Catie: On Making Kimchi

We're still not going to be sure how this will turn out until around Monday -- I, for one, am afraid it will be too salty -- but, the process works, even if it does turn out too salty.

And I know it works because, well.. you know, people have being doing it here for hundreds and hundreds of years.

[caption id="attachment_467" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="the ingredients"][/caption]

THE MAKING OF KIMCHI:

First, you have to get all your ingredients together.

- Napa Cabbage (Napa is best, but any kind will work, I think)
- green onions or scallions
- peeled garlic cloves
- raw ginger
- other vegetables: daikon radish is traditional, I hear greens are real good, I like carrots and cucumber and I think broccoli would be good and maybe beets
- a small apple
- sea salt (iodide in salt can make your ferments turn BLACK, plus sea salt is better for you and it tastes better and sticks better to your food)
- Korean red pepper flakes or some sort of alternative like Thai chile paste
- fish sauce, anchovy sauce or soy sauce, although I used Yoshida's BBQ sauce (which is not actually BBQ sauce) because it was what we had on hand
- 1-2 t. honey

This won't make you the most traditional kimchi in the world, but it will make you good kimchi (or so I hear), and I believe it. The ingredients look right and all of them were found in or around the Kimchi-making section of the grocery store.

I didn't do a lot of measuring, I just kind of made it up (another reason it might be too salty...), like I, y'know.. do, and so you may want to actually measure things.  If you do, Kimchi recipes abound online, or I will actually measure what I put in the next time (once I know if this time is a flop) and post that here.

Also, you can make White Kimchi, which leaves the red pepper out.

Since coming here, I've grown quite a fan of the red pepper in things (in a moderate sense.. a moderate sense which is never really applied to Korean cuisine, so I'm not sure how this happened), so I put it in, but it can be a little spicy, so keep that in mind.

First, you want to take the top leaves off your cabbage.  I got only half of one at the grocery store for two reason: 1.) I was unsure as to my skill in fermentation and, 2.) it was cheaper.  So, I took off the toppest two leaves anyway, because you need them for later.  Wash them and set them aside.

Now, chop your cabbage up.

[caption id="attachment_468" align="alignright" width="300" caption="my cabbage half"][/caption]

Or.. that is, first cut out the big stem thing, and cut out more than I did, because I ended up having to pick out big chunks of thick stem later on.  The thick bits are favorited by some people, but not by me.  I like the curly, tender bits.

[caption id="attachment_469" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="chopped and rinsed"][/caption]

Now, you want to chop it to bits.  Traditionally, it's not chopped nearly as fine as I did.  Maybe... in 3"x3" pieces, but I want to be able to use it more as a relish on meats and things, plus.. I like my Kimchi a whole lot more when I don't have to shove a HUGE piece in my mouth all at once.  The beauty of Kimchi is the absolutely overwhelming flavor and who can focus on the overwhelming flavor when they're simply focusing on the fire that has been ignited in their mouth by thousand bits of red pepper on a giant leaf of cabbage?

Tiny bits are nicer.

Then, you want to rinse them and salt them.  Some recipes will say to soak the leaves in salt water, but I liked this approach better.

Put the rinsed bits into a colander (or a sieve like I have there), salting them as you go, and then..

[caption id="attachment_475" align="alignright" width="300" caption="water weights"][/caption]

weight them down with ziplocs full of water.

What would have been ideal is to have had a gallon ziploc on hand, but I didn't, so these two quart sizes worked.

I laid my outer cabbage leaves, the whole ones, on top of my chopped cabbage leaves and salted them, too, before adding the weight.  Then, in the interest of curiosity, put the sieve over a bowl so you can see how much water comes out of the leaves.

Leave them to drain for two hours.

In the meantime, though, you can..

[caption id="attachment_476" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="green onions and carrots"][/caption]

Chop your onions and grate/chop your carrots.  I chose grating.  It was easy.  Plus, that tiny bit at the end that will murder your fingers if you keep trying to grate it: you get to eat it.  And carrots here taste a little bit like sweet chunks of candy, so I ate it.

Also, use less than half of what I did here.  Not a whole, giant carrot, and not a whole bunch of green onions.

After that, you can peel and chop your ginger, garlic and your apple.

[caption id="attachment_477" align="alignright" width="300" caption="everybody peeled and ready to chop"][/caption]

You will, again, want to use less than half of what I did here.  Half an apple, two garlic cloves and a one inch finger of ginger.

