Chocolate-Peanut Butter Goodness

In an attempt to stay awake till 10:00 p.m. I decided to experiment in the kitchen. My students and several work-study students in the library reaped the benefits of my tasty labor.

I found them to be quite tasty and without the chocolate topping, they were just barely sweet. Give them a try and tell me what you think!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Crispy Treats
What you need:
Cooking Spray
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 peanut butter
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup peanuts
3 cups Rice Krispie cereal
1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

What you do:
Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray and set it aside. Spray a large pot with cooking spray. Combine the first five ingredients in the pot. Heat over medium high heat until smooth and bubbly. Add marshmallows and vanilla and continue stirring.

Once the marshmallows have melted and the mixture is smooth you may turn the stove to low. Keeping a little heat under the pot gives you time before the stuff starts to set up! Add peanuts and cereal and stir until everything is well mixed and well coated.

Press into a greased (or buttered, if you prefer) baking dish. Cover with a single layer of chocolate chips and heat in a moderate oven for three to five minutes- just until the chips are melty. Remove from oven and use a butter knife to smooth out the chocolate chips.

Let cool and cut into squares. Enjoy.

Orion's 12th Birthday

Well folks, we're back! And the 101+ degree heat (with indices in the 115 - 125 degree range) didn't kill me. But not for trying! Thursday was Orion's Birthday and we zipped down Highway 13 to Springfield, MO and picked up Highway 65 and rode it all the way down to Conway. We were tired to begin with; cramming five days' work into three so we could run away took it's toll. So we took our time stopping in Gilbert for a hamburger and look at the river and again in Leslie to visit an antique shop. We arrive around dinner time and it was SO good to see Orion! He had been with Meme and MyBob for 14 days at that point and he must have grown another six inches! We had a quiet evening hanging out, watching TV, and snacking.

Friday was the day of the Party! Orion and Meme planned a Hawaiian luau complete with leis. What fun! The afternoon was filled with preparing for the party. The guests arrived around 3:00 to begin swimming. We had chicken, hot dogs, and burgers (thank you John for cooking!) with tater salad, chips, and a delicious chocolate cake (Wow, Meme! Very tasty!). I must admit, I stayed in much of the afternoon- only venturing out to view the cake cutting and present opening. I stayed inside, out of the sun, and worked on K.P. duty. It was just too hot!
Despite the raging heat and blasting sun, I do believe that fun was had by all! Orion's cousins and friends of the family all arrived to share Orion's special day!

(Orion poses with his brand new arc welder!)

Brother-in-Law Stew

Bean Curd Stew, affectionately known as Brother-in-Law Stew.

Last Saturday I had a culinary wild hair and started with Vietnamese Beef Pho for lunch and moved to a Korean comfort food, Bean Curd Stew, for dinner. This recipe is inspired by a tasty soup my brother-in-law made for me several years ago and again when I visited them last and is based on recipes from two books (*see below). It was so good that we ate two huge bowls each and there were no left-overs. My recipe follows.

Brother-in-Law Stew

What you need:

1 quart soup stock

3 to 4 Tablespoons of soybean paste

1 pack bean curd (tofu) diced

6 oz of thinly sliced beef1 small onion, sliced

3 green onions, sliced diagonally

2-3 garlic cloves, chopped (more if you like)

1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil

And an assortment of the vegetables of your choice, sliced, e.g. zucchini, potato. I used carrot (for color), sugar snap peas (because I had them), left-over bean sprouts, cabbage, and enoki mushrooms (canned ~sob~), one rib of celery (for crunch) and napa cabbage.

What to do:

Cut up all vegetables including the onions. Slice the beef if it isn’t already sliced. Cut the tofu to match the size of the cut veggies.

Heat pan, add oil, stir fry meat and garlic. When the meat is nearly done, add the soybean paste and fry some more. Add onions and soup stock and bring to a boil. Skim off the foam. Add remaining vegetables – adding fragile ones, like mushrooms, at the very last. Simmer over a low flame for a few hours. Dish up and enjoy!

Recipe inspired by:

Chang, S. (1997). A Korean mother’s cooking notes. Seoul, Korea: Ewha University Womens [sic] Press.

