Dinner Tonight: Getting our ‘gook’ on

So this was actually dinner quite a few nights ago, but I’m a wee bit behind in posting…

Jason and I love to cook (and even more, love to eat), so we thought it’d be fun to devote part of the blog to featuring some of our culinary efforts. And it  might also help us remember which recipes worked and which not so much…

This particular night I had a craving for Korean food and a recent issue of Bon Appetit just happened to have a feature on Korean bbq. I wanted something a bit lighter, though,  so found a few different recipes for duk gook (rice cake soup) and thought I’d give it a go along with BA’s recipes for Shrimp and Green Onion Pancakes (pan jeon) and a salad of Field Greens with Red Chili Dressing.

I had my first real introduction to Korean food after I moved to Chicago and subsequently introduced Jason to the beauty of grill-your-own-meat-at-the-table dining. Plus, any cuisine where it’s customary for the waitress to cover your table with platters of free “appetizers” (known as panchan) is right up my alley.

This was my first time making duk gook, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I ended up combining steps from a few different recipes I found online. While several called for either using or making beef broth as the base, I read that using dried anchovies is actually more authentic. Since I didn’t have the time to make my own beef broth nor track down dried anchovies, I ended up using some dashi no moto, which is pretty much the Japanese equivalent to bouillon cubes. The flavoring comes from bonito, skipjack tuna, which is smoked and dried.

Each box has several packets of dashi no moto. For this soup, I used about 1 1/4 packets, adjusting for taste.

Here’s roughly the recipe I followed:

~ 1 1/2 c frozen rice cakes
4 oz beef (in this case an inexpensive sirloin cut)
Soy sauce
Cornstarch
2 eggs
2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
4 c water
1 1/4 packets dashi no moto
2 zucchini, sliced
Fish sauce (optional)

Leave the rice cakes in a bowl of room temperature water to loosen and defrost.

Thinly slice the beef and add a couple spoonfuls of soy sauce, about 1 tsp cornstarch, and salt and pepper. Let marinate while you finish prepping.

Scramble the eggs and add the green onions.

Put water in a deep pot and bring to boil. Add dashi no moto then the sliced beef. Boil for a couple minutes then add 1 tsp soy sauce, a few dashes of fish sauce, and salt and pepper as needed.

Drain rice cakes and add to soup. Cook until just tender then add the zucchini slices. Add the egg mixture to the soup, but do not stir. Cover the pot and let it boil for 1 minute, then it’s done!

And here is the finished product:

The pancakes also turned out quite well. I followed the BA recipe and just added some sliced red chili peppers in addition to the carrots, onions, and green onions. (Would highly recommend following the recipe’s 2 skillet process when making these…cast iron works great).

The fully assembled meal:

And there you have it. A simple, relatively quick Korean dinner for a weeknight.

P.S. For those interested in a good Korean BBQ restaurant in Chicago, we recommend San Soo Gab San, near Lincoln Square. Be prepared to come out stuffed and smelling like grilled meat (not an entirely bad thing IMHO)

And…we’re back!

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been nearly 2 years since our last post…

While we did slack off a bit in our blogging duties, we have otherwise been keeping fairly busy: We planned an out-of-state wedding (and got married), did a little traveling (Miami, Seattle, Vancouver, Hawaii, Vegas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Richmond, Denmark (see image below), Madrid…), bought a cool new SLR camera, spent hours playing with the kitties, tried our hand at gardening and greening (the success of which is still TBD), and slowly but surely have been making progress on our home.

Now that the crazy wedding whirlwind is over, I’m finally able to rechannel my energy into home improvements, and hence, the long overdue update of this blog. In the coming days we’ll try to get caught up and add several new entries to highlight some of the changes we’ve made, goodies we’ve discovered and collected, and projects we’re hoping to get to in the coming year (or two).

Until the next entry, I leave you with this peaceful, picturesque scene (one of many) we captured during our honeymoon in Denmark. This one was during a bike ride through the countryside of Aero, a tiny island south of the mainland. If you ever get a chance to visit Denmark, biking through Aero is a must experience. Just make sure to bring a good map!

