Yummyness

I love this recipe!  So easy and yummy!  I got this recipe from Giada and try to make at least once a week.

Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce

• 1 bag of frozen Ravioli, cheese or beef ( you can use tortellini as well)
• 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• salt/pepper to taste
• chopped walnuts
• shredded Parmesan cheese

Bring your pot of water to a boil and cook ravioli according to directions.  Drain and set aside.  In a saucepan melt the butter until golden brown, take off heat and add balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Toss with ravioli and top with walnuts and parmesan cheese.

How flippin easy was that?!?  This is one of my go to recipes when I don't feel like cooking a big meal.  I didn't have the walnuts on hand in my picture, it still tastes good, but doesn't have that crunch. 

Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Goodness

Please note I have included a song to play in the background as you read this post.  It makes it so much better don't you think?



One of the many things I love about Sunday morning is breakfast.  It's a big un' with bacon, eggs and biscuits with sausage gravy.  I'm not trying to brag, but husband seems to greatly appreciate my breakfast skillz.  I used to make this every Sunday morning until I realized I wanted husband to live long enough to see his 30th birthday.  I still try to make it often enough, but now it's more pancakes and eggs.

 This is definitely not a breakfast for those watching their figure.  This is a fat filled, carb loaded greasy goodness.  Even the eggs are fried in the left over bacon grease, see what I mean, awesomely good. Sigh, it will be awhile until I make this wonderfully fatty breakfast again, the Biggest Loser contest starts Tuesday at work. 

Now, the recipe for this breakfast is super easy.  Cook bacon, eggs and the biscuits like you normally would.  I use the premade Phillsbury buttermilk biscuits. The gravy depends on your taste, here is how I normally make it.  
Fry a package of country sausage, then sprinkle enough flour to soak up all the yummy sausage grease and the sausage is nicely coated.  Then add enough milk to your desired thickness.  I usually use no more than a half gallon of 2% milk.  Yes, it makes a lot of gravy.

The plate below is mine, I am not a big fan of bacon (gasp!), too salty for my taste.

Yummy!

*Le Sigh

I love to cook and I love to bake.  Not for my own good, no no, I do it because I want to make others go oohhh and ahhhh .  It is for purely selfish reasons, please read here.

Not to brag, I have made some yummy dishes.  Baked some melt in your mouth cookies, made some killer cinnamon rolls and I do make a pretty mean lasagna.  Unfortunately, not all my cooking comes out, shall we say, good.

I try not take pictures of those mishaps, because, well, because I like things to be pretty, and let me tell you these mishaps are definitely not pretty.

Such as tonight, I burnt some bread.  (I found this recipe from Pioneer Woman and was so excited to try it.)  Yes, yes, we have all burned bread left in the oven too long.  I literally burned the bread, like fire, flames and smoke.  I did not realize how hot I had turned my broiler, and whadda ya'know?  The bread was on FIRE.  Yes, my friends, I was actually burning the bread.  Le Sigh.

I have also burned bacon so much to a crisp that, if you picked up a piece it would disintegrate into dust in your fingers. I did take a picture of that.  Le Sigh.

I have forgotten to put cinnamon in my cinnamon rolls.  So all I had were sugar/butter rolls. (I am hanging my head in shame as I type this sentence.)

I have burned (most of my bad food stories involved burning, if you haven't noticed) the bottom of cookies so much that they were like rocks and you couldn't even bite into them. Le Sigh.

I just chalk this all up as part of the learning process, and will keep on trying new recipes and working on my skills in the kitchen. One day, I will not burn my baked goods or set bread on fire.

I hope. 

Oh-Emm-a-Geee!!!

I love shopping.  I love it even more when I get awesome deals! 

I love going through racks and racks of clothing and aisles of stuff looking for that one awesome item.  I might need some counseling.

This past weekend, I found one. Oh, rejoice and sound the trumpets for I have been blessed by the deal fairy!

I have been looking for a Le Creuset utensil holder forever!  The fact it costs about much as a tank of gas has held me back.  I found one and as soon as I saw it I let out a small gasp. 

Love, pure love!

This was the best part.

My search is over.  I can rest peacefully now knowing that my cooking utensils are held together in this gorgeous holder, that I honestly might just name because I love her so much. 

Ain't no Challah back girl...

Let me tell you a story.  This is a story about a beautiful loaf of challah bread that turned into an even more beautiful piece of french toast.

I have never heard of using challah for french toast until this year.  I have been on the hunt ever since, and think I have found it.  At the city market, at Bloom Bakery in Kansas City.  They have the best challah I have tried so far.  So this story is not about just french toast, no my friends, this is french toast stuffed with a cream cheese filling. 

I got this recipe from Tasty Kitchen, and of course you can use whatever fruit you want and I even made this with the loaf of italian bread and it came out very good as well.

Let me just show you what I did:

Ok, just had to post this picture, I mean come on people!  I know you want to lick the screen, go ahead, it'll our little secret.

Now, cut the bread into pretty big chunks and then cut a slit in the middle so you can put the yummy filling:

Now take your cream cheese, please make sure it is softened and room temperature, you can mix it better with your strawberry preserve.  I also, cut about a half pint of strawberries and let them sit in sugar before I started cooking.  Some may say it's overkill with the sweetness, but I couldn't care less. 

Then stuff your bread (hhmm, maybe a "That's what she said" moment right there).   I overstuffed mine (and another one), go big or go home people.

Mix all the "dunking" ingredients together, I added 1/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. Because we needed even more sweetness added right?

