Food + Masks from the Asian Supermarket

I'm staying with my family on Long Island, NY, and took a trip to a local Korean supermarket this afternoon to feed my Asian food craving. The store, H and Y Supermarket, isn't as charmingly sketchy as the Asian groceries I frequent in Maryland, but it was alright. I got two containers of sushi, miso broth, Concord grapes (tart black grapes with seeds, yum), kiwis, a salad and...these good things:


Chapagetti. Strange name, tasty instant noodles. Ever since my Korean friend made some for me in Maryland I keep getting the occasional craving for it.


"Men's" Pocky?? I didn't know biscuits could have a gender! I guess it's more masculine than those Lotte cookies with strawberry koalas on them, but still...these are covered in bitter chocolate and taste very good.


Korean face masks. (My poodle Chestnut felt this would be a good time to hop on my bed and get in the shot, hehe.)

Five of them are made by Dermal, one is made by Tundisi. I've seen other bloggers use them so figured it can't hurt to try one myself. I've highlighted the different varieties below:

I don't know what "charcoal collagen" means...or how my skin will react to any of these...I'll post a review once I try one.

My First Chopsticks (Sort Of)

When I first moved to Maryland last September, I rented a room in a communal house. My incredibly sweet landlady allowed me to use all the fully-furnished common areas, including the kitchen. There was no need for me to bring my own cookware or utensils since they were all provided.

Well, this past April, I spread my little wings and moved into my first real apartment. (Okay, technically it's a condo I split with the new landlord's in-laws...but it is a big change from living in a communal house, since the kitchen is the only shared room here, and we even have our own garbage cans in there.)

Because of the communal house situation, I had almost no kitchen supplies when I moved into my new place. And while I've acquired some pots, pans, cups, bowls and other kitchen tools, I never got around to getting real utensils or plates. I'm moving again in the fall and don't really want to invest in real stuff. It's just more to pack up and move. And part of me, perhaps in a strange way, wants to wait to buy utensils and plates for the day when I can stock them on the shelves of a real 'home'...not like where I live now, which, in spite of its good points, is merely a place where I'm living short-term.

So, I've been using paper plates and plastic utensils. Yep....a bit embarrassing, since I love to cook, do it quite frequently, and then serve my food on all these disposable things! Like I said, I have some bowls, I have some sharp knives for cutting, two miso soup spoons, big plastic spoons and spatulas...and yesterday, I added chopsticks to the mix.

I cook quite a bit of Asian-inspired food and was running low on disposal wooden chopsticks (waribashi) I'd gotten along with meals various take-out places. I picked up a package of Korean metal chopsticks and then I spotted this set:

So pretty! With their own plastic case! Only $5!

Now, these are far from the first chopsticks I've ever used or had in my possession. In fact, my mom has at least a few pairs of attractive, reusable chopsticks in the home where I grew up. But these are the first chopsticks that are mine, all mine! And since they have a case they will be easy to store flat, instead of ending up shoved with pens and pencils in some mug on my desk. (I don't have any drawers allocated for my use in the kitchen...)

Plus, I feel like they add a little bit of beauty in my life, albeit in plastic, mass-produced form. :)

Yum: Grilled Eel, Cheesecake Brownies

No, I didn't eat these together...But I figured I'd explain more about my eel adventure and share with you all a delicious, super easy and attractive dessert.

First, the eel: I purchased it pre-grilled and frozen from a local Korean supermarket. All I had to do was boil it in its plastic package for about 10 minutes and mmmmm, it came out really well. I served it with a side of jasmine rice (thank goodness for my $12 CVS rice maker) topped with frozen peas and flavored with soy sauce.

Sadly, I didn't take a photo of the meal -- a norm for me -- because I was so hungry that I forgot! I took a picture of the package (upside down) in water though. What you can't see is that 'rice wine' is misspelled as 'bice wine' on the wrapper, and the serving size is miscalculated in the nutrition facts. Oddly enough, I think this gave me more hope for the food. I can't read Korean, but assuming that is the native language of whoever produced this food made me hopeful that it would be at least a little bit authentic tasting. Then again, maybe I should have just assumed it was the work of careless people and been wary of its quality...But hey, I lived, and it was tasty, so it's all good. :)

Second, you should run out and make these wonderful cheesecake brownies. They have been a favorite treat of mine ever since I first tasted them about four or five years ago. This version, adapted from AllRecipes.com, can easily be whipped up within an hour or two.

Ingredients:
--1 package of cream cheese (8 oz)
--1 egg
--1/3 cup white sugar
--1 box of brownies mix (19.8 oz) [and ingredients necessary to make mix per-manufacturer's instructions...probably vegetable oil and eggs]

First, prepare the brownie mix as directed on the box. Pour about 3/4 of the mix into a greased pan.

