Spicy Korean Tofu Soup

I'm surprised my Korean feast took so long to post. Almost a year ago, we had friends over and hosted a Korean themed dinner. We served spare-ribs, tofu soup, kimchee fried rice, and of course more kimchee on the side. It was a good time and simply delicious. I love Korean cuisine from the little side dishes to the cook-yourself fun and if you haven't tried it before, you're definitely missing out.

I'll need to dig up the recipe for the other dishes so I will post the soup for now. I don't stick to the same recipe each time; I just know that I use two different sites (#1 and #2) and I somehow combine the two sets of ingredients and instructions. Promise - I will one day have a solid recipe that I will gather from these various sites and post the one to share, but I'm afraid to say that that day is not today...

Broccoli, Grape, and Pasta Salad

The food pyramid would be very pleased with this dish. You have your vegetables, fruit, meat, nuts and pasta - you're welcome.

I contributed this dish during a housewarming BBQ and was very pleased, not only because it was tasty because the color from the grapes, tomatoes, and broccoli made it a pretty side. Please also note I also added slices of salame which I highly recommend. This is going to end up being a favorite for when I have to make a dish for potlucks! The recipe can be found here.

Happy Halloween with Rice Krispies

I'm back (I hope)! It's so difficult to maintain a blog as a hobby. The FoodieWeds still love to cook and bake more than ever so I hope to update this with some meals from the past months.

Since Halloween just passed, I wanted to share some goodies I made for the occasion. To go with my Girl Scout costume, I wanted to be able to hand out treats at the Halloween party, so discovered an awesome yet easy recipe to make Candy Corn Rice Krispies in the October edition of Martha Stewart Food. You actually make 3 different batches of rice krispies because of the various colors so it gets repetitive but you become a real pro!

For best results for this specific recipe, you'll want to use a loaf pan. It will help give you a good starting mold to shape the treats into a candy corn shape (I didn't do such a good job with this, as you'll see in the photos below). Also, you'll find it helpful to line the pan with wax paper to the top so it'll be easy to remove once hardened. Once you take it out, it should look a little something like this:

Then take out your serrated bread knife and slice the block into 8-10 even pieces.

Then again, slice those pieces in half. You'll start seeing the shape getting formed.

Finally, you'll start molding the rice krispie with your fingers. As I said, my shape wasn't ideal but people got the idea. I purchased some clear baggies from Michael's and some Halloween stickers, stuck the treats in then handed them out. It was a great success and everyone loved them!! Care to try this for next year?

$3 Apple Pie

$3 for the bag of apples from our neighborhood Farmer's Market.  That's all it took to make apple pie.  Well, plus additional spices and ingredients from the pantry.  I didn't intentionally buy the bag of apples to make the pie, but took advantage of the we're-closing-up-so-here's-a-prepackaged-bag-for-cheap deal and my sweet tooth told me to make some pie.  Everything just pieced together perfectly.

I actually ended up combining two recipes - one for the pie itself and the other for the crumb topping.  I already had a ready pie crust from a previous shopping trip so easily decided to just follow Pillsbury's recipe for the pie.  It was easy enough but then it was time to find a crumb topping recipe.  The final verdict was taking part of the recipe from Baked By Rachel.  It ended up being very simple too, but just a little difficult to stick all the crumb bits onto the pie.  I was finding little holes and crevices to stick the crumbs into and the fact that I used way too many apples and made it too round caused a little challenge but you can see here that it's just part of the process.  The crumbs ended up sticking very nicely and the final product wasn't so bad either.

My last time making real fruit pie was probably Home Economics in high school and I recall the apple pie not turning out like this, which is a good thing.  We devoured this baby so fast, I wanted more.  Don't be discouraged by its looks, I actually think it's a pretty good beginner pie to try out because there's no special pie crust or fruit mixture involved.  The crumbs were a perfect topping that don't require much technique because you know, it's just really fun to stick gooey bits all over your pie.

BEFORE 

AFTER

READY TO SERVE!!

Chicken & Artichoke Pasta

The best word I can find for this dish is "refreshing."  It's not a pasta dish with thick white alfredo sauce or typical red marinara sauce...it's just chicken, bacon and the almighty artichoke.  Sound good?  Keep reading.  My first two ingredients were the starting points: pasta and artichoke, so my Google search led me to this cute blog with an appealing recipe.  Currently on their blog, they have a feature for Grilled Fish Tacos with Cantaloupe-Pineapple Salsa.  Umm, hello??!  Yes, please, now, thanks.  And I hate fish.  EDIT - looks like recipe actually originated from So Tasty So Yummy (and so true)

I digress, let's get back to business.  The total cook time was about 45-60 minutes, so a tad long for a week night but definitely still doable because it gives you leftovers for lunch.  Try it out for yourself with the recipe below, but my two cents is to add less lemon because it takes away the flavoring from the rest of the dish.  Plus, canned artichoke already gives a little citrusy twist.  And if you're like me, you love some delicious bacon, so why not add more slices?  The decision was okay in my book because we subbed it with turkey bacon anyway, score!  Can we make this again, soon!??