A couch is a couch is a couch…

Janet here…This is my first blog post ever, which is a little nerve-wracking for some reason, but here goes…

So we finally bought a couch (yay)! After months of deliberation and countless hours scouring CraigsList, roaming furniture stores, marking up catalogs and almost buying at least three different couches at various times, we finally pulled the trigger and purchased a vintage sofa from Victory Vintage, a store in Decatur, GA:

No, we did not actually travel to Georgia. I actually found the store’s site through a posting on Decor8 and the couch immediately caught my eye. We realized it was a bit of a leap of faith to be buying furniture without having seen (or sat in) it in person. But the style was exactly what we’ve been looking for, and we like the fact that it’s not some currently mass-produced retail piece that any mid-century modern fan could name and price in the blink of an eye.

Even the upholstery is custom. I never thought I would own a blue couch, but I love the color. Victory Vintage describes it as “Robin’s egg,” though I would probably say it’s closer to “teal.” Based on a close-up photo of the fabric, I think the texture is somewhere along the lines of velvet and chenille.

The story behind the couch is that the store reupholstered it less than a year ago for another customer. But she moved and the couch did not fit in her new space (it measures a fairly lengthy 89-in), so she returned it. And now it’s ours!

Well, almost. It will take about 7-10 days for us to receive it, which is still quicker than if we had ordered from a retail store and wanted something other than the stock fabric.

I’m very excited to see it in our space. We’re still working out where exactly it will go (probably along the wall facing the bay windows). Icovia is a great tool for anyone out there debating layout issues, and 10 times better than any other free tool I’ve found on the web. If you email them, they may even give you a discount code for their monthly service fee.

Now that the couch is out of the way, I feel like the other pieces for the room are starting to come together…Next up: coffee table and side chairs!

Wallpaper…

Janet and I met with an interior designer today from Urban Source. Just before we moved in we stopped in to Urban Source to check out their selection of fabrics and wall coverings. They also happened to be having a drawing for a complimentary 1-hour design consultation, which was actually the main reason we went in.

As it turns out, I was the big winner for that day. We met with the designer this morning with an open mind and a firm agenda, which Janet had well thought out. We asked a lot of questions that were particular to our space and style. Surprisingly, things went well. I should point out that even though we have a very similar style Janet has a reluctancy to pull the trigger when purchasing furniture and I have a tendency to want to purchase every piece I like and try to find a space for it.

The designer understood our tastes so we agreed to at least entertain the idea of having a 2nd meeting to discuss layout and scaling. I’m very excited to see what she comes up with. We all seemed to agree on the majority of furniture pieces that Janet and I had already looked at purchasing, but layout was of particular concern for both Janet and I.

Janet nor I have worked with an interior designer before so this will be an interesting twist to our design ideas.

My Sunday…

While not technically design related, something interesting happened yesterday. Janet and I were on our way to visit a particular antique store on the north side. It was a beautiful day out and we’ve been excited to take the scooter out since we just recently got it running again.

Anywho, we’re cruising along Broadway near Wilson and all of a sudden the scooter, Henry, sort of jumps, kind of similar to a car when it’s running out of gas. Knowing this isn’t the case since we just filled up the day before, I start to kind of steer to the left. I don’t have much room since we’re in the left lane already and I don’t necessarily want to turn into oncoming traffic. At this point the scooter shuts off and the back tire locks up leaving us skidding at about 45 mph on a traffic-filled street. Fortunately, the car behind us was paying close attention and was able to veer out of the way.

Long story short, Henry, our scooter, isn’t quite running at the moment. A friend is coming to pick it up this evening to see about fixing it. We did salvage the day, though. We ended up at Broadway Antique Market and picked up a small side table, which is what I was in the market for.

I’ll post pictures of that soon, but for now, enjoy Henry…

Hello, readers…

So, this will serve as the first official post for inside-the-aviary.

My girlfriend and I just purchased our first condo, a two bedroom beauty, on the north side of Chicago. We’re very excited, but a little overwhelmed. This site will serve as our textual (and visual) chronicle of our progress. The plan is to also take some good pictures of the places we purchase furniture, paint, etc.

Also, feel free to jump in when you’ve got some advice…