Kimchi Three Ways

This is kimchi fried rice using leftover cold rice. Delicious with Costco's roasted chicken.

This is leftover kimchi fried rice with added sauteed slices of hot dogs for a perfect Saturday night meal watching the game.
This is my second batch of kimchi pancakes, almost using the rest of my kimchi, still have enough for one more batch. This time I used all-purpose flour instead of rice flour, and tasted the same to me. I saved one for the next day and ate is as a snack (cut into quarters and re-heated slightly in microwave for 20-30 seconds) dipped in a little soy mixed with fresh lemon juice.

I am convinced kimchi is very good for you, as most cabbage is, I'm glad we like cabbage in all forms. Steve liked all these dishes too, a little spicy, but tolerable. I've already gone over the recipes for kimchi and the pancakes, and in case you don't know how to make fried rice, here is how I make it:

2 cups leftover cold white rice

2 slices thick bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 white or yellow onion, chopped

Wesson oil for frying, depending on amount of rendered bacon fat

2 eggs

salt and pepper

2-3 green onions, chopped

2-3 tablespoons soy sauce

(Kimchi, about 3/4 cup, drained and chopped up, optional)

In a large heavy skillet, over medium-high heat, cook the bacon pieces until almost done, don't make it too crispy, rendering the fat. Add the onions and saute till translucent, about three minutes. Add some more oil (you want about 4 tablespoons total), usually about 1-2 tablespoons, bring up the heat and add in the rice, breaking up the clumps of rice as the heat softens it. Continue to stir fry for about 4-5 minutes, till rice is starting to brown a little. Make a well in the center, pushing the rice to the sides of the pan. Crack the eggs in the center, and scramble, stirring occasionally till almost well set. Bring in the rice from the sides, and incorporate all the scrambled eggs in. Add the salt (to taste, not too much) and pepper, green onions, and sprinkle with the soy sauce. Stir well and serve.

Oops, I forgot the kimchi, I actually did when I made this, so I simply dished out the rice, stir-fried the kimchi for about 4-5 minutes till softened, then mixed it all together again ;)

I like to add a little more soy sauce and lemon juice, or fini dini (a Guamanian dipping sauce made of soy, vinegar, mild peppers, lemon juice, and green onion) . Refrigerate any leftovers and enjoy another day mixed with cooked, sliced, hot dogs, spam, or any meat you have leftover.

My family learned how to make this fried rice back in the late 60's (I was in my early teens) when we lived on Guam where my father was stationed while serving in the Navy. I think it is a combination of Filipino and Guamanian cuisine. We used to use "Calrose" rice, which had to be rinsed before cooking, so was starchier, and firmer. Now I just use regular long-grain white, basmati, or jasmine rice. Incidentally, for the luaus on Guam, Guamanians usually made "red rice", I think using annatto powder which gives a subtle flavor, and beautiful color. I don't know if that is Filipino, but a lot of the recipes influence others, I could go on and on about the food on Guam.......wonderful!

I hope you try kimchi and cook with your kimchi. It is so good.

Just another day of cooking.....here in paradise.

Felting is fun

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about taking old or thrift shop sweaters, felting them in the washer, then making cool stuff like purses, slippers, potholders, coffee cozies, stuffed toys, quilts, really endless possibilities. Apparently any yarn made from animal fur will felt, but best to have 100% wool, cashmere, angora, alpaca, or even mohair...........anyway, I went to Goodwill yesterday and looked at every label on every sweater and came up with these three, all 100% wool.....the creamy white knit was a special find, made in England. The brown one and the blue and white one were made in China, and had Chinese labels, and were very beautiful as well......What I really wanted was a full sweater, no zippers, (to make pillow covers) but these will work fine and were all very inexpensive, I got these sweaters, plus the silk ribbon embroidered purse (to inspire me; it was brand new for only $1.50), all for under $10.00!

Not being experienced with this fascinating craft, I just threw them in the washer on hot water, and they shrunk over 50%, aren't they cute looking? Anyway, I washed them twice, then dried on hot and now they show no weave and are felted, supposedly they will not ravel when cut into pieces. I'm trying a slipper set for the brown one...a combination of sewing and crocheting techniques...and what to do with all those arms I will be cutting off??? I'm very afraid of cutting them yet....I think I need some more inspirational ideas, but at least I already have all the materials on hand now......I want to do some silk ribbon embroidery on the pieces, I have a lot of silk ribbon and I love making pretty flowers.

