Friday, June 22, 2007

Catching up

In the past week I've prepared a Korean Dinner with friends at my home, visited Racine, WI on business and there I met lots of people I've talked with on the phone for ages. It's all been good. The dinner was with my trainer, his friend and my students. I prepared an all Korean dinner. My trainer and his friend liked a lot of the food. I don' think I heard any strong dislikes. I'll post a menu later.

The trip to Racine was mostly good. It was delayed because of storms in the Chicago area. We didn't experience anything bad until after we landed and were in Wisconsin. It got so bad I was looking for hail, the precursor of a tornado. Luckily, we didn't get a funnel cloud. It was just really bad weather. That was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful. Low humidity and moderate temperatures. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

On the way back we not only flew of Prosser, my hometown, but we flew directly over Mount Vernon. We were so low that I could see my street. Flying into Bellingham has its perks.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Update on Vonage

Just a quick note to say that I'm pleased with the sound quality of Vonage. So far it meets or exceeds Verizon's quality. I'm glad to have a service that my students can use to call their friends all over the US and doesn't cost extra for any of us. It should also save me some money because now I don't have to use a calling card from home. In the past, I had the long distance service disabled and used a card from Costco.

The control freak in me likes it too. I can see from the internet who has called and who has been called. It tips me off to when I should check my messages.

Cooking in Advance

I have to go on a short business trip in the near future. Because I'm a homestay host to two international students attending Skagit Valley College, I must prepare dinners in advance of the trip. I have it easy because one guy likes everything and the other guy's favorite dinner is pork ribs. Monday I roasted two slabs of ribs. One was to eat and the other to freeze. I use a spice rub recipe from Jane Butel's "Southwestern Kitchen" and then roast them for 45 minutes at 450. I like them just like that but sauce is OK too.

The dish I made tonight is a Korean chicken dish. I marinate chicken thighs in soy sauce, ginger and garlic for an hour. In the mean time I make a sauce of chopped onions, Korean pepper paste, sugar, vinegar, ketchup (?!) and hot sauce. Brown the chicken and then add the sauce. Cook until done. Not too hard but the result is wonderful. I chill, defat and then freeze. This comes from "A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes" by Chang Sun-Young. I use her recipes a lot.

I'll be happy to provide either recipe.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Fame is fleeting

I had a real ego boost when I did a google on Skagit Guy and I came up on the top of the list. The very first selection out of all the internet! Of course, that was 3 days ago. I haven't posted in almost a week. Today I don't make the list at all. I suppose I have to work hard to keep my place at the top.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Netflix

I subscribe to Netflix. I pay about $20 per month to have three movies on a rotating basis. It works well in my house because the students can request movies and I’ll put them in the queue. Another feature that I like is the “Watch Now” option. I get 20 hours per month that I can stream movies to my computer. I can’t access all the DVD titles but there are a lot of good titles available. It’s also good to just take a quick look at something that may or may not be worth your time.

www.netflix.com

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Vonage setup

I received my Vonage box today. It took about 15 minutes to set up. The only thing I forgot was to change the filters on my router. After I took care of that it was nothing but good. The call quality seems great. At times it seems to be better than Verizon.

Vonage is about $28 (with tax) per month and includes domestic long distance and free calling to a lot of phones in western Europe. Unfortunately, it still costs to call cell phones over there. Considering that I'm paying Verizon $42 per month or so. I think I made the right choice as long at the voice quality continues. You do need a high speed internet connection.

www.vonage.com

Monday, June 4, 2007

Kimchi - the finished product

Someone pointed out that we didn’t have pictures of the finished product. One of my students took these last night. The large jar is cabbage kimchi and the quart jar is cucumber kimchi. The cucumbers are cut so they can be stuffed with shredded carrots and chives.





Saturday, June 2, 2007

Mini kimjang at our house

I’ve always wanted to make kimchi but my sole previous attempt was not successful. A few weeks ago I asked my Korean student, Younsang, to ask one of his fellow Korean students if they would like to come to my house to show me how. A woman whose grandmother is a royal cuisine cook offered to show me how. Other students came along to help. We had a great time making many gallons and quarts of kimchi.

Kimchi is a fermented food that comes from Korea. It is similar to sauerkraut but usually has a lot of red pepper, garlic, ginger and other strong flavorings.

The basic sequence of events is as follows:

Cut and salt the Napa cabbage. Let it soak for several hours to release a lot of water. Younsang and Seungjoon started Saturday evening and looked after the cabbage until after midnight. This is a very important part of the process. Too soon and the cabbage won't ferment properly and too late the cabbage will be very salty.

Rinse the salt out of the cabbage.

Make red pepper/rice flour paste and dump in an oversized bowl.









Prepare additional ingredients including green onions, garlic, ginger, Indian mustard, salted shrimp, fish sauce, fresh oysters and shredded Korean radish.





Add ingredients except cabbage to bowl and mix well.



Set cabbage on top of the mixture and pull down outer leaves. Coat the inside with the mixture. Continue pulling down additional leaves until center is reached.






Squeeze out excess sauce and fold outer leaves over and place in a sanitized jar.

Leave on kitchen counter for 2-3 days and then refrigerate.

Kimchi will slowly become tangier. It can then be used in kimchi fried rice or kimchi stew.

After all the hard work is done, a festive meal is in order. All the students and myself contributed to this table full of Korean food.



If you want to learn more about kimchi here are a couple of links that will provide you with the details of this delicious and unique Korean food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi


http://kimcheedepot.com/aboutkimchee.html

I hope to visit this museum when I’m in Seoul this November:

http://www.kimchimuseum.co.kr/english/information.htm

In addition, I hope to visit the Garak market during Kimjang. Garak is the premier market in Korea.

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/eng/info_db/shop/shop_detail.jsp?seqno=15

Kimjang is the time when families prepare several months worth of kimchi in order to see them through the winter. It’s becoming less popular because of modern conveniences but it is still a big event.

From what I’ve heard, our kimchi is very much appreciated by the many students who received it.

Friday, June 1, 2007

First Post

I have a lot planned for this blog. I want to discuss movies, food, restaurants, lawn care, languages, kayaking and a lot more.

Let me know what you would like to see here.