Korean Beef Bulgogi

When you teach ESL students and host them at your home, knowing some of their traditional dishes sometimes helps with homesickness. Having familiar food "from home" always makes life in a new country a little more comfortable. Of course, the students eat everything we offer and not just food from their country. We have a wide variety of dishes like Shepherd's Pie, lasagna, Chicken Parmesan, Pad Thai, Pho, sushi, etc...

One of our favourite dishes is Korean Beef Bulgogi.


The direct translation of Bulgogi is "fire meat". Basically, the meat is marinated and cooked on an open flame. I cook it in a pan on my stove top.

I thought I'd post the recipe on my blog, since about a dozen people have asked me to e-mail them the recipe!

 Ingredients:

Beef (sirloin or any other prime cut), thinly sliced
onion, thinly sliced
mushroom, sliced
carrot, Julienned/matchstick cut
green pepper, thinly sliced
garlic, minced
green onion, chopped
salt and black pepper
soy sauce
sesame oil
oyster sauce
honey

* Note: I do not use measurements, but just cook by taste.

Instructions:

In a large bowl, put thinly sliced beef and all ingredients. Mix together and let marinate. Overnight is best, but if you don't have time, even 20 minutes will do.

On high heat, cook all ingredients in a large pan or wok. The trick to very tender meat is high heat and cooking the meat fast.

Once the meat and vegetables are cooked, serve on top of a bed of rice. You can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top as a garnish if you wish!

Enjoy!

We've Been Busy! Plus some Meatless Monday Recipes!

Great news!!! Little One passed the Northeast Infant Hearing Program and there are no concerns regarding her hearing! Despite being high risk at birth (for her prematurity), she has been discharged from the program! Yippeeeee! :) BTW, the kid's got super hearing...although she clearly has selective hearing! She seems to be unable to hear the words "Please don't do that" or "Come here, please"!

We've been busy with students, life on the farm, life with the toddler, family, friends, birthday parties, work, work, work, and getting stuff done around the house (which seems to be a never ending affair). Life has been very busy, very full, but also very rewarding and enjoyable. 

 You can't really tell from the photo, but I painted our front entrance a very bright blue. It's more of a turquoise/aqua than blue. It is really bright and quite the adjustment for Hubby. The walls in the front entrance used to be a stone gray colour. Usually, I'm Little Miss Play-It-Safe with the colours on our walls. I tend to stick with creams and neutrals. I just felt something drastic, bright, and cheerful was in order. I hope I made the right decision!

 Little One and her buddy on a lunch date. We checked out a chip stand on our way to "the city" for some spur of the moment shopping.

 I love Lowes because I can spend the entire day there, checking out new ways to beautify my home and add to all the renovations.  A girl can dream, right?  Okay, who am I kidding? I love Lowes because their buggies are so cool that even the toddlers wanted to ride in them and not run around the store like maniacs, touching everything and getting into trouble, causing embarrassment for moms and dads alike. Nah, our toddlers would never do that! ;)

 Our first time at Coldstone Creamery.  We met up with my lovely and talented friend (Ahem! Need a photographer? Look no further) there.  She had mentioned the place to me before, but I had never been there.  One would think that I've been living under a rock or in a cave for all these years, since I had even heard of Coldstone Creamery until this year! All my city friends raved about the place, claiming it to be the ultimate ice cream experience. We were in "the city" and had to check it out. Little One and I shared some key lime ice cream. Little One's friend and her mom shared an Oreo something or other, but Little One's friend preferred the key lime. As you can tell from the above photo, Little One did not want to part with her ice cream. I guess she liked it.

 Little One attended a birthday party on the weekend.  Judging from the balloons, I think these were supposed to be for another kind of party and not a 4 year old's party! Kidding. They were supposed to be giant worms with happy faces on them and not ginormous condoms.

 Our budding photographer, taking photos of everything.

 Wearing her tuxedo dress from my Korean student.  South Koreans have excellent taste in clothes :)

 Near the end of the weekend, Mommy needed some time out...

 The adorable Muskoka chair herb garden was Little One's Mother's Day present for me. I love it!

 After I made my bed, I noticed a little lump on my side of the bed. Look closely on the right side of the bed. See that little bump?

That bump was none other than a sleeping Little One, who had crawled into my bed when I went to take a shower before work. Not sure if you can see her in this photo. She's so tiny!

 If you like pina coladas...

 Apple crumble for Hubby, Little One and the students.