Ingredients

• 12 oz spaghetti
• 3 slices bacon
• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, halved and pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
• 2 tsp capers, drained
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp butter
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook pasta in salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
2. Cook bacon to a crisp in a large pot over medium heat and remove, setting aside, leaving the rendered fat behind.
3. Whisk together the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow plate.
4. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and shake off any excess.
5. Add the chicken to the pan and fry until cooked through and golden brown, ~5 minutes per side.
6. Transfer the chicken to a paper towel-lined plate and let rest.
7. Add the artichokes, capers, and wine to the pan, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan and cooking for ~2 minutes.
8. Add broth and lemon juice, cooking for another 2 minutes.
9. Add the cream and the butter to the pan, stirring until the butter has melted and incorporated.
10. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
11. Slice the chicken into 1/2-inch slices and add to the caper-artichoke sauce.
12. Add the bacon, pasta, and then gently toss the mixture. Serve immediately.

Yields: 4 servings
Estimated time: 45 minutes

The Grill

I'm marking May 13th as the start of summer in our home.  Why?  Because it's the first time we put use to our BBQ grill.  I don't want to turn this into a product review, but after the two hours it took me to assemble it in Dec (Christmas present from my parents) and the hour it took today for my husband to ignite the gas (still didn't work so we had to use a lighter), I can finally say that it worked wonderfully.  If you check out the photo below, you can see that I didn't use any non-stick product before cooking so that's something I've learned but this thing is a work-horse and is really strong for the small, convenient product that it is.  We still don't know why it doesn't ignite and will now always have to use a lighter, but better than having to return it for another one.  I despise returns/exchanges.

Our summer kick-off dinner consisted of corn, a hot link, and chicken drumsticks.  The corn was brushed with melted butter, garlic, salt and pepper then wrapped up in foil and grilled for about 30 minutes, rotating every 10 minutes.  The hot link was easy and just tossed on for about 30 minutes as well.  And lastly, the chicken was marinated with a recipe by my girl Giada.  Everything was really easy and super tasty and I'm counting down the days until our next BBQ adventure.  P.S. Close the lid when grilling.  I left it open the whole time to admire the meats so everything took a tiiiiiny bit longer to cook than directed =)

Shabu-Shabu / Swish-Swish

Living in Japantown, we could obviously walk down the street and walk into the Shabu restaurant and have everything served to us while we enjoy our meal but if you can prepare everything at home, then why not??  We've had about 5 shabu nights since we discovered how yummy and easy it was to set up.  Since our first fondue experience wasn't a major success, we realized the same pot could be used for shabu.  All ingredients can be purchased at our local Japantown market right down the street and to be honest, it ends up being cheaper than going to the restaurant before tip and all that.  And of course, you can add items that they don't normally provide on the menu like meatballs and baby carrots.  For the basic shabu dinner, here's your grocery list:

-miso base (2 packet) with boiling water

-napa cabbage

-spinach

-potstickers

-seaweed

-firm tofu

-enoki mushrooms

-udon

-thinly sliced beef

-ponzu sauce

-sesame sauce

Mama's Clam Chowder

Been meaning to write about this dish for some time now, but needed to dig up my mom's recipe for Clam Chowder.  If you know me well, you know that I LOVE clam chowder.  Ask my girlfriends and they'll tell you they once found bits of clam chowder in my hair.  True story.  I can't always head to the mall and order a bowl from Boudin, but there's also something different about my mom's version.  When I used to live at home, I remember waking up to the smell of bacon and jumping out of bed because I knew what was for lunch.  Not eggs, sausage, and bacon, but her special clam chowder.  Okay, enough of the trip down memory lane.  After viewing the ingredients list, you'll see it's not authentic New England Clam Chowder...it's definitely got a twist with the added bacon, dill weed, and even celery, but boy it hits the spot.  Here's the recipe - enjoy!!

Ingredients:  

5 slices of bacon, trim fat and chop

2 6.5oz cans of chopped clams (save juice)

2 red potatoes, cubed

2 celery sticks, cubed

1/4 cup dill weed, chopped

1 tbsp butter

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 pint whipping cream

sugar, salt, pepper to taste

corn starch, if needed

Directions:

-Cook bacon for 5 minutes then drain fat

-Stir in clams (without juice), butter, and onions and cook for 5 minutes

-Add heavy cream and clam juice

-Wait to boil then lower heat.  Allow to simmer for 5 minutes, add potatoes.  Simmer another 5 minutes, add celery.  Wait 5 more minutes, then add cornstarch with water until desired thickness.  Top off with dill weed.

Easy Strawberry Shortcake

So simple yet so delicious. This dessert is really just boxed Angel's Food Cake with strawberries and whipped cream but the secret is that you grill the piece of cake for about 3 minutes each side with butter. Then it's magic!

Thai Red Curry by Joe, Trader Joe

This dish is actually extremely simple and really depends on what you put in it.  In the dish below, I put in some cubed chicken breasts, fried tofu, tomatoes, a can of pineapple chunks, then finally threw in Trader Joe's Red Curry Sauce.  If you sniff the sauce, it's has quite a strong kicker so I ended up adding milk and sugar then just fix it according to our taste preference.  In regards to the meat, you can use chicken, beef, and even duck then add in other small items; eggplant, basil, bell peppers and peas are some good examples.  The difficulty level just depends on what you want to include, so have fun!