Eat the other half of your apple.  If it's like mine, it is delicious and, like the carrot, a little bit like candy.

Then chop them up, but you don't have to go really fine, because next you stick all three of them in the blender and whiz them until they're all pulpy.

The apple is in place of white sugar and gives the excited stuff something to eat while it's getting all fizzy.

[caption id="attachment_479" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="cucumber, green onions, carrots and apple-ginger-garlic pulp"][/caption]

That scrambled egg stuff is what it'll look like.

Scrambled eggs, I guess, basically.

Don't taste it, though.  It won't taste like scrambled eggs.

Don't forget to chop up all your other vegetables, too.  I almost forgot my cucumber and threw it in last.

Mix all the vegetables but the cabbage up and put them to drain, too, while the cabbage finishes.  They won't drain much, but unless you want your Kimchi to be swimming in red water, some drainage will be nice.

Once the cabbage is drained, you want to rinse it.  Really, really well.  Better than I rinsed mine.  Good enough to get off a lot of salt since there's probably a lot on there and, as I said before, sea salt sticks real well to everything including your friends and relations.

And your cabbage.

Then mix all your drained vegetables together in a big bowl with (approximated from what I used.. which is to say.. somewhat less of each than I used):

1/4 c. red pepper (I actually did use this much and while you should definitely use less if you don't like spice, this is probably pretty accurate as far as tradition)
1/8 c. sauce (fish, anchovy or soy)
1-2 t. honey (more for the happies to feed on)

And don't use your hands because red pepper is hot and your hands get into your eyes and nose and unless you wash them really well that can HURT.

Not that I'm saying you don't wash your hands well, just... you know. In case you didn't. For some reason.

Also, the red pepper can stain your hands, or so I hear.

After all the mixing, you can transfer your glop into a clean, glass jar (plastic is pretty likely to leach, especially with the high acid content you'll have going).  You will want to make sure, if you either making more than me or using a smaller jar than me, that you leave some head room.  I just had a really big jar, so I didn't need to worry about head room, but I'd leave about 1 inch, maybe?

[caption id="attachment_481" align="alignright" width="225" caption="pressing out the oxygen"][/caption]

And now you can start pressing out the oxygen.

You want to get as much oxygen out as possible because it can have all kinds of weird stuff in it and weird stuff can cause the BAD happies (happies = bacteria) to grow and that will just end badly.

If you jar is clear like mine, you'll be able to see the bubbles coming up to the surface.

Don't be afraid of smooshing your vegetables.  They're resilient.  Plus, Kimchi is supposed to be wet and kind of mashy.

That being said, don't KILL them either.

I used the pestle from my mortar pestle to do it.  It worked real well.

Once you are satisfied that most of the air is out, you bring your whole cabbage leaves back into the picture.

Part of the successful fermentation process is to keep your ferments under the liquid they're in.  This can be real tricky when it comes to things like green beans.  While this isn't always an issue, it's my first time fermenting vegetables, so I am feeling cautious.

Break your whole leaves up to fit in the jar and press them down on top of the rest of your vegetables.  This will keep them covered, away from the outside air, and, hopefully, keep them under the little bit of liquid.

Now.. as far as what sort of jar you should use.  Koreans often use the traditional Kimchi jar, a big clay pot of a thing.  Dark brown, with a lid.  The kind of thing they still keep outside, and the thing those in the country still bury in their backyard in winter.  I, however, am using the more modern Kimchi jar, found at LotteMart.  It's got an airlock thing on it so that the gases made by the fermentation process can escape.

If you don't have a Kimchi jar (and chances are you don't..), you should be careful not to screw your lid on too tight.  This will allow the gases to escape without exploding your jar.

Now, put your jar in a nice, room temperature place and leave it for three days.

Do not be afraid.

That is what everybody says.

In the West, we have this fear of things going unrefrigerated for any length of time.  "Keep hot things hot and cold things cold", etc...  but people have been doing this for a long time, so it is SUPPOSED to work.

That means if you can't make it work, you are obviously less of a person.

Or.. it means... you used too much salt.  Like me.  Or something.  else.

[caption id="attachment_482" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="my waiting kimchi"][/caption]

Here is my finished jar.

I hope it's good, but I have low expectations...

Today I killed my SECOND batch of yogurt in a row.  Actually, my third, if you count the last funky batch that we ended up throwing half of out.

