Korean Food Photo Contest

So Maangchi has announced a Korean Food Photo Contest that I'm considering joining. Mister LOVES Korean food, and I keep meaning to make her food... sounds like a win-win to me!

After a quick perusal of her recipes, I've pulled out a few that look tasty.


Japchae a.k.a. Stir Fry Noodles with Vegetables


Dak Kang Jung a.k.a. Sweet and Crispy Chicken


Mandu a.k.a. Dumplings


Hoddeok a.k.a. Sweet Pancakes with Brown Sugar Syrup Filling


Maejakgwa a.k.a. Ginger Cookies


Hwajeon a.k.a. Sweet Flower Pancakes (I think this is a little out of season :-((( )


Sikhye a.k.a. Rice Dessert Drink


Ya Chae Yeon a.k.a. Vegetable Pancake (um... no static picture from Maangchi -- found the pic on the interwebs)

Looking forward to making yummy food!

Four Simple Goals

As both Dawn over at May All Seasons Be Sweet To Thee and Abbie over at Farmer's Daughter have beaten me to this, it might not be a surprise to any reading this.

Elsie at A Beautiful Mess has put forth this challenge of setting and achieving simple goals before the end of 2010.

The Guidelines:

1 - choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish.
2 - do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example… instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”. positive actions instead of just the end result!
3 - choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences.
4 - choose a reward for each goal as it is accomplished! it can be a small or large reward.
5 - blog your goals, each one as you achieve it and a big post when they are all finished before the new year!

As I have far too many ideas and dreams of things to learn and stages of sustainability to reach, this is a good challenge for myself.

Goal #1: make sourdough starter and make bread regularly. As I have every intention of picking up the flour for that tonight after work (to perhaps participate next week in Crunchy Chicken's Pioneer Week), this should be started soon. The reward will be fresh bread!

Goal #2: finish the tablecloth for Sharon. Why I am not working on it I don't know. The reward for that shall be that I will either take one of her courses, or arrange to go to her house again.

Goal #3: make a pair of socks for both Mister and I. My reward will be socks!

Goal #4: declutter. I have far too much stuff, and need to work on having less BEFORE Mister and I consolidate housing. My reward will be a baked good or warm beverage per box I go through.

Let's see how it goes!

P.S. Does anyone else want to just say "screw the challenge -- I want that yarn up there!"?

No Spending Month

So I've already started our No Spending Month to a bad start -- I went out with a group of friends for drinks, nibblies, and karaoke last night. I spent $37 -- which really isn't that bad for all that we did. So maybe I'll have my No Spending Month go to 9/7 to make up for my lack.

We have so many veggies in the house at the moment, I'm really excited to use them! J said that she'll hang out while I make pickles (she's not interested in pickle-making, but when I said I didn't need enthusiasm just convo, she said she'd love to hang), so I should plan that soon.

The caveat for our No Spending Month is to only buy food (or gas/T card as needed). No going out to eat, no drinks, no going out for tea (we have a friend who will habitually call either of us up and go "I need tea and convo"), etc.

[As I was typing the last sentence, I realized that Mister had made plans with a friend to go out tonight b/c the friend seems to be in distress -- it looks like Mister's month will go to 9/8 :-P]

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So in thinking about food, what will we need to be buying...

We have veggies for maybe 4-5 days, so we should stop at the Farmer's Market on Wednesday and pick up veggies.

I have beans at my house, I should bring some over and/or we could buy some meat (perhaps at the Farmer's Market again).

We have a little ricotta and a few eggs left, so we'll need to buy milk, cheese, eggs, and whatever else looks good.

We'll need bread, and some other grains.

I think I will work on trying to get out to a U-Pick and getting fruit for jelly and such. If I can't garden this year, at least I will work on preserving.

... need to buy canning supplies!

500 Things Challenge

TreeHugginMama over at Frugal Is Green, A Journey has started a semi-challenge.

