Domestic Goddess

OMG . Ouch. I've only had one experience with grated skin and mind you I have learned. Or make that, I am now very, very careful when I grate stuff. Almost to the point of grating slowly (much to the consternation of my hubby who wants me to go faster with the potato grating for the hash browns).

Thanks CFT! This will be lunch tomorrow and I will definitely heed your advise and tips. I promise to post pics too.

Hi everyone! I've been looking for a recipe for stuffed tofu blocks since I have a large block of tofu plus minced meat in the fridge right now. I tried to google for the recipe but all I can find are recipes calling for the tofu to be sliced in the middle like a pita sandwich. I want the recipe where the tofu blocks are hollowed out in the middle on TOP. Then it is stuffed with savory minced meat and then coated in corn starch and fried (?). I think there is a sauce that is poured over the dish before serving. Is there a Chinese recipe like this or am I just hallucinating?

Hubby's from Henderson, Ky where mutton barbeque reigns king. If you can make it to the annual Bluegrass Festival, there's some mighty good eating there, aside from the mutton BBQ.

FG, I think I'll take you up on your offer to take this to a month, with the way the economy is going. Even though I have gone shopping for staples like meat, milk and bread, I still found myself shopping less and finding innovative ways to fix our meals. Like this morning, I was craving for fish nuggets. I decided to defrost the white fish frozen in the freezer, debone and fillet it. After a dusting of corn starch, I fried it to a crisp - it was wonderful! I also made a salad from the greens a friend gave me yesterday (I think it's a smaller, greener version of a chinese cabbage. My friend suggested that I wash it thoroughly, cut the ends off, slice into bite-size pieces and mash it by hand with sliced tomatoes and a tablespoon of sauteed shrimp paste (bagoong) OMG, it was a delicious salad! I ate the whole bowl. Meals for this week include chili con carne and spaghetti (I've got a big pot of sauce made).

Hubby calls me his sweet little dumass. I always manage to give myself bumps and scrapes (on the elbows, shins and head) whenever I move around the kitchen (kitchen cabinet doors and dining table are hazards you know). And there's those times when I would stub my toe while carrying a heavy pot filled with hot stews or soups. I also almost always drop something on my toes and you betcha its a heavy stockpot (thankfully empty all the time) or the whetting stone. I've also managed to draw some blood (when cutting with my hubby's super sharp knives) but its bandaid-manageable. Let's say I get a burn-blister about once every two weeks since I love frying pork and fish that always pops in the hot oil. Now you see why I'm called a dumass?

DB - don't dismiss buko pie so easily. Done right with the flakiest of pastry, buko pie can be so heavenly and tasty. I can remember freshly baked buko pies from a roadside stall in Laguna, Philippines and we just had to eat them in the car. Each bite is a wonderful creamy coconuty goodness punctuated with tender coconut meat. All encased in a buttery pastry cover. Or you can make Espasol - a cylinder-shaped Filipino rice cake originating from the province of Laguna. It is made from rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened coconut strips, dusted with toasted rice flour (sometimes encased in a banana leaf cylinder). It is a light dessert or snack that is perfect for tea. I have the recipe if you want it.

While I leave our soy sauce and vinegar out, I always put the oyster sauce in the fridge. Hubby also insists that we refrigerate eggs and flour (to keep the bugs out). We also keep the bread, bananas, peanut butter (I used to refrigerate this but Hubby said that the Skippy spreads better room temperature).

With the exception of the zuchinni and jicama, that sounds like the Boiled Beef soup that my mother would make for cold, rainy days. It makes sense though, I come from a city where a lot of Spanish and Mexican sailors have migrated a couple of centuries ago (think Galleon trade).

Unfortunately, here in Korea, they have taken FoF off the menu since last year. Now I don't have anything to order from McDonald's except their fries.

I would also say that is a lotus leaf. My mouth is salivating at all those brains, I miss brain omelet (Tortang Utak in Filipino) that my grandmother would fix for lunch. It was always so garlicky and creamy. I could eat a plateful.

I also want to ask eGulleteers about my unopened bottle of Catalina dressing (it was a gift from a friend who went back to the US). Is there any way to use this up aside from a salad dressing?

They have begun selling Jeju pork in the local Hanaro grocery store here in Janghowon. I don't know if it is the cr@ap-fed one but it is tastier (judging from the grilled samples that I've tasted) but way more expensive than regular pork. It's 1,600 won per 100 grams = 16,000 won per kilo (about $19-20 dollars per 2 lbs). That's too expensive for our household budget.

Everyone's favorite - pigs in a blanket.

