From Leia, who is a grand piece of sunshine herself,
“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” -James Barrie
To recap on my the remaining parts of my TX trip, I’m a bit overdue and I apologize for the delay.
Texas Adventures: Yeeehawww Part 3 The evening after returning from the wedding & blogger meetup with Michael & Ari, Tim, & Jish, Pamela & I returned home on the lateside, started dorking out & got online, laughing, blogging, & reading up on folks. Mel who had planned to join us, was hijacked by a boy and his geekdom and unable to join us but we chatted afterwards and she was kind enough to offer me some drugs to ameliorate my sneezie weezies from the house of kitties. Michael is totally correct when he refers to me as a blockhead.
Saturday morning Pamela was kind enough to drive me to the airport where I picked up a rental for my trek to Dallas from Austin.I apparently have a penchant for red mustangs in TX and this time opted for the convertible model. After minor delays in locating Tim’s home in the college ghetto, we were off & running. The three hour trek flew by as we chatted about everything and I was ever so grateful for the company. Arriving at Dave,’s was a breeze and after unloading our shtuff, we were off to Casa De Jeremy & Mark where we chilled, cheered on Jeremy in his missions on Grand Theft Auto, and caught up. Soon we were joined by Matt & Leia and to the Tippery we went. Snarkdom be had by all and Shiner booze to boot.
Thought of the moment "1 Vagina, 2 Vagina, 3 Vagina 4! Everyone! Sing along!!"p>
Here’s something to note: Jeremy + 14 consecutive hours of Grand Theft Auto + Jeep = Entertainment. Down one way streets & over dividers. In real life. Woot. Down to the grassy knoll we went. Leia was gracious about explaining the historical significance of an obscured window where the lone gunman watched and targeted JFK. X marked the spot and we later held our stomachs whilst checking out the autopsy photos. Ewww. Some grocery shopping for the pending Oblique was completed and the butchers were very kind to slice up everything for me as I requested. The gang’s pal Andy was moving and to a farewell party we zipped. Mark drove the mustang and let’s just say that he made all the passengers more comfortable being behind the wheel than his roommate. Top down, zipping through Dallas in a red mustang convertible. I recommend it highly.
Our cheeks tingled and our hair got as crazily whipped as well, one of those boys at Folsom Street Fair. Hee. Favorite moments at the party include listening to my favorite Mark& Josh sing tunes and sharing our little answers to the question “Who was your sunshine this week? Whose sunshine were you?” I had incredible warm fuzzies and slept fitfully that eve.
Sunday, I was up and at’em early. I was graced enough to locate the church where my mother’s godmother attends and where her son, the Father (yes I know that sounds grammatically odd) presides over mass. It felt like being home and I had even more sunshine in my belly. The Lee’s are old friends of the family and while Mrs. Lee was my mother’s godmother, Father Joe used to beat up my brother when we were children and gave me both my first prayerbook and my first rosary. Mr Lee, I recall, had experienced an outstanding reunion with his brother whom he hadn’t seen for nearly 30 years as his brother had lived in North Korea. Losing contact with each other during the 50s, 60s, 70s, and early 80s, they had finally been able to establish contact and see each other face to face. I cannot imagine that sort of separation from family and loved ones and that story always makes me recognize how very precious those whom I love are to me. Mrs Lee, ever a friend to the family, introduced my Father to my Stepmother in 1994. She’s about 2 degrees of separation from every Korean Catholic in North America. She smacked my hand playfully and said that next time I come to TX I must stay with her and she must feed me. Lots. She asked if I had a boyfriend yet. I said I was waiting for God to provide. That’s the only answer, I’ve found, that satisfies and shuts up the nags that comes from those of the older generation that love you.
The rest of Sunday was spent basking in my personal sunshine, and prepping. Prepping a LOT of food. I really dug speaking with Dave, regarding cultural differences between TX & elsewhere; reminiscing about the loveliness of Lausanne with Denise,& Charles and feeling like a rockstar with Ed K.. Not to mention totally making Julie,blush ridiculously red. Thanks loads to the DFW Bloggers that came out and I was very glad to meet you all. Tim & I headed back home to Austin around 9:30 and arrived safely around 1. Driving to Tim‘s house, the roads were clear. In the 10 minutes it took me to grab directions from his home to Pamela’s a tree had fallen across the road, toppled by the fierce winds that were picking up. Was it coincidence or fate? I don’t know but I got back to Pamela’s safely and passed out cold after repacking my shtuff for the long flight back.
