Food

Again with the food, I don't want this to turn into a food blog, but food is a major part of my life.  And I am beginning a journey of what is called a holistic diet.  I am eating a lot more raw and fresh veggies and fruit and exploring new recipes, not a lot of meat at all, in the last week I have only eaten salmon and i think tomorrow night will be halibut.  A lot of beans, lentils, and spices.  Oh yes, and teas.  I looove teas so I figured this would be a pretty easy sell for me as well. 
I am only on my 4th day and already last night I "strayed".  I made something called pumpkin spice cake.  It is very easy and there a lot of variations.  But, you take one can of pumpkin filling and a package of spice cake (a lot of people do carrot cake) mix together and bake as usual.  It is pretty low in fat and as long as you don't put the homemade cream cheese topping on it, it is pretty good for you.  So I made this last night thinking I would be nice to my husband and give him a treat.  Of course I had to have a piece or two, again, like I said it would not have been so bad if I didn't put the cream cheese frosting on it. 
So, I hope to come back with some feedback on this new adventure of food, as well as some recipes and how I am doing.  My main goal for this is that we hope to have children within the next year and I would like my body to be very healthy so I am able to have a lot of energy to care for my children and I hope it will make them healthy as well.  I also figure if I do this now, I will be used to it by the time we do have children so I am not so overwhelmed. 
So folks, stay tuned to find out more.  So far only one recipe has not been the best, all the other are very good. 

K

Polyvore

So, since I am not able to afford or have access to these awesome pieces that fashion designers do.  I live vicariously though a website called Polyvore.  Which I adore!  I recommend anyone who has an inner Dolce & Gabana or Becky Johnson to go and create your own creative sets.  I have posted a carousel of my sets on the right column.  Please let me know what you think.  Thanks!

K

Diet Blog

Well, I have recently joined a website called Sparkpeople.com, in an effort to try and help me along in my wieght loss journey.  It has been going well, and I have started little mini blogs on that site which I have added to on this site in case anyone wanted to read that as well.  The site is free, and well, I am pretty impressed by it.  It is very easy to use, and there are so many support groups that will help you out. 

Like I said, the links are on the right if you want to read.  Thanks!


K

Dumplings, Chapter One

So, I am beginning to try new recipes to try and become the world's greatest cook (see earlier blog entry). Aaaaaand, I am not quite there yet. :P I have made a "Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcake" which was very very well recieved. But, the next one, "Red Velvet
Whoopie Pie", was not as great. The filling is delicious, but the Red Velvet part was not the best, I will have to try again, I'm not sure if I mixed it to much, that is what usually happens when I bake. I tried to make some artisan bread, and not that great. I mean it was edible and it was eaten, but I don't know if my expectations were too high or what it was.

My other try at a new recipe were Chinese pork dumplings/potstickers. Now, I'm gonna play the race card here, I'm not Chinese, I'm Korean, I can make Korean food, but I'm not genetically inclined to make Chinese food. (Does that work as an excuse? Didn't think so.) My husband and I did eat the all, but kept thinking in my mind how these taste nothing like I thought they would.
I did make the dough for the potstickers from scratch, and they came out ok. I figure with a few tweeks and a few more trials, I should be able to make a pretty mean dumpling.

My next goal is a traditional Korean dish. I have made bulgogi, which if anyone has not had it is missing out. It is a marinated beef dish, and when done right, will make you cry with happines. I am wanting to try and make either kimchee or mandu guk. Kimchee is basically like french fries in the U.S. There are so many different types and are always served with each meal. Mandu guk, is the Korean version of wonton soup, let me tell you my mom makes all these dishes so well, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
I am hoping to do a few new dishes each month, it can get pretty expensive though, a lot of these dishes have special indgredients that I don't use on a daily basis, so I will see how it goes. I hope to do a better job of posting them as I do them.

Food

Food. I must say this is my favorite word in the English dictionary. I am trying to become an awesome cook. I'm not going for good, average, or very good. I mean when I make something I want people to love my food. I want them to talk about my food weeks after they have eaten it. I know, it is a selfish thing to want, but it is what I want.
I am getting better at baking, I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie, which my husband

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calls "Happy Cookies". I also make peanut butter surprise mini cupcakes which are so delicious. At least I have been told, I actually have not tried one, since I am afraid if I have one I won't be able to stop.
A new project for me is going to try and keep tabs on this blog about my cooking endeavors. I will try to take and post pictures and explain any heartaches I had making that item.

