15 Minute Meals Challenge!

"Please Take Care of My Refrigerator"

Oh my goodness, so the day before yesterday, I finally returned from my 2 week long trip to Korea. It was a bittersweet arrival since my joy for returning home was mixed with sadness at the fact of leaving my grandparents. As many of my good friends know, I go to Korea every summer in order to pay visit to my relatives and stay over at my grandparents' house. As usual, when I get back from Korea, I always come back with a) loads of presents, b) flawless skin (there's something in the air about Korea that fixes my breakouts), and c) atleast 5 more pounds cause the food is amazing there. I will definitely be making a post sometime soon about some of the food I ate in Korea, and how I spent my days exploring Seoul and Incheon. Speaking of food, in this post, I'm going to be talking about 15 minute meals for all you people need something to eat, fast. While in Korea, one of the shows I watched on TV when I had time was "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator", a cooking variety program where celebrities bring in their fridges (literally) and chefs have  a cooking competition using only the ingredients available in the fridge and/or pantry staples (i.e. oils, flour) to cook a meal in fifteen minutes based on what kind of food the celebrity feels like eating. Sometimes the fridge only holds a couple beer cans and instant noodles, and the chefs actually conjure something out of it. Sounds pretty challenging, no? Even so, these chefs kill it on the show and make some amazing dishes. It is so cool to see what kind of concoctions the chefs can come up with in such a short time span. For me, it usually takes me at least an hour for me to make a meal I am satisfied with. I mean, boiling water itself takes atleast 10 minutes for me. So, I don't know how they do it, but the chefs manage to make some delicious looking food with a minimal amount of food in an even more minimal amount of time. Amazed and challenged, I decided to try out this for myself. However, knowing 15 minutes is far too short of time for me unless I was planning on making something simple like an omelette, I decided to give myself 30 minutes to prepare lunch for my mom and I today. The menu?

Gyeranmari - Rolled Omelette Dish

Sautéed Green Beans

Rice

Kimchi

PC: A Korean Girl Eats

PC: Kirbie's Cravings

A very simple yet definitely satisfying meal. Now, Kimchi is a staple in nearly every Korean house, and was already made when I decided to put it on the menu. So, I shall count it as a pantry staple and move along. On another note, the rice was prepared earlier in the morning, but with a rice cooker, cooking rice takes at most 25 minutes so I believe that passes. Therefore, I technically only had to cook two dishes but let me tell ya, they took up all 30 minutes. So, for Gyeranmari, I learned from my grandma so I don't use a recipe but if you would like to learn. Please check out the recipe from Maangchi. Unlike Maangchi, I usually don't put sugar or onion, and instead insert a slice of cheddar cheese in the folds when rolling. However, the filling can nearly be anything; some other common roll fill ins include sesame leaves, seaweed, spam, and carrots. For the Sautéed Green Beans, I used the recipe from Food Network. My mom and I first tried this dish at a famous Dim Sum place called Din Tai Fung. Simple yet savory, this dish was an instant favorite and we order it every time we go there. However, in order to save money and give it a shot at home, I looked up several recipes in order to recreate this amazing dish. Most recipes suggest using oyster sauce but unfortunately, we didn't have that option at home so the Food Network recipe was perfect for us to use. Plus, according to the recipe, it would take 20 minutes to finish preparing and cooking.

When timing the process of preparing and cooking the gyeranmari, it only took 8 minutes. I first  heated the pan, whipped the eggs, put in a pinch of salt and pepper, poured it into the pan, and when it was firmer, I started rolling it up. At the last fold, I inserted a slice of cheese which melted beautifully by the time I sliced them up and put them on the plate. I wasn't surprised at how quickly that dish was done because it is something I prepare often. On the other hand, the Sautéed Green Beans took a whopping 30 minutes. I first started boiling salted water, and meanwhile washed the green beans, garlic, and ginger. This probably took me about four minutes. Then I chopped them all into small pieces. I boiled the green beans for three minutes until they were bright green, and then drained them in a colander. What messed things up was that my water was not "ice cold". Since I didn't have ice, I improvised with frozen strawberries which made a mess of things cause the strawberries defrosted immediately in the room temperature water. But atleast it was colder than before. When preparing this dish, make sure to prepare ice cold water before you start! I think that is what keeps the green beans nice and crunchy. While the green beans were boiling, I had stirred in the chopped garlic, ginger, and homemade red chile pepper that my mom specially infused with "Mae-sil" Extract (an Asian plum) into the sesame oil covered wok. (We did not have shallots in our fridge) When the garlics got nice and crisp, I threw in the green beans and stirred until the beans looked as though they were well-coated and caramelized. After, I poured in some soy sauce. Different from the recipe, I also added in a pinch of sugar for a sweet and tangy approach. Once the green beans looked crispy, I neatly arranged them in a bowl. Although I believe the dish is supposed to be served hot, I have noticed that my mom and I like it cold so I put it in the fridge with the remaining minutes. When the timer was over, I took it out of the bowl and served it with the rest of the dishes. 

