Winter Term, Day Twenty Eight: PHO Real!

Started off my day with the beginnings of pho beef broth (blanching the bones, charring the onions and ginger, toasting the spices), but as I worked, I needed sustenance. I made a meatball sandwich on wheat bread with provolone, basil, crushed red pepper, tomato sauce and then melted, and then topped with spinach, salt and pepper, and olive oil.



I prepped all the things for last minute dinner making, and then headed to the airport with Brandi. We returned, Daniel finished up the summer rolls (fillings included tamari-marinated fried tofu, bean sprouts, green onions, garlic chives, cilantro, basil, carrots, cucumbers, pickled daikon, and mung bean noodles, with sweet chili sauce and peanut sauce to top) and I finished prepping the beef pho: boiling the beef stock, cooking the rice noodles, then pouring the boiling broth over the thinly sliced flank steak and noodles. Yoshi, Brandi, Daniel, Aries and I then topped the soup with bean sprouts, lime, basil, green onions, hoisin sauce, sriracha and sambal, depending on taste.

Winter Term, Day Twenty Four: Pan-tastic Pan-Asian

Another West Side Market and Trader Joe's trip, with an added stop at Seoul Korean Market as well (I got a crushed pear drink as well as pickled daikon and dumpling wrappers).

Tonight's meal was a Pan-Asian selection of goodies:

Curry udon with beef, carrots, onions and potatoes by Michael
Tteokbokki (a Korean chili stew) with whole hard boiled eggs, garlic chives, daikon, and Korean rice cakes by Eliza
Mushroom broth by Amanda
Tuna, pickled daikon, lettuce, carrot, avocado, cucumber and green onion sushi by me (More than half the green onions came from the ones growing in my kitchen... I'm impressed!)

Chris got her adorable rice bowl sans nori, and Yoshi and Mike helped us devour all things on the table, but we had enough food to feed twice as many people, even after we stuffed ourselves.







Also, I only really seem to be painfully stuffed after Asian meals. I do love them so. Everyone else was stuffed as well, so before we cleaned up, we watched Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death. A good humorous lull in the evening.

Winter Term, Day Twenty: Dumpling House

Despite the two photoshoots earlier in the day, I really needed a time consuming and involved dinner for the evening. Amanda and I talked a bunch and rolled out dumpling wrappers for pork and green onion potstickers (or gyoza, or dumplings... it really depends on how I feel for what name I use) and as Amanda fried/steamed/boiled them, I made a veggie and noodle stirfry. Yoshi got so excited about dinner than he yanked the silverware drawer so quickly it ended up on the floor.








I am so proud of these dumplings. They're totally gone, too, by the way. Dumplings don't last long around me.