Apple Cobbler

I must try this again...because I can't quite remember how much of what went into it, but it was delicious!

Mini apples - sliced...toss in:

Sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour

Mix pancake mix with some milk until ...

you have what you deem to be the right consistency

Bake. Enjoy.

Carne Guisado

I really miss Mexican flavors. I'm always, always searching for a way to have a bit of that experience here in South Korea. I followed the basic premise of an allrecipes.com recipe - lacking only a few things: the quantity of beef called for, the quantity of chili powder called for, and red bell peppers (although each of the items can be found in South Korea, they simply were absent from my kitchen the morning of piecing this crock-pot meal together).

It's particularly delcious served with a Cheese Quesadilla or re-vamped and used for burritos and ramen dishes, but those instructions will come later - for now, check out the base recipe at allrecipes.com.

Decomposing

This is entirely too interesting to me.

My recent history with food and dumpsters and waste, leads me to love this.

Grandpa's Breakfast - Re-Mix

This dish reminded me of my grandpa's famous camping dish. His dish is canned potatoes, bacon and eggs. Bacon cooked first, add canned potatoes, heat through, add eggs cook eggs through and enjoy in the cool morning of a Wyoming Summer.

My dish made good use of some Thanksgiving leftovers: Scalloped-Potatoes were chopped down a bit, heated in a skillet with a touch of oil before about 5 whisked eggs were dumped into the mix. Eggs scrambled, potatoes hots this mixture was served in a bowl with a little cheese on top - would have been equally delicious in a toritilla with a bit of salsa. Uber-easy and extremely delcious!

What creative ways have you used leftovers recently?

Green Tea Latte

On Thursdays, my favorite coffee shop is closed. Oddly enough, Thursdays is the day I am most likely to want a Green Tea Latte. (It's the most unfortunate of affairs). On a more fortunate of affairs note - I recently set my eyes on a container of Match Powder (I think) at the incredible price of 5, 000 won (US$5)!!!! Needless to say, the powder went from the shelf to my graocery basket in a matter of moments.

So on a Thursday when I was needing some Latte-Love, I whipped up a little latte. Some milk, some sugar and some Matcha. If you'd like a recipe to follow or give you some sense of direction - try out this one.

Crepes

I'd never made crepes before. But a semi-recent Crepe night at a friends house and memories of Crepes made by a French CouchSurfer AND the availability of Nutella meant I was knocking on the door of  allrecipes.com asking for a crepe recipe.

Here it is: Basic Crepes.

Not difficult at all.

Fully delicious!

Creamy Chicken Pasta

Thanksgiving leftovers were a HUGE joy and blessing to use this month for various meals. I'd made this Cream of Mushroom Soup for these Slow-Cooker Scalloped Potatoes and had Chicken Meat left over from the Home-made Chicken Broth making this meal a snap to create! Boil some water - add your favorite noodle cook to al dente. Add noodles to warm/hot cream of mushroom soup and chicken - deliciousness ready to consume!

Banana Bread

Banana Bread is a favorite stand-by. I've used numerous recipes to produce this delectable treat. Most recently, I used this recipe from allrecipes.com - ridiculously easy and exceptionally delicious.

Because walnuts seem relatively affordable here, I threw in a handful or two, but the bread would be delious regardless.

Smoothie Queen

I love smoothies.

I should drink them with greater frequency.

I'm happy that I purchased a multi-functioning kitchen device.

Immersion Blender. Blender. Food Processor.

MMMM, smoothies.

Fruit, yogurt, juice, milk. Whatever serves your fancy.

DELICOUS!

Roasted Tomatoes, Chicken Broth and Chicken Tortilla Soup - OH My!

Last week we had a most fabulous dinner of Chicken Tortilla soup. Part of the reason it was so delectable is that I had the pleasure of prepping nearly every aspect of the soup from 'scratch'. No canned tomatos, no chicken granules or broth from a box - I rocked this whole meal from broth the finished product.

I'm a bit proud of this accomplishment.

Let's begin with the story of the Roasted Tomatos.

Having lived too long in the refrigerator their 'shelf life' was quickly approaching the end. My history with food that's on the outs taught me a number of tricks to 'save' food at this stage of its life. I simply sliced the tomaotes in half, laid them out on the roasting pan/cookie sheet, threw some chiles in for added flavor and to save their lives as well - pop it all in the oven for about an hour, enjoying the delectable smell of roasting peppers. An hour or so in an oven causes the skins of the tomatos to losen their grip on the pulp making for easy removal. To prepare tomatos for future tomato purpose simply remove skins, chop tomatoes or through into a blender - add some kick by adding a chile or two (I did two and it was spectacular) and you have some delicous-ness just begging to go into a soup!

