korean feast

tonight we made korean for dinner. my stepbrother had already boiled bamboo shoots so i just sliced them and mixed them with the ingredients from this recipe and fried some kal-chee (ribbon fish) and cooked my glutinous mix rice with all kinds of barley and millet and rice. we ate it with seasoned roasted seaweed and spicy candied cuttlefish. oh, and i made denjang jigae (soybean tofu stew) too. it was a very healthy meal.

johnny is making good progress with the chicken coop. we had a bit of a disagreement on the color of the coop, and it's sheathing material. he wants some boring "barnyard" style coop, with red shingles. i want a more post-modern style, painted the beautiful deep blue and sheathed in clear corrugated plastic. we'll see who shall prevail. i think our chickens deserve to have pride in their residence. i think, as the qualified architect of the family, whatever i say goes.... i won't post anymore progress pictures until the finished product so you'll just have to come back in a few days and find out!

worms :)

to hell with trying a new post layout. i was experimenting for the last couple of posts and have now decided it just isn't working out. oh well. yesterday johnny and i planted the hibiscus bushes and re-grading the ground where the big boxwood bushes used to be by the front sidewalk. there are a ton of roots and when we disturbed the soil, all these red worms appeared! so we quickly picked as many as we could to put in the new compost pile (which was attracting bugs). some of them i had to pull out of the ground, which was kind of gross - especially if one accidentally got ripped in half - eeewwww.... but we got a good number of them and they are now happily feasting away on our rotting kitchen scraps.

i didn't realize just how fast the bamboo shoots were growing until i went behind our shed. B and i came across several HUGE bamboo shoots - some of them already way taller than us and fat, too! i'd say this one was about 15' tall with about a 4" diameter. that's BIG!

weekend in pictures

look at how much the bamboo has grown overnight, i'd say about 3 or 4 inches. it's funny how the bamboo does not grow on the little trail that the dogs have carved in the ivy going up to Marge's fence. hopefully enough bamboo stalks will mature to provide a nice little screen. unfortunately, louie and syrus love to knock over the shoots and chew on them!

i'm going to harvest some shoots today and make some delicious dishes with them.

today johnny and i went to home depot (boo) and got a few odds and ends for the coop he's building. i bought some $5 gal of dark blue oops paint and white exterior semi-gloss for the trim. i also got four bales of hay, which i had to cram into my mazda. fun!


louie was posing for me this morning so i took some paparazzi shots. look at him, seducing the camera. holding his football and panting lightly. he was wagging his tail a bit, too. he loves to have his picture taken!

syrus hates it. bibi doesn't care either way, but seriously she need to be on the cover of a magazine. i know i'm sick...




i also decided to start inventory-ing our fridge to keep on top of what we have in there so we can come up with meals to make without rooting through the fridge. i am thinking about making this into an excel spreadsheet and color coding them. i think i can make a nice little system here!













here is the official week #2 photo! wooohoo! it's a little late but you can see clearly that the seedlings are taking off! i also planted peas & beans around the teepee which have just started to come out of the ground. i couldn't resist myself at home depot and bought a few more plants - a climbing jasmine to plant near the back porch and a sweet basil, cinnamon basil, and leeks seedlings.

here is the progress thus far of the coop. it's very sturdy and well-crafted. johnny is doing a wonderful job! seriously, it's more like a chicken bunker! well, they are gonna need all the protection they can get - choco will be surrounding their compound waiting for the first opportunity, i'm sure...

bamboo shoots!

this year i have decided to document the amazing speed at which bamboo grows. last spring i saw a bamboo tree grow to 15' tall within a week. you have a pretty small window of opportunity to harvest the shoots, so timing is critical. this year, i plan to let a majority of the shoots grow into their full size so i can have some privacy from my neighbor, Marge. bamboo is actually a grass and there are many varieties - from black to purple and all kinds of sizes. i don't know the specific variety we have growing here, but they make for tasty grilling! my mom marinates these young bamboo shoots korean-style, with lots of red pepper paste (kochujang). right now is just about the perfect time to harvest, before they get more than about a foot high, but taller than 6". you just knock them over with your foot. there is rain in the forecast so i am betting that by this time next week, we'll have a lush bamboo forest. i think i will post a recipe for bamboo shoots - as a separate post.