Marks, C. (1993). The Korean kitchen: Classic recipes from the land of the morning calm. San Francisco. Chronicle Books.

25 Bucks!

Shortly after Mother's Day we headed up the road a few miles to one of my favorite stores in the area, Highway 13 Antiques. I have found all sorts of goodies at Highway 13 Antiques: Candlewick glasses, embroidered pillowcases, cast iron, Corelle dishes, and so much more. On this particular day the boys found goodies for their blacksmithing endeavors and I found a CHINA CABINET!
I wasn't looking for furniture in particular. But I did need to find something for my teacups, they were stacked up on the roll top desk! I had looked at a wall mounted curio-type-shelf for $25 on previous visits, but didn't want to commit. On this particular day I found a lovely hutch of sorts, for $225. A rich maple with a honeyed finish tempted me; the "no-lay-away" sign depressed me. But one booth over I found another hutch. This one looked like some sort of office piece with blood or barbeque sauce all over the front of it. Honestly, it was beat to hell. (I wish I had taken a before picture...) The price was marked down to $25! Could that be right? I took the ticket to the cashier to ask if it was correct and to inquire if the seller of the maple cabinet would do a lay-away.

Long story short, the ugly, blood/barbeque stained cabinet was indeed $25. The owner of the maple cabinet couldn't be raised to answer my question so I left my number and bought the $25 cabinet. To my pleasure I discovered that the glass doors were intact and safely stored between cardboard. We were in Grace, the Kia, so we headed back home. Orion and I returned with Maggie, the truck, loaded the cabinet, headed home, and just about the time I finished the second cleaning (about an hour after I got home), the shop called and said "yes" to the lay-away. I was so tickled with my cabinet that I passed! Besides, the storage capacity of the blood/barbeque stained cabinet was twice that of the $225 maple piece.

So I cleaned and I scrubbed and I gave it the once over, twice over, and thrice over with Murphy's Oil Soap. The previous owners left a few wedding or anniversary napkins. While the hutch dried, I scrubbed the glass doors. A few passes of Old English Lemon Oil and I was looking at a nice piece of furniture.

It was so nice I decided to display my china, originally my mom's china from the early '60s, Midnight Rose! Take a look below. It's gorgeous!

Vietnamese Beef Pho

Saturday I decided I would experiment with one of my favorite dishes to order when I visit a Vietnamese restaurant, Beef Pho. This recipe is a combination of a couple of recipes from cookbooks* as well as my experiences dining out. I was so pleased with the turn out that I snapped a picture before I chowed down. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Vietnamese Beef Pho

What you need:

3 quarts beef soup stock

3 inch piece of ginger1 large onion, unpeeled and halved

3 whole star anise

2 inch cinnamon stick

¼ to ½ cup fish sauce (or to taste)

1/8 to ¼ cup Chinese black vinegar or Balsamic (or to taste)

1 tablespoon chili sauce

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 pound rib eye steak, cut super thin. I used the steak cut for bulgogi available at the Korean market

10 ounces rice noodles, soaked in a bowl of water for 30 minutes

2 cups mixed cilantro, mint, and Thai basil leaves

1 cup bean sprouts

1 carrot, shredded

½ cucumber, thinly sliced

1 lime, cut into wedges

What to do:

Toss homemade or store bought beef stock into a soup pot. Toss in the halved onion, skin on, the anise, ginger, and cinnamon. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour. Skim off foam. Cool and strain. Return to pot and reheat.

Shortly before you’re ready to serve, soak the noodles in luke warm water for 15 to 30 minutes. Chop the herbs, slice the lime, and clean the bean sprouts. Set them aside.

Crank up the heat under the strained stock to high. Add the fish sauce and the balsamic vinegar to your taste.

Take four large bowls. Clear bowls allow for a lovely presentation of the different colors and textures. Divide the noodles, beef from stock (if using homemade), and raw steak (sliced thinly) among the four bowls. Pour the boiling stock into each bowl and top with the herbs, sprouts, carrots, and lime wedges. Serve at once.

* Henricksson, M. (2003). Everyday Asian. N.Y.: William Morrow.