Then, combine egg, sugar and cream cheese. Beat until smooth. This is easiest with an electric mixer, but can be done (vigorously) by hand.

Spoon cream cheese mixture onto brownie mix in the pan. Then top with the remaining brownie mix, and swirl together with a skewer or fork.

Bake according to manufacturer's instructions. Brownies are ready when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Thanfully, these brownies look as good as they taste and are practically foolproof. Let them cool, cut them up and share them with friends. My housemates and coworkers liked them, and I think people around you will too. Enjoy.

Tasty, Foolproof Meatball Recipe

I spent Saturday night one of the best ways I know how: cooking with two good friends. We made fresh spaghetti and homemade meatballs. If you've never had this meal you have not lived my friend! Pasta and meatballs is one of my most favorite comfort meals ever, but particularly when made from scratch. And when made in a kitchen full of love, not to sound too cheesy, hehe. :P It's true though - my mom taught me to cook and it's an activity I really enjoy sharing with special people in my life.

Victoria and Jason work intently...

I personally had never made spaghetti before...and I really didn't this time. Jason brought his dark blue Kitchenaid standing mixer, for which he has a spaghetti roller attachment and an attachment that cuts the dough into linguine. He did that while Victoria and I made the meatballs.

Flour, water and eggs, baby! Yeah, that's a hanger from my closet.

As for the meatball recipe...Meatballs are very easy and fun to make. Not only that, but the recipe is flexible for varying tastes. The recipe I used this weekend was taught to me by my mother and originally adapted from the recipe of a family friend's Italian grandmother, who brought it over from the Old World:

Meatballs:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 2 oz. grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• A teaspoon of salt
  
• A handful of chopped curly parsley (to taste)
• Seasoning such as oregano and black pepper (to taste)
  

Sauce (to finish cooking the meatballs in):

• 1.5 - 2 regular sized jars of tomato sauce
• Half an onion, diced
  

Instructions: Put both ground meats into one large bowl. Add eggs, bread crumbs, cheese and parsley. Mix thoroughly with your hands. Season as you see fit while continuing to blend the ingredients.

Don't be afraid to get messy, mash it all up between your fingers! The consistency should be solid enough to form balls that won't slip apart or lose their shape, but not too dry. Even though I list amounts of ingredients above, when it comes to the dry ingredients and parsley it's not paramount that you measure everything to a tee. More important is to eyeball it for texture. The one rule I'd stick with is that you should use one egg per pound of meat.

Heat oil in a medium to large sized frying pan - enough to entirely coat the cooking surface. I'm partial to olive oil. Roll 1 to 1.5 inch-sized balls from the meat mixture and drop them in the hot pan, leaving about half an inch or an inch between each. (You need enough room to flip them all over.) Cook until they are browned on the outside but not totally cooked all the way through.

As the meatballs are done browning, transfer them to a large pot on a separate range filled with the tomato sauce. Turn this pot onto medium heat. You can either brown the meatballs and then put them on a plate with paper towels to soak up some of the olive oil, or you can transfer them immediately from the frying pan to the sauce-filled pot.

Once all the meatballs are finished, saute the diced onion in the frying pan until the pieces are slightly transparent and beginning to caramelize. Add to the tomato sauce and meatball pot.

Fold the meatballs into the sauce. You want to have enough sauce to almost entirely cover the meatballs. Cover the pot and let sit for about 10 minutes, to give time for the sauce to heat and for the meatballs to finish cooking through.

Enjoy!
So good!! Paired with cold cream soda....yum. Looking at the photo is making me hungry now.

Notes: You're not married to using pork and beef. Flavor-wise, I like using two different meats with at least one of them being beef, but you can also try ground turkey, ground chicken, ground veal, etc. You can also stick to only one kind of meat, though I'd really suggest using two, it gives a much more unique taste.

Same goes with the seasonings and with the cheese. I like Romano, but Parmesan is just as good. You don't even necessarily need to use cheese, though I like the slight flavor it gives and the way it helps the consistency of the meatballs.

Pick ground meats with a higher fat content if taste is your first priority. I used 90/10 beef in this recipe, though being somewhat health conscious, I usually cook with more lean packages. Ground turkey is a good way to make the meatballs slightly healthier while keeping tasty.

Eat Well, Cook Cheap & Easy - Cornish Hens

I wanted to make Cornish hens for a while: they're the perfect size when only cooking small batches of food. Seeing two hens in a package on sale for $3 seemed like the perfect time to try.

Things are very busy around here. I begin my full-time job in early September, I'm taking my sis up to college tomorrow and have to pack all my stuff so that when I return, I can throw it in the car and move down to Maryland for my work. Through this all, my room in my family's NY house has become a huge mess. Ugh!

