I just bought a great cookbook, Eating Korean. 

I’ve tried a few recipes so far and love them.  As Lonica noted in the previous post, I made mandu (Korean dumpling/potstickers).  I was pleasantly surprised, the flavor was right on. I discovered it is much better to roll the skins out really, really thin (yes, I made the skins from scratch too), and the pasta roller once again came in handy. They froze well and I have already fried and steamed a few. I’m going to experiment with some different fillings now that I have the technique down.  I also made a vinegar soy dipping sauce.

Today I took the plunge and made homemade kimchi, from scratch.  Lonica would have nothing to do with it, complaining about the smell (which wasn’t that bad) and refusing to help stuff the cabbage.  Thanks for taking the pictures though babe!

Scott Stuff | 3 Comments »

The view out my window looks something like this…

I took the liberty of declaring a snow day for myself. This means lots of computer, lots of blogging, and lots of e-mailing. Plus, as an added bonus, lots of sleeping from Miss Amelia.

Oh and lots of eating yummy, home-made mandu (korean dumplings/potstickers).

Life in OH-IO, Lonica Stuff, Proof of the Existence of Four Seasons | 2 Comments »

Today you are five months old! We even have a song to celebrate. It involves: you locking your legs, me holding your for balance, you swiveling your hips, and my singing (to the tune of Frere Jacque):

You are five months, You are five months,

Five months old! Five months old!

Do a little hula, do a little hula,

Five months old. Five months old.

What a big girl!

You always accommodate and rock your little hips side to side, like a dashboard hula girl, at the appropriate time. It may be a little dumb, but your dad and I always smile at you! We recently had to update the tune, too. There used to be a “You are two feet” version, but after measuring you today and determining that you are 27.5 inches long (and 17.2 lbs!) we updated to the “five month” edition. We can safely keep this tune as part of our repertoire for at least a month, at which point, “six” can easily be substituted. The song is that amusing!

But, this song is only possible because you’ve learned a new skill in the past month. You love to lock your little chubby knees and rely on either your father or I for balance. I can always be guaranteed a smile and perhaps even a giggle when you are righted onto your two feet.

It’s amazing the things you will do for a giggle from your little girl.

Even the doctor was amazed at how strong you are for such a little girl. I’ve also discovered, while tickling you, that your tummy abs are far stronger than your chubby little body would have us believe. You will tense your muscles and scrunch your shoulders up to your chin whenever we tease you with ticklish fingers. I must admit, we do it just to see you squirm.

Miss Amelia caught mid-roll.

You have now perfected the tummy-to-back roll, but have yet to roll in the reverse direction. You’re so close though! You can swing your legs around and get about halfway there, before your arms and head throw you off. You’ll grunt and complain until rescued. But once we put you back on your tummy, your roll again and start over! You seem to think it’s quite the fun game.

You also love to play “beached whale.” Your father and I can’t figure out how you can manage to balance only on a tummy full of milk, with your head, shoulders, thighs, knees, and feet all of the ground at the same time!

The smile says it all.

While you still like to sit in your Bumbo and bat at toys, you have discovered the ever-fascinating Exersaucer! You love this toy and could play in this all day long (or at least for 30 min), twisting around from one toy to the next. You are also happy to play with toys in your Pack-n-Play for up to twenty minutes.

You are a great milk drinker! You can pack those ounces away, we just aren’t allowed to feed them to you via a bottle. By the time you are done, we can shake you a bit and hear the milk gurgling around in your belly. You still haven’t started to eat real foods yet (we’ll wait till your 6 months old), but you love to hang out in your high chair and practice eating your toys.

Amelia and her favorite “Marty” toy (which will someday be returned to it’s rightful owner–thanks Alyson!).

You continue to giggle and laugh at us. It’s great to see you grow and develop. You can reach and grab toys, purposefully. Of course, they always go straight to your mouth. You have recently become fascinated with our faces. You will stare at our mouths and grab and reach for our lips. Your father and I find it amusing.

Amelia with her tired eyes from lack of sleep.

We have been battling back and forth on nap times. You are great at night and will sleep a solid 12 hours, but you seem to think you don’t need to sleep much during the day. After a week of sad naps, you have decided that you’re okay resting in your crib for the entire naptime, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll sleep! With my new video monitor I spy on you during your sleep, we call it watching “The Amelia Channel.” I love watching you rub your little eyes with your little baby hands. You suck your thumb to fall asleep—it doesn’t matter which one, right or left, they both taste good to you. You have also discovered the blanket that I lay over you to keep you warm. Just this week you’ve started pulling, sucking, and playing with the blanket when you should be sleeping. You certainly can be a little rascal when you want! But there is nothing sweeter than watching your chubby cheeks on the monitor as you sleep peacefully.