Now the story of Chicken Broth.

Home-made Chicken Broth is as easy as 1-2-3 with a slowcooker. 1-Throw a chicken carcass into the slow cooker with some onions, carrot and celery. 2- Add enough water to cover the bird bones. 3 - cook on high for about 4 hours. (Okay, maybe there's a step 4 and 5). 4 - Ladle broth into containers of choice for freezing or refridgeration. 5 - Add chicken pieces to broth or use in Chicken Tortilla Soup!!! (Or any other chicken dish)

Now, the story you've all been waiting for: that of the Chicken Tortilla Soup...

Saute up some garlic and onions. Add two or three cups of liquid, perhaps the Chicken Broth you've just conquered. A bit of salt, pepper, canned or home-roasted tomatoes and chilies plus a healthy serving of cooked chicken (breast or from the chicken carcass which has now become chicken broth). Heat through. Throw in some cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips, cheese and/or a cheesy quesadilla! You will love it!

COOKIES!!!

Maybe you've heard - I have an oven!

Later this month some friends and I'll bust out some delicious cookies.

For now, I need to store this gem of a link.

So many Cookies.

So much potential Deliciousness.

Craisin Cranberry Sauce

By far the biggest hit of Thanksgiving with our co-teachers was the home-made cranberry sauce.

Again, inspiration for this dish was received from the Ovenless Chef which linked to this original recipe. Here are the adjustments I made.

Peels from two Clementines/Tangerines
4 Tbsp. Orange Juice
1 Tbsp. Soju (can use Port or additional Orange Juice)
About 1 cup Dried Cranberries
Grated Apple
Sugar and Cinnamon to taste

In a sauce pan throw in all the ingredients (this is not how the original recipe reads, but I didn't read closely and this worked out, so it's your call). Simmer for about ten minutes. Remove from heat and let set for about an hour so that craisins can rehydrate. Add sugar or cinnamon per taste requirements and enjoy on a bread roll gathered around the Thanksgiving table.

Slow-Cooker Scalloped Potatoes

Our Thanksgiving meal was already to be complete with mashed sweet potatoes, so I opted for scalloped potatoes when we hosted our co-teachers. I did a few parts of this dish exceptionally well where as other parts were kind of a fail...but, the dish still received rave reviews! I'll post the recipe as it should have been prepared.

To begin, I opted to make cream of mushroom soup from scratch, an attempt to use up some mushrooms I had on hand (I'm not sure if cream of mushroom soup is available in Korea, but I think the answer is yes). Anyway, here's a good recipe for Cream of Mushroom soup should you decide to go all out.

The potato recipe comes from my new favorite book "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook" received from friends whom I love dearly.

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp. Cream of Tartar (or Baking Powder)

1 cup Water

8-10 Potatoes, thinly sliced

Half Onion, chopped

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup grated Cheese

10 oz. Cream of Mushroom soup

Paprika

Directions:

Dissolve cream of tartar in water toss with potatoes, drain (I missed this part, so had a semi-soupy dish of potatoes). Place half of potatoes in the slow cooker, sprinkle with onions, salt, pepper and cheese. Repeat with remaining potatoes and cheese. Spoon soup over the top, cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or high for 4 hours. Enjoy with Korean co-teachers, sitting on the floor around a small little table, piled with food or any hungry soul in your community of friends and family.

Deviled Eggs

Inspired by the Ovenless Chef we took on preparing a full out Thanksgiving meal for 5 of our co-teachers and one darling little daughter of theirs. To ensure plenty of variety and "traditional" tastes, I opted for these deviled eggs choosing only to substitute chili powder for the paprika (primarily because I was a bit lazy).

Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes

I didn't know I loved sweet potatoes until my first Thanksgiving out of the country in 2005 when I had the great joy of dressing up as an Indian, enjoying a Thanksgiving feast with a couple of sorority sisters and a crew of Welsh men and women.  Therefore, as Thanksgiving in Korea rolled around, I knew I wanted to share this food tradition specifically.

Having just received a cookbook from dear and lovely friends back home, I was eager to put the slow cooker to use!

Ingredients:

6-8 med. Sweet Potatoes

Salt

1/4 cup Butter

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Milk and Orange Juice -- sufficient to make potatoes 'creamy'

Directions:

Boil potatoes with salt, add butter, milk and orange juice - mash. Continue adding orange juice until you reach desired consistency. Mix in sugar and spice and everything nice, place in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high. May add walnuts or marshmallows if you so desire. Enjoy while in the company of numerous expats, dear friends, and/or family.