Six in Seoul

I've been a bit crazy making ice cream since Christmas when I got a new ice cream maker.  This is the basic sweet cream base I use - you can add all sorts of stuff to this....blended fruit to make it fruit flavor, chocolate candies in all varieties, chocolate & cherries, use mint extract instead of vanilla & add small chunks of chocolate, the options are endless.

French Vanilla Ice Cream 
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Dessert Cookbook

2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup 2% milk
2 TSP vanilla bean paste (you can use vanilla extract if you must)

Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, and then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute.  Pour in the cream, milk and vanilla bean paste and whisk to bend.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and turn on….(follow the instructions for your ice cream maker)

Makes about 1 quart. 

Grilled Bananas
3 bananas
4 TBL (approximately) cinnamon/sugar mix
2 TBL (approximately) honey
Cut bananas lengthwise in their skins

Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

I told you I have been craving these sweet little morsels.  I couldn't take it any longer, so Boy 1 and I headed to the kitchen to make a batch.  I must admit, he did most of the work.  The only thing I did was zest the lemons, since we were both afraid he might grate his fingers on the microplane, and I dip the muffins at the end, but the rest of the credit goes to him.

This is another Paula Deen Recipe WITHOUT butter.  Can you believe it?  I've been making these for years, they are one of Robert's favorites and I can' t believe I forgot to make them while he was here.  Now, here is an odd twist...Hubby had never had these.  I promise I have been making them for year, then I realized, I did ALOT more baking while he was in Iraq for 15 months, and that is when I found this delightful little recipe.  Well - he approved by eating, well, lets just say so many he couldn't take them to work with him the next day.  ;)

Lemon Blossoms

By Paula Deen – I did not change a thing.

18 1/2-ounce package yellow cake mix
3.4 -ounce package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Glaze:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons water


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a tea towel
To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, oil, and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.

With fingers, dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they're still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about 1 hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

I was sitting here Thursday night thinking about making a coffee cake for Hubby's office.  I always make the same ol' coffee cake. Don't get me wrong, it is good and all, but just a standard coffee cake.  I wanted something with a swirl, so I started searching the internet when I ran across this one.  Now, I have been a fan of the Smitten Kitchen for a while now, so when I saw this recipe on her website, I knew it would be good.  I've adapted it just a bit, as I did not have rhubarb in the house. I couldn't decide on which fruit to put in this cake, blueberry or raspberry, so I just made one of each.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter an 8x8 pan.

For the filling:
12 ounces frozen blueberries, or raspberries, or any type of fruit you would like.  Fresh fruit would most likely taste better, but I only had banana’s on hand, and that did not sound very good to me.
1/8 cup sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
½ tsp ground ginger

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt
1 ¾ cup flour
10 TBL melted butter

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

For the cake:
1/3 cup + 2 TBL  sour cream
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 TBL softened butter cut into small pieces

In small bowl combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla.

Using your mixer, combine flour sugar, baking soda, baking powder & salt.  Add butter, and about 1/4th of the sour cream mixture, mix on medium speed until flour is moistened.  Add remaining sour cream, increase mixer speed a little, mix until well combined. 

Pour ½ the batter into your prepared pan.  Add fruit mixture, dollop remaining batter over fruit mixture, it does not have to be even.  Top evenly with crumb topping.  (You may need to break apart crumb topping with your fingers)

Bake for 50-55 minutes.

This cake brings back very fond memories for me.  I always think of my friend Tricia N. & our dinner club in Kansas each time I make it.   Several years ago when we lived at Ft. Leavenworth, 5 of my friends got together and created a dinner club.  Each person had a night, mine was Monday.  Every Monday I would cook dinner for my family plus 4 other families, I would deliver dinner to the other 4 families each Monday night, then I was done cooking for the week.  Every other night, Tuesday - Friday, dinner was delivered to my door by 5:30PM.  This lasted for a year & boy was it fantastic...the only problem is our little group started trying to out do each other, our meals were DELICIOUS, but our bellies started growing.  Finally we had to set another rule....no more desserts!!!

1 ¼ cup sugar, divided ¾ & ½ cups
1 cup flour
7 TBL cocoa, divided 4 TBL & 3 TBL
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 ¼ cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Combine ¾ cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and 3 TBL cocoa.  Mix well.  Blend in milk, melted butter, & vanilla until smooth.

Pour into 8x8 (9x9 will work too, just reduce cooking time by 5 minutes) pan.

In a small bowl combine ½ cup sugar, brown sugar & 4 TBL cocoa, sprinkle evenly on top of batter.  Pour hot water on top of sugar mixture, (DO NOT COMBINE) bake for 40 minutes or until almost set.

To serve, scoop out & turn upside down on plate.  The bottom of the dessert will be think and gooey, like hot fudge.