Basically, get 500 items out of your life by the end of the year. CL it, garage sale it, donate it, trash it. But get rid of it!

As Mister and I will be moving in together in the foreseeable future, we will not need a) duplicates. 10 to 1 his stuff is nicer. b) my crap. There is a lot of it.

I'll add a little list to the sidebar to keep track of what I'm getting rid of. Here's to success!

Le Sigh

My seeds are not growing. I have a few sprouts, but overall, nada. I'm assuming this is due to improper setup for starting seeds. Had a growlight, I thought, but nope -- my housemate bought it for another purpose. So after 24 hrs. of that, they got nothing until the sun came out. They're also not really being kept warm enough probably -- which makes me incredibly sad. I keep meaning to get heating pads or something, but I'm not sure where to get them (and haven't started looking... Procrastination, I'm looking at you for this one!).

On a (literally) lighter note, IT'S SUNNY! It's been beautiful, sunny and warm for about a week now, and it should be keeping the warmth for a while. Pretty pretty please March: be friendlier than February, stay warm, and stay sunny, just for me. Thanks!

So baby kitten got out the other day -- apparently it was my fault this time. So, I told him that if he wants to be an outdoor cat, he'll need a collar (he's afraid of his harness!), and more shots. As I know he doesn't want any of that, I figured it was a sure bet, and the end of the discussion. Lo and behold, he had demands for me too! He wants a scratching post, and a new "home". Since he already has a comfy box with a doorhole and blanket, I'm not sure what he means by a new home, but a scratching post I can get. You win THIS round little cat!

Still haven't contacted the MBTA about that land I want to stealborrow to grow food on... am considering the merits of asking vs. guerrilla gardening. Thoughts? My Lawful Neutral BF was horrified by the thought -- but is quite ok with me doing it. He's just convinced that something terrible will happen. My Chaotic Good housemate #1 says to just not do it alone, i.e., convince other people to guerrilla garden as well. Chaotic Good housemate #2 will more than likely say DO IT with an added comment of BRING DOWN THE TYRANNY or some such nonsense (anyone who knows CG#2 will not be surprised by that).

So... I'll more than likely just keep waiting and see what happens when it gets EVEN WARMER!

Independence Days Challenge

1. Plant something: not since last week. Need more dirt!
2. Harvest something: I wish.
3. Preserve something: When did I make that tomato sauce...
4. Waste Not: Considering making applesauce from the apples that we always buy and NO 0NE eats. Also, ate the last English Muffin with just a smidge of yellow mold.
5. Want Not: scavenged two Christmas tins (giganto cookie and popcorn ones).
6. Build Community Food Systems: Guerrilla Gardening Group? Ponder ponder ponder...
7. Eat the Food: There's often food on the stove, so I keep nomming. Better than letting it go to waste, eh?

Independance Days yet again!

Since I'm bad at this game, I think I'm going to try to aim for "do these items once a week" instead of trying to get stuff every day. You might have noticed that we've been stagnating due to the fact that I haven't done SQUAT for I.D.!

On a different note, one housemate and I had a LONG discussion yesterday about the kitchen. Specifically, what needs to be done to the kitchen and how. No, this was not the "we need to paint -- and while we're at it, put up the rack for pots and pans!" This was the "things needed to be washed -- so I piled them in both sinks up to the cabinets!" vs. "you did WHAT?!"

Sigh.

The fact that the majority of the mess was from my banana bread on Monday didn't make it an easier discussion.

I've gotten another variety of tomato planted, but that's it thus far. And they need sun like whoa. Spring, come soon?

Edit to Monday's I.D. Challenge

Want Not: The grand total for my recycling bin scavenger hunt is thus:

-- 1 3'x3' window
-- 1 yoga mat (who throws those out?!)
-- 1 4L wine bottle
-- 4 cardboard wine holders (fold in half -- can fit easily 20 seedlings per holder)
-- 3 cardboard dozen egg cartons, 1 cardboard half dozen, 1 cardboard 18 egg carton
-- 1 plastic 2 dozen egg carton, 6 plastic dozen egg cartons, 4 plastic half dozen egg cartons
-- 1 6 divot plastic tray
-- 2 4 divot muffin/cupcake trays
-- 1 chocolate tray with 20 divots
-- 44 misc. plastic cups (yogurt, pudding, jello, applesauce, to-go containers)

Yay for planting containers!

