Spicy Hot Ham and Cheese Mini Sandwiches

Spicy Hot Ham and Cheese Mini Sandwiches

Every Thursday evening my husband Joe participates in a local pool league. The team he plays for is mostly middle aged Korean people and they're very wonderful and giving. In fact they always provide dinner before the games. Sometimes the food is amazing. I'm practically drooling just thinking of the spicy chicken soup they made one time. However sometimes we show up and the food is raw squid tentacles or chopped up pigs feet... that's where we drew the line. I asked if it would be alright for me to contribute some food to the events. 

Not quite melted enough.... back into the oven!

I've noticed that my generation of Korean people tends to enjoy western style food but the middle age+ generations find it bland. Probably because if the food isn't so spicy that it makes you cry they can't taste it. So cooking for the team proved to be a bit of a challenge. The first week I made pasta, about 3/4ths was consumed. The second week I made spicy chicken; not spicy enough for them. This past week, however, I made spicy hot ham and cheese mini sandwiches. I had seen a ton of pins recently for those delicious looking King's Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Sandwiches but I knew they would be far far too tame for this particular audience. So I spiced these bad boys up a bit and in the 5 minutes it took my husband to run to the ATM they were completely gone! The team has since been begging for me to make them again.

Thus I give you my newest creation...

Spicy Hot Ham and Cheese Mini Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 pack of Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

1lb sliced Deli Ham

1lb Pepperjack cheese

3 TBSP melted Butter

1 TBSP Poppy Seeds 

3 TBSP Ground Fresh Garlic (chopped works too, but I recommend you pop it in a food processor)

1 1/2 TBSP Spicy Mustard

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (separated to use 1/4 tsp at a time)

Step 1:

     Slice the rolls in half length wise being sure to keep the rolls on each half intact

Step 2: 

     Set the bottom half in a baking dish and layer with the ham and cheese then sprinkle with 1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper.

Step 3: 

     In a separate bowl mix together remaining ingredients to create a paste.

Step 4:

     Place the top half of the buns on the sandwiches and spread the mixture over the tops.

Step 5:

     This is optional but highly recommended... Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight to let the flavors soak into the sandwiches.

Step 6:

     Place the foil covered pan into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the center is sufficiently warmed and cheese is melted, Remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes or until lightly toasted. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Covered in the marinade and headed to the refrigerator

Prior to baking.

Korean Pumpkin Duck

Korean Style Pumpkin Duck

When most people think of Korean food they think of Kimchi/Bulgogi/Bibimbap/Dog etc. As far as food is concerned Korean culture couldn't be more different than American. Most Americans I've met here, either English teachers or military tend to have a strong opinion on Korean food, either Love or Hate. Personally I LOVE it, granted the occasional unrecognizable side dish still worries, oh and that one time I ate the live squid wasn't the most pleasant..... none the less gimme some kimchi and a bowl of 5 grain rice and I'll be happy as a clam! 

Despite which side of the Korean food love spectrum one may fall on there is one lesser known dish that I'm fairly confident most anyone from any walk of life would enjoy... Pumpkin Duck.

Acorn Squash, stuffed with roasted duck and headed in to the oven

It's Duck, stuffed in a "pumpkin" (it's really an acorn squash). After trying it for the first time at a restaurant I spent hours googling how to make it. I firmly believe that Google knows so much that it knows more about me than I do about myself (creepy) but I could find no information on how to make this dish. I even found a few question forums with English teachers asking for translated recipes so they could try to recreate the dish in America. However, no recipe could be found.

Even this could not stop me, I had to succeed in my quest to continue having pumpkin duck in my life. So I popped on over to Korea's most popular search engine, Naver, and used my elementary level Korean knowledge to find a recipe. By my estimation I understood about 60% of the recipe which I deemed "mehh good enough" and dove right into what would soon be 6 hours of head scratching and mass confusion. Luckily the second time I made it it was MUCH faster and easier. So go ahead and give it a try!

Stuffed to the very top with tasty tasty duck

Korean Pumpkin Duck

Ingredients:

1 large Acorn Squash
1/4 C water
2 lbs of Roast Duck (this is an estimate, amount varies based on size of squash)

Step 1:
     Cut an opening at the top of the squash as if you were carving a pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and set aside to make Kickin' Pumpkin Seeds later.