Serve with vanilla ice cream!  I make my own, but Kathie, feel free to buy Bluebell's homemade vanilla.  ;)  I'm

I got this recipe from my friend Teri many moons ago.  I am almost ashamed to put this on here as it is not *homemade*.  However the taste makes up for what this cake lacks in being homemade, plus it is so easy even my sister Kathie could make it.

1 box devils food cake mix, with pudding in the mix
1 small box instant fudge chocolate pudding
2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup kahlua
1 package milk chocolate chips
4 eggs
¾ cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat  a bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake for 45-50 minutes.

The second cake was MUCH better as you can see from the picture above.  Check out the inside, super moist and scrumdibleeumpsious!!.  If you love, or even just like carrot cake...try this one, you will not be disappointed!! 

If you have a food processor, pull it out now so you can use it to grate your carrots and apple.  OK, let's go!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon 

Combine and set aside.

1 ½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs slightly beaten
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 ¾ cups grated carrot
½ cup peeled and grated apple
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix last 7 ingredients together, add dry ingredients until well combined.

Most of the time I use 3 round (8 inch) cake pans, greased with flour dusting.  Bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

Let cake cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter (I used salted) – room temperature
8 oz cream cheese – room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

Mix together until smooth and creamy.

I have a confession to make.  I have always made cinnamon rolls  (OH GOD, I hate to admit it) from a can.  So a few months back when I wrote that girl wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner on her birthday, and then my friend L ask for the recipe, I didn't have the heart to tell her to go to the store, buy a can of Grands Cinnamon Rolls, pop open the can, follow the directions and voila, there  you go!  Notice how I spelled voila correctly? Anyway even before L unintentionally guilted me into searching for that perfect cinnamon roll recipe it was already a thought in my head.  The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of time they took.  I mean you have to wait and wait and wait.  I love to cook, but the one thing I do not like about cooking is when you have to wait for a recipe to do something. For example, I used to buy sugar cookie dough from the store becaue I did not like the fact that you have to put it in the fridge for 1 hour before you roll them out.  For chocolate mouse, you have to put the chocolate mixture in the fridge before you can fold in the whipped cream - oh that used to irrateate me.  Not to forget about good ol' crème brulèe, you cook it, thput it in the fridge for hours before you can torch the top, now I do it all the time.   I figured if I could come to terms with all these items, I could wait a few hours for dough to rise - right?  Well I am glad I did. I found the perfect recipe for cinnamon rolls, well it is actually 3 recipes put together and then I still changed a few more things about it. So, here you go, my perfect Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls!  But, you will have to wait... just kidding... here you go..

Dough***
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup sugar, PLUS 1 tsp
1 cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup butter –melted PLUS extra to coat bowl
2 eggs slightly beaten
7 cups flour plus extra for rolling on

***I do not add salt because I use salted butter.  If you use unsalted butter, add about 1 tsp salt

Filling***
1 ½ cup butter divided, ¾ cup melted, ¾ cup room temp
1 ¾ cup brown sugar plus 4 tbl
3 tbl cinnamon (the best you can find)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
 
Cream Cheese Frosting***
4 oz cream cheese
¼ cup butter
½ tsp vanilla
½ tbl milk
1 ½ cup powdered sugar (sifted to ensure no lumps)


Directions***

In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl (Preferably the one that connects to your Kitchen Aide mixer – you can do this by hand, but I would not recommend it, this recipe take too long already!) mix milk, 2/3 cup sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs, stir well then add your yeast mixture.  Add ½ the flour and beat until smooth, add the rest of the flour ½ cups at a time until well incorporated.  Dough will be sticky.  Change the paddle on your Kitchen Aide to the dough hook (if you don’t have a dough hook, you can kneed on floured surface for 5-10 min), and let your KA do the kneading for you, for about 7 minutes. The dough will creep up on your hook, so stay close by to help it down.  Place in a well buttered glass bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size for about 1 ½ hours (ughh!!)  When doubled, punch down dough with your fist, this part is fun,  but then you have to let it rest for another 5 minutes!

After you wait the 5 minutes, roll dough out on a floured surface, I don't know dimentions very well, just roll until it is big and about 1/4 or maybe 1/8 of an inch in thickness. I don't know, just roll.  This was not big enough....

but this was....

I forgot to mention, roll it into a rectangle.

Now for the filling directions....

Spread dough with ¾ cup melted butter. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough (like in the picture above).  Sprinkle with pecans and raisins if desired.  I did ½ with nuts and raisins and ½ without.

Roll up jelly style, like in the picture above.  Cut into 20-24 slices.  Coat the bottom of two, 9x13 pans with remaining butter.  Sprinkle 2 TBL (for each pan - 4 TBL total) brown sugar on top of butter. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. 

