Kim's Bi Bim Bap

This is one of those dishes that sounds exotic to a lot of people, but is actually extremely easy to make with basic ingredients. I do have to insert a disclaimer: I don't add some things that are in traditional bi bim bap (different kinds of kimchee). I am only making my version of what I have had at Korean restaurants with the ingredients I can find at my local grocery store.

There are 2 different parts to this dish. You can cheat on the first part, but if you want to stay as close to the traditional as possible, it is worth it.

The first step is the meat. I go to my favorite butcher and ask for a tender piece of meat and have him/her slice it as thin as possible. I don't use the most expensive piece of  meat, and I don't always use the same kind. Just look in your meat department and pick what looks good.

Bulgogi (Korean Bar B Q)
1 lb beef
1/4 c soy sauce
2-3 Tbs sesame oil
1 pear or Fuji apple
sugar
3 dashes black pepper
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
5 green onions
2 Tbs rice wine
1 Tbs vinegar (optional)

   Cut meat into thin slices, as thin as possible (or have your butcher slice it for you at the market). Place in large bowl and sprinkle sugar over it and mix. Let set about 20 minutes.

Place onion and fruit into food processor and liquefy, pour into small bowl.

Mix soy sauce, 2-3 Tbs sugar, black pepper, sesame oil, rice wine, and vinegar

Chop garlic, cut green onions and add to meat.

Combine sauces. Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs, or over night.

Fry in hot wok small handfuls at a time. Don't overcook.

Serve with rice or use in Bi Bim Bap

It may seem like an odd combination, but the flavors work amazingly well. If you don't have rice wine, use regular cooking wine. You can also use Kiwi instead of pears or apples.

Now for the Bi Bim Bap recipe! When I am finding ingredients for bi bim bap I go through the fresh produce department and pick all the stir fry vegetables that I love plus spinach, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and kimchee.  I will put in my recipe the ingredients that I use, but feel free to add or omit the things that you like or don't like. The fun of this dish is that you can customize it to your taste.

The quantity that I have is just approximate. Adjust according to your taste, i.e. if you love mushrooms, use more mushrooms.

Bi Bim Bap (Mixed Rice)
bulgogi
Steamed Rice
2 carrots thinly sliced or 1 package of pre-shredded carrots
1 med size bag of sugar snaps
1 1/2 c or one package sliced mushrooms
1 bunch chopped green onions
1 large package or 2 small packages spinach
1 package bean sprouts
1 thinly sliced cucumbers
kimchee (optional)
soy sauce
sesame oil
water
Fried eggs
gochujang "chili pepper paste" (optional)

Heat a large frying pan or wok to med-high heat.

Saute carrots, sugar snaps, mushrooms, and green onions in sesame oil, each separately with a  dash of soy sauce and a touch of water to keep the flavor moving. You still want a little crunch so be careful not to overcook.

Steam spinach in same pan so it picks up the flavor and add a little more sesame oil and soy sauce for flavor.

Arrange a bowl with rice pressed in bottom and all ingredients in their own section on top. Place fried egg on top. You can either flavor with the chili pepper paste and sesame oil or just use soy sauce.

Mix and enjoy!


One time we literally ate this for an entire week for dinner. We ended up losing weight. My husband actually lost 5 pounds total. And when we have bi bim bap we don't eat a small amount, we stuff ourselves.

If you can't find the chili pepper paste in regular grocery stores ( I haven't been able to) see if you can find an asian market near you. If you can, see if they also sell homemade kimchee, its got more spice than the one you can buy in regular grocery stores. I like to mix it in with my bi bim bap and have some on the side, but the taste is not for everyone. My husband doesn't care for it or the chili paste but still thoroughly enjoys bi bim bap.





Here is a picture of what the chili paste looks like:

Valentines Day (Man Friendly)

Easy and Delicious! About 40 minutes from start to finish for main course and side dish. Possibly less. I made this for dinner last night. This meal is easy, simple, and can made by husbands/boyfriends without even straining a muscle.

