Roasted Red and Yellow Beets

Apologies...this went straight into the stomach before I remembered to take a photo.... =) I love eating beets....especially cold pickled beets in the summer. However it being cold enough as it is, I wanted to make hot beets. So roasting them made perfect sense.

Red and Yellow Beets (peeled and cubed)
Salt
Olive Oil
Black Pepper

Everything was tossed together in a roasting pan and then baked at 375 F, covered in foil for the first 45 min. I gave it a stir then baked it another 20 min without the foil. The result was a beautifully colored dish and the beets were so sweet!

Soy Sauce Wings

My favorite kind of chicken growing up was soy sauce chicken. I could eat a couple bowls of rice with it. So why not make it for my favorite part of a chicken only: the wings!

Marinade:
Light soy sauce (for the saltiness)
Dark soy sauce (for the dark golden color)
Brown sugar
Rice Wine
Cinnamon
Pepper
Ginger
Garlic

I didn't have these on hand, but would be great to add into the marinade as well:
Star anise
Green onion
Chinese five spice powder

Key is to cook it on medium low heat (30 min to cook)...never past a simmer or the wings dry out. You can use the same marinade on a whole chicken, just be sure to flip the chicken every 15 minutes (~1.25 hrs total). The delicious marinade doesn't have to go to waste either...you can strain it and freeze the liquid for use the next time...just re-add the ginger, garlic, star anise, etc. The flavors just get richer with time. YUM.

Date Chicken and Napa Salad

My Hubby requested date honey glazed chicken for dinner last night. While thinking about what greens to pair that with, I saw a head of napa cabbage sitting in the fridge. It was too hot to eat steamed napa...which is usually how Asians eat it. (That or boiled in a broth for noodles.) Could it be a salad too I wondered...cabbage is cabbage isn't it? A quick search on Google confirmed napa salads do exist, though they were all eaten with raw, wax covered instant noodles and msg seasoning. No thanks. When I think of raw cabbage, I think of kimchi...so this napa salad will be kimchi inspired!

	Napa Salad: Napa cabbage Carrots Fish Sauce Sugar Garlic Olive Oil Vinegar Crushed Chili Powder
	Marinade for the pan seared chicken thighs: Cumin Black pepper Soy sauce Paprika Date honey (drizzled after pan searing)

(Hubby even had third helpings of the napa salad!)

Adhoc Korean Shortrib Marinade

This happens more often than not...I look up a recipe for inspiration and find that I'm missing an ingredient or two...or five. Unless it's the main ingredient, I consider myself too lazy practical to make a trip out to the grocery store to get it. No time and not worth the gas. I always look for what's "close enough" and already in my cupboards or fridge. That was the case for the Korean shortribs, or Galbi, I wanted to marinade. But I made do with this:

Soy sauce
Rice wine
Brown sugar or Honey
Garlic
Ginger
Lime juice
Black Pepper
Sesame Oil

What I was missing or had substituted from the real recipe (taken from Maangchi.com):

Cooking wine
Korean pear or Bosc pear
Onion

But you know, my adhoc one was still really really tasty. =)