Then put them in a warm spot and  WAIT another 45 minutes or so for them to double in size - again.  Ughh!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until rolls are nicely browned, cool rolls slightly before you frost.

Here they are just coming out of the oven.

Frosting - cream together cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla and milk until incorporated.  Add powdered sugar ½  cup at a time.

Frost slightly cooled rolls.

So, was all that waiting worth it (all 2 hours and 45 minutes of it)?  YOU BET!!  These were AWESOME!  They are VERY sweet and gooey.  If you don't like them as sweet and gooey cut back on the brown sugar mix and cut back on the butter, however, I would not suggest it.   The only thing I am going to do differently next time will be to do everything through letting the cinnamon rolls rise in the 9x13 pans, then I will stick them in fridge overnight, so I can just pop them in the oven the morning of.  When I try this I will let you know how it works.  I think it should be fine though.  

Merry Christmas from Seoul! As you read this in the States we are probably already finished with Christmas dinner and the kids are joyfully playing with their new toys. I’m probably drinking some wine and enjoying the company of S,R,E and J, not to mention G, B1, B2 and B3, and Max (our dog).  

So, wifey is doing great. Ha! Did you think this was your regular blogger today??? No, this is husband, AKA hubby, or H for short. I figured it was time for me to contribute to SixinSeoul after enjoying it for 9 months without ever adding to it. So, hopefully I will live up to the high standards of wifey. I’m also hoping to break her record for comments on one blog, so there may be some blatant flattery or even extortion attempts to get some comments.

Anyways, I thought I would blog about Christmas traditions; and maybe start by recalling some of my favorites. This is difficult for me though, as I can hardly remember anything from when I was a kid. I have chronic CRS. That’s not a technical description of my problem, but is very accurate nevertheless. Mostly I remember a certain white ceramic Christmas tree with huge neon lights that scorched my retinas and is probably the reason I needed lasik surgery to correct my sight. But, when I wasn’t shielding my face from the lights, I remember spending time around the Christmas tree as a kid. We always had a real Christmas tree, decorated with an assortment of homemade or family ornaments. Our trees were always put up by the whole family and were unique and beautiful. And, they usually smelled like dog urine and perfume. This is because our dog Strider would usually christen the tree very early in the holiday season, and M (who is referred to as Grammy in the August Blogs, but is M for my Mom in this blog) would attempt to mask the smell with perfume. To this day, I can’t smell Eau de Canine without thinking of our Christmas trees.

Living in Colorado, we usually enjoyed white Christmases as a kid. It was almost always cold, and bleak. Denver is an especially ugly place in winter. Yes, the mountains are pretty in the distance, but the buildings inside the city are dirty, the trees are bare, and the streets are grimy and sandy. The only thing worth looking at during winter in Denver are the Broncos. Yeah!! Hopefully the Broncos will win this week in San Diego and there will be a home playoff game in January. (yes, I suppose the average female reader is probably grumbling about this digression into football after just a few short comments on Christmas, but hey, this is what you get when a man blogs. Just go with it.) Besides, the Broncos are a Christmas tradition that I can actually remember. I always knew Christmas was near when the Broncos clinched a playoff spot. So, support the Broncos if you like Christmas. And, for all you Cowboy fans out there, Bah Humbug! 

My sister M (this blog privacy thing can be a real confusing thing) is a real stickler for tradition. I bet if we ate oysters for Christmas as a kid, she’d be serving them this year in Boise, even though she won’t eat them. Thankfully though, M (that one is Mom) never served shellfish. Instead, we usually had a traditional dinner. I think this was mainly because of GM and GP (Grandma and Grandpa). They were always with us on Christmas, which I absolutely loved. GM would always slip us a little extra Holiday cash, and then maybe grab our hiney, too (I have to say hiney because wifey doesn’t let the kids use the B word). But, speaking of shellfish, we just enjoyed a Christmas ‘snack’ of oysters and sushi. This is because we made a trip to the Seoul fish market today, in pursuit of mussels, but came home with mussels, oysters, sushi, smoked salmon and tuna. Lots of good meals in the future!

Okay, Boy 1 and I also just finished making a pie while Girl made deviled eggs with wifey. In the spirit of wifey’s blogging exploits, here is the recipe, but dumbed down for men to follow:

Oreo Pie

41 or so Oreos (this is just one package of them)
1/4c butter (c is for cup)
24-28 large marshmallows (or whatever is in the bag after the  kids sneak a few)
1/2c milk
3/2c heavy whipping cream

Melt the butter in the microwave for about 1 minute and let cool. Melt the mallows and milk in a pan and let cool (don’t do this on high!). Chunk up about 10 cookies.  Really chunk up all but five of the rest (maybe use a food processor for this, its for the crust). Combine this with the butter and smush into a pie pan. Whip the cream. Then fold in the marshmallow stuff. If you don’t know what fold is, its okay, just mix it all up. Oh, mix in the chunked up cookies too. Then put it all into the pie crust, slap the remaining cookies on top and put it into the fridge. And, viola, Oreo pie. Bon Appétit!