LIFE...



Such a strange thing. I have been going through something lately that had gotten me thinking about the four letter word. It is so cliche to say, "I'm not where I thought I would be in my life." Alas, that is the situation I am finding myself in at the moment. Without going into too much about what is happening to me, because it is a very difficult and personal situation. I have hurt a lot of people and now am having to rebuild relationships and maybe even lose some that are very very dear to my heart.



Why do we do the things that we do? This of course is a loaded question, which I am sure many people have their own opinions about. I have been asking myself that little question for quite sometime now. Unfortunately I have many regrets in my life, and it has taken almost 30 years to realize that I should live my life in a way that I would not have any regrets. But, is that really possible? How would anyone know that they would regret something until they do it?



I have learned that not letting someone in and trying to hide and go through a difficult situation alone is not the way to go. Humans are a "pack oriented" species. We are not meant to go through tough times alone, which is why we have the ability to socialize and make friends. Is keeping something from someone because you think it is protecting them worse than letting them know? Is it selfish on your part because you feel so much guilt and telling the other person will make you feel better? I have wrestled with all these emotions. I don't know if there is a right answer, either depending on the person or the situation.



I know people say time heals, which I do believe is true, but it is a very painful wait for time to pass. How do you live until that time comes? Do you live in misery until the other party allows you back in their life like before? Will it be like before, and if not how different will it be? Maybe things happen for a reason to make you stronger and make you



So, here is to hoping that time does heal and that with that maybe a stronger relationship.

The Hotness

Gross. Just gross. There really is no other way to describe the mini heatwaves that come through the mid western states. It is not just the hotness that is bad, honestly I could live with the hot. It is the, and you will hear this time and time again if you ever come to Kansas, humidity. The nasty hot wet humidity. Where it is sometimes pointless to even take a shower, because just a few minutes walking to your car will make you sweat like none other.
Now, I have lived in Florida so I know there are places that have higher humidity than

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Kansas. But, and this is a very big but, the heat and the humidity combined with no wind, and if there is wind, it seems be even hotter that the temperature. When the humidity makes the heat index 10 - 15 degrees hotter than 95 degrees, then it is hot!
I know this is a silly little blog, but we just got off of a mini heat wave and it just reminded me that I have never lived in a place where I have been this miserable in the summer. When your car air conditioner can't cool your car down enough because it is so hot outside, then it is time to move. Well, I think anyway. :)

K

PSA

I forgot about this website that is, well, I think is awesome. I love fashion and everything included with it. I do love to go to the luckymag.com website, and there is a section where you can find a whole bunch of awesome stores that they recommend. There are some stores that will recognize and some that you will not, overall a good place to go to if you are stuck in a rut with shopping and wanting a change.

K

Am I American?

So, I think in a previous post, I mentioned that my mother is from South Korea. She did not come over to the states until she met my dad and they got married. My dad was in the Army and met my mother when he was stationed in Teajon, South Korea. Now, I'm not going to go into the whole mixed raced marriage and how each side didn't like each other, blah, blah, blah. That is for maybe another post.
What I would like to jot down, is how sometimes, i'm not sure what to tell people when they ask, if I am American. I mean, I am American because my father is, but I did live 90% of my life until I was 12 overseas and most of it in South Korea. (Which is awesome by the way, and I would go back and live there in a heartbeat.) So, I guess I am "technically" American, because I do have American citizenship. But, when you live in a foreign country for as long as I did, and are surrounded with two cultures growing up, it is difficult sometimes, to really know who you are.
I like to call myself Asian-American. And to be honest, i'm not quite sure the technicalities of what makes someone an Asian-American. I used to be fluent and am relearning the language, and my mother is Asian, so it makes sense to me to say that I am Asian-American. But, I know this bugs some people. They tell me, "Well, your father is American and you live in America so you are an American." Which is all fine, but just because my father is American does that cancel out the fact that my mother is South Korean. Does it change the fact that i basically grew up with in South Korea, and spent so much time with my Korean family? Does it change the fact that I would rather have Korean food than American food? Does it change the fact that my basic DNA makeup is half Korean and half American? And does just living in America make you and American. Because to be very honest, I don't really feel like and American.
A lot of the things that I do are not very American. A lot of my thoughts, the way I reason things, and the way I act, some are not very American at all. I guess the bottom line is I don't feel like just an "American". I feel like a person who is a mixed race.
It also makes me question the African American label. (And I pray anyone reading this does not take this the wrong way in any shape or form.) Which also brings into question the whole white/black/yellow thing. I jokingly tell my friends that I am a "light beige" or "ecru" color. (By the way, I am not very pc.) If someone whose ancestor was from Africa generations ago and they still call themselves African-Americans instead of just an American, does that mean I

