Beef & Leaf

I'm not sure what's happened to me.  For some reason, since we got to Korea I can't find time to do much of what I want.  This is despite the fact that I don't actually have a job.  I'm kind of a volunteer maniac.  The pace here is crazy and I fall into bed exhausted each day confused about what I did all day.  Having a job is easier than this.

A couple months into this business I will say I'm enjoying it, I've met some amazing people and seen some pretty cool stuff, but I won't say it's not difficult living in a foreign country where everything is more difficult.  For example, yesterday I attempted to find this ceramics store only to have the map lead me to a person's home.  In the US I could call this business and tell them that I'm lost, but considering that I know 2 words in Korean (hello and thank you) it wouldn't have helped me.  Therefore, we spent 4 hours in the car for absolutely nothing.

Or when I went to a Korean bakery on 4th of July attempting to broaden my exposure, purchased what I thought were hot dog buns to go with the Bratwurst we were grilling only to find out right before serving time that they were filled with some sweet buttery substance.

Then there was that time I got on the bus going the wrong direction and ended up at the bus depot or when I missed ONE turn on a road and ended up in crazy pants traffic in Seoul because you can't just turn around here.  I know I'm complaining but I'm a little grumpy today because I just wanted to buy some freakin' plates yesterday!

I did however have a pretty great dinner at an Indian Restaurant last night which is not what I'm here to tell you about.  What I'm going to tell you about is what the Americans here call "Beef & Leaf".    It's essentially a grilled meat lettuce wrap.  We first ate this right after we got here and I'm just telling you about it.  Sorry about that.  See above.

This particular restaurant is called Hwa Hwa and caters to the Americans on our base.  They speak English and print the menu in English which makes it very convenient for us Westerners who can't speak or read the language.  I have serious guilt about not being able to speak to people, but haven't had the time to remedy it.  See above.

You start with burning hot coals which they carry around in large buckets all around the restaurant using thongs.  It's freakin' scary.  CA went totally "Safety Officer" on me and thought someone was going to get burned.  He was visibly concerned for all the children in the restaurant.  In the US, they would probably put up a 10 foot safety screen but not here.  If you get burned, then it's your own fault.  Survival of the fittest.

The bucket of coals gets put in the middle of your table ready to receive some raw meat. 

Once of the things I like about Korean food is how much they love their side dishes.  This meal comes with five sides plus rice which is actually a relatively small number.  Usually the whole table is packed.  This time we got cucumbers with chili sauce, pickled radish, pickled onions, some kind of creamy cole slaw and a spicy bean sprout slaw.

We ordered the largest combination of meat available.  Marinated beef, bacon and sausages.  Plus one sad little slice of mushroom.  They bring you the plate of raw meat and you cook it yourself on the grill. 

Once it's cooked, they give you scissors where you can chop it all up and make your wraps.  A little rice, a little meat and a little sauce all wrapped up in a lettuce leaf.  I usually get bored of the wraps and after a couple of them I just eat the meat with chopsticks.  I'm getting better with chopsticks but it's slow and messy.

Beef & Leaf is pretty awesome.  We have been to several places around that serve it and it's all been very good.  The biggest problem is that you're sweaty when you're done with dinner.  Those coals are freakin' hot and they're sitting about a foot from you so I don't look quite as fresh faced when I'm done eating as I did when I started.  Luckily CA doesn't mind when I have mascara running down my face as long as the food's good.

Enjoy!
Julie

Nutella No Bake Cookies

I've been going through baking withdrawal.  We've been in Korea for three weeks which means I've been living in a hotel which, luckily, has a cook top and a microwave in it, but unluckily, has no oven or mixing bowls or spatulas or any of the things that bring me calm when I'm stressed.  Am I the only person who thinks folding ingredients together with a spatula is like meditation?

Maybe.

Anyway, I couldn't take it anymore and decided that I had to make some kind of treat or I was going to cave into myself from pent up stress and anxiety.

Or I was just craving sugar that didn't come from a package of Oreos or Iced Animal Crackers.

Regardless, after searching through my Pinterest board called "Indulgent Yummies" I decided that No Bake Cookies were something I could pull off with limited ingredients and equipment.

I didn't want to make regular old No Bake Cookies so I did a quick Pinterest search on other people's boards and found this recipe for Nutella No Bake Cookies.  Nutella + Peanut Butter + Sugar + Oatmeal = Yes Please!

Now, when I say limited equipment, I mean it.  I didn't have any measuring cups or spoons or a spatula so I used the coffee mug in the room, a random spoon and my eyeballs.  Close enough - as long as the ratios of the ingredients are right these will turn out fine - they're very forgiving.