The more proper term for this process is called "fulling", making felt out of already woven or knitted fabric; but a more modern version using the washer and dryer. "Felting" is done to fibers making them into fabric, and is actually the oldest form of fabric known to humankind, predating weaving and knitting...fur has directional scales and kinks and when agitated and rubbed together, join and shrink up into a strong fabric........I can already tell you that I see a trip in my not-to-distant future to Joanne's to buy a felting kit. I've seen this done on TV and can't wait to make some felt.

As for the old sweaters, next time, I will first cut off any zippers, so they will shrink more evenly, and enclose them in a pillow case before placing them in the washer; there was a lot of shedding! Also, I have been reading more about felting/fulling and some reports say that as long as the fabric is at least 80% animal fur, if should felt. I need to find a lightweight one for embellishments........I would love a cashmere or angora one.......thrift shops look out, I'm coming......

I know how I'll spend the next rainy day here in paradise.....

Make that sunny day! It is going to be in the 100's today in paradise, so I added this bounty of supplies to my felted sweaters. Miss Kitty took to them right away so I have to wait till she moves off to inspect them.

Good time to go make more kimchi pancakes....then I will have some sort of project done with felting before the day is done!

Miss Kitty approaching my bounty with keen interest

Immediately plops down and sniffs everything

Liking the wool packages, good biting material

I think I'll stay here awhile longer....

Three hours later.........

Cut the collar and sleeves off the felted brown sweater, sewn together with silk ribbon and embellished with a round cut-out felted by needle felting tools and sewn on with more silk ribbon. Very ametuer for first attempt, but I think it's kinda cute and I want to learn more.

Not like Denny's!

These are kimchi pancakes. I made several recipes for kimchi, I am still waiting to taste the more authentic one I made to ferment properly....anyway, I made a kimchi salad last week, using Bobby Flay's recipe from the Food Network. It came out kinda soggy, so decided I would use it to cook with. I also added some fish sauce and a little more salt two days ago and let it ferment more since I understand the pancakes are best when using well-fermented kimchi.

The pancakes came out really tasty. Like a lot of foods or recipes I am unfamiliar with, I try to research all the recipies I can find, then come up with the easiest and most simple way to accomplish my goal. I wanted to try a kimchi pancake so bad, so this is how I did it:

1/2 cup kimchi, chopped up

1/2 cup rice flour or AP flour

3 Tablespoons kimchi juice

scant 1/2 cup water, may not need it all

1 egg

good dash salt

4 Teaspoons grapeseed oil, or vegetable oil

Heat an 8 inch heavy non-stick skillet over medium high heat, while heating, mix up your ingredients (not the oil), and it should be a somewhat runny consistency, add more water if needed.

When pan is hot, pour in two teaspoons oil and swirl around pan. Spoon half the mixture into the pan. Stir around a little, then just let it cook for about 2-3 minutes, till almost set on top and light brown on bottom. Flip and continue to cook 2-3 minutes more. Remove to plate and repeat with remaining oil and batter. Stack cakes, allow to cool slightly (for easier slicing), then slice into quarters.

Serve with dipping sauce made of a mixture of lemon juice and soy sauce, and hot sauce if you like it. The kimchi is already quite spicy with red pepper, so I didn't think it needed hot sauce.

After eating and enjoying some of the kimchi pancake, I just left it covered on the stove, then had to come and have some more as a snack, there are still two quarters left for a snack tomorrow! I will be making these again and again until my kimchi is used up.

Kimchi fried rice just around the corner here in paradise.

An Almost Pertect Sunday

Apple wood smoked thick-sliced bacon from Trader Joe's. Five pieces, placed on large paper plate.

Cover it with a paper towel, microwave for one minute per slice, I do it at 90% power, then check, give it another minute if not crisp enough.

I wanted some simple and quick meals for our weekend. I decided to thaw and marinate some sirloin steaks, I had easy salad makings and some fresh corn on the cob sounded good, so that's what we did.....

We went into this weekend with great excitement, eagerly awaiting the opening of the San Diego Charger's football season.....we knew couldn't watch the first pre-season NFL football game on TV....blacked out in our own city! But, we knew we could tape the delayed broadcast at 10:30p.m., and planned to watch the game Sunday morning, at our leisure. Of course, we had to take pains not to look at the paper or turn on any news since it's no fun to already know the outcome. Anyway, we meticulously made sure we could not see one thing about it until we could watch it, forgetting that I subscribe to local news feed, I opened my computer and saw a glimpse of the news headlines before I could avert my eyes.......I could not be sure of what I saw, so I quickly closed my laptop and let out a little scream, damn it!!! I thought I saw that we lost, but not sure, so pretended I saw nothing......we lost........20-14 against the Seattle Seahawks. Both teams made some good plays, but we kept throwing interceptions and missing big plays, so couldn't pull it out in the end. I know my family in Washington will be glad to have a first win! We enjoyed watching the game, commercial free, and I actually thought we could win in the end....anyway, it's only pre-season right?

