All in a day

It's past one Saturday morning and I'm barely winding down from day (Friday). Trick or treating was a success, gave away all the candy, we had alot of kids(at least 50+) and I got some baking done too. We made pizza for dinner so I had to make up some pizza dough, while I was in the mood I had make a double batch of chocolate ship cookies ( i freeze half of batter) and some sugar cookies. I found this awesome recipe at allrecipes.com. This sugar cookie rocked, so soft and crisp at the same time. I even ended up decorating it using a icing recipe at allrecipes, this one included using corn syrup with the milk.

I don't know if this recipe is just fool proof or I'm just better at baking now but the cookie turned out awesome, a definite keeper. It helps to read the comments by users cause they offer great suggestions and changes, that way you can make the cookies with all the suggestions. I personally added like 1/4 cup more of sugar and another tsp. of vanilla and I used the parchment paper to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. I had it in the fridge for about 5 hours before I used it and it was so easy to use. I didn't need to add flour or sugar to keep it from sticking. I actually had my nieces help me cut out the shapes however they had to go home before I baked them. So they missed out on the best part, decorations (going to drop off some cookies to them later today).

However I had another eager group of helpers to fill in, my cousin, her son, my baby girl, and hubby decorated the cookies. Filling the whole cookie with color makes it look much prettier, although I did make some goofy looking cookies. It was fun although my feet hurt from standing most of the day. I barely finished up cleaning up all the mess, crumbs, dishes and cookie sheets at around midnight.

Then I finished imputing a few bills I received today, caught up on some blogs and now winding down for some sleep. Heading to mom's tomorrow to hopefully install the bath tub and get some more work done on the house. Hopefully the bath tub is in stock at The Home Depot, they didn't have it in stock last week. Although it did take better half of Saturday to take out the old tub and we were able to work on moving the light over and patch up the wall. Ok, hubby worked on it and I felt lazy and unmotivated, again!

Stupid pms jacked me up, having pre cramps even though it hasn't started yet. Figures I feel bloated and crampy even before the fact...lamn really hate it...good side I'm not super crazy yet and drinking the beer last night was great. I felt relaxed and got a slight buzz on, god it had been such a long time and luckily it hit the spot. I really needed it, my back/shoulder pain even disappeared for a bit. They say its healthy to have a drink now and then, maybe I will start having one a few times a week.

Sunday

Well it's Sunday and I don't have much to write about, no inspiration, no ranting, anger, sadness, etc. The baby girl is sleeping and the hubby left for home around 8pm after another weekend of work. Update on baking chocolate mousse cake was a success, although not as pretty as I wanted it to be but everyone loved it. I decided to cut the cake into heart shapes with the cookie cutter, it was a good idea although they use forms for a reason. The mousse on my small heart cakes were oozing out the side and the cake was slipping of the top. So I thought I''d stick a toothpick on the top to hold it in place, well good ideas aren't always so good in practice. Lets just say the cake were in lays, like steps. But the mousse was good, so soft, creamy, fluffy and chocolaty.

Speaking of food I did prefect my hoddeuk recipe. I used the one from My Korean Kitchen but I tweaked it for my mother who thought using glutinous rice powder would make it taste better. I originally started off just using flour however while researching it online I found another from Kitchenwench and tried doing the rice powder. It was unanimous the hubby, kids, and my cousins preferred the flour one better. The rice powder one was too sticky and did not have the fluffy airiness of the flour batch nor the flavor, it was bland. So the next time I used my original recipe and used half flour and half rice powder. It turned out better but still seemed to sticky and no airy enough for me. Well last weekend when I was at mom's I set out another try at it but this time I used only half a cup rice powder to two cups flour and it turned out so good. It had the fluffiness, airiness and also a bit of the sticky factor, just a bit though. It was perfect!

This morning I fixed up the dough (doubled) so it would be ready by the time my mom got home from work. She loves the starchy stuff, breads, deuk..etc. It's the prefect sweet snack on a cool day, I guess that's when they street ajunmas sell them in the fall/winter. I never had one till I made my own so I really have no real reference to compare it to however all those who have tried them say it's just as good if not better. My Aunt even requested I make some for her bible study group tomorrow for 7 ajunmas including the pastors wife. So I guess that's a good sign, I notice once I keep making something it just gets easier and easier to turn out.