Bacon Chicken
4 boneless skinless chicken breast (pounded to 1/2 inch thickness)
Seasoning salt
6 slices bacon, cut in half
1/4 c Regular mustard
1/4 c honey
2 Tbs Mayo
1 c sliced mushrooms
Cheddar, shredded

Sprinkle and rub chicken with season salt and let set at least 30 minutes

Cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon and saute chicken in bacon grease for 3-5 minutes per side. Move chicken to 9x13 pan

In a small bowl, mix mustard honey, and mayo. Layer mushrooms, and bacon on top of chicken. Pour honey mustard on top of each chicken breast, then sprinkle shredded cheese on top to taste.

Bake at 350°F for 20-30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken is done. Serve with honey mustard on the side.

This recipe can be played with a little as well. These are the fun things you can do to make this your own: you can leave the mushrooms out of you don't like mushrooms, you can cheat time by using real bacon bits instead of fried bacon and frying your chicken in olive oil, you can use pepper jack cheese for an extra flare, or add onion flakes to the honey mustard. I do suggest making the homemade honey mustard for the recipe though, it really adds an amazing taste and it is really easy and fast to make.

Starch suggestions:
    Boil some red potatoes in salt water, when done cut into fourths and serve with butter,salt, and pepper.
    Steam rice and place chicken on top

Vegetable suggestions:
    Asparagus coated in olive oil and garlic salt and toasted in the broiler
    A big salad
    Saute fresh green beans in olive oil, salt to taste

My Favorite Soda Bread

This is incredibly easy and makes you feel a little like a professional. It's a dense bread that goes well with a lot of things. I found this one while searching online for a decent recipe and ran across this one, it had really good reviews so I thought I would share. Types of meals to go with soda bread are soups, cold cut sandwiches, steak...or just a delicious snack.

Soda Bread from Kim's Kitchen

I did make a couple changes so here is my version:

Cheddar Onion Soda Bread
4 c Bread Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 Tbs Baking Powder
1 Tbs Butter, Softened
1 1/4 c Buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, use regular milk with 1 Tbs of vinegar)
2 Tbs Powdered Sugar
1 bunch of Green Onions, chopped
3/4 c Shredded Cheddar

Preheat oven to 425°F 

In large bowl whisk bread flour, salt, and baking powder until thoroughly combined. Beat in butter, buttermilk and powdered sugar to make a dough.

Gently knead in onion and cheddar. Divide dough in half and shape into balls. 

Place on baking sheet, gently flatten to about 2 inches thick and dust with flour. Cut an X on top.

Bake 30 Minutes

You can use regular flour but it won't turn out as well. Bread flour has a rising agent in it. Since Soda Bread does not have any yeast in it, it depends on the Bread Flour and Baking Soda to make a nice loaf.

The difference between Bread Flour and All-Purpose Flour:
A bit of protein. All-purpose flour has 8-11% protein; bread flour has 12-14%. The extra protein in bread flour results in a slightly higher rise, but you'll still get a good rise with all-purpose.

Valentines Dinner Option 2

Here is another idea for a Valentines day dinner. The meatball recipe is one that people ask for all the time, so instead of writing it many times I will post it here for all to see. This recipe is originally from "The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals". If you ever run across this cook book you must buy it. Everything in this cookbook is made for people that love to cook, just starting to cook, have cooked for a long time...you get the point. The recipes are not full of fancy ingredients that you have to order online or drive to Portland to find that one specialty shop that your GPS refuses to acknowledge the existence of... It's one of my favorite cookbooks. Hmm...what was the reason for the blog?...Oh yeah!

Appetizer:

Garlic and Cheese Crusted Bread
Crusty Italian Bread cut in half
Roasted Garlic or Pesto
Butter
Real Parmesan Cheese
Garlic Salt or freshly ground sea salt

Any Italian style bread will work as long as it has a nice hard crust on the outside and soft bread on the inside. I have never really mastered the art of roasting garlic myself, so i cheat and take about 4-5 cloves of garlic, heat a small pan to med low heat with a little olive oil and slow cook until they are soft. Its really easy to over cook or burn garlic so if you follow this method, stay right by the pan and constantly stir them. Adjust the temp to your stove if it gets to warm. It does not take but 1-2 minutes for the garlic to cook. I am pretty sure they sell garlic paste in the grocery store as well. I will also use pesto instead of roasted garlic. If you would like the traditional way of roasting garlic I have the instructions down below.

Roasted Garlic:
( Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.  Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed.)