The result? Nailed it! While it didn't taste like the green beans from Din Tai Fung, it sure came close. The green bean was still a little too warm and soft for my preference, but it was still noticeably crunchy, and carried this wonderful sweet and spicy flavor that I was aiming for. The garlic was especially good since it carried so many different flavors after being sautéed for so long in the wok. My mom loved it, but then again, she's my mom. We finished the entire bowl of beans quickly; my while my younger brother didn't touch the beans, he especially like the gyeranmari. The meal was a simple success, and we all finished the meal feeling satisfied. It definitely wasn't as quick or as amazing as the chef's on the show, but I'm glad to see that I don't need to have the best of best ingredients or hours to spend to create a delicious meal. Next time, I'll definitely try to hit the 15 minute mark!

Keeping in Touch with the Close Ones

The Love Letter by:François Martin-Kavel

One of my greatest qualities is my great sense of independence. Because of this aspect of my personality, I tend to spread my wings and just fly off without hesitation (sometimes quite literally) or notice. In fact, my first year of college, I decided to spontaneously go to Barcelona by myself during Spring Break. Many of my friends were shocked that a) I was going alone and b) I will be traveling alone in a foreign country. I didn't realize exactly how uncommon this 'ability' was until this year; several of my good friends started leaving CA in June to study abroad, and confided in me how nervous they were for traveling alone. Not only was their nervousness stemmed from the fact that they were going there by themselves, but also the fact that they were going to miss home and their friends and their families. To be honest, homesickness is not a familiar feeling. Perhaps this is something I should be concerned with... is it because I'm not happy with life home? Is it because I spend too little time with my family or friends to be affected? Is it because I spent so much time traveling? God knows. All I know is, when I'm alone, I am perfectly content. (Perhaps, too content.)
Whether it be in another country in a small cafe surrounded by people speaking different tongues or in the comfort of the blankets in my bed, there is no sense of emptiness when my space is void of people. I find my own solace quite satisfying, and can honestly spend hours alone as long as I have a good book to read, something to munch on, or anything remotely entertaining. Company usually doesn't necessarily have to be a person, no matter how close that person is to me. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate surrounding myself with people. Nor is it a chore. I love it when people invite me out to things, and I love meeting new people... It's just that unlike some people who constantly need someone around them (and this is not at all something negative), I get along fine off in the world solo. Now this is fantastic because I never get the dreadful feeling of homesickness when I'm away from home nor do I vie for someone's attention constantly.
However, my natural sense of independence and comfort in solitude also unintentionally tends to cut people out of my life. It doesn't help that I suck at checking my phone. Honestly, when it isn't work related or family, I barely touch my phone nor do I respond immediately. Sometimes, I slack on purpose and most often, I'm too busy doing something else to check my phone. When I hang out with someone, I never look at my phone. Perhaps never is too far fetched, but unless I'm taking a picture of the people in front of me or snap-chatting where I am, I would never pause in the middle of a conversation to text someone (unless maybe, it's my family). I simply choose to dedicate my entire time to the person in front of me. When I'm home, I'm often on my laptop instead of my phone which also causes me to check my phone waaaay later. As rare as it is for me to respond promptly, it is even rarer for me to initiate contact. Like I mentioned, I am perfectly comfortable being alone and thus rarely make a great effort to contact someone just for conversational purposes. I also prefer not to hold a conversation through text, and even less phone. There is something just so detached about texting that I don't like, and phone calls inhibit my mobility which irks me. So, when I'm off at in school in New York, there is a long hiatus of conversation between me and my friends back home. Besides the occasional snapchats, rare facetimes, and brief texts when we see something interesting, a conversation never really flourishes via electronics.
 Thankfully, this in no way inhibits our friendship, and whenever I come back home, we pick up our friendship very easily. Aeia lovingly dubbed this "low maintenance friendships" and I completely dig it. Even so, as easy as it was to work around things this way, I definitely want to invest more time in keeping up with my friends while away. As fun as it is to get a short version of how "Harry" met "Sally", I would love to have been there in some way when the action was going on. It would also save me lots of "Who's so and so?" and "Ooh, when was this?" kind of questions. I want to stay a part of my friends' lives while I'm away.
Funnily, just as how odd it is for me to not enjoy or partake in texting, oddly enough, my friends and I find great joy corresponding via letters. In high school, I used to write letters to my friends all the time (especially Phoebe) and still have a huge box full of them in my room. Last year, Phoebe and I had lots of fun sending each other snail mail, and it was far more exciting and fun opening my mailbox and receiving a cutely decorated letter rather than some boring ol' text. As someone who prefers not to use the phone to keep in contact, I find letters a far more sentimental and meaningful form of conversation. This year, I'm hoping to exchange letters with more friends and also take the time to simply ask how their day was and what not. Or, another great way to just keep in touch is to simply message the person if you saw anything that reminds me of them. I especially love tagging my friends in Buzzfeed quizzes or interesting articles. It's a great way to start a conversation rather than the typical "omg, I miss you. How are you? When are you coming back?" kind of messages that usually end after "We need to hang out!". There's honestly no better way to show someone you care than by pointing out the little details that make them special.