I remember the first time I started baking again I was so careful to measure the ingredients but now it's so easy. It's true one you bake enough you get to know the feel and sight of a dough, batter..etc. It just gets easier, your hands do get hand memory and know what something needs to feel like. I can roll out a perfect pizza dough now, you would think it was bought.

Wow I guess writing about nothing led me to write about food. Ok now I just have to get into the habit of taking pictures, the camera is there like 6 feet away but I don't do it. Not a habit yet, guess gotta make it one.

To do list

It's Friday again and I haven't had the chance/motivation to write. So I write out my to do list today:



1. Laundry

2. Pick up living room

3. Clean kitchen

4. Clean bathroom

5. Vacuum entire house

6. Bake hubby chocolate mousse cake

7. Water plants, indoors and out



So far that's it, not very exciting but all stuff that needs to be done. The most dreaded the chocolate mousse cake. For some unknown crazy reason I asked the hubby want he and the son wanted to eat, I was looking at the Tastspotting and was inspired to cook them something yummy and I wanted to show him my appreciation of all the work he's been doing at my mom's house. I was thinking more in terms of food but the hubby requested chocolate mousse cake. Huh? What I asked him over, chocolate mousse cake...not some big hunk of meat (son asked for a juicy steak)? Nope he wanted chocolate mousse cake, he has bit of a sweet tooth and I guess the last time he had it was when his mom baked it for him. Hmmm well I love to bake/cook but this is a new one never made mousse cake before. I looked up recipes seemed pretty simple enough although not so sure about the raw egg whites. It's been like over a week since I asked and I guess I really should make it for him, but the raw eggs kinda turned me off...heck I even went and bought whipping cream for it, I had all the other ingredients.

So I guess I will start and bake the cake and then make the mousse, it needs time to set in the fridge anyways. But first I need to eat my rice and kimchee/kongjaejong chigae. Yep my house is a bit stinky but I can't wait to gobble down that goodness! The kongjaejong was made by my mother last weekend (my mom rocks, she knows how to make so many Korean dishes) she made it from scratch, cooking the soy beans, fermenting it, pounding and seasoning it by hand. I also have a huge jar of kimchee and even kakdogee( dakon radish kimchee) in my fridge made from the week before. So had a mad craving for kimchee and the stinky bean paste with lots and lots of tofu (dueboo). It's almost about ready and stinking up my entire house but who cares. My daughter loves Korean food unlike my son.

She loves to eat rice, ducc, kimchee, anything Korean. Even though its spicy she will power it down and then drink lots of juice/water, say spicy spicy and then just eat the rice. It's so cute cause she knew what I was making. She says, "what are you making oma?" I say nothing, she says "I know you are making kimchee!" She's been calling me oma more lately than mommy, probably cause we have been at my mom's every week. Plus side she has picked up on more Korean and understands and speaks to the old ladies. Too cute!

Back to food, kimchee chigae has to be the most comforting, homey food to a Korean person...like mac and cheese and stew. Man I love it, the comforting feeling, the spiciness but also the feeling of "sheanaw" feeling you get from sipping the hot bubbly soup! It warms you up and tastes so good, the salty, to tangy, to spicy..although the flavors mingling. Ok gotta go eat now, but I will start on the cake after I eat.

Blogging fool

I'm doing it, keeping up with the daily writing although I do notice I start off with a certain topic and then I ramble on and on. I guess I've got a lot to say and no one to say it too. One thing I do notice is that when I just write and then publish I end up with a mess. I understand the reason behind editing however part of me doesn't not want this to be a class in critical writing. I want the freedom to express myself regardless of how incoherent or disorganized it may be. Although I do want to make some sense but than if I need to rant and rave then be it I will. After all that was the reason why I started this.