Step 2:
     Place Squash into a large microwave safe bow and pour 1/4 Cup of water into the squash. Microwave on high for 15 minutes. This will save you about an hour compared to cooking it entirely in the oven, you're welcome.

Step 3:
     Carefully remove the squash and dump out the excess water.

Step 4:
     Chop the fully cooked Roast duck into bite sized pieces. Need a stellar and super simple recipe for roast duck? Check my post Super Easy Way to Roast a Duck

Step 5:
     Stuff the duck pieces into the Acorn Squash and wrap it in foil.

Step 6:
     Place the Pumpkin Duck into a shallow backing dish and bake at 400F for 45 minutes.

Step 7:
    Slice open and enjoy!

Make sure to scoop out all the strings before cooking if they bother you; we gobbled them right up!

Perfect White Sandwich Bread Machine Bread

I would consider my husband to be one of the worlds most avid bread eaters. Between his toast at breakfast, sandwich at lunch, bread as a side at dinner and late night garlic toast addiction I've seen him consume a full loaf in a day! ONE DAY! How on earth he stays so thin is beyond me! Seriously everytime I see health blogs about bread making you fat I want to submit a picture of my husband with the caption "lawyered!" 

I like to switch it up with various types of breads like wheat, pesto, sundried tomato, cheese, pumpernickel, etc. and he loves everyone of them but everytime I ask him what kind he wants he answers with a resounding, "white bread!!" 

White bread. While in the past I've found it mildly offensive to hear people yell "white bread" at me (oh dear sweet ghetto high school of mine) I now find hearing "white bread" drums up my ego. 

I know what you're thinking. White bread is bland simple and plain, but oh my you are wrong. Joe is picky about his white bread! It has to be a certain size, density-uniform medium sized pockets on the inside (not super bubbly and not super dense), soft crust, not too salty, not to sweet, etc etc etc. 

So after almost a year of making bread both by hand and by bread machine I have finally created the most perfect bread recipe. I promise, look no further than this post, you have arrived at the bread machine recipe to beat ALL bread recipes ever... Even handmade because, really, who under the age of 80 has time for that?!

So what makes this recipe so perfect you ask?! Non-fat milk. Yes skim milk. I know, I know, half of you are disgusted and the other half are thinking, "yay low fat." There is a reason for this beyond nutrition. Moisture and texture. I tried several recipes that simply called for milk. When I used whole milk the bread was heavy. Even with extra yeast and salt it would LOOK perfect and taste great but the "walls" of the little inner bubbles were just too chewy. Then if I didn't keep it in the fridge it would smell sour within a day. I tried low fat milk and the flavor was still there minus the quick spoil but still too chewy. Lastly, I tried non-fat. It was perfect. 

In regards to salt, I use kosher salt. In my opinion It makes most every food taste better because the granules are large enough that they don't break down too easily... Seriously try it in cookies! Mmmmm salty-sweet! 

White Sandwich Bread for bread machines

Ingredients:

1 1/8 Cup warm NON-FAT Milk. Only non-fat. Read above if you don't believe me. 

2 1/2 TBSP Unsalted Butter

1 TBSP Kosher Salt, disolved into the milk

2 TBSP Sugar

3 Cups Bread Flour

1 1/2 tsp Bread Machine Yeast

Mix according to your machines directions. My cuisinart calls for wet ingredients first, next dry ingredients and last of all the yeast. The only exception to any machines directions is that you must dissolve the salt into the non-fat milk for this recipe! Otherwise you risk a random salt chunk in your bread. 

Enjoy.

Frozen Microwave Burritos

Freezer microwave burritos, perfect for a snack or last minute meal!

I remember my first grocery shopping trip with my husband. While I am confident in my shopping skills and my ability to make some ridiculously tasty foods, I wanted to find out what kind of foods he would buy if he were shopping for himself. Men like my husband are very simple shoppers; if its quick, cheap and heats quickly it's probably their favorite. 

