Happy New Year!

Rice Cake and Dumpling Soup 떡만두국 to ring in the New Year! Happy 2011 Everyone.  I hope this new year brings nothing but the best for everyone.

Made from the good batch of gom gook MIL helped me with.  Making a big batch of broth and then freezing it for future use is SO time saving and useful!

This year I hope to be more healthy. Eat better and work out which I'm sure is on top of everyone's list today. :)

I also hope to see the glass half full this year and be more positive and hopeful.  I will continue to believe that good things come to those who wait.  Waiting in good spirits......

I'm so blessed and thankful and need to work better at counting my blessings and appreciating what I have. The grass IS green on MY side too.

I love my family and friends and our two "fur" children.

Christmas Cooking

My inlaws came to visit us for Christmas this year.  It was a very short visit for them but we sure did eat a lot in the two days they were here! :)

I decided to make oxtail broth, gom ttang  곰탕 since my FIL likes it so much.  I made my first gom ttang mid year and since then, I've made it a few times but never got that milky white broth that it's supposed to be. So frustrating! It's either dark or too oily, or both.  So the day before my inlaws arrived, I started the gom ttang with my usual step by step process and hoped for the best.

4th hour after I removed the meat into a separate pot. It looked promising...

After 20 hours... OMG look how dark it is!  As soon as my MIL walked in the door she took one whif and said something wasn't right, HAHA.  Apparently I wasn't draining ALL the blood from the meat and bones which is KEY to making good gom ttang.  I've been making blood soup this entire time! LOL.  My inlaws still ate it and said it was delicious. Hehehehe. Gotta love them.  I asked my MIL how she gets her broth so milky white and she said she would show me so off to the market we went.  She usually soaks her meat and bones overnight in separate buckets.  So we soaked for six hours.  Then we did the initial boil on high for 30 minutes to get the rest of the gunk out.  We then drained the gunk filled water and cleaned the meat and bones THOROUGHLY in COLD water.  She also doesn't add the vegetables I usually add (Onion, garlic, ginger and peppercorn).  Her and FIL like the pure and mild taste without the added veggies.  After only the 4th hour this is what it looked like:

NIGHT AND DAY difference!! Look how WHITE it is! Pure, basic and beautiful! We didn't even have to skim the top for excess oil and fat as often as I do. I was so happy I felt like a kid at Disneyland for the first time.  LOL.  We ate it for breakfast this morning and I'm going to boil it again overnight for an even milkier broth.

My MIL also taught me step by step how to make her famous spicy seafood soup, cod meh oon ttang 운대구 매운탕.  Best with soju 소주! This is one of the two things she always makes when we visit Denver because she knows how much I love it! 

This is the second.  Her spicy raw crab. 매운 게장.  My MIL is famous for it.  It's seriously the best.  I've seen her make it before once when hubby and I were dating but this time I paid more attention.  She's passed on her secret recipe to me.  This is only a picture of the 양념 (seasoning).  I can eat this stuff for days! I love it mixed with rice too.  Sometimes she'll add jalapeno for that extra kick. 

I probably gained 7 pounds this weekend alone.  I'm excited for new recipes in the upcoming year.  I'm going to tacke all of my mom's and mil's famous dishes and try to come up with a few of my own!

Dumplings

I just fried up some mandoo as a snack and it made me think of a dumpling bar my friend Richard had me try in New York.

http://www.rickshawdumplings.com/

Rick Shaw Dumpling Bar.  You choose your dumpling (steamed or fried) and enjoy them a la carte with different dipping sauces or in a selection of different broths to make dumpling soup.  I had the chicken & Thai basil dumplings in shiitake mushroom soup.  AMAZING! AND they had the best watermelon lemonade I've ever had.  Both watermelon and lemon freshly scooped and squeezed into a slightly sweet and tart drink PERFECT for the summer.  Makes me drool just thinking about my amazing lunch at Rick Shaw.

I've been disappointed in prepackaged frozen mandoo from the Korean markets lately.  They've gotten a lot smaller and the filling is mediocre and just doesn't "pop."

I just got the sudden urge to run to the Korean market to buy all different kinds of fresh ingredients and start making my own mandoo.  I think I will experiment with different fillings and also try to make the chicken & Thai basil dumpling I had at Rick Shaw.  I'm going to have a lot of fun getting different sauces to complement my mandoo experiement since I'm pretty much a sauce whore.

Pictures soon to come!

P.S. Also while in NY, Richard introduced me to the soup dumpling in Chinatown. SO GOOD!

Dinner

Galbi Jjim and Kimchee Jjigae

Close up of Galbi Jjim.  Made the camera steam up haha.

Shabu Shabu

The udon at the end was amazing! :)

MUST HAVE PIZZA

Pastrami Pizza at The Downey Pizza Co.  Pastrami, Mustard, and pickles.

MUST HAVE!!!!

I want

Cupcakes!!!

Everyone knows how I much love cupcakes.  Making them more than eating them actually since I don't have a sweet tooth.  I've been on the hunt for these pajamas since I saw Tina Fey wear them on 30 Rock.  I had to have them the SECOND I saw them. 

I found them at Nordstrom Rack last night for half off the originial price online!! I must admit, I wanted them bad but wasn't willing to pay $60 plus shipping for pajamas.  Discount shopping pays off!!!

For my birthday this year my bff got me the cutest cupcake themed gifts! 

EVERYONE knows how much of a Sex and the City freak I am.  I seriously love this to death.  AND she also got me this!



Isn't this the cutest thing you ever saw??? :)

Settled in

Slowly but surely, our place is coming together.  I'm going to spend this weekend shopping for the house and cooking.  I'm so excited! Bargain hunting on Sat and making banchan all day on Sunday!

Maybe not THIS extreme with a billion banchan but I do like to have variety.

Giuliana & Bill

I started watching their show on Style Network and I really like them!  I feel like they're on the same page with the same values so I hope they don't end up as another celebrity divorce statistic.

I heard about their book and actually want to read it.  Adding it to my wish list!

OCD

I relate best to Monica Geller when it comes to her OCD and quirkiness.

I'm still going a little crazy since our new place isn't fully organized yet.  My inner Monica is dying to take over. 

P.S. How do you not love someone for this?

Anyhow, I'm dying to go to the container store so I can go nuts this weekend and organize everything.  I really need to get a labelmaker....

This kind of organization makes me so happy.  I dream I can have this sort of closet one day.