Maria's Recipe Corner #2: Cole Slaw Fritatta = Frislawtta?

No, this isn't the Q&A or jimjilbang post I promised you. Instead, it's time for another interlude of MARIA'S RECIPE CORNER. (Imagine some echo and dramatic orchestra music there.) Fear not, I will return you to your regularly scheduled posts sometime this weekend.

Until then...

Do you like cole slaw?

Do you like eggs?

Then, by all means, READ ON!

Living on a very tight grocery budget here in Korea has brought me back to my culinary experimentation roots: college. Ah, those were the days. I'd just throw whatever I had left in the fridge or the cupboards together and hope that it turned out edible. While I created a few massive gastronomical disasters, I also invented a few really fabulous recipes. Today, I have returned to this tried and true method of making interesting edibles, and have soundly landed in the latter category.

I'm surprised nobody has done this before.

Okay, first, I suppose I should give you my cole slaw recipe. LOOK AT THAT! TWO RECIPES! Aren't you guys spoiled? It's super simple:

Creamy Cole Slaw (Maria style)
-half a head of cabbage, chopped
-one large carrot (Korean carrots are apparently HUGE, so you may need two or three regular-sized American carrots), shredded or chopped fine
-Vinegar (except I had none, so I used a creamy onion dressing that had vinegar in it)
-Mayonaise
-salt
-sugar
-olive oil

Toss chopped veggies together. In another bowl, mix enough mayo to coat your veggies (just eyeball it) with the other ingredients to taste. You don't need a lot of any of it, probably less than a tablespoon or two of oil and vinegar and just a pinch of salt and sugar. Pour mayo mix over cabbage and carrots. Toss to coat.

Now, I made WAY TOO MUCH of this stuff. It turned out friggin' delicious, but I just couldn't eat it all fast enough, even eating it EVERY DAY for lunch for a week. It was starting to look a little wilty in my tupperware container. So, I improvised.

I thought, "Why has nobody put cole slaw in a fritatta? This bears investigation." Because lo! Not a single cole slaw fritatta recipe on the internet. (Google wouldn't lie to me.) UNTIL NOW. I am breaking new ground here.

So, without further ado, I present to you:

The Frislawtta

-leftover cole slaw, about 1 1/2 cups
-6 eggs
-salt and pepper to taste
-1 small chopped onion

Now, I probably should have added onion to the slaw in the first place, but I was stupid and didn't think of it. Also the basic cole slaw recipe I looked at for inspiration didn't call for onion. I figured onion was good in eggs, though, and I had a ton of them in my fridge waiting to get used, so I tossed that in as well.

Anyway. Beat your eggs in a medium-to-large bowl until frothy (yeah, baby), add salt and pepper. Fold in your onions and cole slaw GENTLY (you want those eggs fluffy) until just combined. Pour into a greased pan (I used an 8x8 square brownie pan) and bake in the oven at 390 F (200 C) for about half an hour, or until the top is golden brown and it's not all jiggly in the middle. You may have to adjust oven temp or baking time, as I did mine in a toaster oven.

Eat it while it's hot. It's fan-flippin'-tastic.

Ate half for dinner, I'm going to have the rest of this for lunch tomorrow.

Here's a picture to get your mouths watering:



That's been our recipe corner segment! Enjoy!

Next post:
-Your questions, ANSWERED!
-The secrets of the Korean jimjilbang, REVEALED!
-The acting chops of my Book Club 2 students, TESTED!
-More footage of Gus the rabbit, EXPOSED!
-And possibly some coverage of the PSNAP SNAPS art festival thingy in Hongdae this Sunday, if I can afford metro fare to go.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

-Maria

Shaking Things Up

...It's a terrible title, I know. (At least I didn't make the Godzilla comment again.) But it encompasses the theme of this particular blog update. Namely, the earthquakes in Japan, and the more metaphorical way my life's been shaken up lately.

First of all, don't worry, I didn't even feel a tremor over here in Korea. All the earthquakes seem to be moving eastward, and since I'm west of Japan, no problems here so far. I'm donating some money to the relief fund like I did for Haiti, but I couldn't send one of those fancy texts. So, there's a Paypal option at www.globalgiving.org, and I've donated $10 there.