Anyway, I made this a few weeks ago and thought it worthy of sharing: Orange-glazed, stuffed Cornish hens. The instructions are from Allrecipes.com, a wonderful resource with tons of recipes, reviews and meal suggestions. I made some changes to their listing, however, based on ingredients that I had on hand and on flavors I wanted to try. Specifically, this meant using pre-cooked/seasoned rice and kumquats instead of oranges.

You can click on the link above to see the original recipe. Here it is with my ingredients and approximate prices of the products for which you'll probably have to shop.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion (>$1)
  
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery ($1.99)
  
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
  
• 1-1/2 cups pre-cooked rice (I used a package of Uncle Ben's Spanish style Ready Rice -- it's what my boyfriend had in his apartment.) ($2.50)
  
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons kumquat peel (It has more of a kick than orange, and I'd just purchased some at the store. I just tore it up, didn't grate it. They are small, but about six or eight kumquats did the job fine.) ($2)
  
• 2 (1 1/4 pound) Cornish game hens ($3 on sale)
  
• GLAZE:
• 1/2 cup orange juice ($1.50)
  
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons kumquat peel
  

DIRECTIONS

1. In a skillet, saute the onion and celery in butter. Add rice, sugar, salt, and kumquat peel; mix well. (OMG it smells so good at this point!) Loosely stuff hens. Place, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow baking pan. In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients; spoon some over hens. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Cover and bake 40 minutes longer until juices run clear, brushing often with remaining glaze.

My take:

Since I used pre-cooked Spanish style rice I felt comfortable omitting some seasoning the recipe originally called for...I was at my boyfriend's apartment and options were limited. (Oregano, anyone?) We already had rice and celery, too. I purchased a single-serve orange juice container since I was leaving in a few days and didn't want a whole container going to waste. Oil, sugar, butter, salt and honey were also ingredients already on hand that I think most home cooks have, so I didn't list a price.

The kumquats were my specialty item buy, and they are more pricey - $4 or $5 a pound. But since I only needed a handful, they cost a dollar or two. They are very small and light.

This recipe sounds complicated and tastes delicious but is super easy to make. (As long as you defrost the hens with ample time. Mine we a bit frozen and a pain to open up the center. And make sure there are no giblets inside when you cook! Mine had none.) You just mix the ingredients in the pan and then stuff them in the bird. Glaze it, pop it in the oven and it cooks itself.

Bon Appetite!

A Girl Can't Live Off Cheetos Alone

Though sometimes I'd like to.

Yesterday my boyfriend and I seized the rare opportunity to drive to the supermarket by hitting up a Safeway about a mile away from his northwest DC apartment. (Normally neither of us has a car but I drove down from my family's house in NY to go on job interviews this week.) I'm not a big soda fan and shouldn't indulge his habits, but I did...for the sake of an awesome sale. Buy two 12-packs of soda, get three free. Yes, buy two, get three free. I've never seen a promotion like that. So as long as he's going to drink soda we might as well get it for a bargain price. And without a car there's no way we could carry five 12-packs plus groceries back to his place!

We got four Coca-colas...and one diet root beer for me. :) I also had a coupon for a free Frito-Lay product, but alas, there were only crunchy Cheetos and not puffy ones. Puffy Cheetos are probably my favorite junk-food indulgence. (Cheez Doodles are probably my all-time favorite bright orange cheese puffs though. I mean, in case you were curious.) So I resigned myself to a salad, seltzer, champagne grapes and part of a rice crispy treat for dessert. Tasty and healthier than cheese puffs!

What I really wanted to discuss though is living healthy. The past few months - largely since I took an interest in reading beauty blogs - I've become more conscious about caring for my body. And far from just superficially, especially since I don't think cosmetics and products can be well showcased if you're not taking care of the canvas on which you put them.

Less stress has probably helped my body too. During college I didn't sleep much and was always busy working or studying. I never took 'me' time to nurture my mind and body. However, I probably exercised more then than I have been in the past few weeks by virtue of being car-less and walking two miles to-and-from work five days a week. So maybe it balances out. And then last month I started taking some medication that made my face break-out -- yuck! (It's thankfully subsiding.) Even still, in the past two weeks or so I've woken up and been surprised by the way my skin glows.

As you saw with my recent facewash post, I've been trying to be vigilant in cleaning and moisturizing my skin. Combine that with sleeping enough and trying to stay hydrated/eat healthy, and I think I've found a decent formula for pretty skin. And more energy. It feels good to take care of myself.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself! And who knows what will happen when work starts full time in early September?

Anyway, I am going to try hard to complete my care-transformation by trying to eat healthy and exercise more. (Hopefully I'll live close enough to my job to walk most of the time.) So I figured I'd share with you this *brief*, interesting New York Time's guide to "The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating." Beets, cinnamon and canned pumpkin make the cut...Oh, and I'd love to hear any suggestions you have for tasty, healthy foods. I'll be back with more soon.