for now, i wish to update on the status of bibi, our precious little furball. bibi had a follow-up appointment yesterday and the doc says she is doing good. although, she does lick her boo-boos too much. her is our beautiful little girl. doesn't she look happy? look at that grin! she has definitely been a lot happier dog, and spoiled rotten, too. sleeps in bed with us every night, curled up next to me with her blocky head on my pillow. she's one tough little cookie, though.

so yeah, so far we are relieved.

and even moto is looking better. he likes the new porch and most of all, he likes B. she stroked him so good the other day he drooled all over her lap. i think moto's in love.

oh, and my kinoki pads arrived!! that was actually faster than i though it would. if you have never heard of kinoki, they are "detoxifying" pads that you attach to the bottom of your feet while you sleep. it's supposed to draw out toxins through your body and out of your feet. i saw it on an infomercial. it's my guilty pleasure. every once in a while, i'll actually buy something i see advertised on tv just to see if it's really that great. (i know they are largely scams) so far i've gotten the miracle blade knife set, a couple of magic bullets, an aromatherapy showerhead, press-on accent lighting, and now these pads. i think they were about $24. i have yet to try them out, but i'll keep you posted.

oh, and it came with a free eye patch thing - it's korean! i probably could have bought this at the flea market on buford hwy....

stir-fry bamboo shoots

ok, this is a nice quick & easy recipe that whips up pretty fast and goes with anything. we eat it as a side dish with rice and broiled salmon necks (yummmm). i'll make them tomorrow and post a picture but for now i'll just write out the recipe (from my mom, so you know it's legit):

garlic stir-fry bamboo shoots

2 or 3 tender fresh bamboo shoots (sorry, the canned stuff won't work)
1 - 2 tablespoons minced garlic, to taste
a generous glug of toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon lightly roasted sesame seeds
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce (or dash of salt, to taste)
1 or 2 finely sliced chile peppers (if you want some heat)
1 small onion

first, blanch the shoots by bringing a stockpot of water to a vigorous boil and let shoots boil for about a minute, then cut off heat. let the shoots rest in the hot water for about 5 mins. drain and let cool a bit. peel off the outer layers (like corn) of purple husk. chop off any tough ends. cut the shoot in half lengthwise and slice finely. let drain on paper towel.
heat frying pan on medium high and saute the onion, chile pepper, and garlic for a minute, then add the shoots. add the fish sauce (or salt) quickly stir-fry until things get tender but not limp. add the sesame seeds and fry for a minute more. you're done!

you may have to play around a bit with the amount of salt/pepper/garlic to suite your tastes. this is a great side dish to keep in the fridge (it lasts a pretty long time, freezes well). the next recipe will be spicy grilled bbq bamboo shoots, but i'll save that for later.

news you can use

i realized the other day while driving home from work that not everybody knows what i know. and i just took it for granted that they did. for example: last week my boss took me to one of his vistage meetings to hear a speaker talk about nutrition. vistage is a membership for ceo's who want to better themselves, better their business, etc. anyways, i tried to keep my eye rolling to a minimum because the whole thing was lame. well, lame to me. so the guy blabs on about eating the right proportions and talks about fiber and protein and yada yada yada - like who hasn't heard all of this before? he seriously expected these people to pack a small cooler with protein and veggies everyday and take it everywhere so that you can eat 6 times a day. he's also a bodybuilder. that right there made me tune him out. he is not your average person and therefore knows not what he demands. anyways, he had this HUGE secret to share. he said it would be LIFE CHANGING and that it was actually illegal for him to tell us this. now, this perked me right up cause it sounded fantastic. i was anxiously waiting for him to reveal the mystery of a good looking body. finally, he picks up a small bottle and with a huge grin, pronounces that he has found the ultimate solution. stevia. stevia. i accidentally laughed out loud and then had to play it off. he passed it around so everyone could have a taste and there was much ooohing and aaahing. i was quite disappointed. stevia was his ace in the hole? who the hell doesn't know about stevia? hello? why is it illegal for him to tell us about it? because the sugar industry has literally outlawed the promotion of stevia as a sugar substitue. crazy, huh? anyways, i left the meeting early cause there was nothing else this guy could have said that i didn't already know. i know i sound extremely pompous. but come on, who doesn't know about stevia? in this day and age, there is information everywhere! tips, articles, books, blogs, forums, etc etc. how can any person on any kind of diet/nutrition kick not know about using stevia and eating lots of soluable and insoluable fiber and eating protein only the size of your palm? duh!!

