Kimchi pasta

February 1, 2025 12:56 AM

It's kind of a gloomy day today. So, I don't have great food photos. That doesn't mean I don't have any good food, but it was already enough work to cook, and I think I used up most of my photo-taking energy on chicken and rice.

Anyway, as I was browsing youtube the other night, I saw a recipe for kimchi pasta and it looked really good. I mean, orange pasta always looks good. I also happened to already have kimchi in my fridge and half a box of rigatoni and some parmesan and some green onions, so I added this to my list of things to cook.

But that was last week. I ran out of all those ingredients, but I still wanted to make this pasta, so I bought more of everything today. Well, except for green onions. Aldi was completely out! I've watched enough Aaron and Claire youtube videos to know that Aaron's favorite ingredient is green onion, but well, we're gonna have to settle for cilantro.

I decided to double the recipe just so I would have plenty of leftovers (we'll see if I regret having too much leftover pasta). And this was actually a lot more work than I expected. There were a lot of things to cut up, kind of like stir fries. And it took me so long to grate the cheese, and my hand was so tired. Maybe I should invest in a box grater. Or maybe I should just buy a container of pre-grated parmesan.

Once I got to the actual cooking part of this, it was pretty easy. After I poured in the heavy cream, I thought it looked a little too creamy though. The youtube video made this look so orange! Mine was super pale compared to that. It kind of looked more like an alfredo or a mac n cheese. So, if I make this again, I might cut the heavy cream in half. It's probably healthier that way too.

I gotta say, even though I'm not too happy with the color, it doesn't taste bad! The kimchi, oyster sauce, mushroom, and bacon all add a lot of depth to the flavor and I was really digging that. I would totally make this again, but I'd definitely make some adjustments so it's easier.

Odds 'n Ends

March 4, 2019 11:30 AM

Egg Drop Soup from Souped Up Recipes

My sister actually made this to eat with the bánh xèo, which was nice because the pancakes took a while to cook. It was delicious.

One Pan Roasted Kielbasa and Cabbage Dinner from Budget Bytes

This recipe claims to serve 4, but I doubled it and I don't even think that amount served 4 because I got one meal out of it and my sister got two meals out of it. Maybe that just means it was that good.

Cheesy Scallion Stuffed Jalapeños from Budget Bytes

We had jalapeños that had been sitting in the fridge for too long, so I needed to make something that would use up all of them. Aldi was out of scallions though! Why does this keep happening? I also completely forgot to buy sour cream. It still tasted good though, especially because we added breadcrumbs. And we paired this with other foods that didn't really make any sense, but whatever.

Meatloaf and Brussels Sprouts

February 7, 2019 4:30 PM

I bought a loaf pan last month, so I've been meaning to make meatloaf for a while. I found this Thai Turkey Meatloaf recipe from Budget Bytes. And I know we just had ground turkey last week, but for some crazy reason all the recipe sites I look at exclusively make meatloaf with turkey.

She put rice inside of the meatloaf! Maybe that's what makes it Asian. We cut the recipe in half because 2 whole pounds of turkey seemed like a bit much.

For the most part we followed the recipe, but I probably used five times as much ginger as the recipe called for, and I used red onions instead of green. Can you believe Aldi was out of green onions?! This is the fourth time this has happened this year!

To go with the Asian meatloaf, we also made these Sweet and Spicy Brussels Sprouts from How Sweet Eats. I liked the flavor, but I think the sauce needs some adjustments. Next time I'll only use 1 tablespoon of chili garlic, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and I'll cut every other sauce ingredient in half.

Overall, it was very Asian American. I found the meatloaf to be very sweet and the brussels sprouts to be very soy sauce-y, but the flavors worked well together.

Dumpling Party

January 26, 2019 10:45 PM

I know they call them "pot stickers" but you really don't want them to stick to the pot. Because then you can't take them out of the pot, and you end up with dumplings that are missing bottoms.

We switched to a non-stick pan for the second batch. I guess you can't really tell from the picture though, since the bottoms are hidden.

One of my friends made a pretty salad to go with the dumplings. Apparently he was supposed to use green onions, but Aldi was out of them so he used red ones instead. Red onion is not a good substitute for green onion.