Mince/mash the garlic when its done cooking. Mix the garlic with the butter then spread garlic butter on bread halves. Sprinkle salt to taste on your bread, then cover with parmesan cheese. Put your oven on broil and toast your bread. Once it starts to brown it goes pretty quick so keep a close eye on the bread. 

Slice the bread and serve.

You can also serve this with your main dish instead of an appetizer.

I never make this the same way. Sometimes I use Italian seasoning, fresh ground pepper, leave the cheese off... there are many ways to make a good crispy bread. But one thing I always do is have a small bowl with full flavor olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and fresh ground pepper.

Main Dish:

Meatballs
13 oz can of evaporated milk
3 lbs lean ground beef (also works well with ground turkey meat)
2 c quick oatmeal
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp pepper
2 eggs
1 cup chopped onions
2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder

Preheat oven to 350°F

Combine all ingredients and shape into balls. You can at this point pour your favorite spaghetti sauce over the top. I have also used Alfredo sauce and that is amazing as well. Another option is to leave them plain and then put the sauce on once it's done.

Meatballs, spaghetti noodles, and your favorite Italian sauce!

Here is a tip if you use turkey meat. Because turkey meat has more moisture than regular hamburger meat you will need to use more oatmeal, or breadcrumbs. They will still be pretty moist, but once they bake i promise they firm up really nice.

I once used this for a party snack and used 3 different sauces: Marinara, Alfredo, and BBQ sauce. All in different baking pans of course. Set a shot glass with toothpicks next to them and you are ready for an amazing party. Who doesn't want a delicious meatball in there mouth? Especially around valentines day.


Dessert:

Cherry Delight
Crust:
2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c butter or margarine
1 c chopped nuts (optional)

Mix like pie crust only do not use any water. Press into a 9x13 inch pan and bake 15 minutes at 400°F. After it's cooled, you can use a fork to crumble the crust into pieces and leave in the pan or you can leave it as is. (when i am being lazy i will buy a gram cracker crust 2 pack from the store and use that)

Filling: Two packages Cool Whip or 1 pint cream, whipped

Mix:
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Fold into cool whip. Spread over crumb crust. Pour 2 cans cherry pie filling over the cool whip-cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate at least 12 hours before serving. Will keep for several days.

Note: Other kinds of fruit can be used

This recipe is from my Amish cookbook that I kept from my Amish days. There are a lot of delicious things in there, but this one is super easy and very tasty.

Hope your Valentines Day of full of wonderful surprises!

Waffles!!!

I love waffles! But i am also picky about my waffles. I want crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. One that is easy to play with and is easy to make. I also refuse to pay the ridiculous price that they charge you in the store. Eggo rips people off more than oil companies. It might cost them 50 cents per box to make and they charge around $4-5. That in my book is a wee bit excessive.

So...dig your waffle maker out of storage, dust off your mixer, and get ready to eat amazing waffles that come out looking like they came out of a magazine.

Waffles
3 c flour
2 Tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 c milk
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbs vegetable oil
3 eggs, separated

Preheat waffle iron. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, oil and egg yolk until smooth. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until peaks form. Gently fold in egg whites into batter.

Spray preheated waffle iron with cooking spray. Pour mix onto waffle iron. Cook until golden. Serve Hot.

Keep in mind if your have never made waffles from scratch before that the batter rises after you put it in the waffle maker. So be careful not to overfill. Also you will need to experiment with the time. It really varies depending on your waffle maker. I have a Belgian waffle maker and i cook mine around 2 minutes each.

This recipe serves around 6

Valentines Day Dinner

Hmm...Valentines day.... I love and hate this holiday! First I love this holiday because I am a hopeless romantic and am a sucker for a bouquet of flowers and a gooshy card. I hate this holiday because my husband hates this holiday and usually has to be guilted into doing anything. Although it does make for a nice surprise when he actually does do something without my prompting.

Well even if you love, hate, or could care less about flowers or cards, Everyone (single or in a relationship) likes good food. And most like chocolate... so i have decided to post a Valentines dinner menu including dessert.

Here is my menu

Appetizer:

Stuffed Jalapenos
4 large jalapeno peppers halved and seeded
half a package of cream cheese (4 oz)
2 bacon strips cooked and crumbled
1/8 c shredded cheddar
1 egg scrambled with a dash of cream, milk, or half and half
bread crumbs

If you like it hot...ignore step one

Step one: Bring small pot of water to boil and boil jalapenos for 1-2 minutes (not a second more) and remove. Place into ice water to stop cooking process and set aside to dry. This will take the hot bite out of the pepper but still leave lots of flavor. They should be bright green. If you over boil they become mush.