I think I see some of your personality emerging. You are very independent (laying your head on our shoulder is a rare occurrence), determined (only a strong willed individual could fight naptime this consistently), and social (you love to get your parent’s attention, at which point you’ll laugh, giggle, and flirt). I’m anxious to see how you will continue to grow as the years pass.

There haven’t been a whole lot of firsts this month. We mostly just hunkered down, getting the traveling out of our systems and hibernating through the cold. You did go swimming and to the zoo, though.

I’ll admit, Peanut, there are days when I miss my pre-motherhood freedoms. When I could exercise before you’ve had breakfast; when I could come and go as I pleased; when getting out of the house was a daily occurrence. Last night, I was reading about a mother whose daughter died from choking on a piece of apple. I was balling as I told your father the story. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose you. My heart aches just thinking about it. Despite the abbreviated shopping trips, lack of Sunday dresses, and other sacrifices I’ve made to have you in my life, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

I can always count on you to hula for me and that makes everything worth it!

The “Amelia Channel” addict,

Mom

Amelia Marie | 5 Comments »

Some of you may remember our dinner group of late. With everyone leaving for residency, Jenny and I weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves.

Thus began our foray into frozen foods. Jenny was soon to birth Joseph, so she wanted to have a bunch of dinners ready to go. I was working full time, going to school full time, gestating a baby of my own, and pretending to be single (since Scott was in San Antonio). Needless to say, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to be cooking gourmet meals for one.

Jenny and I crafted a long list of meals we thought could be frozen and then used for spur-of-the-moment dinners. Over the course of a few weeks and one night of massive dinner prep, we managed to make two family portions of all the meals on our list.

I spent the summer enjoying the fruits of our hard work, as all I had to do, when returning home from work was select an item off of my pre-frozen list, heat, and consume.

Since then, we have reformed a new dinner group—much to my appreciation—but I still have the bug for freezing meals. I’ve found it to be particularly handy when needing to take a quick meal to someone o when I simply don’t want to cook. I think this will really be something I do quite often when I’m solely responsible for feeding my family every night of the week.

My sister recently asked me to send her a list of all my frozen meals. I thought I might share a bit here, because—after all—this blog is all about The Life of Sconica, and for better or worse, this is my life.

Essentially, I only really cook one day a week (at least this is my goal)—the day of our dinner swap, which for me is Tuesday now. On Tuesday, I will usually make that night’s dinner (for everyone in the group), a large pot of soup, a healthy snack for the week, two loaves of bread, and (I’m now adding) homemade yogurt.

Let me explain: I make the soup for our week-day lunches. I’ll make something healthy and let it cool completely, then dish out individual servings into sandwich-size Ziploc bags. I’ll freeze the bags of soup. Most days of the week, Scott will take a frozen bag of soup for lunch, and I’ll have one at home. After a few weeks of soup making, I have a bit of a stock-pile, so we can have a different variety of soup each day for lunch. This works well (when Scott remembers his lunch) because it is healthy, fast, easy, and complete. Plus, Scott rarely makes his own lunch and isn’t a huge fan of sandwiches, etc. The only problem with this current plan is that the Ziploc bags don’t hold up super well. I don’t want to use the large freezer kind, but the sandwich ones are rather flimsy. Any suggestions?

One of my goals recently (especially since I’ve been home all day and can snack any time I’d like) is to find and stick to only healthy snacks. I’ve been on the lookout for healthy treats to make and have at home. So far I’ve made these: walnut dried cherry bars and date-nut pop-ums. I’m on the lookout for more options, so if you have any, please send them my way!

I’ve been fiddling around with whole wheat bread for quite some time now. I have a few recipes that work. I will usually make two loaves of bread—one for eating that week, one for freezing for next week. Consequently, I don’t make bread every week, just every other. I’m thinking I’ll start making the homemade yogurt on the odd week, because it is super yummy and qualifies as a healthy snack (at least in my opinion)!

Okay, so that was a bit of a tangent. I often freeze whole meals. Rarely do I ever make something just to freeze it. Usually, I’ll double whatever I’m making to consume at that time and freeze the half we aren’t going to eat. A month or so later, it will be novel again! Here’s what I’ve got, Raquel:

Casseroles: Not all of these are “casseroles” per se, but they all fit well in an 8X8 pan (which I’ve purchased a few extra of). In each case, I will make the dish, cover with Saran Wrap (which I push down all the way to the top of the food), and then with a layer of Tin Foil (on which I include the reheat/baking instructions).

Vegtable/Sausage Lasagna (by far my favorite, but majorly time-intensive. I usually double the recipe, which is enough for four 8X8 pans and will provide us with four full dinners. Combined with a salad it’s perfect.)

Chicken, Broccoli and Curry (I just make the sauce, freeze that, and then make the rice the night of)

Enchiladas (I have yet to perfect this recipe so the corn tortillas aren’t pathetic after freezing and baking, but I haven’t given up hope yet.)

