What was your favorite part of your weekend?

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

In my heart, simple dishes like squid jerky or anchovies  are forever staples.  Unpretentious and forged in childhood nostalgia, they can be rediscovered as trendy {I hear oily fishes will become spotlights on dinner menus} or not, I don’t care.  Their staying power extends further than that overnight cronut but here are a few things the foodie virtuosos are forecasting will be highly coveted.

Shakshuka.  A middle eastern staple of poached eggs in spiced tomato sauce.

{My take}

Let’s get…freekeh!  …an ancient grain that’s predicted to tromp over quinoa.

Dacquiose.  Move over macaron!

Restaurants in retail stores.  You can buy your dad a shirt and eat an entire entree for dinner at Tommy Bahamas {with other retails chains following suit}.

Korean foods.  Which to me, was always a star.  Even Trader Joe’s now carries kimchi, bibimbap, Korean bbq, seaweed salad, roasted seaweed (and I’m certain, more will be added to the mix).  A welcome sight for this girl who has a dream that one day, I won’t have to go to 3 or 4 different grocery stores.

What’s something that is forever your favorite whether it be a food trend or not?

There will be a new video up tomorrow

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

After zipping through Shop Girl, this one was a no-brainer and so far, so good!

Sure, it’s a luxury item but the deep ruby stain of these fat and sweet cherries will have you shun those bleached fakers forever.

Gorgeous Cinderella pumpkins.  Daniel was so kind to bring me one too

The very first pumpkin I’ve ever carved!  {And J made me the cutest minion ever}!

What are you loving lately?

There will be a new video up this Sunday.  Wishing everyone a lovely weekend!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

{Grapeseed Oil} I’ve been slathering this stuff all over my hair and it’s been thanking me.

My fave at the moment.  Really, it just happens to be whatever’s on sale at the moment but too often, it comes without the pulp which makes me a very sad Squishy Monster so this one makes me very happy.  Who wants a naked drink anyways?

{Lychee} I can’t get enough of these babies!

So yummy.  Real strawberries + pink + $1 = score!

Really diggin’ on these chevron print pillows

What’s currently on repeat.

What are you really into right now?

Wishing y’all a beautiful and delicious weekend {especially to the Mama’s}!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Me and mama spent the day together {which means we spent a great deal of time cooking and eating together}

She made us mandu, mapo tofu, spinach soup, and a variety of banchan: spinach, anchovies, zucchini, and Korean radish.

I had shrimp po boys with spicy broccoli slaw for lunch.

and me and J were invited to a most lovely dinner party on the lake by some wonderful people who just insisted on making us an authentic Korean meal.  Oh.hell.yes.

There was a dessert of 수정과 {cinnamon tea} and sugarless vegan ginger cookies!

Me and mama’s grocery haul.  Pops goes positively nuts for animal crackers.

It was a fabulous day aside from the fact that I got stung twice by J’s bees.  Believe it or not, this beauty lay still long enough for me to capture a shot…they’re such wonderful little things that I can’t even be upset…red, itchy, blotchy spots or not.

but the day ended on a sweet note with the teeniest tiniest flower ever and a single red rose with the longest stem I’ve ever seen.

Hope your day was sweet too!

Love and the bees knees {whatever that even means}

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

I caught some of the comedy stylings of Hannibal Buress.  According to him, “foodie” is just a euphemism for fat people sht, lol.  He proceeded to make references to such people and I couldn’t stop laughing at myself.  Why yes, I do have more pictures of food in my phone than of people or things.  I actually had to clear some out because my phone had already reached the maximum limit for images.

I also crossed off another restaurant from my list, an edible delicious to-eat list to work through, if you will.

This spot specializes in tapas and they had excellent ahi tuna and crostinis.

Earlier in the day, I made myself a quick breakfast,

a pumpkin pie milk shake (in my defense, it was noon and it was a gorgeous 70 degrees–in the middle of Winter).

Had lunch

Shrimp Pad Thai at my favorite place with one of my favorite people!

and a late night snack to keep me company with The Walking Dead (returns February 10th, you best bet I have my calenders marked)

I also went to visit our family friend who is recovering from a successful knee operation.  Much like me, nothing knocks her down nor impacts her love for food and we were greeted with the sight of her taming her voracious appetite with a healthy portion of everything since it was the first time she’d eaten in a day and a half.  It warmed my heart to see her sip her juice in between bites of this and that and offering, a though weak, but bright smile.