This is not because yogurt is scary, though, mind you.. it is because A.) I used bad milk once and, B.) I forgot about my yogurt.  Twice.

Yogurt is still easy, you just.. have to watch it.  And not use bad milk.

Anyway, I am also hip deep in sourdough starter lately, too!  It's pretty exciting because it's all bubbly and sour-smelling and I get to feed it every day.

Though, I just realized it's right next to my Kimchi and there's a school of thought that says ferments can cross breed and get all wacky, so I'm going to go move it now.

It's probably fine, but still.

Tonight, for dinner, we are having Kung Pao Chicken (we have a favorite place here that makes it, but it's far away, probably made with scary ingredients, and.. cheaper to make at home) and fried rice.

Because we've started soaking our grains, I've started meal planning.  At first, I thought it was totally dorky, but the more I do it, the more it is AWESOME.

1. I actually end up making food 5 nights a week because I don't have to worry about what to make, I just look at my list.

2. I only have to go grocery shopping once a week.

3. I use up everything perishable we have because I can plan around the foods that will be going bad soon.

4. Soaking our grains isn't as daunting because I know when to start them.

5. It keeps me on a waaay better (and cheaper) budget than before.  We're now spending about 4,000W a day on food, where before it was 10,000-11,000W.  That means we're eating dinner for, like, 2,000W per person, per night.  Plus leftovers for Ben's lunches.  That is kind of awesome.

Anyway, my starter needs moving and I need to wash the dishes.

So long!

- catie

Catie: Coming Soon...

...to a-- computer? near you.

[caption id="attachment_464" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="my kimchi"][/caption]

I made kimchi!

And, while I'm fairly certain most of you are grossed out by the idea of eating vinegared, left-out-on-the-fridge-top-for-three-days vegetables, the process is interesting.  So, I took some pictures and, soon, you too can make left-out-for-three-days cabbage.

It's really good.

See that?  How could that not be good?

...at least, I hope mine is good.  The jury's out until Monday.

I'll let you know.

- catie

Catie: Yesterday, I...

1. Made more granola - this time three times as much.

2. Made my own breadcrumbs - we're sticking with whole grains (as far as anything is whole grain in Korea) and cutting out weird ingredients we can't pronounce, which means I can't just crunch up Zecs (like Ritz crackers, only Zecs) anymore when I need breadcrumbs.

3. Made my own peanut butter - we've switched to no refined sugar, and no high fructose corn syrup, and since there's no Adam's peanut butter to be seen for miles, I've made my own.  Unsweetened, with heavily salted peanuts we got from Costco and washed, then dried (a long process).  It tastes a lot different and I think I may have put in too much oil, but it's real good on toast with a little bit of honey.

I am currently roasting a chicken in the crock pot with carrots, potatoes and onions, having just learned how to de-neck the fair creature and having saved the neck for bone broth (the best kind of broth you can make -- or so I am told).

We feel so good on this freaking food thing.

And have I mentioned I've lost 10 pounds?  Because of the kilograms to pounds thing, I thought I'd only lost 2, so it was never worth mentioning, but after talking to Ben about it last night, it turns out it really IS worth mentioning.

And so I am.

Also, the food we're eating now: way more consistently delicious and amazing than anything ever before on the face of the earth.

Also, natural saturated fats are good for you.

Look it up.

- catie

Ben: I has made socks!

I have now successfully knitted three (3!) pairs of socks! Each pair with less and less need to ask for help from Catie every third stitch (which I know she is grateful for). On my last pair I even turned the heel and and bound them off all by my very own self. I still can't figure out how to cast them on yet, but thankfully I married talented knitter extraordinaire. Umm, I can't really think of anything else to say. I'm sure if I was Catie I could tell you all sorts of detailed business about the knitting process, but I'm out of things to say. So... pictures!

[caption id="attachment_438" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Set (3) Socks!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_446" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="These were the first pair that I knit, and required lots of help from Catie. As in "Ah! I ruined them! Help!""][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_447" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Pair number 2. Charcoal is really hard to knit with, but thankfully it also masks all of my mistakes."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_448" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Okay, so when I said I had finished three pairs that was a little bit of a lie. I've finished this sock and have turned the heel on its mate, but haven't quite got it all done yet. Still I'm more than halfway there, so I just made a slight rounding error!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_449" align="alignright" width="300" caption="It fits! Nothing beats knitting a sock and than having it fit perfectly when you try it on."][/caption]

Catie: A Second Fridge

We've had a lot of interesting difficulties figuring out how to store all the food we eat at home.

