The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good: Nelson is coming to Korea in exactly 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went on our monthly field trip this past Thursday with the kindergarteners to a sweet potato farm. It was the shiiiiiiz, especially considering how much I love Korean sweet potatoes. I picked a couple of sweet potatoes and one of my coworkers gave me a bag full that she got.  

The teachers helped the little ones pick their own sweet potatoes.

The students were shouting, "Teacher, teacher look!" every 2 seconds. Very entertaining.

My Korean son picked many.

The pre-kinder students brought so much food; it was a junk food feast. Of course no one wanted to eat their lunch.

The bad: Ownership has changed at my school. I want to be optimistic about this change, but so far the transition has been really rough. I missed picture day with the kindergarteners and got dressed up for nothing because of poor management and idiocy. So...I took pictures for myself. Not as professional and not very well posed, but I like these better.

I don't know how professional photographers get these kids to sit still!

They love photobombing! Hahaha

The ugly: I made banana bread with my coworker, Samantha, and her Dutch Oven. She showed me how to use this contraption that she learned to use while in the Peace Corps in Mozambique. A dutch oven is basically a pot inside another pot, like a rice cooker, but without the steam vent so no heat escapes. I was extremely impressed. Although this banana bread doesn't look particularly appetizing in the picture, it was SLAMMING! I will be making this again...many times.

At the end of the field trip, one of my pre-kinder students decided she wanted to use my camera.

I was really tired because I just let her do it.

She took many funny shots of her classmate, Kevin.

Goofball :)

That's the photographer on the right, Dionisia.

Tofu is amazing

Ever since forever I've been wanting to learn how to make soft tofu stew or soondubu jjigae (순두부찌개). So I tried it for the second time today and it was delicious! (The first time I tried it in Florida and was unsuccessful. I now realize that not all tofu are the same and I was using the wrong type of tofu.)

My stepdad loves this dish. I secretly loved when he bought it from H-mart.

New phone, New recipes, New appreciation for Halloween

I've finally joined the touch phone world! I was reluctant and fought it for years, but I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I'm loving all the fun apps. Sorry, I can't play Words with Friends or Hanging with Friends because there is no Droid app for those games in Korea. I'm learning so much about phone technology with this phone. The best thing about this phone is it has an 8 megapixel camera! So I will probably be posting a lot more pictures :).

Some new recipes I've tried with success:

Spicy rice cake or ddukbokki (떡볶이). It came out well, but I made it wayyy too spicy. Burned my mouth. I'm sure Resa would have loved it. :P

Beef and quail eggs in soy sauce or jangjorim (장조림). It also has garlic, peppers, honey, and kelp. I believe I've had this dish before back home, but I never realized how much I liked it until I bought some from a butcher's shop in Korea. It's sooooo tasty and a new favorite.

 

I was dreading Halloween at work, but the little ones reminded me how much fun Halloween could be. 

Already fighting over a man (*shaking my head). Actually those two girls are always fighting over something.

Alex is feeding Brody one of the ghosts we made out of a dum dum, tape, and tissue.

We made chocolate muffin crumb dirt and sour worms the kids ate.

The little one hanging on my neck is Ted. He's my favorite pre kinder student and I wish my future son will be just like him. He's so sweet and has such personality! He brings me a sticker or candy every morning. He often carries my basket to the classroom when I teach his class. He always tries so hard to read and remember what I teach him. He also tries to punch or molest me at least once a day, but he's 5...all is forgiven after a stern look is returned with a smile and a giggle. He's obviously not afraid of me. I'm in love...sigh.

I was a twin for my Halloween costume. I know, very cheap. LOL. We had matching headbands!

There's my darling again! I <3 Ted.

We had at least 3 different Snow Whites. They were all adorable.

Check out the video below. We had a mummy contest...it was intense.

Longest day and week ever! My desk space hasn't looked this bad at work in a minute.

Dinner with new friends

I made dinner for two of my new friends today. Normally we meet at a coffee shop on Sundays as conversation partners, but I offered to cook 'dakjjim' because I wanted to test my skills on a native Korean. 

This dish has lots of veggies.

Seriously, it was soooo good!

I made about half of the side dishes, my aunt gave me the rest. Lauren and Daniesha brought dessert, ice cream and Asian pear.

It was a success. I was really proud of my braised chicken and I'm going to continue to use www.Maangchi.com as a source for simple Korean recipes. Lauren, my Korean friend, guided Daniesha and I to a bookstore after dinner.

I bought a simple Korean cookbook with Lauren's help. Hopefully it helps me learn Korean and how to cook at the same time. I'm excited :)

Happy mistakes

I really enjoy cooking here. Every dish I've made so far has been easier than I expected. Today, I wanted to find a new supermarket, E-Mart, I heard has slightly lower prices than the one closest to my apartment. I climbed the hill my building sits on, went down the other side, and came upon so much more to Gwangmyeong than I realized existed! There were shops galore and many side streets with more stores...clothes (I bought a jacket on sale), shoes, pet stores, florists, etc. 

As I got to the area where the supermarket is supposed to be, I stumbled upon a HUGE open market. I walked in and didn't leave until I found everything I needed (I never made it to E-Mart). 

The market was a maze of more than fresh produce and meats; it had kitchenware, blankets, clothes, etc at discounted prices. Tomorrow, I plan on returning to purchase a low dining table.

 

I took a shopping list I translated into Korean in order to make sure I purchased everything I needed to make 'dakjjim' or braised chicken with vegetables (닭찜). 

When I got home the persimmons I bought to eat as a fresh dessert were smooshed! I was a little disappointed because I was so happy to find ripe ones.

Another happy mistake - I made a soup out of the mashed persimmons and other random ingredients in my fridge. The combination of the caramelized onion, dates, and ripe persimmon made it sweet like a dessert. I think I added a little too much onion though. Next time, I will add less onion and I won't caramelize them for long. 

I also wanted to make potato pancakes; I recently watched a Korean drama and the main character made them look easy and delicious. I don't have a food processor though, so I tried to think of a creative way to puree the potatoes...

I used this awesome Korean kitchen tool (hey mom, what's the Korean name for it?) to shred the potatoes down. Then I tried to mash them with a pestle...that didn't work. I think I'm just going to have to go buy a cheap food processor soon. So what to do with all this potato?

Happy mistake #3: I made 'gamjajorim' or braised potatoes (감자조림). The first batch I overcooked a little because the recipe is designed for larger pieces of potato, but the second batch I adjusted and it came out tasty. 

Tomorrow, I'm making the braised chicken!