However, the high point of my weekend had to be my baby brothers first real stab at cooking.  He asked me to help him make an entire meal from scratch and I kept my fussing to a minimum and watched as he stirred flour and butter into a glossy, ivory béchamel and tossed and flavored tomatoes for a bruschetta.  Oh, I can’t even tell you how proud I was.  Let’s suffice it to say that I couldn’t stop smiling.

I hope that everyone else enjoyed their weekend and there were lots of happy moments and delicious food to go around.  I have a very special video to share withe everyone tomorrow.

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

I finally felt like a human being today and so today, we reserved the entire day for us.

We spent the morning making banchan (side dishes that are perfect for Bibimbap), chopping veggies and making stocks…we shredded down 10 lbs of ox tail for a delicious upcoming soup.

We had Indian for lunch (I know, again).  Mama’s rockin’ the houndstooth!

Dessert…pumpkin and gingerbread fro-yo (because I just didn’t have enough ice cream before, lol).

A large chain ousted a small mom/pop shop and everything was marked half off.  L-R: sweet rice flour, barley tea, dried anchovies, dried bellflower, laver snacks, soy sauce, baby brine shrimp, sesame oil, and green/brown rice tea.  {Please support your local businesses if you don’t already}

More goodies, because you can’t ever have too many goodies!  A variety of festive cookies…peppermint/chocolate waffle, chocolate sprinkle, and soft iced gingerbread cookies.

After we left Trader Joe’s, someone had left this on the roof of my car.  True story.

After almost the entire day was over, me and mom realized that we were both wearing very similar foot wear–haha.

After giving mom a mani-pedi.  This woman likes to stomp around and touch everything while they’re wet, lol.

Dinner…spicy squid soup, mackerel, rice and kimchi.

and now, here I am cuddled up with these warm and spiced nuts, talking to you guys.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Union Square Bar Nuts

 

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Author: Union Square Cafe

Ingredients

• 18 oz nut assortment
• 2 tb *fresh* chopped rosemary
• ½ ts cayenne pepper
• 2 ts packed brown sugar
• 2 ts sea salt
• 2 tb melted unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Scatter your nuts on a dry baking sheet and toast at 350 for about 8-10 minutes.
2. Combine the rest of your ingredients in a bowl and toss in your nuts.
3. Serve warm.

3.2.1753

I guess you could say I found something to do with all those pecans.

(never you mind that it’s 3 am) :/

Love and warm nuts no-no, that doesn’t sound right…

Love and food dates,

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

Butter is my baby.  It lends itself so well to so many things.  So giving, so considerate, so kind…so yummy!  Now, if only I could meet a man like this!

Butter makes everything better, no?  I’ve been known to hoard several boxes of butter “just because.”  Who knows when the mood will strike and I’ll want to reach for a couple sticks to transform into buttercream or pastry?

I’m not ashamed to admit that this is precisely what happened to me last night after Mr. Insomnia abducted me from any restful sleep.  2 am found me in the kitchen, dusted with flour, greedily clutching sticks of butter, cubing into tiny pieces (to allow to rapidly come to room temperature), with an abundance of free flowing chocolate and cranberry bits to make these:

These are just these minus the chocolate chips, plus 1 c each of dried cranberries and white chocolate chips (I love it with apricots too)!

Technically, these were dessert following dinner, despite the fact that dinner was several hours before, lol.

On board with the butter theme, these are the most delicious imported French butter croissants.  More butter was used for the roux in the Béchamel sauce.  Whole wheat pasta + turkey bacon + caramelized onions and garlic + spinach.

So, what’s my favorite butter?

I can almost always find coupons for this so that’s a plus.  Its gotta be unsalted, sweet cream butter and it’s l0vely for both baking and smearing on toast with jam.  Yum!

For my folks that don’t/can’t consume butter, this is a great alternative that I highly recommend if for example, you’re hankering for some homemade cookies:

Trader Joe’s also has a more affordable option for coconut oil.  “Good fat” that’s neutral in flavor so you can utilize it for baking all sorts of yummies or, even stir fries.