Costco is a problem for us.  It is great because we can get so many of the things we need like cheese and butter and these organic frozen vegetables we found there last time.  But it's Costco.  And everything comes in bulk.

Still, we can't get this stuff anywhere else.

So, we buy it.  And then we just try to shove it in the freezer and fridge.  Which...... works.  But is a little haphazard.  Not to mention scary times whenever you open the fridge or freezer.  Especially the freezer since bricks-o-chicken seem to fly out unexpectedly.

I was contemplating canning a few things.  They sell canning jars by the piece here and you can just water bath can them in a pot with a towel.  Or so the jar instructions say.  But the jars are expensive (3-7 bucks a piece) and canning takes more time than freezing, plus it's not as good for things like vegetables as freezing is.  And fermenting.  Apparently, fermenting is the best ever.

Sorry, nutritionist again.

Anyway, a few days ago, we were discussing the freezer/fridge dilemma and Ben went online, looking up whether or not anyone in Korea sells freezers.

They don't.

Kimchi fridges, yes.

Freezers, no.

BUT... he did find us a whole 'nother fridge/freezer combo!

Go, Benny.

And it arrived today.

It rocks.  First, it's WAY nicer than our other fridge.  It has SHELVES.  That aren't broken!  And the guy who sold it to us (for pretty dirt cheap) cleaned it out really, really well.

And second-- actually, I don't think there's a second.  But the first is pretty great.

We also got another mattress for when Ben's family comes to visit.  And a vacuum!!

I am very excited about the vacuum.

Now we are going to Costco to get frozen blueberries (so yummy in homemade yogurt and now we have a place to put them!) and a big shelf for the second bedroom, where food storage is finally going to start happening.

Man... it turns out eating at home is hard.

But it's also pretty delicious.

- catie

Catie: I like food.

I don't know if I've ever liked yogurt as much as I do since making it myself.

[caption id="attachment_418" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="homemade yogurt and granola"][/caption]

Yes, I made my own yogurt!

I know, right?  I was super excited, too.  It even got all creamy and thick and culturey.  And all I had to do was heat it up then stir in some store bought yogurt.

Okay, I'm starting to sound like an infomercial, but seriously.  I kind of am an infomercial when it comes to yogurt right now.

Korea has The Most Yogurt of Life.  And it's all a little scary.  From yogurt cups to yogurt drinks to yogurt milk?  Isn't that just yogurt?  For a few things, I was buying, "plain" Activia (sweetened with fructose.. plain?), but the healthier we get at home, the more I'm cutting out creepy processed foods and sweeteners and I've been reading about all these people making their own yogurt.

It is EASY.

Seriously.  Like, SO easy.

This isn't like when I make something and Ben says, "Yeah, it was easy for you."  Not like that kind of easy.  Like actually easy, I guess.

Here is what I did:

[caption id="attachment_419" align="alignright" width="180" caption="I added cranberries afterward because they are YUM."][/caption]

1. Put 1/2 gallon milk (any fat content works -- even nonfat) in crock pot.

2. Turn Crock Pot to Low and put lid on.

3. Leave, with lid on, for 2 1/2 hours to warm.

4. Turn Crock Pot off and unplug.  Put 2 cups of the warm milk into a bowl and add 1/2 cup Activia (2 little yogurt cups) to the bowl.  Stir and the put all this back into the Crock Pot and stir that.  Put lid back on Crock Pot.

5. Move Crock Pot to warm-ish, out of the way area and wrap entire Crock Pot in two big bath towels with one dish towel folded on top to cover the lid.

6. Leave for 8-12 hours.  I left mine 8.  I was too excited to leave it longer.

7. Now it's yogurt!  Store in fridge, in airtight containers.

I know it's seven steps, but two of them are all about doing nothing and letting the Crock Pot just sit there, so, really, that means it's only five steps.

[caption id="attachment_429" align="alignleft" width="203" caption="This is my giant Costco jam jar full of yogurt that I made on Wednesday. It's now Friday and at least half the yogurt in the jar (plus everything that wouldn't fit into the jar) is gone. Which is primarily because I ate it... Ben is not so excited about it. And I've just been craving yogurt, what else is there to say?"][/caption]

Advantages to making one's own yogurt:

1. It is actually PLAIN yogurt!  No sweeteners, no thickeners, no additives.  I know what is in it (and pretty soon, after using my own yogurt as my next starter, I will get all the Activia starter diluted out of there) and it is just milk and cultures.