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am able to call myself Asian-American?
Oh well, I guess I can call myself whatever I want to call myself and let people think what they want to think. I do consider myself an Asian-American, I put that on all my paperwork, and if there is not a space for that I check the "Other" box, or now they have a "More than one Race" box. I am so proud of the fact that I am half American and half Korean. I take every chance I get to tell people that I am mixed, I am proud of that fact.
So, I am not trying to start a huge philisophical debate in my head, I am just trying to figure who I am. Or, I guess who I should tell people who I am. All my life I have said that I am Asian-American, so I am going to stick to that story.

K

Career ADD?

Ok, so to be completely honest, I have not finished college, yes I am 29 years old have not finished school yet. Not sure why, I do consider myself a pretty smart person, when I did take classes I always did get good grades and had a pretty high GPA. I took college prep classes in high school and did well in those. Also, I do like to learn, I enjoy watching television shows where I can learn, and I like to look things up and research topics that interest me. So it doesn't make sense as to why I would not have finished school yet. I have taken a lot of college classes and I'm really not that far away from getting a degree, so I never did understand why I never finished. I always thought of myself as lazy for not finishing, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized something else.
I came to the realization that I have what I like to call "Career ADD". (Now, i know that people might get upset that i use the ADD diagnosis when I really don't have it, but i really don't care, i'm not here to make other people happy. Just putting down my random thoughts. ) I went into college right after high school like everyone else, and I majored in elementary education, specializing in music. Then, I just stopped going, the subject didn't interest me anymore, well, music has always interested me, but the teaching part did not. So I started taking classes at a community college, and found that I had an interest in business, then marketing, the international marketing. Then, I started to realize that I do like to research and study religion and learn foreign languages and then cultural history and then fashion. (Well, I have always loves fashion.) Even being chef would be exciting to me. I think to myself, the reason I have not finished is because, i don't really know what I want to do with my life. I told my husband the other day that I wish i could live to 1000 just so i could do everything i love to do!
So, as I get older I started to realize that I need to pick something and stick to it. I guess I could get a "normal" degree and after that maybe go back and study something I really love. Oh well, I guess I tend to get into these type of moods around my birthday. Thinking of things I could have done or could be doing. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my life, I love my husband, my family, and right now I love my job. I have great friends and live a comfortable life, so really no room to complain, but I always think, "What if...?".
What if i had pursued my passion for music or language? What if i had stayed in school where would I be? I guess in life, or my life, there will always be what ifs, and it is fun to think about the "What could have been." scenarios.

New Stage

Image by Pabo76 via Flickr

Well, I have decided that I am going to try and run marathon. Not just a 5k or a 10k, but a big marathon, like the Boston or New York marathon. Of course, it will be quite a while before I am able to do that. I will start by running the 5k and 10k's as well as half marathons to get ready, and hopefully I will be able to run at least one or two 5k's by the end of this summer.

I have decided to do this because I need something to keep me in shape, I need some sort of goal to stay motivated to work out. Besides losing weight and being healthy of course, I find that if I have some sort of goal I tend to stay on track.

I am the first to say that I am not in the best shape of my life, well, I am actually in the worst shape of my life, unfortunately I have really let myself go. I am at my heaviest weight, and until recently, I did not work out. Starting about 3 weeks ago, I started eating right again, as well as exercising 6 days a week. I started working out sporadically about a month ago, and religiouslya few weeks ago. Right now I have been doing an hour on the elliptical machine, doing a "Zumba" class, as well as pilates and yoga.

