bellpepper. In a bowl mix ketchup and brown sugar, spread 1/3 of this glaze im the bottom of loafpan. In a large mixingbowl mix thoroughly ground beef, onion, bellpepper, milk, eggs, breadcrumbs, spices and about 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar & ketchup glaze.
Make into a loaf and place into loafpan, spread rest of the glaze on top of the meatloaf.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hr or until juices are clear.


This meatloaf is great with any potato dish but also is tasty with rice or cous cous. I also do corn with this one (nibblets or on the cobb). If I get cobbs I also make a jalapeño and lime butter. 1 stick of butter, 1/2 minced jalapeño pepper, 1-2 teaspoons of lime juice. Mix it all together and spread over your corn.

Well, that is it for me for today. Time to feed my family.