2. It is fresh.  The cultures contained in yogurt rock for your body (and I know this because I am smart and I read now.  It is a newly acquired skill), but most yogurts either don't contain any active cultures, or they did contain active cultures and now they're dead/weak and lame because they've been on the shelf too long.

3.  It is, like, SO good for you, okay?  The cultures help you digest other dairy rich foods, like milk, with lots of lactose because that's what they're doing in the yogurt.  That's what makes it taste sour.  The cultures are eating all the lactose.  Then, you put them in your stomach and they eat all the other lactose.  And other stuff.  They're awesome for digestion and, let me tell you, my yogurt may have started from Activia, but it works way better.

4. You have ALL the control.  I like this in.. well, everything really.  It's my mom's fault (sorry, mom! <3 that's supposed to be a heart...... for love. you know?) .  Anyway, since you can control how long you leave the yogurt to incubate (that's the towel-wrapping-leaving-it-to-sit part), you get to control how much lactose ends up in the end product.  So, if you leave it for 8, like I did, you still have quite a bit of lactose (milk sugar), but the yogurt is really mild (not very tangy at all), so I just don't put any sweetener in it, only my homemade granola.  But if you leave it for 24 hours, all the lactose should be gone, you'll have a really tart yogurt, and you can sweeten it with honey.  Which is also yum.  And good for the lactose intolerant.

5. Yogurt cheese.  I have just discovered yogurt cheese and it is my new best friend.  A lot like Greek yogurt in

[caption id="attachment_430" align="alignright" width="158" caption="See my cute little jar-o-starter for next time? Right next to the cute, brown eggs from our lady at the traditional market."][/caption]

consistency (real thick), yogurt cheese is awesome to use in place of cream cheese on bagels and toast because it has more redeeming value than cream cheese what with it's active cultures and lack of creepy additives, but it has a lot of the flavor of cream cheese.  And all you have to do to make it is put the yogurt in a piece of cheesecloth in a strainer, over a bowl, and drain out all the whey, so it gets all thick and yummish.

I know I sounds like a nutritionist now.  It's annoying.  But I was homeschooled.  You can totally blame it on that.

In other news, as pictured above IN the homemade yogurt, I made my own granola, too!  It is also good and has the same value as yogurt as far as no processed foods and additives go.  I know what went in it and that makes me feel better about eating it.

I think that's one thing that's hard about living here.  Not being able to read the ingredient labels and knowing that Koreans have a different standard for what's okay to eat.  Obviously, it works for them.  They have the least obesity overall of any first world country.  But I don't necessarily want MSG or sodiumdioxihydratedphosorosates or... things.  Like that.

We've been making a lot of food at home.

Can you tell?

The granola has:

Rolled Oats

Sunflower Seeds

Pecans

Walnuts

Almonds

Honey

Butter

Water

I got it a little browner than it should probably be, but it still tastes fine.  I just won't be sharing it with the neighbors, who seems a little adverse to my offerings thus far anyhow.  I tried to give them banana muffins.

I think it was a no-go.

But I drank the Red Ginseng Tonic that makes me positively gag, so.. we're even.

In the realm of knitting, we have:

[caption id="attachment_420" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ben's clogs. He says they are cozy and warm. Unfortunately, the wool also picks up all the lint on the floor. Or, perhaps, fortunately. He can be my dustmop."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_421" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The foxy I knit. In very bad light. I've had issues with light that are irritating. Sorry it's so hard to see. I finally gave up."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_424" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The elephant."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_425" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And the octopus. With two red tentacles since I ran out of blue... haha."][/caption]

Anyway, I think that is all for now.

Soon, I think I will make some crackers because we haven't been able to find any decent crackers here and we would eat a lot more of them if they were available.  I know crackers are time consuming as well as a pain to make, but I'm hoping they might be worth it for us.

Oh!  And once we get a blender (maybe not until next month -- I keep putting it off), we will also make our own peanut butter.  It is easy.  Or so we hear.

More later.

And hopefully more often.

But don't expect the sounding-like-a-nutritionist to wear off.  Poor Ben...  He's a trooper.

- catie

Catie: I guess you could say it's been a while.

But can I just note that I have been very busy.

Number 1.) Knitting.

Number 2.) Cooking some stuff.