So, I hope that going for a goal of the marathons will help keep me in shape. I will try and track my progress on here as well.

K

To Twitter or Not.

So, I guess I consider myself computer "savvy", I don't know it all, but I do know enough to get by on my own without calling tech support all the time. (I did work for about 6 months at a computer call center and well, that was not fun, let me tell you.) I also keep up with the likes of Facebook, MySpace, I have my iPod, subscribe to a monthly music program, but where does one draw the line? I think my line is Twitter.
For all those that use Facebook, Twitter is just like a constant status update. Now, I did sign up to see what all the hooplah is about. Aaaaand, I think I'm gonna have to pass. Maybe, it's just because I don't get the idea of every time I go do something new, posting it online for the whole world to see. Also, I don't have any a cell phone with a data plan so I can't do mobile posts, which I think would make it so much easier.
I guess I can see someone famous doing it, or an up and coming artist of some sort posting where they are playing or where they are doing a book signing so their fans can see. So, maybe I guess I am just not important enough for me to tell everyone where I'm going and who I'm seeing, and what I'm doing. But, to be honest I don't think I really care if "Sally" is off to the grocery store or when "John" is going to the gym.
Now, I know that I do Facebook status updates, but I've even noticed people updating their status constantly. Also, these people also have Twitter, so isn't that just make you do double the work, when we are all so busy anyways. I know, I don't have enough time to do put the same status on two different sites. But, I have hardly used Twitter, I just signed up for it actually and tried to familiarize myself with it, and for some reason just didn't see the need. I guess that's just me.
Although, I shouldn't judge so fast, I mean there are so many things in my life that I said I would never try, listen to, or do. Soooo, I guess at this juncture in my life, I have no need for Twitter, so I guess it's difficult for me to understand others' need for Twitter or "tweeting" as the cool kids say. I know silly reasoning, but it is my reasoning. :)

K

Englorean?

Ok, so I am trying to relearn Korean. According to my mom I used to be fluent in both Korean and English when I was younger. I guess I lost it when we lived with my American grandmother, my mom thought it would be rude to speak a foreign language in her house. I honestly don't know how you loose a language, my mom was telling me that she thinks her Korean is not as good as it once was since she does not speak it on a regular basis. One of my Korean cousins is here going to college for a year, so I wonder if that would help her out a little, but we are supposed to speak English to her so she can learn to be fluent in English. Soooo maybe that won't be a big help after all.

I am able to read at a elementary level and write at a very, very, very elementary level, and know basic words. I feel like I know more, I just feel that if I use it every day, it will become easier for me to learn. Which means I should call my mom everyday and practice, but for some reason I am very embarrassed to speak the little Korean I do know to anyone. I know this sounds silly, but I dream in Korean, and I can get the "gist" of a conversation, I just feel that there is a little door in my brain, and behind is all the Korean I need. So, I have done many starts and restarts in this process. I got the Rosetta Stone which does work if you do it every day. I also took some Korean classes (which i'm not sure if they offer it anymore, I would like to go again). Then there are books, instruction books and phrase books up the wazoo.

I don't know why I don't keep on one track, I think I just get frustrated, I feel that I should know what I am already learning, so I feel that I am just relearning. For the last two or three weeks, I am have pretty good about keeping up with my "lessons", which are my own form of learning. I am using every tool at my disposal, the Rosetta Stone program, my books, and podcasts. I just learned that there are Korean language podcasts which are really awesome, I listen to them at work all day, just repeating them. I also am putting Korean recording artists, I am hoping to immerse myself in the language as well to maybe help me along. So, I will keep updated posts on my progress, maybe i'll start putting a "Word O' the Day", so maybe that will help me as well.

K

In the Beginning

So, I guess there is no rhyme or reason for this blog, just general musings on my life and topics that interest me. I named it "The Kimchee Chronicles", because I am half Korean, and thought it was a pretty snazzy name. I had a previous blog, that I did not do to well in keeping up with, I am hoping I will do better on this one. :)
Enough introduction, I hope you enjoy my future posts!

K