Monday, January 3, 2011

Homemade Kimchi



Kimchi!! Sour, salty, sweet, spicy-- all in one! There's no doubt as to why it's such an important part of Korea's rich food culture. It makes the perfect side dish to rice dishes, to grilled meats, it's great in stews and in pancakes/omelettes, and it's also great for your health.

Methods for making kimchi vary, and in Korea they even have nationwide kimchi competitions! (I was watching some food documentary on my plane ride to Singapore last summer after I got bored of the movies.) Do check out Maangchi's kimchi recipe! Hers will probably taste better, because she takes the extra effort to make a kimchi "spice porridge" first before coating the cabbage. And she has add-ons like oysters. But oh well, my fuss-free method tastes not half bad too!

Homemade Kimchi
Ingredients
2 heads Chinese leaf lettuce/Napa cabbage, chopped into big pieces (or you can leave whole)
1/2 cup sea salt
2" piece of ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp Korean red chilli powder (it's more earthy and less spicy than normal chilli powder so you can add a lot to get that depth and nice red colour without burning your tongue)
1 tbsp hot pepper flakes (optional)

Choose your own "add-ons"
Spring onions, Leeks, Carrots, Radishes etc.


Method
1. Sprinkle the cabbage with the sea salt, and set aside for 2-4h, turning once in a while to salt evenly.
2. Rinse the lettuce 3 times. Drain.
3. Rub and evenly coat the cabbage with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Transfer to a tight sealed container, and leave it at room temperature for 2-4 days. You'll see bubbles!
5. Transfer to the fridge, for up to a month. It will get more sour and develop a stronger flavour. If you can wait, don't enjoy immediately. But I've left mine much longer, and Koreans prized long-fermented kimchi.


Fixing Your Heart on Titus 2 Project



Recently, in one of my Wisdom Wednesday posts, I wrote a post about what Titus 2 meant to me. The inspiration for that post came from a blog site I recently found called At the Well. I have been following their blog now and came across this project today. Here is what the project is about in their own words:


We are very excited to start a new feature today called Fixing Your Heart on Titus 2. This will be a very practical and interactive weekly feature here At the Well.
Each week, we will share a project that relates to being a Christian woman and living out our Titus 2 roles in real life. It could relate to being a wife, or a mother, or a homemaking, or serving in the community, etc…
We will provide a linky for the women who are committing to complete the project to add their blog. This will provide an opportunity for getting to know one another and also praying for one another throughout the week.
Then, if you decide to blog about the experience of completely that week’s project, we will also provide a second linky where you can add the direct link to your post reflecting on the project and its outcome or impact.

I am really excited about this project! I hope you will go to their site and check it out. The project for this week is the following: 
Let’s start off foundational. This week the project is to spend at least 30 minutes per day reading the Bible and in prayer.

This week's project goes great with one of my New Years resolutions, which is to spend more time reading, especially devotional time. I plan on splitting this time up; 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the evening. 

I will check in again next week to report how this went and what the new project for the week will be!  


Be sure to check out my current giveaway: The Pampered Chef Season's Best Recipe Collection! 24 recipes that you can make in 30 minutes or less and cost an average only $2 per serving!! 

Enjoy what you read here at Golden Reflections? Please vote daily over at Picket Fence Blogs, just click on the button below! Thanks!!

 

Menu Plan Monday

Well, last week definitely did NOT go as planned. I am going to be bringing over quite a few things from last week. With the hubby being home, we ended up going out and doing a lot more things than I had anticipated, so that meant no time for me to be at home trying out a lot of my new recipes. So we will try again this week. Course, this week I am back to work, so we will see how far I get this time, haha.

Monday - Vegetarian Meatloaf
Tuesday - Hot dogs and chili
Wednesday - Spaghetti with veggie meat sauce
Thursday - Risotto
Friday - Black Bean Soup
Sabbath - Italian Potatoes (Potluck at church)
Sunday - Order out (i.e. pizza)

Other items: Home made vegetable broth, Museli.

Have a great week!


Be sure to check out my current giveaway: The Pampered Chef Season's Best Recipe Collection! 24 recipes that you can make in 30 minutes or less and cost an average only $2 per serving!!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday.

Enjoy what you read here at Golden Reflections? Please vote daily over at Picket Fence Blogs, just click on the button below! Thanks!!

Mormor's Loom


Our grandmother, Mormor - or Mother's Mother - has a beautiful room in her house. We called it The Loom Room. Wanna guess why?

Mormor is Swedish. She came to this country to work for one adventurous year. But then she met our grandfather and fell in love. Need I say more?




She has never lost her love for Sweden or it's arts or it's meatball recipe or it's pepparkakor...or her lovely Swedish accent.

She's an amazing weaver, but recently decided it was time to pass that along to her daughter, and her daughter's daughters. That "daughter's daughters"...that's us - Sisters Four.

When we visited her last month she gave us a lesson on her loom. It was a special time.

The loom is so beautiful. Very well made. All the way from Sweden.


First Mormor sat down and showed us how to weave.


You can use wool, like this stuff that she carded and spun into yarn herself.


Or rags, cut into strips and glued together. We were using rags that day.





Our Grandma wears cool socks, doesn't she!



Then it was time for Mom to try it out.



Mothers' hands...passing down through the generations the ability to create, nurture, mold, care, work...



Then it was our turn.



Doesn't Tera look so completely Swedish here?
Someday, I want to make a blanket as beautiful as this one that my grandmother made.

Pepparkakor...another Swedish tradition that we love!

The room is still lovely, but now it holds the bed I'm sleeping in while I'm visiting here. And the loom is at home...where we hope to learn the art of weaving so that we can make beautiful things and then pass it along to the next generation.