then it occured to me that maybe I'm the one who doesn't realize something. maybe i'm just a freak of nature, that i obsessively research stuff and squirrel away information like a packrat? yes, you only have to look at the files on my computer and the number of bookmarks i have to know this. i have over 3,000 bookmarks. and i don't normally bookmark a single page or article unless it's really good. i bookmark entire websites chock full of information both common knowledge and obscure. i know shit that i have no reason to know. and then an epiphany: would i be doing a good deed by sharing any of this info? i mean, half the blogs on the web are tutorials or how-to videos, lists & tips. i don't want to be regurgitating anything already online - but then maybe the people who read my blog don't know about those websites? maybe they don't have the time or inclination to root through all the crap to find the good stuff?

can ya tell i'm bored at work today?

back to stevia. if you don't know what it is, it's a plant. it is a natural sweetener - which means no weird chemicals, no calorie overload, no insulin rush. it's like 400,000 times sweeter than sugar or something like that. you only need a 1/4 teaspoon of the diltuted stuff to equal a whole tablespoon of sugar. use it for sweetening everything, you can find it with the herbal supplements (it's illegal to promote it as sugar, so it won't be in that section of the store). there's a comapny called sweet leaf that makes a product and you can also find it at trader joe's.

so this morning in my daily perusal of google reader, i come across this very handy article called 20 things you can use twice before throwing away. isn't that handy? check it out.

oh, Atlanta... what has happened to you?

today i happened upon two separate articles online that list the top cities for traffic congestion and pollution. guess what? yup, ATL is on both lists! and pretty high up on the traffic list, coming in at #2, behind houston. It's #6 for particle pollution and tied with San Diego at #12 for ozone pollution.

10 years ago, i don't think Atlanta was even on either list. so, wtf happened? well, everybody and their freakin grandmother decided to move down south, where it's warmer and there are more jobs. unfortunately, Atlanta's infrastructure was not up to par with the influx of new residents. also, Atlanta is one of the most sprawled urban / suburban cities. you HAVE to commute to get anywhere.

i remember the city back when there was way less traffic and better air. i wish it could go back to that sometimes but all cities are supposed to grow, right?

on the economy

you cannot escape all the talk about recession anymore. it's in every newspaper, radio, website and conversation. what i don't understand is how exactly we got to this point, because from my perspective, things look really dismal. fed cutting rates + falling dollar value + high fuel costs + high unemployment + rising food costs = ?????? what does this all mean? is this the year we fall? in a way, i'm kind of hoping it is. i think we need a wake-up alarm call as americans. we need to know that our country is only as great as we make it and hold ourselves accountable to it's prosperity. i know the average person feels helpless to make any difference but how do you know if you don't even try? i think in order to taste sweetness you have to know what bitter is, and our generation knows nothing of bitterness. we spend like crazy, hurt each other, hurt ourselves and blame everyone else. we have to evolve into a more responsible society and i am hoping that if we do enter a depression (i already consider this a recession, despite what "experts" say), it will act as a catalyst for change.

a good thing about being korean...

we have adorable babies...

korean baby singing hey jude


hello! good morning! johnny is supposed to be building my coop today but is now helping clean out one of my mom's rental houses. it was really cold yesterday and last night, almost freezing! my veggies made it through OK, though.

veggie garden grow!

well, it's been a week since johnny built my raised veggie garden, and i have since planted the following: yellow onion, zuchini, yellow squash, sweet green bell pepper, ceyenne pepper, roma tomato, beefsteak tomato, watermelon, yellow wax bean, peas, green beens, okra, carrots, and cherry tomato (on the patio). I also have a hanging basket of strawberry plants and various herbs. i looooove picking the leaves and smelling them. i have pineapple sage, lemon balm, lemon thyme, peppermint, and lavender. i am going to take progress pictures as i go along, so the official snapshot for week one is this:

sorry that it's all out of focus. i'm still waiting on the return of my nikon. also, the garden has advanced beyond this significantly since this photo was taken. i am very curious to see how much this little garden can actually produce. i still want a pmpkin patch somewhere but i still have to figure that one out. johnny is building me a chicken coop!! i can't wait to see it!! i can't wait to have chickens!! i might even build a small koi pond this year....

and last night, in another indian cooking extravaganza, B and i made a feast. everything absolutely from scratch, too. i made potatoes and peas samosas (which came out better than i imagined), B made tadka dal and saag paneer and johnny made tandoori chicken and tofu - from scratch! imagine that, my small town redneck made indian tandoori from scratch! we topped everything off with a super sweet seedless watermelon. its'gooood!