Baking things better with butter,

Love,

Your Squishy Monster ^.^

Strawberry Lemonade Salt Water Taffy, that is.

Another thing that made me smile today?

The Mister at check out who gave me a  sticker that smelled of Coffee.  That was pretty awesome.  (Did anyone collect puffy stickers as a kid, cos those were a close second to scratch and sniff)!

I took what I bought at the Market and made Shrimp Curry for the Family.  Pink Argentinian Shrimp smashed with pungent heaps of Chili, Lemongrass, Ginger, Garlic, Coriander…and if ever, I can collect the ingredients on paper, resembling anything close to an organized list, I promise to do a video on it.

Total score for the triple coupon event.  6 “simply” Juices, a Papaya, Bananas, and 6 boxes of Raisinets for $4.  I had six $.50 coupons and six $.75 coupons and each tripled itself which left me to pay for just the balance of Fruit.  Yummy winning!

More yummy winning:

1/4 Dark with Rasta Rice + Potato Salad + Corn Bread at my favorite Caribbean spot where there are only 4 tables, the bathroom is so close you can hear the water running and nothing is actually cooked when you order it.  They microwave it right in front of you minus no blatant shame and I wouldn’t be so forgiving except it’s so damn good.  Sometimes, I can make a concession for deliciousness.

Ah, safely coiled on my couch, I can now hear the rain fall.  When I was little, Reading Rainbow provided me endless comfort in telling me that thunder was just the sound of Angels bowling.

Funny, because that’s what it still reminds me of

Coloring Monday Blues (and grey skies) into Pink and Yellow Strawberry Lemonade

Love,

Your Squishy Monster

The last time I went to Korea, my cousins took me to “Pizza Hut.”  It seemed like everything had corn on it.  It bothered me then, but I’ve really latched onto the concept since.  It echoes my childhood breakfasts of canned beans and corn.  Now this “pizza” doesn’t have corn on it, (but it could)!  It elaborates on the idea of putting things in a dish that, in hindsight make complete sense!  Like one of those Homer Simpson “d’oh!” moments.  Why should Korean BBQ be held to the strict confines of rice and kimchi?  Holy cow, next time I make this, I’m definitely adding kimchi!!!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Korean BBQ Pizza

 

Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• 1 ribeye
• ½ onion
• 6-8 mushrooms (any variety)
• 1 bell pepper
• 2 pieces of naan (pizza dough or any flat-bread works as well)
• 2 c shredded mozzarella (any nicely melting cheese would work)
• Bulgogi marinade (recipe follows)
• Gochujang sauce (recipe follows)

Bulgogi Marinade:

• ¼ c soy sauce
• 1 tb agave/coconut nectar/honey/rice syrup
• 2 tb grated Asian pear or Fuji apple
• ½ ts ginger
• 2 ts garlic
• 2 ts sesame seed
• 1 tb sesame oil

Gochujang (Hot Pepper Paste) Sauce

• ¼ c hot pepper paste (or roasted red peppers/tomatoes)
• ½ tb agave/coconut nectar/honey/rice syrup
• 2 ts sesame oil
• 2-3 tb water (enough to thin out your sauce to a spreadable consistency)
• 1 head of roasted garlic

Instructions

1. Pepper your steak and pop it into your freezer for it to firm up enough to cut into thin slices (20 min or so)…add your slices to your marinade (the longer it sits the better min: 30 min up to 2 days) *Grilling outdoors makes this superb.
2. Cut the top off of your whole head of garlic, wrap it in a sheet of foil after liberally dousing with olive oil, S + P. Mine took about 35-45 min but check on it after the 30 min mark and see if it’s satisfactory to you. Blitz to mix.
3. To assemble, smear your sauce on your flat-bread, drape your toppings and sprinkle with cheese. The naan takes literally less than 5 min so bake at 350 until your cheese gets nice and gooey.

3.2.1753

One day, I want to have a pizza party with all of y’all…just like in grade school with balloons, streamers, and glass bottle sodas!!

Love Always,

Your Squishy Monster

XOXO!!!!