If you haven't made No Bake Cookies before, they're pretty darn easy.  You boil together butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder for exactly 1 minute.  I don't know what the magic is that happens in that 1 minute but it's pretty specific and likely has to do with science.  After it boils, peanut butter and/or Nutella is mixed in and then oatmeal is mixed in.  That mixture is simply dropped on a piece of waxed paper and as it cools it hardens into a cookie.  No baking required.  Obviously.

No Bake Cookies are one of my brother-in-law's favorite cookies and I think he would like these just as well.  They are definitely less peanut buttery more chocolatey than the traditional recipe which just uses peanut butter and not Nutella.  I also think using the dark chocolate cocoa powder that I like made them even more chocolatey.  

The only problem with these cookies is that they're really good and I don't have any method by which to share them.  In fact, I don't even have a method by which to store them - therefore they are sitting in a skillet with the lid on them which does not help stop me from eating six of them every day because I can smell them when I walk by.

Nutella No Bake Cookies
Adapted from Shugary Sweets

Ingredients
2 cups Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/2 cup Milk (I used Almond Milk)
1/2 cup Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
pinch of Salt
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
1/4 cup Nutella
3 1/2 cup Quick Oatmeal
Instructions
Over medium heat, cook sugar, cocoa, milk and butter until it comes to a full boil.  Boil one minute and remove from the heat.  Stir in the vanilla, salt, peanut butter, and Nutella until the peanut butter and Nutella are melted.  Stir in the oatmeal until combined.  Drop onto wax paper and cool (I use about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie).

Enjoy!
Julie

Around Town

We ventured out into the city a few days ago and I'll be honest with you, I was scared.  Not because I felt unsafe, Korea is just as safe as the U.S., but I was pretty much petrified that we'd get lost and never find out way back or that someone would try to talk to me and I wouldn't understand what they were saying.

The first thing didn't happen. (CA would never let us get that lost!)

The second thing happened the whole time.

We took a bus from our house to downtown Pyeongtaek, the city that is closest to us.  The bus was pretty easy - we had good directions on how to get from Point A to Point B and again from Point B to Point A.  My favorite part was that to get home, we had to catch the return bus in front of McDonald's.  Because McDonald's is everywhere.

The first thing we did was walk around AK Plaza which is basically Nordstrom.  It was super pretty inside with tons of designer clothes, cosmetics, etc.

After walking around AK Plaza went into the basement and discovered a grocery store.  It was very shiny, like the Korean version of Whole Foods.  Obviously, this made me very happy.  Of note were some really cool and different looking produce as well as some seafood that I was unable unwilling to identify.  However, my favorite part was seeing Oreos and Captain Crunch in the "International Foods" section.

Luckily, there were some food bars in the basement so we snagged a seat and ordered a couple steamed dumplings and a couple of fried dumplings and feasted.  They were tasty, but I forgot to take a photo for you.

Fail.

After tackling AK Plaza we walked around Pyeongtaek rather aimlessly just to check it out.  There were a lot of sketchy looking streets (we went back a few nights later for dinner with friends and it, strangely, looks less sketchy at night) and a really cool market called the Tongdon Market.  I hope to spend more time there at a later date and tell you all about it.

A few days later I decided I was super confident about using the local bus system and ventured out on my own to go to Lotte Mart which a few friends described to me as the "Korean Target".

I made it there without any major incidents (I did get off the bus one stop too early, but managed to make my way to Lotte Mart anyway).  Lotte Mart was pretty cool and exactly what I excepted - Target.  It was a little different in a lot of ways - one being the abundance of Hello Kitty merchandise.

Another being an entire aisle in the grocery section devoted to Seaweed.  I didn't realize there were so many different kinds.

Getting back from the store was not as easy as getting to the store.  I assumed that the bus route went in a big circle because the bus route looks like a big circle on the map.  This is not true.  I got on the bus where I should have gotten off (and was prematurely proud of myself for not screwing this up) and ended up at the Bus Depot at the end of the line.  The driver was very nice but didn't speak English and I was trying not to cry.  Luckily, they found a driver who spoke English and put me on another bus that retraced my route and got me back home.  Honestly, I still don't know what I did wrong, but it prompted me to sign up for a class that teaches you how to use the bus which would have been helpful before I used the bus.

Maybe I should also learn Hangul.

Talk soon.
Julie

How We Got Here

The following is the not so harrowing tale of how our trip to Korea.  I expected it to be a total debacle, completely miserable and horribly draining - but it was not.  I'm moving forward with the following mantra...