It wasn't all bad sports-wise for San Diego, the Chula Vista Little League team won entry into the world series of Little League......off to Pennsylvania for the games...go Park View Little League!

Anyway, it was almost a perfect Sunday, cause this is what we ate:

scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, fresh-squeezed juice and fruit (melon and raspberries), and fresh-picked roses. Steve made the juice, two oranges, juiced, then mixed with cranberry juice, so, so good!

Miss Kitty getting into the act!

Marinated sirloin steaks, fresh corn on the cob, butter lettuce, and tomato salad, with iced-tea

I have discovered liquid smoke and have become addicted to it. The mesquite flavor.....that's what I marinated the meat in, for about 4 hours. Then, I just pat it day, season well with salt and pepper, pan broil for about 5 minutes per side. I can have lunch ready in 10 minutes...... We like to microwave the corn, shucked, in my steamer, for 5 minutes....try it, we like it just plain, no butter or salt!

We usually eat a late breakfast and late lunch on Sundays. We like to just have a little iced coffee, and a continental start to the day with a small muffin, small piece of pie, or a few cookies and some fruit! That's generally the only day of the week when we can enjoy all our meals together, so I try to make easy and tasty things, but not requiring a lot of kitchen time. Steve makes the iced tea while I prepare the meal. This gives us time to be together in the kitchen without bumping butts too much, just enough! It also give us time to relax and read the paper, do light chores together, take a walk, watch a movie, etc....

Then, after lunch, I can just load the diswasher, and not a lot of clean-up is required. Of course, Steve is a big help keeping the garbage out, rinsing dishes, etc....

After eating two big meals like that, we generally have a light "dinner" of cottage cheese and canned, sliced peaches. This is how we like to spend an almost perfect Sunday, here in paradise.

It's only Meatloaf, But I Like It

This is a pretty sunset in paradise, perfect summery balmy Friday evening.

This is a perfect meatloaf. Everyone seems to like this meatloaf and I'd thought I'd share my simple go-to recipe which never fails to please, of course the real reason for making it is to have leftovers.......I make meatloaf sandwiches for Steve's lunches, but this time I tried making meatloaf sliders and they were super good too. You just slice it thin, spread a mixture of mustard, ketchup, horseradish, and mayo on one pkg of four King's Hawaiian rolls, sliced in half (leave whole), lay on your meatloaf thinly, add one piece of American cheese, wrap in foil, heat in toaster oven set at 400 for about 10 minutes, cut into four rolls, two sliders each person. Serve with pickles and potato chips for a fun, easy and nice Saturday night meal. For a party, you could easily use a big package of rolls. Have you tried sliders yet?

Anyway, here is how I make meatloaf:

1 lb. ground sirloin (I stock up when on sale)

1/2 lb. lean ground pork (or another 1/2 lb. sirloin)

2 slices white bread, crumbled by hand up or grind in food processor

1 egg

two good squirts ketchup (about 1/4 cup), plus more for top

1/4 cup milk

1 teasp salt

few grinds fresh pepper

one small dash Worcestershire sauce

3 Tblsp dried onion flakes (secret and necessary ingredient)

Mix together well all the ingredients except the meat, making sure all the bread crumbs are in small bits. Crumble in the meats and mix all together until well combined.

Line a baking pan with non-stick foil (Reynolds Release/my favorite). Shape meat mixture into a loaf shape and plop it into the pan. Squirt all over with ketchup, I like to make a basket weave type pattern, but you can smooth it out too.

Bake at 375 degrees for one hour (I use my toaster oven). You can tell it is done when some of the juices start running out of the top, don't overcook, it will continue to cook while it rests.

Let it rest for about 15 to 20 minutes before slicing. We usually have the meatloaf hot on the first night, by cutting and serving both end pieces, leaving a more even loaf for storing. Reserve the cooled leftovers, double-wrapped, first in plastic, then in foil, in the fridge. This keeps well for at least one week. It is easy to slice thin when cold. I like thin slices for my sandwich, Steve likes it sliced thick. Try it!


I rotated this picture even it still came out wrong again! Grrr

It Ain't Summer Until.......

You bake a peach pie!