Today's Progress

First off, lemme say that it's difficult to be productive when there's a fuzzy kitten at your feet needing lovin's. :-P

Independence Days Update:

1. Plant something: got started on seeds. I planted the cayenne pepper, and the heirloom tomato mix. I'll probably get more done tomorrow after scavenging everyone's recycle bins tonight. :-D

On a nice note, as I'm a cheapskate, I just used dirt from the front yard -- and it's full of worms! Even with being careful, there were so many that I accidentally brought two inside with my dirt! So I apologized, and brought said wormies back outside. ... while singing Doctor Worm of course!

2. Harvest something: nothing yet!

3. Preserve something: putting banana bread in the freezer for later.

4. Waste Not: had 10 bananas that were solid black -- made two batches of banana bread (most in the form of muffins... where are all of my loaf pans?!) Also, turned down the hot water heater -- since the new one was put in, our heating bill has skyrocketed! This should "cool things down" a bit :-D.

5. Want Not: will go scavenging recycle bins for more things with which to plant in. (Egg cartons, plastic tubs, etc.)

6. Build Community Food Systems: nothing yet!

7. Eat the Food: BANANA BREAD NOM NOM

And I have already done three loads of laundry, and will continue to deplete my laundry pile throughout the evening. I've got delicates, sweaters (possibly TWO loads), towels/sheets, and probably another load of stuff that I can't remember.

This is probably my first day off of work that I've completed so damn much -- and still woke up at 1 pm!

Independance Days!

The lovely Sharon Astyk has started up her Independance Days Challenge for the 3rd year! [Yes, I know she has two websites -- but she's using this one for I.D.] For those unfamiliar with it (as was I up to minutes ago), it's really simple. Everyone has things that they want to do to be where they want/need to be. If it's "get outta dodge and onto a farm" or just "grow all my own food!" there are baby steps that you can take to get there. The whole point of the challenge is to do ONE thing a day in that direction. There are seven categories to work with, and to try to attain eac.

1. Plant something
2. Harvest something
3. Preserve something
4. Waste Not
5. Want Not
6. Build Community Food Systems
7. Eat the Food

My plans for today include:

-- Plant Something: start some of my seeds
-- Harvest Somthing: nope
-- Preserve Something: nope
-- Waste Not: make banana bread with all those dead bananas
-- Want Not: not fully understanding this one... need to poke at it more
-- Build Community Food Systems: start thinking about how to approach neighbors for chickens, and get that unused land for planting
-- Eat the Food: hopefully banana bread!

I also have every intention of knocking back that enormous laundry pile I have.

Here's to productivity!

Food Challenge

So I've joined Zu'ul into Crunchy Chicken's Food Waste Reduction Challenge for 2010. Basically, the idea is to lower food wastes for the month of February. For us, this will mostly mean cooking/eating at home, eating leftovers, and eating what's in our fridge.

I don't think this will be TOO difficult for us, but we are notorious for looking in a full fridge and pantry and deciding to order pizza instead. :-P

So, starting with dinner tonight, we're having a go! Because the package of tofu that I bought the first week of December might be going fairly soon, I fried it up, and made a yummy, yummy sauce with pineapple juice, soy paste, duck sauce and a smidgen of potato starch. Served that over some rice that may or may not be slightly infested (what I cooked wound up not having anybody float) and needed to be used up before any of our large containers of stored rice. (Also, then it'd be another container for storage!) Threw in some frozen peas that had been in the very back of the freezer for a LONG TIME, and I consider it a fabulous meal.

We're on our way.