 Vegetarian Curry

3 c diced tomatoes
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 or 2 c okra, cut into bite sized pieces
lots and lots of beans/legumes (I used a combo of lentil, chickpeas, kidney beans, etc)
salt and black pepper
curry, cumin, and a few other spices
a little bit of oil for cooking

Sautee onion and garlic. Add spices. Add veggies and legumes/beans. Cook until everything is tender. Enjoy!

C's Crazy Easy Guacamole

 Guacamole! I used 4 avocados, and the guac was inhaled within minutes! Easiest guacamole recipe ever!

4 avocados
1 tbsp minced garlic
a few splashes of lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste ( I also used a secret mix of spices, but I'm not sharing)
1 tomato, diced
parsley, chopped (I didn't have cilantro)

Mash avocados in a bowl, add all other ingredients, mix together until smooth, and eat with Tostitos! Yup, it's that easy!

 I also made some yummy wild leek and potato soup with wild leeks picked on our farm. I'll post that recipe soon! Happy Meatless Monday for those who do Meatless Mondays! Yes, I realize that this is Tuesday and I'm only getting around to posting now :)

I Love Sundays

Our first trip to the beach this year! Can't wait until the weather warms up so we can go swimming!!!

Things My Toddler Taught Me

Toddlers have the funniest dreams!  The first words out of Little One's mouth when she woke up this morning were, "Chicken! Chicken, please!!!"

Toddlers can communicate effectively with  minimal words. "Bird fly sky" means "Birds fly in the sky" or "The bird is flying in the sky".

Toddlers are capable of demonstrating a tremendous amount of love.  The sweetest thing I've ever witnessed is Little One hugging and kissing her Grandpa and saying, "I love you, Grampy!"

Toddlers just have to dance whenever they hear music. It's absolutely beautiful how they have no inhibitions. I wonder at what point in our lives we become self-conscious and worry about what others will think if we just start rockin' it out whenever we hear a catchy tune?

Toddlers amaze me.

 

Oh, Mother!

No one ever warned me that being a mother could be so wonderful, exciting, emotional, fulfilling, fun...and exhausting, draining, frustrating all at the same time.

I was giving Little One a bath and halfway through her bath, she said, "Mama! Poo poo! Poo poo, Mama!"
The thing with Little One is that she always says "poo poo". Most of the time, I rush her to the toilet, sit her on the porcelain throne, and nothing comes out. Today, I just told her "It's okay,  honey. You don't really need to go, do you?"

She went on playing in the bath, singing and chatting away. Then she handed something to me and said, "Poo poo, Mama!"  Sure enough, in her tiny hand was a...piece of poop! I was so disgusted, I nearly vomited in the tub! I quickly drained the tub and got toilet paper to pick up the little logs that were floating in the water. I tried very hard to act with composure, not wanting to project my fears/disgusts/phobias/dislikes on my impressionable child. I tried to act like it was no big deal and that poop really didn't gross me out to the point where I want to vomit. I calmly told Little One that when she feels like she needs to "go", to let me know and I would bring her to the toilet. I told her that we do not poop in the bathtub.

Then, my tiny two year old looked at me with that "But, I did tell you I needed to poop!" look. It was at that moment that I knew that this wouldn't be the first time in my years of motherhood that Little One would catch me in a moment of  I-have-absolutely-no-idea-what-I'm-doing-but-I'm-hoping-that-you-still-think-I'm-the-best-thing-on-the-planet-and-can-do-no-wrong.

The truth is, I actually don't know what I'm doing half of the time and am just winging it. I'm hoping my daughter turns out to be a well-adjusted, self-confident, happy, healthy person...despite the fact that her mom really has no clue, doesn't know everything, doesn't always act accordingly,  and lets "instinct" control the way things go.

*sigh* Parenting! It sometimes seems like kids should come with a manual.

Latest Little One-isms:
"Grampy, whaaa aaah you doing?"
"Grampy, look at me!"
"Elbow hurting!"
"Foot hurting!"
"Tummy hurting!"
"Baby inside" (pointing at her belly)
"Poo poo in potty"
"I naked"
"I annna go outside"
"Come on now, Mama"
"Sleep, turtle, night night stars" (she wants her Twilight Turtle on before bed so she can fall asleep looking at the stars)
"I annna go Grampy and Lola's house"
"I annna talk Kenny computer"
"DVD, please"
"Dora treat, please"
"Money, please"
"Chloe, cat whikkerz"
"Bird, fly, sky"
"Kenny's house!"
"I love you, Mama"

The last phrase is just music to my ears. It kind of makes the poop stories not seem that bad. I just want to hug and kiss her forever and never let her go. I love her so much.