Full to the Brim

     

     I am full in so many ways. My apartment is full of delicious foods. My oven was full, my slow cooker is full, my fridge is full. I adore this fullness. I am also full myself, I have eaten far too much. My dinner was amazing, absolutely amazing. Are you looking at it? Are you jealous? You should be. You might also be wondering where Part II of the Great Cake went, don't worry it is coming. I just thought it might get monotonous if I kept posting one cake after another (or not as suspenseful). So, we are looking at my dinner tonight instead. And drooling. At least I am.

     This dinner was a very spur of the moment thing. I happen to have a very large pork shoulder defrosting in my fridge. Well, I had taken it out of my freezer yesterday to defrost. As you have probably guessed, it did not. It was still frozen solid when I took it out of the fridge this morning. So I dumped the whole thing into a brine. By 2, the edges were a little more thawed. Exasperated, and extremely hungry, I began hacking away little pieces of it and throwing them into a bowl. And I mean little bite-sized pieces. I threw them into said bowl, covered them with Korean marinade from H-Mart, and then promptly forgot about them. (That was the Great Cake Part II's fault).

The Last of the Catch Ups

     Hey! After these recipes we will finally arrive at foods I made this week and not last week before I left for Boston. Yay me! Yay for how much I cooked before I left! Look at how generally healthily I ate. Obviously, that has all gone downhill this week (six brownies do not a meal make) but still. Makes me feel nice to look at all those veggie recipes. And finally, I did cook something with meat in it last week. Hallelujah!

Fixings for a quick meal

     Today is a day for exclamations, apparently. Sorry, I'm just a little happy because two of my classes were cancelled today, and then I skipped the other one. Random mid-week vacation! Hush, a girl deserves a break sometimes. Even if she just had one and got to go home. School is tough and stressful. Staying up all night to make foods, which you will hear about tomorrow and after, is necessary stress relief. Class in which I generally spend all my time blogging is unnecessary stress. Hurrah for strangely circular stress related sentences!

I miss this dinner. I want more.

Resourcefulness

     This week I discovered something. I discovered that in growing up, I have grown resourceful. Things don't faze me as much anymore. And no, I am not just saying this. And yes, I know what happened isn't actually that fazing or that big a deal, but it made me happy so I'm going to go with it. And now you will have to hear about it.

Loaf pan= Trash can bowl (just clarifying)

     So, what happened? Well, people came over for dinner. I love having people over for dinner. I love sharing food with people who are not just me and my freezer (and since he is just holding food for me for later, he doesn't even count - sorry Mr. Freezer). I was expecting PVL and DL (who is visiting from New Zealand for a few weeks, I cannot believe I have not mentioned him! He's the greatest. Anyway...) but I also got BJG. Now, everyone knows that BJG is my friend. He is just also...cough cough...a Vegetarian.

Look! Its BJG! Big Jogging Giant....will work on it

     Well, I was planning to feed everybody the cashew chicken curry I had made with Katch (this was Sunday, I'm so backed up with recipes! It's ok, i'll catch up soon). But, what would I feed BJG? Poor thing, he brought a thing of noodles to eat in case I did not have food for him. As though I would let anyone heat up noodles to eat in my house. Tsk tsk.

TOFU!

     Luckily, my fridge is now well stocked - courtesy Reading Terminal and H-Mart trips with KK over the weekend. So, I had: tofu, zucchini, and carrots. All the fixings for a veggie dish. Chop up tofu, zucchini, and carrots. Heat up oil. Hmmm...at this point there are two options: try to figure out how to season this from scratch, or use sauce courtesy H-Mart. So, I cheated. And now I'm blogging about it. Is that OK? Well, I am blogging about cooking in my college life. And sometimes, that involves cheating and the use of pre-made products. I'm okay with that once in a while.

People over for dinner = Rushed picture taking

     So, I used the sweet and spicy pork marinade I had bought from H-Mart. It has apples and pears in it! It is vegetarian, I checked. It's also amazingly delicious. If you are at any Asian grocery store, you should look for these kinds of Korean BBQ Marinades, especially the kinds for kalbi. They make everything so flavorful. So, I cooked up the veggies and tofu with a couple of tablespoons of marinade, and voila! I had food for the vegetarian. I am un-faze-able.

P.S. I am also on the bus to Boston because I'm going home for the weekend! I love buses with wi-fi.

Vegetable Tofu Stir-Fry 

1 tbsp Vegetable Oil 
2 mid-sized Carrots, Sliced (not too thin) 
1/2 Large Zucchini, Chopped into Quarter Circles  
A dash of Salt
1/2 tbsp Water
1/2 block Soft Tofu, Cut into 1 in cubes 
2 tbsp Korean Kalbi Marinade (or other sweet-spicy marinade sauce)  

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or saucepan (all I have). Add the carrots and zucchini and salt. Stir them around, and then add the water. Allow them to cook until the zucchini looks Slightly more translucent. Then, add the soft tofu and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes. Lastly, add the marinade. Stir everything together, and allow it to cook until the zucchini is translucent looking and the carrots are softer (cook for less time if you like crunchy carrots, and longer if you like squishy carrots).

Serve on top of rice!