My Valentine's Day mistake

Welp, Valentine's Day was yesterday and it was pretty good overall. At school in the daytime,  I made that really cute card, which Hoon really loved and was super surprised that I made all by myself. Plus, the chocolates and peppero that I made turned out super great and the bags and everything were just about perfect. Like a professional! ^^

Then, there was this little mistake. I was planning to make this positively delicious tomato cream sauce pasta that I got a recipe for off Pioneer Woman (who just so happens to be one of my idols).

Well, after school finished, I went to EMart to pick up some ingredients (pasta, tomato sauce, cream, parsley). The problem I have with E-Mart is that their dairy section is constantly changing. Some items that they carry get removed mysteriously practically overnight. And others move to completely different locations, and then coffee drinks replace them. This is what happened to the heavy cream which three weeks ago, there were several different brands of and plenty of them at that. Yesterday, at EMart, I circled the coffee/cream/butter/cheese refrigerator three times without success. Then, finally I saw it! 크림! Cream! I snatched it up and was off.

Then I got home. As I was unpacking the food, lo and behold I discover this cream caveat that I didn't originally notice: *휘핑* 크림 aaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Whipping Cream.

For those of you who are completely clueless about cooking you absolutely cannot use whipping cream in a cream sauce pasta dish. Unless you want to make yourself sick. So here I was with two cups of whipping cream and no heavy cream. So I decided to make my way to Home Plus, another significantly larger supermarket in Korea. I was certain that what EMart lacks (which is often does, and in many ways) HomePlus would surely have.

I was wrong.

The dairy section (or more specifically the milk and cream section was virtually empty). I heard a rumor that they were going to stop selling milk in Korea and it looks like Home Plus was hit hard. They had hardly any milk at all. And the cream? I found the little price marker on the shelf for the cream, but there wasn't a bottle or jug or carton of the stuff to be found. Sure, I could find liters of strawberry milk, and about 2 dozen soy milks, but one 250 mL carton of cream? Completely gone.

So I gave up, after many an "아아아아 진짜? 없어? 어떻게? 정말 어떻게 하지?" and decided to make macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs.

Hoon may have been happier with the mac & cheese than he ever would have been with the pasta anyways. Funny how that works.

xoxo
A

Exciting

Big news!!

I brought my cucumber kimchi and sweet soy sauce braised beef/quail eggs to my boyfriend's apartment. His mom, and two cousins (one boy and one girl) were also there and so I was a little nervous to here their opinions. JH didn't tell them that I was bringing food so they were impressed/surprised that I brought anything at all. But then, his mom opened the container with the cucumber kimchi and said, omo, where did you get this? And I said, I made it. And she was super impressed because it was so good looking. And then she opened the other container and she was even more surprised.

It was awesome. They were super impressed that I've taken an interest in Korean cooking.

But I warned them: it may look good, but I can't guarantee that you'll like the taste.

JH ate the kimchi first and he didn't say anything right away except: 엄마, 먹어봐, 예찬아! 먹어봐, 예본아 먹어봐, which just mom, try it, Yechan, try it, Yebon, try it. And they all did and they all lost it. They said it was sooooooo good and I was so so happy. I had been nervous originally that it was too spicy, but I wiped away some of the extra spice and so it wasn't so bad at all. In fact, I'd agree that it was quite good indeed. They said that it was better than most restaurants' and his mom kept saying, "아 엄마보다 더 맛있지... 내가 보다 더 맛있어, 어떻게..." which is, "Ah, it's better than mom's. It's more delicious than mine, how can it be?"

Then they praised teh 장조림. I'm so happy they liked it so much.

Oh, and then his mom called his dad and she told him about how I made such delicious food and he asked to talk to me and he said he was really happy I made korean food, and that he wants to try some, and that he loves me because I cook Korean food, and I like Korean culture, and because I am interested in Korea. *^___^*

I'm going back tomorrow and JH insisted I bring more kimchi. I will do so obligingly. ^^

I can't wait to cook more food. I'll be sure to post pictures!

xoxo
A

소고기장조림

This is beef and quail eggs boiled in a sweet soy sauce. It is so effing good. Korean food is easy to make if not time consuming

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Food

Well here is a picture of my dinner. Salad with fresh cucumbers green peppers sesame peanut dressing and chopped almonds~ delicious

And this is 오이소박이 also known as cucumver kimchi. im afraid I have made it a bit spicy but I hope it will good. I will try some in a few hours after the spices have had a chance to soak into the cucumbers nicely.

Later tonight (its only 7) I will prepare 소고기장조림 but i heard it takes a while because you have to soak the meat in wter and cook it and rip it up by hand but I will let you all know how that goes. I just discovered that stupid homeplus didnt deliver all my food so I will have to go out and buy whats left. grrrr.

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Cooking Time

김치전.
I made this tonight and I am on the subway to Seoul now with tge kimchi pancakes in tow. I think it wont taste good which is unfortunate since i am taking it to Hoons where his parents and grandmother will see it and probably think “oh god. our poor son. What has he gotten himself into dating such an incompetent cook.”alas.

The good news is I succeeded at 떡볶이 and will be making it again soon. These days I am really trying to get back into cooking. This week I am hoping to do cucumber kimchi a beef and quail egg soy sauce dish and a spicy soft tofu stew. Pictures coming soon~^^

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