Number 3.) Failing at all baking endeavors.

Number 4.) Knitting more things I want to have.

Number 5.) Organizing the kitchen, living room and bedroom intermittently.

Number 6.) Cleaning out and setting up the spare room to become a makeshift pantry. (All right, I haven't exactly done this yet, but soon I will be very busy doing it, so it is my excuse for next time.)

See how busy I have been?

Answer: So very.

Yes, you are right.

Things I have knit:

1. a pair of slipper clogs for The Benjamin.

2. a pair of socks for me.

3. ...half of another pair of socks.  also for me.

4. still MORE on my red, cabled cowl scarf and no, it is not done yet, believe me, I will be the first to tell you when that bane of my very existence is finally DONE.

5. half a pair of one slipper clog for me.  I got bored.  yes, yes, I got bored.  probably because, for this pair, I didn't have a husband waiting for slippers.

6. a red and blue elephant.

7. a red and blue octopus.

8. a happy little fox.

9: three weird looking balls.

10. a felted handle for a basket/makeshift drawer that contains kitchen utensils and lives under a riser on the kitchen table/makeshift counter top.

11. a little felted bag with a button hole that hangs on a hook near the sink and is filled with every rubber band in existence.  It's a cute bag and I needed those rubber bands off my counter.  I'd normally put them in a drawer, but Koreans don't like drawers, and we only have two, both housed in our wardrobe.  So, there is a ledge along the back of the kitchen sink, under the window, and I kept them there in a little box.  But they kept collecting odd food particles as well as always getting tangled up in the green robot man that I found under the fridge a few months ago who managed to make his way into the rubber band box.  Anyway, it was just TOO much.  So, I knit a wall-bag (and I coined the term "wall-bag").  Mostly in public, while out and about.  Korean women always think I'm knitting hats.  Always.  They point at my hands and they hit their heads saying all kinds of things in Korean and then, in Korean, I say "No, no." (since that is just about the extent of my second language skills) and then I say, "Bag.  Is bag." (like if I speak in broken English they'll be better able to understand) and I make the motion that seems to be Korean speak for "shopping bag", which means moving my hands from a cupping gesture, outward and up to sort of outline the bottom of a bag.  Then they look at me like I've just lost my mind because who makes shopping bags that small and.. then they give me a nod and pat their head one more time, saying the word for "hat".  Just making sure I'm really looney.  And I smile and they leave and anyway, now it's done.  So, they don't think I'm crazy for making tiny shopping bags, just for wearing birkenstocks in the winter and for leaving the house in a very light drizzle without an umbrella.

13. a calorimetry.  it turned out waaay big, but I wear it anyway.

14. I just-just finished my first pair of endpaper mitts yesterday.  it may possibly be true that I have been lusting after them in an unnaturally disturbing sort of way.  possibly.  but, now they are finished.

I think those are pretty much all my recent projects.  I am now working on a second pair of endpaper mitts (they were the funnest thing I've made in a long time), the half-done sock and NOT the bane of my existence.  Oh, and also my 1/4 finished clogs, which are cute colors.  red-orange and pale turquoise.

It is late now and the light is bad, so I do not have pictures for you, but I am planning on taking some of, you know, things.

We didn't cook much in December. It was busy and crazy and we just ended up eating out a lot.  To the complete detriment of our health.  But, through many fits of digestive illness, we have again begun to cook at home.  This time, I've been paying a lot more attention to our healthier American food options like whole wheat spaghetti and fresh frozen green beans instead of canned, etc...  Eating American in Korea can be difficult (although I'd venture to say we're quite adept at this point), but eating healthy American is even more difficult.  However, there is a lot of brown rice, some frozen alternatives to canned vegetables, yummy yogurts (waaay too many yogurts), soy products, awesome tofu and the best produce and eggs anywhere.  Now I just need to figure out which greens are what so we can make salads.  None of them make sense to me and all of them look like the weeds you pull out of your garden.  Some of them taste like them, too, and that is gross.

Today, we found some good frozen vegetables at Costco.  This is nice only because the combination includes broccoli and cauliflower, two vegetables we either can't find or refuse to eat (cauliflower = nowhere to be found, broccoli = tastes like the smell of new tires mixed with moldy navel oranges).  We eat lots of zucchini and I think I may have found beets the other day which could be interesting.  I've been craving a chocolate beet cake.

Anyway.  I have to go... you know, do something.  Like I usually do.

- catie