Step two: Mix cream cheese, cheddar, and bacon (you can add a little ranch powder for an added punch of flavor). Scramble egg and put bread crumbs in a bowl. 

Step three: Stuff jalapeno with cream cheese mixture, dip in egg wash and then coat with breadcrumbs.

Step four: Heat a pan over the stove (med to med-high) with oil. Fry jalapenos until golden.

Step  five: Enjoy!!!

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This main dish is a modified version of Rachel Rays recipe. It's a little more simple and has fewer steps. Plus I don't live near the amazing grocery store that she apparently lives next to because a lot of her ingredients are very hard to find. Smoked Mozzarella? Smoked paprika? Arugula? I shop at Safeway and Winco... they have regular mozzarella and regular paprika and how many dishes call for arugula? I ended up throwing almost a whole container away because its a bitter leaf that does not taste good in a lot of things.

Main Dish:

Chicken Marsala Deliciousness
your favorite spaghetti noodles
2 large boneless skinless chicken breast (pounded thin)
salt and pepper
olive oil
2 large garlic cloves
portobello and shitake mushrooms stemmed and sliced (or your favorite kind)
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs tomato paste
2 Tbs minced rosemary
2 Tbs flour, plus some for dusting
1 1/2 c chicken stock
Worcestershire sauce to taste
1/2 c marsala wine (I always add more)
Grated Romano Cheese (you can also use fresh grated parmesan)

Start your water boiling for your noodles. Salt water and drop pasta when water is boiling. Cook to the firmness you like.

After you flatten your chicken season with salt and pepper then dust with flour on both sides. Heat large skillet with 2 Tbs of olive oil over med-high heat. Brown chicken then set aside in warm place. In the same skillet add 2 Tbs of olive oil and 1 clove crushed garlic. Cook 1 minute then remove and add mushrooms. Let mushrooms brown evenly until tender, about 8-10 minutes.

While mushrooms cook, start gravy for the pasta. In a deep med skillet, melt 2 Tbs butter with 1 Tbs olive oil. Add remaining clove of crushed garlic and cook 1-2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook over med heat for 1-2 minutes. Add rosemary, cook for 1 minute then whisk in flour. After flour is mixed in slowly whisk in chicken stock and worcestershire sauce. Simmer to thicken, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove garlic clove.

To the cooked mushrooms add marsala and let reduce for 1 minute. Add 2 Tbs of butter shaking the pan to incorporate it. Slide chicken back in sauce and warm.

Drain pasta and toss with tomato gravy and top with handful of cheese. Serve the pasta alongside chicken marsala.

Serve with your favorite veggie. Or a really good salad

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Dessert:

Chocolate Pot Dé Créme
4 oz dark chocolate finely chopped
very small pinch of salt
1 c cream
3 Tbs + 1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Chop chocolate until fine then put into med size bowl.

Heat cream, sugar, and vanilla until tiny bubbles form on outside and sugar is dissolved.

Pour over Chocolate and let set about 2 minutes

Stir until dissolved, pour into small desert cups. Put in fridge to chill


NEEDS AT LEAST 5 HOURS TO SET. If possible make night before and set.

Additions that taste amazing: 1 tsp instant coffee, sprinkle of cinnamon... have fun....

whipped cream with sliced strawberries or blueberries on top really add a fancy and delicious flare.

If You Like Love Love Teriyaki's Salad...

This recipe taste good with any cabbage that you enjoy. My husband hates cooked cabbage and he loves this. I have been told that it taste just like Love Love Teriyaki.

Sauce:
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil (optional, but it really adds amazing flavor)
1/4 c vegetable oil
3 Tbs rice vinegar

Mix all together until sugar disolves and let set a minimum of 20 minutes. The longer it sets the better it is.

Shred Cabbage. Pour sauce on cabbage and lightly toss to coat. Remember the vinegar will wilt the cabbage so put the sauce on cabbage just before serving.

Tip: Add crunchy noodles, cooked diced chicken, and noodles and you have dinner!