After whisking these ingredients together, dunk your stuffed french toast and let them sit on a plate until you have dunked all pieces. 

Now cook!  Cook (with butter of course, no low-cal version here folks) on medium heat until everything is heated through and the outside of the bread is a nice golden brown.  Then, top it off with syrup, any remaining sweetened strawberries and powdered sugar.  (I think I just got a cavity from writing this post.) 

Viola!

Go make this now!  I hope you have enjoyed this post, I am now officially hungry, again.  This is definitely going to become a staple in my weekend breakfast rotation!

Ok, so just had to add one more picture.  :)

Home Cookin'

So, when someone says "home cooking" or "comfort food" what comes to your mind?  Fried chicken...mashed potatoes...apple pie?

Well, growing up in a multi-cultural household, my definition of home cooking is a bit different.  Mom is South Korean (hence the name Kimchee Chronicles) and dad is white.  I've never been a big meat and potatoes kind of girl, I've always been more of a fish and rice kind of girl.

My mother is an UH-flippin-mazing cook.  Whatever cuisine it is, it is delish!  Of course nothing compares to her homeland food. Also, she used to be a baker so she would always bring home pies, bread, cookies and as well as the recipes.  No wonder I've got a some extra junk in my trunk.

She is always cooking my favorites foods when I go home and visit.  I just wanted to share just a bit of what I get to eat when I go home.

Kimchi, a staple in my Korean diet:

Seafood Noodle Soup (noodles made from scratch):

Kalbi:

Bread Candy:

Lastly, but definitely not least, of course, rice. Mmmm, rice.  Nothing is better than a huge bowl of steaming, sticky, white rice.  Yes, yes, I know it's not good for you, but oh my goodness, it tastes so good! If you want to know how to cook good Korean rice follow this link. 

So, I guess home cooking or comfort food is wherever your home is, I hope you have enjoyed my version.  Maybe you can share some of your favorite home cooking.

It is still very strange thinking that I own my own home, car and have a "grown-up" job.  Whenever I visit my parents, I still feel like that 10 year old girl running in for dinner and finding some good ol' down home cooking.

Juice...'Nuff said.

I love to juice.  No, not the juice where I pull a Mark McGuire.  I am talking about taking beautiful veggies and fruits and turning them into delectably delicious drinks.  This is a favorite pastime of mine during the summer months when it's so hot that your car a/c can't keep up and blows lukewarm air in your face. 

The juice I am sharing with you today is one I usually make on the weekends when I don't eat as well as I should.  That way, I am at least getting some good stuff with the bad stuff.  This is the Dr. Oz "Green Drink:"  The recipe I believe calls for doing this in a blender.  I was a rebel and used my juicer instead.  Here are the indgredients ( I would say and instructions, but throw it all in your juicer).

2 apples

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 cups spinach

2 cups cucumber

1 head of celery

1 bunch parsley

1/2 inch or teaspoon ginger root

Juice of 1 lime

(There is no ginger because I did not have any on hand at that moment.)

Then, it's time.  Here is a picture of my glorious juicer that my momma got for me last Christmas.  A sight to behold isn't it???

I am truly in love with this contrapation.  It makes the perfect juice with none of the grittyness that comes with some of the other juicers.  This one is from Sharper Image, and you can find it here. 
So there is my plug, maybe is someone who works with Sharper Image will appreciate my advertising for them and shoot me another juicer.  Then I will have TWO juicers and oh my goodness, can you imagine what I could do with two of those things??? Well, maybe just make a lot of juice.  :)

After running all your indgredients through the juicer, you are left with what I like to call, "The Awesomeness".  Why you ask?  Well, because it is awesome.  AWESOME!!!
 

Yes, please let your eyes take it all in!  It does make quite a bit of juice so this can be max 3 servings.  I used a 4-cup measuring cup.

Another one of my favorite and one of the easiest juice recipes has 2 cucumbers, 8 stalks of celery, and 2 apples.  I'm sure this is a real recipe, but I have never seen it.  I came up with this after some trial and error, I have found this to be the most refreshing and filling.


I hope this has been enlightening, and maybe help sway some over to the "juice side".  I do have friends who are still very skeptical, and husband doesn't like to give me kisses after I have drank some.  Bottom line veggies/fruit run through the juicer = Awesomeness. 

Typical

Ok, so when stuff happens to me I tend to say, "Really? Of course, why not." Then laugh, shake my head and move on with life.  Please see below for examples. 

This evening after coming home late from a work function, I was a good wife and started cooking my lovely husband dinner. (I know, I am awesome) I used chicken broth with a lot of spices and chicken, and then throw in some dirty rice, sounds good right? I must not have been paying enough attention, because soon enough the chicken broth had evaporated and the chicken was starting to burn in the pan and the kitchen was filled with smoke. So much smoke that I should probably go to the hospital and be treated for smoke inhalation.

Really?

Also, a few weeks ago at work, I answered the phone thinking it was a co-worker friend of mine calling in.  (We have caller id)  I jokingly answered the phone in a funny voice and then started laughing, which the person on the other line started to laugh as well.  So we are laughing having a good time.  She then asked if she could talk to Maria.  There is no Maria.  It then (to my horror) dawns on me that it is not my co-worker, but someone else who has the exact same name as my co-worker who is calling in.

Really?


 C'est la vie.  I guess that means just more blogs for me to post as these things continue to happen to me.  :)
 

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

Image via Wikipedia

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.