Ok last night's dinner was the last of the chicken noodle soup that hubby ate for dinner. Son had a can of tuna with rice while I noshed on some sushi that a friend dropped by as a gift. This morning, hubby went out and bought 2 lbs of ground pork to make breakfast sausage (the last patty in the fridge was consumed yesterday). He made some patties and that was our breakfast today. Lunch was a package of ham (made into a sandwich by hubby). I ate half a container of the scad I simmered in coconut milk last Monday. I found another package of pork belly hidden in the depths of the freezer and made a Chinese-Filipino dish called Pata Tim. Right now, the hunk of pork is simmering with black bean sauce, garlic, star anise, onion, vinegar in a wok. That would be a least a couple of meals for us.

Kris - I'm glad you post this. In another messageboard, I change the day on the daily chat thread and I usually post the day's trivia and what particular day it is for a certain country. Then I learned it was Girl's Day and I was looking forward to posted pics of chirashi here.

I wanna add my hubby who doesn't eat any kind of SEAFOOD. And he married a girl who came from a long line of sea fisherman and grew up by the sea AND LOVES ALL KINDS OF SEAFOOD. We used to have fights when I would cook fish (to him it was stinky, well the dried fish were, I would admit). But he admits to eating river bass, crappy or trout that he and his dad would fish. Said hubby will also not eat mushrooms (unless very tiny or ground up into paste) and will eat the basic veggies - green beans, potatoes, carrots, onion and bell pepper. Other veggies are not tolerated (broccoli, cauliflower, lima beans, etc). But hubby makes a mean Kentucky Barbeque that would knock the socks off any meat loving carnivore.

Onigiri - the gochukaroo is indeed powdered red chili powder. I can't tell you what kind of pepper they used, I'm not familiar with the varieties. I live in Janghowon, famous for its red chili peppers that have a thick fleshy wall. I believe that translates into a richer, red powder. During the summer, when they're drying the peppers on the roads/street, you can smell the spiciness in the air. I can mail you a package of Janghowon gochukaroo if you want but dunno if customs would allow spicy powder through the mail.

I will be joining the bento making moms since I just bought a Sesame Stree bento lunch box set for my son. He brings his own lunch since he cannot handle the korean lunch provided by the school. Lunches are offered free in my son's school but since it is korean (which translates as always spicy), he cannot eat it. My son has a delicate digestive system (congenital) and have always packed a sandwich to eat for lunch. I bought him the bento set so he can bring a more varied lunch with rice and meat. This also means I have to wake up 30 minutes earlier to fix his bento lunch for him. Now I need to stock up on lunchable items for his bento.

Okay today was street market day so I picked up a roast (for hubby's carnivore meals) and about 3 pounds of pork (for meals later this weekend). I also bought a pint of blood for $1, yes, you read that right, beef BLOOD for making Diniguan (Filipino blood stew). I have various cooked offal frozen and when I came home from the market, I defrosted the meats and cooked them for Diniguan. I ate a huge portion and have about 4 serving portions left. Those would be a couple of my lunches this week and next. For breakfast today, I used up the last of the fresh milk to make biscuits. I made baking soda biscuits with the flour in my freezer (do you guys keep your flour in the freezer like we do? It's something I've adopted from my hubby who would do that to keep the bugs out of the flour). For brekkies, hubby and I had biscuits with scrambled eggs, bacon (for me) and sausage (for him). Tomorrow, I plan to make cauliflower soup with the frozen cauliflower in the freezer. I'm beginning to see spaces in my fridge. Hubby was just appraised last night of this week without shopping challenge. He gives it a big thumbs up.

I live in Korea and um, the standard urns here are about 2 feet to 4 feet high. If you want these authentic kimchi urns, it's gonna set you back mucho dollars with the shipping costs alone. I think a 2-feet urn would cost about $80 (with the stone lid). There are glass lids too (lined with a steel border).

Last night saw another batch of leftovers for dinner - chicken noodle soup for my hubby, braised scad with coconut milk (defrosted 4 scad fish and added the leftover coconut cream from last Monday's lunch) for me and chicken gingers and fries for our son. I found the chicken fingers lurking at the back of our freezer. I also found I had two ziploc bags of frozen cauliflower florets. I see cauliflower soup for tomorrow's dinner. I've got biscuits baking in the oven now for brunch and hubby and I will have that with bacon and scrambled eggs. I will be buying meat today as we are low on meat essentials. I plan to pick a 2 lb roast (that would translate to several meals), a chicken and some carrots. Which we are definitely out.

Bumping this thread back up. Maybe we can branch out to kitchen items too that can be mailed?

Um, I think you can find recipes in videos in YouTube or if you want text, Google is a very good search engine.

Peter - I was going to google pictures of dulse. Thank you for posting the pictures. I think I can get that here in Korea. Tomorrow is street market day and there are always dried and wet seaweed being sold in stalls.