Letter: Month Thirty-One

Dear E,

This last month was an eventful one. Your dad and I decided to pack up the car and take you on a car trip to visit your Aunt Gwyn and her family in Oregon. For the most part you were a trooper during the 13-hour car rides there and back. You loved playing with your cousins and would follow them around from room to room. We put your port-a-crib in your cousin S’s room and after you had been put to bed you and him would stay up late normal chatting and giggling.

You’re fascinated by the things you see around and love to explore. We have a bunch of spice jars sitting on our kitchen counter and your dad showed you how they smell when you open them. So lately one of your favorite things to do is to grab a jar off the counter and carry it over to me, wait for me to open the lid, carefully stick your nose in the jar, inhale deeply and then murmur “mmmm…” appreciatively. It’s adorable to watch and I remain ever grateful that you haven’t decided that you want to open the jars yourself–yet.

You’ve started to want us to repeat things lately. When you take a shining to a certain story book you want to have it read to you three, four, times in a row. When you want us to repeat something you exclaim, “more again!” which cracks me up. You also still say “I help you, Ma!” when you want me to help you with something which makes me smile.

Lest you get an inflated head, you can certainly be very trying at times. Sometimes you insist on being carried from the car into the store which I think you’re getting too big for. It’s never predictable–a lot of the time you walk around holding my hand quite happily. But sometimes you’re determined to stick to my side like glue and nothing but picking you up and holding you close will stop you from wailing.

When I find myself getting annoyed at having to juggle my purse, miscellaneous bags, my car keys, and you in my arms I try to take a deep breath and appreciate how at this brief moment in time your life you still want to be close to me as you possibly can. And then I lean in and smell the sunshine in your hair and plant a kiss on your cheek.

Your father says I spoil you sometimes but I tend to disagree.

Love,

Mama

Weekend Report

This weekend had it ups and downs. For some reason E wasn’t sleeping well and had an uncharacteristically high number of meltdowns. I think it his seasonal allergies might be bothering him a lot right now or maybe he’s fighting off a bug. I guess he could be acting out just because he’s two and a half but for the sake of my sanity I prefer to believe that it’s something that can be overcome with Zyrtec or a couple days of rest rather than waiting months for him to grow out of it.

We did make it to the art sale and I bought this piece by my friend Linnie. This photo doesn’t really do it justice–it’s huge (3 ft. by 3 ft.) and the colors and texture in it are fantastic.

I bought it as sort of an investment–not as in I hope Linnie becomes crazy famous and I can sell it for $$$ later (although, now that I think of it that’s not a bad idea, Linnie!) but more of an investment for a future house. Our current place doesn’t have a good place to hang it but I think it will look great over a sofa or console table. But I really liked it and the price was right so it came home with us.

After the art sale we realized that we were just a few blocks away from what is probably the best Mexican restaurant in the state and so we stopped by for a delicious lunch. And then we went home and did chores until it was time to meet some friends for dinner.

Sunday was a little rougher. E (understandably) has a hard time sitting still at church and I’m developing fears that he’s becoming “the problem kid” in nursery. He just likes to run around a lot. Every week he comes home with a blank coloring page with his name written on it because he doesn’t sit still to color. Yesterday N picked him up from nursery so I didn’t hear about it first hand but I guess E took a header off a chair–oops.

After a busy weekend I’m really looking forward keeping it low-key today. A mountain of laundry has never seemed so relaxing!

Korean Home Cooking

This week I wanted to make something out of one of the Korean cookbooks I have that I’ve never used. I can’t remember where I got Korean Home Cooking from but I think I might have picked it up at a Korean store. It was originally published in Singapore and has a different feel to it than other Korean cookbooks books aimed at American cooks.

In some ways it seems a lot more authentic than other Korean books I’ve seen. It goes beyond bulgogi (barbecued beef) and covers a lot of dishes I haven’t seen in other cookbooks. It even has a section on making your own sauces and pastes like Duenjang (soybean paste) which is pretty hard core (and something my mom actually does).

I chose to make japchae, a noodle dish, because I’ve eaten it many times over the years and thought I’d be able to judge how good the recipe was. Having said that, it’s never been one of my favorite Korean dishes.

I love spicy food and while there are plenty of spicy Korean dishes japchae is pretty mild. It’s also very time-consuming. When I told my mom I was planning on cooking japchae for a weeknight dinner her immediate response was “Why? That’s a lot of work!” She was right, of course. Now I know why we only had japchae on special occasions like Thanksgiving (along with mashed potatoes and stuffing with kimchi–yum!)

The Verdict
4 out of 5 stars. While Korean Home Cooking is not the most accessible Korean cookbook out there it is one of the most authentic and versatile and contains recipes that I haven’t seen anywhere else. The japchae I made tasted spot-on. If you’re serious about learning how to cook Korean food it’s worth tracking down a copy.

Japchae from Korean Home Cooking
(Hint: chop and slice everything before you begin cooking. I, um, didn’t and it slowed everything down. I also didn’t have any beef on hand so I used chicken thighs and it turned out fine.)