As for the metaphorical shaking, it's not a super big deal, but it's adding a bit of stress to my life right now. A couple weeks ago, my co-teacher Nana and I were told we'd be teaching morning Kindergarten classes. Brand new curriculum and materials, completely separate of the things we're teaching in Library Program or even the regular Global Star curriculum the other teachers are doing. We only just received those materials a few days ago, and due to being busy with my other classes, I hadn't had much time to look them over (and I forgot to take them home this weekend).

On top of that, this morning I got a text message saying that the classes would start an hour earlier than we were previously told, which means I'll have an hour less prep time than I thought on Monday morning. This means I'll have about thirty minutes to plan a brand new lesson for twelve kindergarten kids using materials I've never used before.

Not only that, but Monday is my busiest class prep day, making sure I have all of my materials ready for the week's classes, and this new class is going to cut into at least an hour of that prep time (the half hour of prep and the 30 minutes of class itself). So, needless to say, Monday is going to be an incredibly busy and stressful day for me. If we manage to get everything ready on time and the class goes off without a hitch, it should be fine, but that's going to take some serious ass-busting on our parts and a heaping helping of luck.

In other news...

It appears that people DO read this blog after all. Thanks to everyone who commented! It's nice to see some of the lurkers come out of the woodwork. ;)

Gus is doing well. I just got paid, so that meant Gus got fresh food, litter, and hay this weekend, which made him a very happy bunny. He's currently napping in his cage.

Here's a video:



I think I'm going to do a Q&A post next time. So, here's your chance!

ASK MARIA ABOUT KOREA!

Got a question you've been dying to ask me about Korea? Ask me a question before that never got answered? Well, here's your chance! Any questions I get in the comments here will be answered in next week's blog post. So you have until I start working on the new post to get those questions in!

That's it for now.

Bai bai,

-Maria

Incheon (or "Is This Thing On?")

Does anyone actually read this? I get so few comments, that I wonder sometimes if it's worth updating, or if it's pretty much just ignored. This isn't some desperate cry for attention or anything, it would just be nice to know if there's an audience out there. It's the internet, so I can't even hear the crickets chirping. ;) So, if you're reading this, please comment. Even if it's just to say, "Hi, I read this!"

Not a lot of news, really. Yesterday was a national holiday, Korean Independence Day (a.k.a. "Up Yours, Japan!" Day). No fireworks or festivals. Just a day off work that's going to screw up my Tuesday lesson plans for the rest of the semester (since they'll all be a week behind the rest of my classes). It was nice to get caught up on laundry and other chores, though, so I'm not really complaining.

I did go to Incheon to visit Michele and Sam last weekend. We met in Itaewon, had some marvelous Chinese-American cuisine at Ho Lee Chao (read it out loud, it's cute), and I discovered that I like eggplant. Who knew! We headed back to Incheon for the weekend, made bread dough for calzones and, well, bread, and basically just bummed around watching movies and such. I slept on a floor mat called a "yo", which was surprisingly comfortable for how thin it was.

Michele is a wonderful person. She sure knows how to feed her guests! We had a good time, and I left with a blender and a backpack she wasn't using, so that was cool. I can now make smoothies and I have a better way to transport my laptop to and from work.

We, unfortunately, did not go to the jimjilbang (Korean sauna/bath house), or the fish market, or Chinatown. It was raining like crazy on Sunday, so we stayed in and watched Steve Martin flicks. Next time, though, well will attempt to do at least two of the three, and I will make homemade cinnamon rolls (with the magical Ceylon cinnamon that does NOT kill me via allergic reaction).

In other news...

I had to get my toilet replaced. Ouch. Expensive. Apparently you're not supposed to flush toilet paper or q-tips down the can. Oops.

On a happier note, my fantastic boyfriend Chris has his passport and a plane ticket booked for the end of April! He'll be landing Friday afternoon on April 22nd, so I'll still be at work when he gets here, but I should be able to get to the airport within a few hours after he arrives. He'll have time to grab some food and maybe a bath at the airport jimjilbang in the meantime. I'M SO EXCITED! \o/

No photos this time 'round. Just a general update. I'm trying to post more often, even though it feels like nothing really interesting is happening around here. It's probably at least somewhat interesting to you folks back home, right?

Well, either way.

Peace,

-Maria