"as of late" Food edition

It's a phrase I often say.  Don't really know why, but it's one of my faves.  I have a lot of faves that on most occasions may confuse others.  Why, you ask?  Well, because I am sort of a space cadet and live in the world that's created in my head.  I kind of like it here, so I will stay a while. 

So, to get on with it, as of late, I have been up to some things... I have been cooking more often and crafting a little less, but crafting still. 

Here are some gems that I have put in my tumm-tumm as of late: 

     This  was a fun little experiment.  I wanted to do something with some left over egg roll wraps and I REALLY wanted to recreate my favorite Chicken Ginger soup from the Korean sushi place we love.   So with all that, I created these!

The egg roll things ended up being like a Rangoon type of thing with chicken.  I took some sour cream and cream cheese, garlig, onion, seasonings and mixed it 'til it tasted good, stuck it in the wraps and fried 'em up in oil - YUM-O!  The Soup is also super easy.  It's chicken stock, however much you want, I always do about 4-5 cups of stock and 1 1/2 cups water, but I water mine down and you don't have to if you'd rather have very chicken stocky soup.  Throw in about a tablespoon of minced ginger, or more or less, depending on your affinity for ginger...  Dave and I heart it, but my son does not care for it too much, hence the table spoon. Then, dice up some carrots, probably about a cup.  I cut them up pretty small, because this is supposed to be a smooth, brothy soup.  Then you throw in 1 chicken breast that minced... yes, minced.  It will go a very long way.  Then let it boil for a bit.  At least 5 minutes, but the rule with any soup, the longer the better.    When you're ready to serve throw in some green onione or chives.  SO good. 

Next, we have Dave's creation.  He cooked up some Ramen, soup style, added some veggies and herbs and some chicken, sliced 'er up and threw it in the soup with some pickled ginger.  AMahhhZING.

This was a little experiment that turned out great, even if the pictures don't look like it!  We sauteed zuucchini and squash and red onions with a little EVOO, garlic and herbs.  Then I threw in some frozen diced chicken.  This was my first experiment with frozen, precooked chicken... I would say that if you're not pressed for time, cook it fresh, yourself.  A lot of flavor is lost in packaging.   Even thought the chicken wasn't that great, the rest of it was awesome.  Then we threw it on some whole wheat penne and added parm on top!

KUCHEN:  Doesn't it look amazing???  Let me tell you, it is!  I don't even know how to say it correctly, but all I can say is Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmmmmm.  It's a yeast roll pile, were each of them are covered with chocolate, sugar, and a little cinnamon and nuts. Oh, and butter... a WHOLE lot of butter.  It was divine.  It starts our with a yeast dough, then you let it rest for a while, then pull apart the pieces and roll it around in butter and then the chocolate, sugar, nut mix-y stuff.  Mine would have even be better if I had all the right ingredients!  Pile 'em together and throw it in the oven.  DIVINE. 

Korean Night: My favorite Night!

It started with Kimchi Dumplings.  Thank goodness we got a rice cooker, because these were great!  Oh, and I didn't make these, I just steamed them... and I didn't really steam them, my rice cooker did.  All I had to do was put them in there and then push the "Steam" button. Done-zo!  We got these beauty's from the Korean market in Fairborn, well one of the many.  It was called "Hon Me."  They have a ton of different varieties of Mandoo and dumplungs.  If you're not versed in the korean verbage, Mandoo is very similar (in shape) to Pot Stickers... but we like to saute ours up in a sauce pan.  So, we did that too.  THEN we made Salmon sushi... but in korean, it's called Bibimbap.  It's great.  We served it up with a blended dipping sauce of soy and hoisin and oyster sauces.  loved it.

BEST OF ALL, THERE WERE TONS OF LEFTOVERS

(that I promptly took to work and finished off the next day.)  DELISH.

Now that I have thoroughly made myself hungry by making this post, I am off to go find something to eat!

OUR FIRST OFFER... an experience in and of itself.

 You could say that Dave and I are particularly thorough, and you would be right!  Dave and I have been house hunting for some time now... and there is really only one that we liked.  We thought other houses were okay and liveable, but not a basket we wanted to put all our eggs in.  On our first trip out to see houses, we saw this beauty... third on the list.  I think it was love at first sight.  Well, maybe not love, it's a house for goodness sake!  But, in terms of houses, this one is a gem in the rough. 






We think it's got everything we're looking for.  It's 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, full semi-finished basement, great neighborhood, great yard, great windows and the list goes on.
 The good part was that, like all houses, it has it's issues... but the issues with this house are all minor cosmetics.  It has hard-wood throughout, but on top in most rooms is carpet... but we get to rip it right up!  It was custom built in the '50s, so it's a great quality house thats got a few wrinkles we have to smooth out.  Ok... I'll walk you through. 

To the right is part of the front of the house.  It is a little bit bigger than this picture would suggest... for example, from this angle, it doesn't look like a 2 car garage... but it is.

 This is the living room/dining room.  Under the carpet is awesome wood floors.

 This is the entry into the kitchen/dinette area from the big ole' dining room/living room combo.  I wish I had endless money because I would deck out the kitchen... but details on that later.

  My absolute favorite part of this house.  The living room window.  You wanna know what I love about it?  I love that it isn't looking any house square in the face.  Its kind of our own world, but obviously not really, but we don't have loo