Happy Birthday Orion

Happy 12th Birthday to Orion Teague Leslie, founder of Kilted Griffin Ironworks.

Last Friday

Last Friday I had the pleasure of visiting with several of our Indian friends (and our our one Vietnamese friend) for dinner. On Memorial Day the Indian Embassy visited the house and cooked up a storm. A mighty tasty storm! I knew I had to invite them back, but this time I would make sure that we cooked for them! I considered a huge, mostly vegetarian, Italian meal, but my friend Manisha, requested to learn how to make fried chicken, mashed taters, and particularly- gravy.

Much of the work (tater peeling, corn husking, cake makin', and roll risin') was done before the Embassy arrived. But while Manisha and John slaved over a hot stove, the rest of us participated in a highly competitive game of Pictionary! Boys against girls. Yes, the boys won!

Dinner was topped off with a great Indian movie and chocolate mayonnaise cake. I had a marvelous time. I can't wait to have the 'kids' over again.

Bulgogi on Monday; Dak Bulgogi on Tuesday

I am discovering just how much I love Korean food. I love how simple, yet elaborate Korean dishes are. Simple in that may of the seasonings are similar from one dish to the next and the most delicious recipes consist of only a handful of ingredients. However, Korean food is complex in its presentation- there are many colorful side dishes to be created and a great deal of thought and energy is given to placing various ingredients in the most aesthetically pleasing of manners. Note: The picture above is only an attempt at creating a Korean meal for my friend Shannon. You may notice the Japanese sushi dishes as 'plates' and the accompanying bowls filled with various 'relishes' (a set of 22 pieces for $7.00 at the Salvation Army!), Meme's old Chinese soup bowls (free!) are ready by the pot of wonton soup, and bowls that John and I made nearly two decades ago hold the rice, bulgogi, and cucumbers. The only Korean items in this photo are the food and the chopsticks Tree and PD brought me from Korea years and years ago.

I was first exposed to Korean food when my sister married PD. Tree met PD in South Korea over a decade ago when she set out looking for adventure- teaching English in Korea. I believe my first Korean 'food' was kimbap, what most Midwesterners refer to as sushi. I was impressed by how quickly PD was able to make these seaweed and rice rolls. I believe I foundered on them that evening. Since then I have enjoyed bulgogi, kalbi, a tubu (tofu) stew of sorts, and a few noodle dishes at the hands of my sister and PD. And now that I live only 60 miles from Overland Park, KS I find that I shop at the Korean market whenever I visit and Choga whenever I can afford it!

Monday is not the first time we have made bulgogi. John has carefully sliced the beef super thin for our feasts on several occasions. The Oriental Supermarket in Overland Park provides packages of rib-eye sliced super thin, and we always make sure there's some in the freezer! We had a feast of bulgogi for the Lunar New Year this year, but the pictures were lost. But Monday was the first time that Shannon had bulgogi. Shannon hadn't been to visit in over six months (~sob~) and I hadn't seen her since Spring Break. One of my favorite things to do with Shan, other than antique-ing, is to cook. Shan's always up for a culinary adventure and Monday was no different.

After cleaning up the breakfast dishes Shannon and I got started in the kitchen. She chopped two bunches of green onions while I scalded spinach, bean sprouts, and zucchini. Within an hour we had the assorted side salads ready and waiting for dinner. Later that night John pan seared the bulgogi while we set the table. Orion loves bulgogi and can eat his weight in rice and steak. We had only a bit of beef left over, and as soon as the kitchen was clean, Orion was back in the kitchen consuming the left overs.

I was very pleased with my most recent attempt at the side dishes. They were delicious and slightly spicy. (Not spicy enough for a Korean or my friend Sally, but just enough to make my mouth feel pleasantly warm.) Since there was plenty of lettuce and sides left, John and I had a meal of dak bulgogi (chicken) on Tuesday night.

I only wish that my brother-in-law was here to share dinner! I know he would be tickled. This summer I plan to practice making bibimbap (but I will need to find clay pots that can be heated for that) and p'a chon, a tasty pancake with green onions (and squid if I have it!).