Except the worst, hope for it to be not quite so terrible.

CA, Sconnie, my Mom and I departed Alabama at 4:00 AM.  My mom's car was loaded with 1 ginormous dog crate, 8 large suitcases and 4 carry ons.  Thank goodness for SUVs.  We drove four and a half hours to the Atlanta airport.  The drive was uneventful, probably because I was still sleeping with my eyes open.  Luckily CA was driving and awake with his eyes open.  My saintly mother then had to turn around and drive straight back to AL because my dad was having surgery that same afternoon... because big things can't possibly happen on separate days.

I really expected to be a wreck when I said goodbye to my Mom at the airport, but I held it together.  I think it was due to the fact that I was focused on the logistics of getting 12 bags and a dog into the airport while figuring out where my dog could use the restroom before I had to lock him away for 18 hours.  There were tears later when I really thought about what was happening - it is very likely that we will not see our families for two years and that's a huge deal for me - but in the moment I was all business which kept me from becoming a face faucet... yet.

We found a lovely man with a very large cart to drag all of our stuff into the terminal to check in for our flight.  We arrived about 3 hours early, which we were instructed to do in order to ensure they could get Sconnie checked in and on the flight.

While CA was doing the check in thing, I took Sconnie to the "pet relief" area of the airport to get one last go before his imprisonment.  I was instructed to get there by taking the escalator.  If you've met my dog you know he's scared of everything (the vacuum, anything that looks like a vacuum, anything that's out of place, anything that moves and he can't understand why such as feet moving under a blanket) and a moving staircase was not happening.  He looked at it and I looked at him and we both knew there was no way.  Luckily, there were stairs that were really slippery which he proceeded to drag me down (maybe because he'd been stuck in a car for 4.5 hours and needed to go out or maybe because he knew he was about to be stuck in a crate for 18 hours and wanted to escape as quickly as possible).

The "pet relief" area was a joke.  It was an 6'x6' piece of pavement that was covered in AstroTurf and had a tiny, fake, red fire hydrant on it.  Luckily, my boy has a good nose on him and immediately knew how many thousands of other dogs had been here and did all of his business with efficiency.  Meanwhile, I was trying not to gag.

Sconnie dragged me back up the slippery stairs where I only tripped and nearly cracked my head open twice.  CA was done checking us in which meant we were relieved of 8 of our 12 bags.  We then had to travel down to the cargo check-in to drop off Sconnie.  This is when I lost my mind.

Exactly how can I be expected to take my little Sconnie boy, stuff him in a crate and allow some random person to wheel him away only to know that he's going to be placed in the belly of the airplane with so many loud and scary sounds and movements for a 14 hour plane ride?  Remember that I wouldn't even put him on an escalator because I thought he'd be scared?  Yeah, this was not a good moment.  I started crying and totally embarrassed myself in front of the other people who were checking their golf clubs at the International terminal on their way to some island resort destination.

To be fair, I think all the crying was a compounding of a lot of things - the dog, saying goodbye to family and friends and knowing I was going to have to sit on an airplane for 14 hours to live in a different country where I don't know anyone and can't speak or read the language.

After having my moment, I went to the restroom and pulled myself together.  CA and I then made it through security without incident, got breakfast without incident and then walked laps up and down the terminal for an hour because we knew that we'd be sitting for a very long time.  I also bought myself a nerdy but very comfy neck pillow that was too expensive and saved my life.

Upon entering the airplane I was ready to be crammed into a tiny little seat without enough leg room to cross my legs, but I was pleasantly surprised.  While the seat wasn't roomy and certainly didn't lay down flat like the seats of those lucky jerks in Business or First Class, it did have enough space for me to cross my legs without lifting one completely over my head and I had my own TV which I could control.  Score!

The 14 hour flight went faster than I expected.  CA and I stayed up long enough to be served our first meal (choice of chicken, beef and bimimbap which is a Korean dish that we decided to eat and didn't hate) and wash down an expired Ambien with two tiny glasses of wine (this practice is not recommended by anyone's doctor or me but it's totally the way to go).  We both passed out for 5 hours and woke up unrefreshed.  I then watched two movies - Frozen & Saving Mr. Banks.  CA watched two movies that I've never heard of and had no interest in watching which is why everyone should always have their own TV on an airplane.  We ate another meal (chicken, beef or pasta), read my book and a few magazines and POOF it was time to land.