Ingredients

  • 4 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked for about 30 minutes in several changes of water
  • 4 oz beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips about 1 1/2 inches long
  • vegetable oil for frying
  • 4 oz spinach
  • 4 oz carrot, peeled, cut into thin 1 1/2 strips
  • 1 egg, separated
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small yellow onion
  • 2 oz dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles)
  • 1 teaspoon pine nuts, for garnish
  • pan-toasted, ground sesame seeds

Beef and Mushroom Marinade

  • 2 Tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 4 teaspoons finely chopped scallions
  • 2 teaspoons crushed garlic
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil

Spinach marinade

  • 2 teaspoons finely chopped scallions
  • 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 teaspoons pan-toasted, ground sesame seeds
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste

For Noodle Seasoning

  • 1 Tablespoon Korean soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon sesame oil

Directions
Squeeze excess water from mushrooms, then remove and discard stems. Cut caps into thin slices
Combine Beef and Mushroom marinade in a glass bowl and add beef and mushrooms and marinate for about 20 minutes.

Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a frying pan. Add beef and mushroom slices and stir-fry until well cooked, 3-4 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside on paper towels.

Wash spinach, the remove and discard roots, reserving leaves and stems. Immerse reserved spinach briefly in rapidly boiling salted water. Quickly remove from water and drain. Squeeze out excess water.

Combine spinach marinade ingredients in a bowl and add spinach and set aside.

Clean frying pan and add a bit of oil. Add carrot and stir-fry. In another frying pan, fry egg white and yolk to make egg gidan (?–basically a very thin omelet). Remove from pan and cut into thin slices. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Peel onion, cut in half vertically, and thinly slice. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan and fry onion slices, adding salt and pepper to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add noodles, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from water and rinse in several changes of cold water until water is clear. Drain and cut noodles to make them easier to eat.

Combine noodle seasoning in a large mixing bowel. Add noodles and mix well to coat. Add beef and mushrooms, spinach, carrots, and onions and mix well. Serve sprinkled with pine nutes and ground sesame seeds, and topped with egg gidan.

(Serves 4 or 5.)

A Visitor

My neighbors behind our house keep a few chickens in their backyard. Since they don’t have a rooster (for which I am eternally grateful) I find it rather charming. E and I like to stand on our porch and watch the chickens run around their yard.

Yesterday afternoon we had a surprise: this pretty hen hopped over the fence and came to visit. Isn’t she gorgeous?

It was meant to be

I featured this little bird painting by Amy Ruppel back in December. I liked it quite a bit but didn’t feel right about spending the money on myself around the holidays.

Well, the universe must have decided it was meant to be mine because no else bought it and Amy included it in her recent spring cleaning sale.

So I snapped it up! I can’t wait until it comes in the mail. There are still a few pieces left if you’re interested. This is the only time I’ve seen Amy discount her work, so it’s a great deal.

Holgas Pics of Gwyn’s House

I took my Holga camera with me on our drive to Oregon and have a couple of shots that I’ll be posting over the next little while.

On our drive we pulled over at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of Nevada to take a quick break and stretch our legs. This abandoned house was next to the road and I couldn’t resist snapping some shots.


At this point poor E was so sick of being in the car that he repeatedly insisted that this building was “GWYN’S HOUSE!” because we had been telling him all day that we had to stay in the car until we got to Gwyn’s.

So E was pretty disappointed when this shack turned out not to be Gwyn’s and we still had a good 5 hours left in the car. But on the upside when we got to Gwyn’s real house it had glass windows, warm beds, and fun cousins to play with so E got over his disappointment pretty quickly.

I’ll admit it–I cried a bit.

Sorry about the lack of an installment of Cookbooks On Trial this week. Between getting home from our trip late Monday night and having a ton of work to catch up on at the office I’ve been swamped. But it will be back next week.

But in the mean time here’s a great video for your Friday: it’s of a baby hearing his mom’s voice for the first time after he received a Cochlear implant. I found it very touching and teared up a bit. The joy on his face is so sweet.

Have a great weekend!

Burgers al fresco

One night when we were visiting Oregon we headed into historic scenic little Jacksonville for some tasty burgers. While we were waiting to order at Jasper(‘)s Cafe E threw a massive tantrum complete with some face-smacking but once we went outside to eat he calmed down. The burgers were great and it was nice to be able to eat and let the kids run around together outside.

My Jasperado burger: chorizo, green chili salsa, and pepperjack cheese with extra avocado.

Luckily Jasper’s doesn’t fry with peanut oil so E could enjoyed the french fries.

As you can see, the cousins enjoyed hamming it up together.

Oh carefree meals of vacation, I miss you already.

More photos of the salt flats than you ever wanted to see

I’ve been enchanted by the salt flats ever since I first saw them so getting up close and walking around on them was definitely the highlight of the (13 hour!) drive to Oregon. E had a lot of fun running around and sampling the salt.





We were just there but I’m already trying to come up with an excuse to drive the 100 miles from my house back out to the salt flats. They are awesome.