Among the various snack foods and meats he loaded into the cart I found something I had never had before, a package of microwave burritos. Not that I'm above microwave foods, I mean gimme a hot pocket and I'll go to town on it, but making your own foods from scratch tends to be cheaper and I'm not made of money! 

When we got home and were putting the groceries away I asked him about the burritos. Are these tastier than homemade ones? How often do you eat these? etc....

Upon learning that his only motivation in buying the burritos was that when he was a bachelor it was a warm meal that he could make quick and cover with hot sauce for flavor I decided to make him some microwave burritos from scratch. We keep these in the freezer and he takes them out 2 at a time for a quick and healthy snack. It saves us money AND he likes the taste and "fresh-er-ness" of these than the prepackaged ones.

Give 'em a try.

Frozen Microwave Burritos

Fill your burrito then dab water in a U-shape on the tortilla

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Beef

2 TBSP Taco Seasoning (homemade or 1 packet of pre-made)

2/3 Cup Water

8 Soft Burrito Tortillas

1 can Refried Beans

Shredded Cheese

Step 1.

     Brown the ground beef and rinse in cold water (helps get rid of unnecessary fat). Return the fat to the frying pan and add Taco Seasoning and Water. Simmer for approx 10mins or until thickened, not soupy.

Use two hands, I needed my other one to take the photo!

Step 2.

     Lay tortillas out on a clean surface. You may want to warm them slightly to make them more pliable. Divide meat among the tortillas. placing the meat towards one side. On top of the meat place a dollop of refried beans and sprinkle desired amount of cheese over.

Put a little extra water on the last 1/4in to seal the burrito

Step 3.

     In the empty section of the tortilla wipe a light amount of water in the shape of a U to dampen the tortilla and make it easier to fold. Just a little though!



Step 4.

     Tightly roll the side with the fillings up while simultaneously rolling the sides inward. When you finish rolling the burrito dab a bit more water on the last 1/4in of the roll to seal it closed. Then set in seal-side-down inside a freezer bag.

Viola! Pop these babies in the freezer.

Super Easy Way to Roast a Duck Like a Pro

Whole Duck, chopped into quarters, Roasted to perfection.

Now I'm not going to sit back and pretend to be an expert on roasting duck, but I did it once and it came out perfect so if the shoe fits... Hehe!

I currently live in Korea and when it comes to food this culture couldn't possible be more different than American culture. Mostly I do my grocery shopping on the nearby military base so that I can have all of the oh-so-calorie-laden western foods that I love, like cheese and peanut butter. On a side note, peanut butter isn't popular in Korea, presumably because it's about a billion dollars per jar. I just can't help but feel bad for the millions of Korean kids sitting at school at this very moment, being drilled by the harsh requirements of the Korean education system, without a nice PB&J, lovingly prepared by mom, resting in their lunch boxes, ready to comfort them through their lunch hours... Instead they have fermented spicy cabbage... to be fair though, I freaking LOVE kimchi! 

Wow I rabbit-trailed this post in a big way... 

Being the homegrown kinda gal that I am I love farmers markets, so I make an exception to my use of the commissary when it comes to fruits, veggies and, recently, duck. Yes, duck. 

The cost of meat in Korea is astronomical! Presumably, because of their massive population and itsy-bitsy country that's surrounded by water and communist North Korea... Except duck. They have a pretty good number of ducks, it seems, which allowed me to pick up a whole duck for 10,000won ($10). 

But when I got home and plopped the fresh bird into the fridge I was suddenly overwhelmed. Not only had I never made duck, I've never roasted a turkey or even roasted a chicken! My only experience with poultry is limited to baking chicken breast. 

To ease my concerns, I popped on to Pinterest and found many crazy awesome recipes with ingredients I had never heard of and cooking terms I needed a dictionary to understand. So I switched to Google. I found several "easy" recipes, some that called for cooking the bird at high temps for short times, some that called for low temps and long times. Which to choose?!?!?

I was frenzied and it made me realize what the world needs most.... A duck cooking for dummies recipe! 

So I made one, I tried it, it was amazing. Here it is, enjoy!

Roasted Duck

Ingredients:

1 Duck- chopped up, or whole, your choice

Salt

Pepper

Step 1

     Rinse the duck, trim off the excess fat and pat it dry.