Before they turned the fasten seat belt sign back on, I went to the restroom again because I wasn't sure how long we'd be at baggage claim, customs, etc. only to have to wait for a woman who was practically taking a shower in there.  She was in the bathroom FOREVER and came out looking perfectly quaffed, teeth freshly brushed and make-up perfectly applied.  All 6 people waiting in line to get in the restroom looked far less fresh or amused.  Seriously, if you're going to be in the airplane bathroom forever, do it earlier.  Maybe I was more easily annoyed because I'd been trapped for 14 hours or maybe this lady was just rude.

Customs was easy and all of our eight bags made it to baggage claim - SCORE.  We loaded them onto two luggage carts which I stood and watched while CA proceeded to the livestock area to pick up our boy.  We then managed to get all three carts out the terminal exit where two very nice men who will work with CA were waiting to take us to the base.

Let me just take a minute to brag on my pup for a minute.  Not only was Sconnie his happy, sweet self when he was released from his 18 hour captivity (he totally freaked and jumped and licked both of us when he was let out which made me feel so much better because I was convinced he would be angry with us and never love us again) but the dog didn't make any sort of mess in his crate.  NONE.  Let's just say that if I was confined for that long I couldn't say the same thing.  My dog is amazing.  However, when we let him out of his crate I was reminded of the scene in Austin Powers when Austin Powers is thawed after many years and proceeds to urinate for an aggressive amount of time.  There was no designated pet relief area so this happened right outside the airport exit doors.  I'm sure everyone appreciated that.

Before proceeding to our final destination, we had to stay one night in Seoul so CA could do some work stuff there the next morning.  The drive from the Incheon airport to Seoul was harrowing - luckily we were not driving but the crazy drivers in DC have nothing on Korea.  Unfortunately, we arrived in Seoul about ten minutes after the dog kennel closed so Sconnie had to spend the night in his crate on the loading dock of the hotel.  I was not pleased about this and he was not pleased about this but I was so freakin' tired by the time this occurred I really couldn't care all that much.  I think Sconnie cared.  Before locking him away, we took him for a good, long walk.  After locking him away, I ate chicken fingers, chugged two glasses of wine and passed out.

That's it - that's how we got here.  We are living in a hotel for the next few weeks until we get our apartment and our household goods are delivered.  I hope to give you guys updates on what we're up to, but there won't posts coming your way on a regularly scheduled basis for a while.  I personally prefer the predictability but I'm already beginning to realize that things are on a bit of a looser schedule around here so you'll have to adjust as well.

Julie

Triple Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies

Wow - this is the last thing I baked in my old house in Virginia.  It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago when this happened but in reality it was the end of February when I made these.  Did it seriously take me over two months to write about them?

These brownies were a pantry clearing dream!  Multiple kinds of chocolate, half a bag of marshmallows, powdered sugar, milk and cocoa powder were all taken care of in one fell swoop...

I just looked up that expression to make sure I was spelling it right and my whole life I thought it was fowl swoop - like swooping birds.  It is not.

I think my version makes more sense.

The base of these brownies comes together pretty easily without any special equipment - just a couple of bowls and spoons.  What I like about this brownie base is that it is made with just cocoa powder. 

Why???

Because I never plan to make brownies.  Brownies occur in my house based on a sudden and immediate craving for chocolate and my pantry is far more likely to contain cocoa powder than it is to contain other types of chocolate (except chocolate chips, I always have chocolate chips).  The great thing about this recipe is that I very likely have everything required to make it just lying around and when I want brownies, I want them now... there's no time to go to the store.

Besides the brownie base, I amped these up with some frosting (which had everything to do with getting rid of the random chocolate lying around) and marshmallows (which had everything to do with the half a bag of marshmallows staring at me).

I was very pleased with how the frosting turned out - it set up enough that I didn't worry about it getting all gooshy when I put the leftovers in a plastic baggie to give away because I was about to pack all of my storage containers.

These are pretty great brownies - the base is easy and fudgey which is my brownie preference (as opposed to cakey).  The frosting is also sweet and rich.  These are great staples to use together or separately and putting marshmallows on top of chocolate is never a bad idea.

Triple Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies
Adapted from Food

Ingredients

For the Brownies 
1 cup Canola Oil
2 cups Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2/3 cup Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup All Purpose Flour

For the Frosting
1 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
3 oz. Milk Chocolate
4 T Butter, at room temperatue
1 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
3 T Milk

2 cups Marshmallows

Instructions

For the Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9"x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In large bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until combined.  Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the baking powder, cocoa powder, salt and flour.

Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and mix until just combined.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, until set in the middle.  Cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting
Melt the chocolates together in a microwave safe bowl by microwaving in 30 second intervals and stirring in between heating sessions until melted.  Add the remaining ingredients (except the marshmallows) until smooth.