On the contrary to my situation, I feel as though for most people, they spend very little time trying to connect with their family members. Caught in the hustle and bustle of life, it seems that most people tend to ignore the voice mail that their mother left them or get irritated when they see that their parents are texting them way more than necessary.While my mom and I actually do keep in touch daily, it doesn't really fly that way with the rest of my family. My dad, like me, is also not not keen on using communication devices and texts and calls even less than I do. So imagine how little we converse when I'm away... same for my brothers. I barely keep in touch with them and our way of communication is probably liking each other's photographs once in a while. Honestly, during the school year, it doesn't really matter much but when I think about it now, I think it's really important to maintain a consistent presence in our family's lives. If I don't talk to my siblings or my dad that much because I'm busy with school, I can't imagine how little we will know each way in the future when I have a job and my own family to look after. Since we have the access to devices that provide easier communication, I will definitely make more of an effort this year to keep in touch with them and let them know I'm alive and that I hope they're alive too, hah.
 Some relatives we might even think less about are our grandparents. When my grandma would call me, I would often not call her back until hours later because I'm in class or I'm babysitting and then I would forget and call back 3 days later. Every summer, when I visit Korea, my grandpa would ask me to kakaotalk (a messaging app) him weekly and send him pictures. I would always promise yes and do my best to keep it but would often forget about it and only remember when he sends me a message saying that he misses me and to send him pictures. It really is difficult to maintain a connection with your grandparents when there's so much you're doing at the moment, but it really does mean the world to them when you take a few minutes out of your day to send a text or phone them. I recently taught my grandma how to use Kakaotalk and she literally cried when I told her that she can use it to chat with my uncle (her son) who is stationed in Afghanistan. Whenever she receives a message from him, she is beaming and full of excitement because she can finally talk to her son without worrying about international phone fare or disturbing him.
If they live relatively close by, why not take the time to pay a visit? It doesn't have to be only on holidays that you get to see them! I spent the past two days at her house for old time's sake (I used to sleep over at her place all the time as a kid), and she was delighted with that. Thankfully, I live 20 minutes away from my grandparents so I get to see them more often than not, but just the fact that I stayed over for 2 days really made them super happy. My grandparents often says that the house feels more vibrant when I'm over. And this is not just my effect. Literally, all you grandchildren have this wonderful ability. When you're around, I'm sure your grandparents will also feel far more cheerful and excited simply because they love having you over. If you dread going over because there's nothing to do, bring a good book, your phone, or whatever else you need to entertain you when they're doing their own thing. Whenever I go to my grandparents' house, I always bring a book or sometimes a DVD. When I'm not chatting with them or picking fruits from their garden, it's tons of fun to just watch movies with them or teach them how to use smart phones and iPads. You can always teach old dogs new tricks. It's all about patience and ability. Your grandparents hold so much story and life and if you take the time to unravel their past, you will find them great company. If there is a language barrier, either take the time to learn the language or find something to do that doesn't require language at all. Don't just assume that all old people are immobile and take them for a nice walk. Play music for them, go swimming, take them to a museum--there's just so many ways to keep them company. They are people with personalities and I think it's important to get to know them a little better. I absolutely love spending time with my grandparents and find them hilarious, brilliant, and super interesting. This admiration didn't just come from the fact that I'm their grand daughter, but because I took the time to get to know them better. I appreciate my grandma's amazing cooking, my grandpa's handiwork (he made my dog the most adorable dog house), their gorgeous garden (they have grapes, potatoes, lemons, lettuce, tomatoes, and more), their diligence, their fashion sense (my grandma is such a diva), and their love. I think it's important to recognize the love they have for you and bask in their presence and let them bask in your's every once in a while. They can provide you with wisdom and care gained from time and experience, and you can give them the energy and modernity you hold with your youth. Grandparents' love seems to be one of the most underrated forms of love, but I find it necessary to recognize the strength of that love. As adults, we tend to slowly drift apart from grandparents due to so many new relationships and work; however, I believe keeping in contact with your grandparents should be a gift rather than a burden. For me, grandparents are friends, family, supporters, and a connection to my culture. They teach me things neither parents or books can teach you, and provide me with love and a sense of security that is one of a kind. Thus, I believe it's only right for me to take a few minutes from a day to say "I love you" and "hope you're doing well"; I hope you take the time to do the same too!