Chicken, Orzo, Dill, and Feta (super yummy, and works well, but I need to tweak the recipe just a bit, so that it’s not too dry after freezing and baking).

Candace’s Puff Pastry

Future Ideas: chicken pot pie, meatloaf, meatballs, tuna casserole (assuming your husband doesn’t revolt at the thought of tuna, let alone the smell!)

Frozen Individually: For each of these items, I prepare the food as if I was going to make it right away. I’ll line everything up on a cookie sheet so nothing is touching and freeze them until solid. I’ll take the food out of the freezer, surround in Saran Wrap, and then freeze in a large Freezer Ziplock.

Homemade Pizza (I bake the crust for about 5 min. add toppings and then freeze. After defrosting, all you need to do is bake till bubbly).

Chicken Cordon Blue

Breaded Chicken

Stuffed Chicken with Cranberries

Spinach and Kale Turnovers (I just did these last night, so I’m not sure how they work yet)

Cookie Dough I’ve frozen the cookie dough in raw balls and also as baked cookies. It works well either way, just don’t expect them to all be there when you go back hunting for them–as Scott has something of a chocolate sweet tooth!

Future ideas: calzones

Large Ziplocs: For each of these, I’ll make the food and then just stuff any left-overs/extras into one Ziploc, which I squeeze all the air out of and then freeze laying flat (which makes them easier to stack/store).

Chalupa Meat (This works perfectly and is great for easy burritos).

Café Rio fixings (meet, dressing, and rice). I’m not sure how this will turn out, as I have yet to eat it, but I have hope, since this is such a time-intensive dinner!

Any Soup which isn’t individually frozen for lunches. I have yet to find a soup which doesn’t work: Kale and White Bean, Tortilla, Minestrone, Stew, 15 Bean, Creamy Chicken Noodle, Taco Soup, and African Stew. The options are endless.

Pre-Marinated Fajita Chicken (Just dump the sliced chicken in the marinade and freeze. Defrost and use normally. I tried freezing the veggies with the chicken too, but it wasn’t so successful, so I think I’d stick to cutting up fresh ones.)

Pre-marinated Shish-ka-bob Chicken (I hate defrosting chicken and cutting it up, so if I can do a bunch at once, it’s far preferable).

Marinara Sauce (either for on pasta of homemade pizzas)

Apple and Peach pie filling (I made a bunch of this when I was canning fresh apples and peaches).

Baby food (but that’s a whole other foray into freezing food that doesn’t belong in this post.)

Future ideas: Korean Pul Kogi meat, sweet and sour meatballs, one pot dinner, bar-be-que beef, and anything ready for a crock pot.

There are a few things that really help this freezer-food process.

One: I have a large deep freezer in our basement, that I can fill with ready-prepared foods and pantry items, like chocolate chips, bread, bagels, cheese, meat, nuts, etc. I’m really not sure what I would do without the extra storage space!

Two: I got the genius idea (from somewhere on the blog sphere) to freeze items flatly. I’m not sure why I didn’t come up with this on my own, but it saves so much trouble! I will buy a large thing of ground beef at Sam’s Club, split it into 1 lb. hunks, place in the Ziploc and squeeze and push it around until all the air is out. Then I’ll lay them flat, stacked on top of each other to freeze. Advantages? They stack. They defrost faster. Less freezer burn, since there is so little air. I’ll do the same for shredded cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan) and anything liquid.

Three: I’ve learned that I have to label everything. At first I relied on my memory, but it is SO much easier to have everything labeled. Especially instructions on how to prepare it in the future.

Four: I have an organization system to finding things. Yes, me organized? I’m sure you are SO surprised. All the frozen meals go on the basket on the right. Frozen meats and cheeses on the basket to the left. Breads underneath meats and cheese. Deserts and extras under the right. I will periodically go through and rearrange things so I know what’s in there and everything is straightened once more. I also will keep a list of the main items on my fridge so I know what’s in there—often I forget what’s available otherwise!

So, that’s probably longer than anyone (including my dear sister) would like to read, but I think it’s important to document our day-to-day lives. If for no other reason, you now know what my freezer looks like!

Lonica Stuff | 7 Comments »

Friday was a slow cooker sort of day. We took advantage of Scott’s sweet school schedule (no class Thursday or Friday!). It began with yummy homemade pancakes. There was no need to shower or wear anything other than pajamas—unless of course, you are Amelia, who kindly dresses up for all occasions to satisfy her mother’s amusement.

We spent the day lounging around. It’s not that we weren’t productive—I made yummy homemade yogurt, completed lots of computer projects, and read a book—it’s just that I didn’t do anything dull, like clean the kitchen or mop the floors.

We ended the day with a trip to the RPAC, a run on the treadmill, a swim in the pool, and a veggie burger from North Star. A good movie was just the icing on the cake. It was the perfect kind of day!

Life in OH-IO, Lonica Stuff | 2 Comments »