So, after three months in Korea my culinary adventures are teaching me two things: 1) I can be VERY creative when needed; 2) I am AMAZING. This may sound vain, but come over for dinner sometime and you will understand. No really, please come over. Here are a few of my experiments some of which you may have already read about:
1. Kimchi soup – kimchi, onion, carrot, potato, chicken, rice. Verdict: Tasty, but gets boring after 7 days of lunch and dinner – Make less next time.
2. Chicken marinade composed of whatever was in my kitchen (soy sauce, mustard, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, brown sugar). Verdict: Tangy and delicious.
3. Sautéed onion and collection of Asian mushrooms whose names I don’t know tossed with one egg and served over a bed of white rice. Verdict: Yum!
4. Fried “ham” lunchmeat with steamed cabbage. Verdict: Super easy when I don’t feel like cooking and surprisingly yummy, but not very filling.
5. Mystery red pepper sauce that came with my package of mushrooms made into a soup with miscellaneous mushrooms, veggies, chicken, garlic, and soy sauce. Verdict: Not too bad. Better the second day with rice mixed in.
6. Fried Rice Snacks – Rice cooked till very soft, mashed to mush and mixed with salt, then fried in little patties in canola oil. Verdict: Delicious and, um, not so nutritious…
7. Apple sauce iced tea – After making applesauce (with a little too much cinnamon) I conserved some of the potent liquid and mixed it into a pitcher of iced tea. Verdict: It’s the little things… J
8. Banana and Peanut butter Pancakes: I sliced bananas down the middle, filled them with peanut butter and froze them. I meant them just for a snack, but mixed a few slices from one into pancake batter with chocolate chips (broken chocolate bar). Verdict: Mmmmm.
I have also started cooking soups that I can freeze in individual servings. Once the soup is made and cooled I line large paper cups with plastic wrap and ladle in a Melina sized portion of soup, cover with foil, and freeze. Once solid I remove the ice meals from the cups and place in freezer bags. This makes it possible for me to cook like a normal person without trying to figure out how to adapt recipes for one person or end up with spoiled food in the fridge. I realize this is probably kind of boring to read about, but I’m really quite proud of myself and now I can have AMAZING crème of spinach, Tex-Mex corn chowder, or southern chicken soup whenever I want (as long as I remember to take it out to thaw in time…)
Now to a recent cooking adventure: This evening Lizze was over and I announced that I would make pasta. I had angel hair pasta, chicken, garlic, herbs, and cans of diced tomatoes. Perfect. I cooked the pasta and set it aside (remember – one burner). I moved on to the chicken. It looked beautiful and smelled AMAZING. Then I opened the box containing the cans of tomatoes and I realized I had a problem. Do you see what I see?
Lizze ran down to 7-Eleven, but apparently they don’t sell can openers. My mind was racing – the pasta was sitting, the chicken was ready, and I was hungry. Oh no, this is NOT happening. I will not be stopped by this lack of a can opener. Well, let me show you a reenactment of what happened next…
Crisis averted. And guess what – it was AMAZING! ^_~
2 comments:
That's hilarious. I enjoy reading about your cooking adventures. I imagine your mama is quite proud. And I thought getting into a bottle of wine without a cork screw took talent. You beat ALL.
apple sauce iced tea huh? wow, sounds creative to say the least, but i bet its quite tasty!
i ran into the exact same can opener problem in mongolia. so i asked the locals where i could get one and i asked the americans and they laughed and said to just ask a Mongolian for help. so, they get a knife and put the tip on the can and jab the heel of their hand into the handle and it goes through and then you keep going and it actually makes a decent clean cut. so give it a try, it is scary cuz you are afraid its going to slip and stab you in your liver.
thanks for sharing your stories and adventures.
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