Bun Thit Nuong (15:03 at PhoGrand!)

Those of you in St. Louis have the luxury of going down to PhoGrand and ordering a nice delicious bowl of tasty anytime you want! I'm so jealous. I am so far away and so crave the deliciousness of number 15:03. In the bottom of your bowl is lettuce and cucumber, that is topped with hot rice vermicelli noodles and charbroiled pork garnished with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Then you add a delicious sauce over the whole thing that turns it into a sort of soup. It is made even more delicious by adding eggrolls to the top. Mmmmm. I was introduced to Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio (15:03) by the wonderful women at St. John's Mercy Neighborhood Ministry, and it has since been an all-time favorite food of mine! Yum! It was so delicious that I still remembered that number 3 years later. I recently tried my hand at making it, but I didn't have high hopes of it turning out that well. But mmmmMMMmmm, it turned out just delicious! This recipe is a keeper, but I plan to try out a different marinade for my charbroiled pork next time and definitely have eggrolls. I generally followed this recipe http://themealplanner.blogspot.com/2009/05/charbroiled-pork-vermicelli-bun-thit.html

But I added cucumber slices and omitted bean sprouts, and cilantro is a must not an option. Look, a favorite food I crave that is not fried in oil!

Kimchi

I'm a food marketers best friend. If I see people eating something tasty on TV it makes me want to eat it too. My new favorite TV shows to watch are Korean dramas. Sooo good. They are so much more family friendly than american dramas, and something about Korean culture just fosters a warmth in me. Every show I have watched has followed the same plot: Handsome, talented, rich boy meets poor, untalented but spirited girl. First they clash, but then they fall in love and live happily ever after after getting through some major struggle together. If you want to check one out I would highly recommend City Hunter (it might even be on netflix). 
But back to the food. I've been wanting to try kimchi for over a year, and now I've finally made some. Kimchi is traditionaly spiced fermented vegetables eaten with every meal. The recipe I used is ready in a day so no fermenting for months for me!

Cabbage and Kimchi paste. Just mix together!

Ta-da

It was very flavorful and delicious. I plan to make some kimchi cucumbers this week now that I have a humongo bag of korean pepper flakes. Another thing I made after watching Korean drama is rice porridge. So delicious and warm and comforting! Rice is my all time favorite food. If you are adopting a 5 year old from China you might want to learn to make some delicious rice porridge (congee in Chinese).

Gyoza and Malasadas

Lately I haven't wanted to make anything too involved, but this weekend I decided it was time to cross some more recipes off my "to make" list. I was so excited when I was shopping at the grocery store to find some ground pork for 1.79/lb to make into gyoza. It was only after I had already emptied it into the pan that I realized it was ground turkey and not pork! Oh well, the result was still delicious and probably a lot healthier (well, as healthy as something fried in OIL could be I suppose). I've also been wanting to try making malasadas for the longest time. For those not in the know, malasadas are a delicious fried Portuguese donut that they have in Hawaii. I know, most of my fun treats to make end up being fried in oil. Oops.

The results of both recipes were delicious! Gyoza not pictured as a result of being too delicious to make it in front of a camera. The malasadas were really good (not as good as Leonard's Bakery, but still pretty tasty). We now have malasadas coming out our ears even after delivering a plate to our neighbor (who happens to be from Hawaii) and with Justin bringing some to school. If I ever make them again I will remember to make 1/2 or 1/4 recipe! I don't know why I read 6 cups of flour and 6 eggs and didn't think to reduce it. I must have been thinking with my belly.

I used this recipe than Nadine sent. Thanks Nadine! I skipped the step of turning over the dough and letting it rise again. Perhaps it would have been even more delicious had I followed the directions.

Next weekends cooking project: Pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. mmmm.

Smokie's first time ever playing!

Perhaps you've met Smokie. If you have you know that his favorite thing in the world to do is to sleep under a blanket. When I first acquired him I bought him some balls and toys because what dog doesn't like to play? .....apparently my dog...... I'd tried real hard to get him to play or chase something, but he much prefers to lay somewhere warm and not move. Imagine my surprise as I was unpacking some items from some errands I ran and Smoke starts romping around with a little stuffed dog I had bought (not for him but to donate). It was sooooo cute! It was like I was watching a different (exciting) dog. You can tell in the video that we are much more excited than smokie.

Kids Room

As we inch by on the foster parent process we're slowly inching by on setting up our middle bedroom as the kids room. This week it went from serving as a storage area for crib parts, mattresses, and other household odds and ends to a real bedroom! We bought a bedframe and set up one of the cribs/toddler beds. What a transformation! I also finished gluing buttons shaped as a heart onto an old canvas. The writing says "Every heart has a story to tell". 

Still to do: decorating the walls, sewing a bedspread for both beds, framing the button canvas with something.