Preheat the broiler.

Spread the frosting on top of the cooled brownies.  Sprinkle evenly with marshmallows.  Broil for 30 seconds until the marshmallows are lightly toasted.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 101: Soft Pretzels

I want balloons and a cake and presents and a keg to celebrate the fact that I finished baking every single recipe in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  Who is throwing me a party?

Bueller?

Cricket, Cricket.

Fine - I'll celebrate by myself by eating a frozen meal because I'm still living in a hotel with no real kitchen so I can't bake myself a cake.  I will, however, have a drink to celebrate.  Because that's different than every other day.

When I set the goal for myself to bake everything in this cookbook, I had no idea that I would end up finishing so quickly.  I though it would take me at least two years to get this done, but it only took about 15 months.  Most of that was due to the fact that we found out we were moving to Korea and I was unsure whether I would be able to get the stuff I needed to bake all of this overseas (I was right).  I work far better under a deadline so in the end it was a blessing that crunch time hit and forced me to become a baking maniac for the last couple of months.

Fittingly, the last recipe in this cookbook that I tackled was a bread recipe.  It was probably the scariest of the bread recipes but also my favorite.

The dough itself is not scary and is similar to some others in the cookbook but with a starter that is much drier than the poolish and levain that is used in the other recipes.

Once the dough is ready it is divided, rolled into logs and shaped into a traditional pretzel shape.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the pretzels shaped correctly, but it was much easier than I expected.  I think Auntie Anne's would hire me if I'm ever desperate for employment / decide I need a discount on carbs.

I mentioned that this recipe is scary and that's because it comes with a warning that if you screw it up you'll be blind or erase your fingerprints.  For real.

Before the pretzels are baked they are soaked in a solution of water and food grade lye.  Lye is like baking soda on steroids and comes with a warning label that tells you how caustic it is.  It also tells you that you must wear gloves when handling it and not to splash it in your face.  I almost wore safety goggles, but I didn't.  If CA had read the warning label, he would have made me because he acts like the household safety officer.  Luckily, there was no splashing so I can still see you.

What the lye solution does is create a chemical reaction that gives pretzels their brown color when they're baked.  This is because of science so I don't understand how it works. 

I can't tell you how excited I was about how well these pretzels turned out.  First of all, I didn't injure myself.  Second, they look like real soft pretzels.  Third, they taste like real soft pretzels.  I'm so glad that the last thing I baked from this cookbook turned out really well.

I'm really proud of myself that I accomplished the goal of baking everything in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I learned A LOT and have some new skills and recipes to keep in my pocket for future use.

I feel like I need to set a new baking goal, but considering I don't have an oven or a mixing bowl or a spatula at the moment, that will have to wait.  Details.

Enjoy!
Julie

Almond Scones

I don't know how I ended up with so many almonds in my pantry before I left, but I had a giant bag of sliced ones lying around and these scones were very helpful in using them up.

I created these scones using the Bouchon Bakery Plain Scones recipe as a base and making some adjustments based on the ingredients I had on hand.  I love the Plain Scones recipe in this cookbook - they are much lighter than many scones (which I often think are too dense) because of the cake flour that is used.  You can ignore the all purpose flour in the photo above because I didn't use any of it.  I went all in on the cake flour for this recipe and was very pleased how they turned out.

Other than some simplifications, the only difference between these scones and the ones in the cookbook is the addition of sliced almonds in the dough and sprinkled on top.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it makes 16 scones.  That means there's enough for me and enough to share. 

I highly recommend this recipe and advise you to add it to your repertoire.  Feel free to experiment with this and include other types of nuts, dried fruit (not my cup of tea, but to each his own), citrus zest or even some chocolate chips.

Almond Scones
Adapted from Bouchon Bakery Cookbook
Yields 16 Scones

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups Cake Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into 1/4" cubes
1/2 cup + 5 T Heavy Cream (divided)
1/3 cup Sour Cream
1 3/4 cups Sliced Almonds (divided)
Coarse Sugar for Sprinkling

Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar on low speed until combined.  Add the butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add 1/2 cup + 3 T of Heavy Cream and Sour Cream and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together.  Add 1 1/2 cups Sliced Almonds and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough into a 10" x 10" square.  Cut into 16 squares.  Place the scones on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silpat.  Brush each square with remaining 2 T of Heavy Cream.  Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Sliced Almonds and Coarse Sugar.  Freeze the scones for 20 minutes until firm.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake the scones for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!
Julie