Soondoobu Jigae

Ingredients:

Half onion
4 cloves garlic
3/4 cup kimchi
good amount of squash or other vegetable
1 chili
1 package soft tofu
2 eggs
3 cups stock
soy sauce


Heat olive oil in pot
Add the garlic and onion, sautee until brown
Add other veggies, keep sauteeing until slightly cooked. Lower heat so it doesn't burn
Add kimchee
Cook
Add stock, chili, soy sauce to taste, and kochujang if necessary. Bring to boil.
add tofu.
season.
Put into stone pots on burner and add egg to each bowl.

Serves 2.

Favorite Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie

Quick and easy pizza dough

Pizza is so fun to make. You can use almost any veggies, meat, toppings you have lying around the house, making it a very versatile dish. I've tried a bunch of differnt dough recipes, and so far this one has been the best. It has a very short ingredient list, it's soft and chewy , but not too flufy that the pizza is dry and seems to be just a huge chunk of bread. Best of all, it only needs to rise for 15 minutes, instead of the usual hour.

Joachim just couldn't get enough of this pizza~

Ingredients:
1 pkg. dry yeast (or two slightly rounded teaspoons)
3/4 c. very warm water (120-130 degrees)
2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Soak yeast in water for 5 minutes. Add flour, salt and sugar and mix to blend. Knead for 2-3 minutes until flour is well blended. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes. Roll dough to fit a 12 inch pizza pan. Top pizza with tomato sauce and toppings of your choice. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Incredibly easy, amazingly smooth and creamy Cheese Cake

This cheesecake was something very special for me. Not only was it my very first try at cheese cake, Joachim gave me the highest degree of compliment on it. He said, "My mom would be jealous of this cheese cake." Now, if you know how well Joachim's mom cooks, then you know that this is the most extravagant compliment, and hearing it just made me melt...

The instructions look somewhat long, but it's just because I've included a bunch of little reminders, and advice to the original recipe (allrecipes.com) that you should read over before you begin, but don't actually create more work for you. If you can make pumpkin pie from a can, you can make this cheese cake. It's that easy.

INGREDIENTS (slightly modified by me from the original version)
12 graham crackers, crushed
4 tablespoons butter, melted (or any vegetable oil)

4 tablespoons milk (or enough to make the crumbs slightly stick together... NOT soggy)

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used plain yogurt instead, since that's all I had on-hand, and it turned out perfectly, so you pick what's more convienent for you)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup jam or preserves of your choice (optional, but very yummy and makes beautiful marble effect)

Now, take all the ingredients out a little in advance, so everything is room temperature. If stuff is cold, it will not turn out well!

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan, or and pie dish of your choice. If you use the springform, you'll be able to remove the cheese cake and serve it on a cake platter. A nice pie dish works just as well: you'll just have to serve the cake in the same dish, like pie...
2. In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter (or oil) and milk, one teaspoon at a time. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth (using a fork is PA (perfectly accetable), just takes a bit of elbow grease).

4. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. (DO NOT over mix, as it will cause your cake to crack)

5. Mix in sour cream (or yogurt), vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust. (If you're using jam or preserves, drop spoonfulls of it into the pie, and then use a toothpick to swirl it around like marble)
6. Put the pan into a larger baking pan, put it in the oven, and then add about one inch of boiling water to the "outer" pan, thus creating a "water bath" for your cake. (if you use a spring-form pan, you'll need to wrap it well with tin foil, so water doesn't get into the cake)

7. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

Perfectly Chewy Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons are one of my all-time favorite treats. Chewy, sweet, crunchy on the edges, with the most wonderful coconut flavor, it just can't get much better. What better recipe could I think of to start off my new food blog.

I tried a few different recipes for macaroons, two that included flour, and one with only egg whites. The egg white recipe was hands down the best. The flour in the other two made them too chewy, in a doughy sort of way... and it diluted the taste of the coconut... So, here's the "award-winning" egg-white only version:

Ingredients
· 1 large egg white
· Pinch of salt
· 1/2 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (you can also use evaporated milk, and add as much or as little sugar as you like, since these do tend to be a little sweet... not a bad thing, but when you want to eat 15 in one shot...)
· 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
· 1 bag shredded sweetened coconut (14)
· Unsweetened or semi-sweet baker's chocolate bar (Optional, if you want to drizzle them with chocolate for a beautiful, and delightfully sinful, effect)

Directions
1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites and salt until frothy, about 2 minutes. Stir in condensed milk and vanilla. Using a rubber spatula, fold in coconut until well combined.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. Using a teaspoon and your fingers, form macaroons into 1 1/4-inch mounds about 1 inch apart.
3. Bake until macaroons are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a cooling rack; let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
4. You can also make Icearoon ice cream sandwiches by spooning ice cream onto the bottom of one macaroon and topping with another macaroon.