If one of your dishes suddenly goes up in smokes or an unexpected (or uninvited) guest decides to show up, this side will save the day! It’s super easy, flexible, and the ingredients will already be on hand. Without a clue as to what I was going to cook today, I went into this dish blind. BLIND I say! No flipping through cookbooks or browsing through recipes. I simply thought about what I had and went for it! I’m like my own parent, watching my inner chef grow! My, how far I’ve come. Two years ago, I probably couldn’t tell you exactly what roasting was. Oh yea, that was me.
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November 23 2009 | Side Dish | 4 Comments »
A few years ago, my aunt taught me an easy potato gratin recipe that sort of stuck with me. I made it for a Valentine’s Day potluck my senior year of high school. It was an interesting occasion because we were actually celebrating a belated Secret Santa gift exchange in February. Somehow with college applications, school, and all the crazy things we did in high school, Christmas was pushed back two months. There were an array of dishes that appeared at the potluck. Everything from caramel apples and macaroni and cheese to Popeye’s fried chicken. I don’t really remember the food or if the gratin was a hit, but I do remember the company I was with, being ridiculously full, and the fun moments and gifts we shared that day. I feel like that’s the essence of Thanksgiving; sharing a meal with people we love and enjoying all the laughs that spill in between. Life seems to get so busy that it seems like we need occasions like Thanksgiving or Valentine’s/Christmas just to spend time with family and friends.
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November 21 2009 | Side Dish and Vegetarian | 6 Comments »
Continuing with my love of side dishes, here is one that is good for both summer and winter. It is stir fried potatoes with onions and green peppers. Many potato dishes are heavy and unhealthy (ex. french fries, hash browns, baked potato with the works) but this one is light, nutritious, and deceptively delicious. A little salt and heat brings out the great natural flavors of this starchy vegetable. Whenever my mom set this out before dinner, my sister and I would slowly sneak a few chopsticks-ful until none of it was left when we actually sat down to eat!
I had a hankering for stir fried potatoes the other day so I went to my second best resource, this Korean cookbook, for the recipe. A red light should’ve gone off in my head when I copied down five green bell peppers, but I guess my mind was not functioning very well because I didn’t think twice about it. So, I went to the grocery store and bought two yellow potatoes and five green bell peppers. Once I started cooking, I began to feel like there were one too many green pepper slices but I just kept on cutting away. Seriously, I was like a robot, strictly following illogical directions! I blame it on the heat.
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August 22 2009 | Asian and Korean and Recipe and Side Dish and Thoughts and Vegetarian | 8 Comments »