 So, back to Christmas traditions. A lot of the traditions I enjoyed as a kid in Denver, we do here in Korea. For instance, we always put up a plastic mistletoe. We mainly just ignore it, but occasionally someone is forced to smooch Mom or Dad because we ambush the poor child under it. Another tradition we also follow here is to open Christmas presents one at a time. This really prolongs the Christmas morning euphoria. Today it took over two and a half hours (!), but there were 10 of us opening gifts. After the gifts, we then dig into the stockings. These are handled individually. The highlight of this morning’s stocking ransacking was the pair of men’s underwear that I bought for wifey. Oops! They looked nice though. In my defense, they were purchased in a Korean store. I’m hoping she will at least try them on.

We have a lot of new traditions, too. For instance, instead of a traditional dinner, we all get to pick one thing for dinner. This year I chose mussels. Boy 2 wanted candy canes, Boy 3 asked for chocolate cookies, Boy 1 chose baked potatos, and Girl took pigs-in-a-blanket. Also, R, S, E and J wanted Beef Wellington, asparagus, pumpkin bread and sautéed mushrooms (this makes two of the special ‘é’s in this blog if anyone is keeping track). Wifey added a tomato mozzarella salad. She also added lemon crème brulee, at my request (isn’t she sweet?). So, quite the feast, and I can say with certainty that this is completely unique to the TemporarilyTeninSeoul Christmas Extravaganza. Oh, I also asked for celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and green olives, which wifey calls celery stick thingies. Here is the recipe:

Celery Stick Thingies

Some Cream cheese
Some Green Olives
Some Celery

Cut the celery into smaller sticks. Chop up the olives and mix into the cream cheese. Put the olive cream cheese mix into the celery sticks. And, viola, Celery Stick Thingies. Bon Appétit! (Also, thanks to R for the correct spelling of viola, which is actually pronounced walla(!) for you people who don’t speak French)

 OK, I think this will qualify as the longest blog of the year. I’m going to end with the recipe for my all-time favorite Christmas food, the pizelle. This cookie has an absolute ton of memories for me. I remember GP (Grandpa) making these cookies when I was a kid. Some of these would taste a bit smoky too, if they remained too long at GM/GP’s house. I remember M making these for us as I was growing up, too. Later I remember making these with wifey, and now I make them with my sons and daughter. In fact, Girl was experimenting this year by adding cinnamon. I also remember eating these cookies in Iraq (thanks for all of the packages everyone), missing home and M and wifey and kids and bro and sis and friends and everything else, but these cookies brought me back home. All I have to do is eat one, and Christmas is there. I really hope everyone reading this blog is as blessed as I am to have such a great family and friends as I have (thanks for coming to Korea R and S), but if not, as least you can have pizelles:

 Pizelle (as handwritten by GM in 1978)

1c Sugar
3c Flour
½ TSP Salt
6 eggs
2 Cubes Butter
2 TSP flavoring  (my note: you must use Anise, vanilla is a poor substitute)

(GM did not have any further instructions. I usually mix the sugar, flour and salt together. I also melt the butter and mix it in with the eggs and flavoring. Then I mix it all together and bake the cookies on my pizelle iron.)

Happy Holidays!!

Oh baby, this is a favorite dessert in  our house! 

Chocolate Mousse in Chocolate Cups

4 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Chocolate cups  (see below)
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

Beat egg yolks in a small bowl on high speed for 3 minutes or until thick and lemon color.  Gradually beat in sugar.  Heat 1 cup heavy whipping cream in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat just until hot.  Gradually stir in at least half  of the hot cream into egg yolk mixture.  Then stir into the hot cream pan.  Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens DO NOT BOIL.  Stir in chocolate chips until melted.  Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours stirring occasionally, just until chilled.  Meanwhile prepare chocolate cups. 

Beat 1 ½ cups whipping cream in chilled medium bowl until stiff.  Fold chocolate mixture into whipped cream.  Pipe or spoon mixture into cups. 

CHOCOLATE  CUPS

Wrap the insides of eight 6-ounce custard cups with aluminum foil.  Heat 1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips in a heavy 1 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until melted and smooth; remove from heat.  Spread about 1 ½ tablespoons melted chocolate over foil on bottom and about 1 ½ inches up side of each cup.  Refrigerate about 30 minutes or until chocolate is firm.  Carefully remove foil from custard cups, then remove foil from chocolate cups.  Refrigerate chocolate cups.

Makes 8 servings.

I got this recipe from my good F