Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

This picture is from last month but it's one of my favorites of the three of us and so I thought it should make it's own special appearance on the blog. 

It's a very quiet morning here. It must've rained over night. It was drizzling when I let the dogs out to do their first business of the day. They have all eaten, I have my coffee and now we're all backstairs in the office room where I'll spend a couple of hours in front of the computer while the pups take their morning nap. It's a nice routine. 

I hope your weekend will be a good one.

10 Things

There have been so many random things going on here lately and me running around without a task list - something I rely so heavily on to keep me on top of things. But being list-less had been working just fine but lately I've been feeling a little disorganized. And whenever I feel disorganized, making a list always helps. So what better way to list out all the random things and put it in its own category, eh?

1. Break

We're just about at the tail end of caring for our April guests at Piri's Place and I am so very much looking forward to a nice long break. My break in March ended up getting shortened to accommodate a guest and then I worked non-stop for the month of April. It does get a little taxing if I don't get breaks in-between and so it will be nice to take about a week off and go out, enjoy a few dates with Yangkyu and pick up things I meant to buy (you know those things you want to buy in-person and not online). Then it's back to another consecutive 4-week straight dog care in May.

2. Gardening

It's finally time! And I am so very excited to pick up gardening again this year. We decided on which fruits and vegetables to plant and also figured out what to do with a garden space we have out front. It's been bear for so long and we've been just maintaining it to keep the weeds out. Other neighbors have bushes or roses but I plan on getting in a bunch of peonies there. It won't bloom for another season but I can be patient! Yangkyu and I are heading out to the garden center this weekend and getting all that we need to prep our soil, start out seedlings, getting our lawn grass into shape and more. It'll be nice to enjoy some yard time when mosquitos aren't out full force. 

3. Library

So I started to read IQ84 a couple of months back but then got stuck. When that happens I stop reading altogether. I think it's maybe time to put it aside for a little bit, pick up a couple of lights novels to get myself back in the groove before starting that big adventure again. It'll be nice to get the feel of turning the pages again back in my life. It's those random touches and noises, like a flip of a book, that is so satisfying to the soul.

4. Vegan baking

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon looking through recipes to try some vegan baking. I have an almond cooking recipe and also a brownie/cookie recipe I am very excited to try. 

5. Podcasts

I had Limetown in my queue for so long and finally got around to listening to it several weeks ago. It's fiction but oh it is so good. If you are into X-Files, I think you will definitely enjoy it. The sound effects definitely creeped me out. 

6. Video games

There are a few things Yangkyu and I enjoy doing together and one of them is video games. Some of our favorites have been Overcooked (so hilarious in the beginning, especially when you are trying to coordinate with each other on who is going to do what. We laughed so hard that our belly button almost popped out), Chariot and 9 Parchments, which we are playing now. I hope we never grow out of playing video games together. Even when we're 60.

7. Jamaican Black Castor Oil

A couple of months back, I kept wondering why my face looked so different. It was so puzzling and not so pleasant as well. Defeating, almost. Was it the braces that was changing the shape of my face? Am I just getting old? And then I finally figured it out. It was my eyelashes. