Hazel Would Like to Share a Few Special Recipes and Blueberry's Fetal Hands with You

Hazel's cup runneth over with gratitude lately. She has a wonderful husband with whom she just celebrated a 5th wedding anniversary this past Friday.




To celebrate this momentous occasion, Stanley tried his hand at making sushi.




Stanley has become quite the chef in his old age and it turned out AMAZING. He made nigiri tuna, spicy tuna rolls, and California rolls. We decided that from now on we will most likely make it ourselves rather than go out to a restaurant or (the horror) buy it from the supermarket. We estimate that it costs half as much to make it ourselves. And if you get sashimi grade fish from a reputable business, it's acceptably safe.

Hazel was recently blessed greatly by a visit from Giggles Murkowski*, her friend from college. Hazel graduated from college 14 years ago. She only includes the previous sentence because maybe if she sees it in print she will finally believe it. Nope.

Anyway, Giggles was a wonderful guest and provided much encouragement and thoughtful advice about all manner of issues with which Hazel has been grappling of late, hence Hazel's gratitude. Giggles also schooled Stanley and Hazel on many things Korean, including the food, and how to find it at our convenient neighborhood Asian market, and gave us some non-Korean food ideas as well. Here are but some of the recipes she shared with us.

Bulgogi [Korean marinated beef] (Hazel notes: SOOO Good!!!)

Beef sirloin tip roast, 3/4" thick (or rib roast or rib eye)
About 3.5 lbs

Marinade:
3 teaspoons fresh pepper
1 cup soy sauce
3-4" inch long ginger /
2 garlic cloves (or more) <--chopped together

1/2 cup brown sesame seeds on a stove (put in ziploc bag and smash til 1/2 smashed)

1 cup sugar

Put sesame seeds, garlic/ginger, soy sauce, on top of cut meat, put in half sugar and 1/2 cup soy sauce. Mash it around on the meat with your hands for about 5 minutes, add pepper, 3 teaspoons. Then add the rest of the sugar and 1/2 cup soy sauce, mash it some more for 5 minutes. Layer all the meat to marinate it all. Cook on Korean BBQ 8 hours later or next day. (or cook on non stick skillet on stove) (you can eat it sooner, but the taste will not be as good. eat with rice, kim chee, romaine lettuce, veggies, etc)

Jong Jor Rim [Korean marinated flank steak, spicy]

Beef flank steak - cut off fat, rinse off meat Cut into squares. 4x4 inches Put in a large pot on the stove (always cut meat opposite way of the grain to keep it tender. With this recipe - it is okay to cut the opposite of the lines as you will peel the meat later) Pour soy sauce so it almost covers the meat. not over the meat, about 1.5" from the top of the meat in the pot Put jalapeno pepper - small handful of whole, rinsed pepper, cover with lid. Cook on high until it boils, then turn it to low. Add garlic. 2 Handfuls of jalapeno pepper in the pot (soy sauce will suck up the flavor of the peppers) Add LARGE handful of peeled garlic into pot - push down the meat. Return to boil, then turn it to low again for 15 minutes. Check the tenderness of the meat by pulling off a thick piece. Do not let the meat get too mushy or tender. Once meat is done, put meat into large containers. Place liquid from pot into the containers as well. You can refrigerate the meat and re-heat later to eat with rice and leaves or lettuce. Eating the garlic is good for you and the peppers are good with the soy sauce soaked up in them also.

Green Chili Eggs

8 oz. diced green chilis (can)

1 oz. grated jack cheese (or any cheese)

12 eggs 16 oz. sour cream

Mix cheese and chilis. Grease a 13x9 pan and spread in pan. Combine eggs and sour cream. Beat well and pour over chili cheese mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Chicken Divan (Hazel's note: Giggles' coworkers demand that she brings this to every potluck.)

Three bunches of broccoli

Four chicken breasts

Two cans condensed cream of chicken or mushroom soup

3/4 cup mayo

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. Curry powder (I usually put in tons more) (Hazel's note: LITERALLY tons!)

8 oz. shredded cheddar

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs - mixed with butter, 2-3 tsp.

Cook the chicken, let it cool. Steam broccoli, then arrange it at the bottom of a 11x 7 type pan. In a bowl, combine the soup, mayo, lemon, curry. Cut the cooled chicken into bite size pieces with poultry or kitchen shears. Place the chicken on top of the broccoli. Place the contents of the bowl on top of the chicken. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the mixture from the bowl. Combine the melted butter and bread crumbs - then sprinkle on top of the cheese. Cook 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. 6-8 servings.

Stanley has recently adapted a mac 'n cheese recipe to make it his own, and he kindly shares it with you.

Stanley's Mac 'n Cheese

fry 1/2 pack bacon and chop up (Hazel's note: AGAIN with the bacon?)
boil noodles
melt 1 package of cream cheese add milk perodically to make it liquidy
add 4 cloves of crushed garlic cook it 1-2 min.
for an interesting flavor you can add some nutmeg - original recipe called for smoked paprika.
add sauce to noodles and then mix in 2-4 cups of grated cheese (we used cheddar but if you wanted to splurge a mixture of a really sharp cheddar and gruyere would be good).
The sauce should still be a little liquidy because it will thicken when you bake it so add more milk if it thickened too much from all the cheese that was added.
stir in the bacon.
crush up a bunch of saltines and saute in butter to light brown
bake mac 375 for 15-20 min until bubbly.
add the saltines to top of mac for last 5 min or so.


And this past Thursday, Blueberry turned 8 months old. I'm typing this from my laptop, which has no recent photos of her, so here are her hands at 20 weeks gestation.




*Names changed.