Now that the weather is down to 85 rather than 95, the oven was turned on this weekend, early in the morning....after the pie, I also made a home made pizza since the oven was already on. Ready to heat up for dinner, then have pizza omelets for breakfast.

Here's how I did it:

One package ready pie crusts

5-6 cups fresh sliced peaches (not overly ripe)

2/3 to one cup sugar, I like it tart

3-4 Tblsp flour, if peaches are extra juicy, add a little more

2 Tblsp fresh lemon juice

1 teasp ground cinnamon

2 Tblsp butter

Pre-heat oven to 375. Mix the peaches with the sugar, flour, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Lay out the bottom crust in pie plate and pour the filling in. Dot with butter. Cover with second crust and fold over and tuck under the bottom crust. Crimp, either with thumb and fingers, or fork, to seal. Cut several slits to allow steam to escape. Bake for 50 minutes until bubbly and crust is nicely browned. (I lined a baking sheet with foil and placed it under the pie plate in case of drips.)

Cool on rack for at least two to three hours before cutting into 8 slices. I served it with a small scoop of vanilla ice-cream. We ate 1/2 the pie during the weekend, then I froze the other half for next weekend, a good way to extend Summer, here in paradise.....

Stinkin' Up the Joint

More about that in a minute, the stinkin' part that is.......first, here was yesterday in Paradise:

This was a lucky shot I got yesterday afternoon of a piece of a rainbow! We got no rain, some did, but it has not rained any measurable amount in So. Cal for probably over 7 months now. The heat and humidity is bringing out critters such as rattlesnakes......the TV news is showing real big ones coming out of the bushes and biting people.....yikes!!!!!

Anyway, with this weather and all, we call it July Fry, well it's August now, but all of July was hot, hot.......I had been researching how to make homemade kimchi since I have heard it is healthful and good for weight management, plus I love anything sour and spicy. It is good, they say, to make kimchi while hot, since it has to ferment for several days on the counter to get the good bacteria that makes it good and good for you.....well, I just had to try it, since it is pretty expensive to buy....actually I don't think I have really ever had kimchi. Kimchi is a Korean pickled cabbage, and apparently there are as many ways and recipes as there are homes in Korea....I just kind of read a lot about it, then figured out my own method that was the easiest.

This is the fermented kimchi, after three days on my counter, if you look close you can see fermentation bubbles, it foamed a bit as I packed it in the container, so I hope it got done enough. Then you refrigerate it for about two weeks, it still continues to ferment and get sour, then it can last for quite awhile refrigerated, but from what I read, it does not last long because it gets eaten. It is used as a condiment for almost all meals as I understand it. Two weeks??? Must be patient....

This was just after mixing well and getting ready for counter fermentation.


Here are the ingredients I used, I didn't have the recommended Korean chili powder, so just used about a teaspoon of sambal olelek, a real spicy chili sauce.

It was:

one large head Napa cabbage, rinsed and chopped into 1 inch pieces
3 Tablespoons of sea salt, or kosher salt
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced or grated
1 one inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
1 scant teaspoon sambal olelek


First, you layer the cabbage into a clean bowl, salting as you layer, then rub it in real well into the pieces, you will feel it wilting, till salt is covering each piece. Cover with a heavy plate to weight it down, leave to sit for two to three hours. This process allows the cabbage to wilt and release excess water, while retaining some crispness and taste. Then, you rinse it well, two times, under lots of cold water, then drain well. I tasted it for saltiness, it should not taste TOO salty, just salty enough.

Mix it really well with your hands, (can wear clean gloves) kind of squishing it somewhat, tossing cabbage with the garlic, ginger, sambal and onions, place in clean plastic container with tight lid.

Do not seal the lid all the way to allow gases to escape, and leave on your counter for two to three days (hopefully during hot weather). I stirred mine down once during this process. (phewey)You will finally see tiny bubbles coming up and the liquid will continue to be released. When you think it is ready, stir and transfer to a plastic or glass container with a tight lid, push well into the container, the accumulated juices should just cover the cabbage. Cover and place in the fridge for at least two weeks. This slows the fermentation and mellows the flavors (according to my research).

It did smell quite strong, but in a good way, my nose catches a little of the sour cabbage, then the ginger, garlic and onions....smellin' up the joint............oh heavenly!

Check back in two weeks, I can hardly wait to try it! I know Steve won't like it much, although he likes sauerkraut, so maybe he will, I kinda hope he does, but if not, more for me!





Miss Kitty hiding out in the garage, see Mt Miguel in the reflection?