For Sisters Four,
Sage

Jerry Brown Confronts Reality

... and does it with his typical candor.
The new governor’s budget will be introduced after former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger grappled with shortfalls that totaled $100 billion combined since June 2008. During that time, the state cut spending more than $45 billion and raised taxes by $12.5 billion. Another $36 billion of one-time or temporary solutions pushed some of the deficit into future years.

Brown is likely to propose even more cuts and call for a special election to ask voters for money, said Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Edmund G. Brown Institute of Public Affairs -- named for Jerry Brown’s father, himself a former governor -- at California State University, Los Angeles. Options include extending temporary tax increases on income, retail sales and vehicle registrations put in place in 2009. They are set to expire this year.

The reductions may include eliminating local redevelopment agencies, shrinking social-services benefits, slashing aid to state universities and closing parks, the Sacramento Bee reported today, citing a source close to Brown’s budget proposal.
Good on ya, Jerry. Just as only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only a Jerry Brown could slash spending.

Roast Duck for Luck and Best Wishes for 2011


Happy New Year! Last week, I looked at traditional New Year food in Scottish steak and sausage pie and food which is believed to bring luck for a New Year, in pork, black eyed peas and cabbage. I decided to finish this topic with the simply poetic - as well as extremely delicious - roast duck for luck. As promised previously, I will also look at the end of this post at New Year resolutions and how we can make them effective in relation to food and to healthier eating.


There is no need to buy a whole duck when you wish to have duck on the menu. Duck breasts, crowns and legs can be bought separately and this is especially useful when cooking for smaller parties. In this instance, cooking only for myself, I purchased two duck legs and used one in this recipe, while with the other I made a delicious Duck, Celery and Chestnut Soup.

Roast Duck for One Ingredients

1 duck leg and thigh (skin on)
2 medium potatoes
1/2 head of broccoli
Little sunflower oil
Salt and black pepper


Method

Put your oven on to preheat to 375F/190C/Gas mark 5. Use a little bit of sunflower oil to oil the centre of a baking tray and place the duck leg and thigh on the oiled section, skin side up. Season with salt and pepper and put the tray in to the oven for forty-five minutes.

When the duck is in the oven, peel the potatoes and chop them in to bite sized pieces. Place them in to a pot of lightly salted cold water and on to a high heat. When the water boils, reduce the heat and simmer for twenty-five minutes. Drain and return them to the pot with more cold water to cool.

When the duck has been roasting for forty-five minutes, remove it from the oven to a heated plate and cover it with foil to rest, while you put the finishing touches to the potatoes and cook the broccoli.


The potatoes should be drained before being carefully dried in a clean tea towel. They should be added to the hot tray of duck fat, stirred around gently to coat them evenly and put in to the oven for fifteen minutes. The broccoli should be broken in to florets and boiled in salted water for eight to ten minutes.

New Year's Resolutions, Food and Healthy Eating

Tens of millions of people, every year, make New Year's resolutions with the very best of intentions, only for the idea to fall by the wayside within days. There are many reasons why New Year's resolutions fail but the bottom line is that most often they are made without being given due consideration of what is involved and what actions/sacrifices will be required.

If you have made or are yet considering a New Year resolution for 2011 to eat in a more healthy fashion, I have resolved to use this blog to help you out. Throughout the year, on a regular basis, I will include here specific healthier eating tips and advice, as well as the recipes which incorporate many of these techniques. I hope that you will come back frequently to check this information and that you will find it both useful and beneficial in the long term.

From "Unsustainable" to "Unsustained"

Illinois is going over the cliff.
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois lawmakers will try this week to accomplish in a few days what they have been unable to do in the past two years -- resolve the state’s worst financial crisis.

The legislative session that begins today will take aim at a budget deficit of at least $13 billion, including a backlog of more than $6 billion in unpaid bills and almost $4 billion in missed payments to underfunded state pensions.
The jig is up, but they're deluding themselves just a little bit longer.
Lawmakers meeting in Springfield will consider spending cuts, an expansion of casino gambling and a proposal from Democratic Governor Pat Quinn to borrow $15 billion to pay overdue bills and help fill the budget hole.
It's like watching an alcoholic hit bottom. The solution is gambling and borrowing? Good luck with that, boys.

New Year in an Aegean Village (2)

New Year's Day


Saturday was just as it should be for the start of the new year: bright with the colours of the sky and sea just singing.

We couldn't stay inside and anyway a walk down to the old harbour of Assos we felt would do us good after the feast that we enjoyed at Biber Evi  - literally Chilli House - the night before. This is a boutique hotel right in the heart of the village owned and run by our friends Lutfi and Beyhan.


 This is the place to stay if you are ever in the area. Lutfi is a man of many talents and one of them is cooking but the main attraction is the warm welcome and terrific hospitality. Dinner last night was a treat.




So we set off. The water was like glass. All the buildings you see which are now hotels and restaurants, were in fact abandoned Greek warehouses, left to their fate until their timely discovery in the early 1970s by Julia and Feyzi KatırcıoÄŸlu. They took a risk, bought them all up and renovated them. Now Assos is a thriving little port with the village also known as Behramkale up above. Luckily it can't be spoilt as the natural geography of the place defies more construction.

We decided to have a grilled fish lunch at Hayrettin's and he did not disappoint. He grilled us a huge çipura or gilthead bream and we had half each with a few mezes. After all the rich food of the last week or so, this simple salad had a particularly fresh appeal.



We are in the heart of the olive picking season right now. This area is better known for its green ones. The villagers are lucky that the weather is on their side for the picking this year as it's not an easy task.