Step 2 

     Sprinkle all over with salt (not too much!) and pepper. If you're feeling creative feel free to add other spices such as paprika or garlic powder, but it's not necessary

Step 3

     Place the pieces into a Crockpot and cook on high for 3-4 hours (7-8 on low, but the meat might fall off the bone and make the roasting part hard) depending on your bird size. You can add a tiny bit of stock to the Crockpot if you want but the bird I used was super fatty so I wasn't worried about it drying out.

Step 4

     After you're confident the duck is cooked thoroughly (inner temp 165 degrees), carefully remove it from the Crockpot and place in a pan (line with foil for easy clean up) skin side up! Sprinkle with a tad more pepper if desired or more spices

Step 5 

Roast in oven at 450 degrees for approx 30 minutes, checking frequently for your desired level of browning. 

Eat! 

Kickin' Pumpkin Seeds

Unassumingly spicy Kickin' Pumpkin Seeds

Ahh fall, such a perfect time of year. The leaves are changing from their uniform green into bright orange, deep red and all shades of the least loved color in elementary school: brown. The weather is finally perfect for fashionably layering my outfits, but best of all: pumpkin has arrived.

Wait, perhaps you didn't hear me....

PUMPKIN HAS ARRIVED!!!!!!!! **jumps-around-crunching-fallen-leaves**

So while you all are out there drinking your starbucks pumpkin spice lattes, or your "super-healthy-all-natural-made-it-myself-smug-grin-pinterest-version" I'll just be over here, having skin turning various shades of orange from ingesting all things that contain the word "pumpkin" without discrimination.

Meanwhile, my husband, aka the scrooge of fall, aka the love of my life (in case he ever reads this hehe!) isn't big on fall-flavors (yay more for me!!) So in honor of blending his spicy demeanor with my appreciation for fall, I give you....

Headed into the oven!

Kickin' Pumpkin Seeds (They're really spicy, REALLY!)

2 Cups raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed/dried as best you can
1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp Chili powder
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper (ground red pepper)
1 TBSP Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

Step 1.
     Preheat oven to 225 degrees F

Step 2.
     To the best of your ability rinse clean and dry 2 Cups of pumpkin seeds.

Step 3.
     In a microwave safe bowl melt butter, then mix in the remaining ingredients.

Step 4.
     Toss the seeds into the bowl and stir around being sure to evenly coat all of the seeds. Then arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet (TIP: cover the sheet with parchment paper or foil for much easier clean up!!)

Step 5.
     Bake for 60 minutes then check in increments of 10 minutes until desired level of toasting (up to 90 min). Let seeds cool fully. Enjoy!

Housewifery.

Last night I couldn't sleep. In fact, I'm finding it hard to keep to a sleep schedule these days, presumably because my life has no schedule. Having been in the Air force for the past 4 years I had become accustomed to nothing but scheduling. Now thankfully I am living out my sweet freedom and couldn't be happier at the simplicity of determining MY OWN SCHEDULE! Mine! sighhh. Those who have served know the joys of the feeling you get when you cease being a institutionalized robot and become an individual. The military does have its high points, but none of that is at all the point of this post.

Pinterest. Such a wonderful website that affords women the ability to feel crafty and domestic through nothing more than clicking "pin" from their cell phones. For me, the satisfaction of pinning a link to my "Things to Make Someday" board isn't near what it would be if I actually had made any of those things, nevertheless, it is much greater that the satisfaction I found scrolling through the silliness my friends posted on Facebook or the never ending stream of news coming from the fascinating state of Florida.

Given my newly acquired open schedule, new home, and being a newly wed, I decided that it was finally time to dive deep into the recipes and crafts that I had once regarded as pipe-dreams. Having been a career woman, I always dreamed of one day achieving "Housewife Status" as if it were like winning at super mario. I assumed that one day, after many years of work, my husband and I would decided to have babies... soooo many babies... and I would stay home to raise them. As of now, I have achieved the husband portion of that dream, though we have not started on the baby portion. Still, as I wait for my next semester's course load to begin  I've started my housewifing early.