Monday AM: Up early, eating cinnamon buns with the gal, laughing, hugging, and saying silly adieus. Mad props go to the following folks who made my TX sojourn incredible: Pamela, Dale, Mel & The Cats, VJ & Greggy, Jish, Michael, Ari,Tim, Dave, Jeremy, Mark, Leia, Matt, Bryan, Katie, Amanda, Ed K., Denise, Charles, Erica, Julie, And so now I’m back. Here’s my FOBiQue recipes that I sent out to the lovely DFW folks who were at dinner. I unfortunately don’t measure accurately but to give you a brief overview of what goes in the stuff I cooked
*Burlgogi (Beef FOBBQ)
Thin sliced beef
Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
Sugar
Crushed Garlic
Slivered scallions
Shredded Asian Pear
Pepper
Rice wine vinegar
One crushed kiwi to soften/tenderize beef (it’s weird but it works) Some eat a mild variation of this dish as beef Tartar. Hardcore I say. I
prefer my Fobique cooked.
*Daeji Burlgogi (Spicy Pork FOBBQ)
Thin Sliced Pork
Go Chu Jjang (spicy red Korean bean paste)
Splash of Soy sauce
Splash of Sesame Oil
Slivered Scallions
Brown SugarWhen squishing the pork around in the hot stuff,(with your bare hands is best) don’t forget to make goofy kitschy horror movie type noises. Bleah blah blah blah…bleah…Bad dialogue like "These are the spleens of my exboyfriends" are a plus.
*Gim Bop (Korean Style Vegetable Maki)
Spinach
Carrots
Shitake Mushrooms
Saute each separately and set aside. All are seasoned with just sesame oil, sesame seeds & salt
Fry Egg & slice in strips
1 Pickled Daikon (Fluorescent yellow) slice in strips
Cooked rice & Seaweed for rolling up your maki
Rice goes in 3/4 of the seaweed paper (My method is to keep a bowl of cool water handy and grab bits of rice & spread it across the seaweed while it’s still fairly hot) Add strips of each element across the rice & roll baby, roll like you’re on ecstasy. You can salt & season your rice with rice wine vinegar and salt if you want but it’s not necessary. Slice into 3/4 inch wide slices & prance about studly cuz you have made the prettiest dish in the neighborhood.
* Kimchi JJigheh (Big spicy stinkin pot of stew)
1 Jar of kimchi – use 3/4 for soup and 1/4 for kimchi pancakes
Sour/old kimchi is the best for this. If your kimchi is too crisp/fresh, then you may need to add some vinegar to sour it up.
Put kimchi in pot.
Add water to cover
Boil then simmer.Add cubed tofu
Chopped onions
Cubed Squash and other vegetables (Mushrooms are good)
(You can add fish or cubed pork or bacon to this dish to add layers of flavor)
Add 2 tablespoons of the spicy hot bean paste gochujjang to taste.
Add 2 tablespoons of butter to mellow out the taste
Add sugar to taste to balance the vinegary/spicy tastes
Simmer some more. Turn on the fan. Watch as flies drop after hovering too close to the lid of the pot. Go buy toiletpaper because your ass will hurt if you eat too much spicy stuff. And yes, you will have regular bowel movements. Kimchi fiber is good for you. Research in Korea shows that it kills cancer cells in some cases. You hear that? Kimchi kicks the shit out of some cancer cells. Fierce.
* Jjap Chae (Clear Noodle dish)
Mungbean/Celephane noodles
A quick boil and they are done.
Season with soysauce, sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds
Toss in sautted veggies that you would otherwise have in gim bbop (look above) You can add some burlgogi to this dish too.
* Kimchi Pancakes
Dice small some kimchi
Add the mixed powder for Korean pancakes
Add enough water to make them "pancakey"
Fry.
You can create a dipping sauce using rice vinegar, soy sauce, and chopped scallions.