I'm trying to make it visually appealing as well and even promised to post some pictures, after all I know I enjoy reading posts with pictures. I'm becoming more aware of other bloggers and know of at least one who follows my blog so I find myself wanting to please my sole reader. :) Yep its the "krajee korean mom" in me wanting to please others. But at the same time it's actually is a good thing, why? Because it makes me responsible because I need to answer to someone else besides myself while making a connection. I guess it goes back to meeting others needs before mine, but this also makes me feel happy. Helping, giving to others give me the greatest joy...my dream job would be a philanthropist to give money to others. Second for sure is a food critic, one that travels the world and tastes different foods. Yep in my perfect world I would be a traveling food tasting philanthropist.

Yep another simple task that has turned into a psycho-social analyzes...hmmm took too many psych and soc. classes. But hey I was trying to figure out why I was crazy although I never did find the answer after all I knew it all along. I'm not crazy cause real crazy people don't think they are crazy. Hmmm doesn't make me feel better. :)

Food.....mmmm soo good!

I started this post a few days ago but didn't complete it, got distracted by the kids. Well came back to do my daily post (I have decided no matter what the topic or how long or short I will do one post a day) after reading my new favorite food blog...TasteSpotting (thanks Kia for the link). Man I love all the pictures, they look so good...I realized I've been looking at it for the last hour and half, unfortunately I haven't seen any Korean recipes yet but I still have many more pages to view.

My love for food and made me realize I need to pay closer attention to how my mom makes kimchi and all her other Korean recipes. Luckily this weekend we will be making some kimchi since its been over a 6 months since she made the last batch. When I say we will make some I don't mean a few heads of cabbage but 4 crates, yes crates of it! Scary I know but this woman does not know how to do little, if we are to have 15 people she will cook for 200! She has "big hand" as they say in Korean..one of the qualities I inherited from her.

We usually go to K-Town in L.A. but she found out from my Aunt ( jawgouen oma) that she can get it straight from the fields in Santa Maria. That's how she got it last time so she asked her to buy 4 crates this time (it's a good thing cause I just washed out my last kimchi jar last week) :)
So this time I will actually write it down, especially since it's not something I will be making monthly.

It's funny how as adults we go back to loving foods we may have not liked so much as children, although I always loved kimchi jigae, especially the very ripe one. I love kimchi when its freshly made and when it gets ripe..the middle stage kinda sucks. Mmmm makes me hungry thinking about it! Good thing I'm at mom's cause she made me some awesome kimchi out of baby bok choy...oh my gosh do damn good and tender! Hmm I gotta start taking pictures and post them too. Change in topic but I do have a pretty nice camera the hubby got me two Christmas or so ago. Because I was interested in taking pictures however with my mental state I haven't utilized my toy. So promise to myself to start taking some pics and start posting.
Besides pictures make things look much more interesting to read. Presentation just like food.

Other day post.....
Did I mention I love to eat? I love good food, from fancy smancy stuff to just good old bowl of rice with kimchi jigae. For the past 11 months or so I've been baking bread at home, from scratch besides some help from my sunbeam bread maker that mixes and kneads the dough for me. To date I think I have gone through at least 200pds of flour because besides baking bread for sandwiches I've made pizza dough, cinnamon rolls, french bread, red bean buns, hoe ducc, cookies, scones, soft pretzels, sweet rolls and then some. At first it seemed hard cause I was being real careful about the measurements and stuff but with time and many many products later its been easy especially with the bread maker mixing and kneading the dough.


I've never been one to follow directions, that is measuring things out perfectly, maybe coming from a Korean mom who doesn't measure anything has something to do with it.. I would start off with a recipe but always tweak it to my accord, and even though people swear to exact measurements in baking I say boulder dash. I add, subtract, tweak mostly everything I have followed from a recipe but mostly I use a recipe or idea for inspiration and do my own thing to do. I can say I'm a decent cook and baker...my family loves my food and baked goods. And my husband had gained 40 pounds since I met him, most of it from the first year..but than that's from my mom's cooking since we were living with her then. He was underweight when we met, a boy, now he is a "Man". :)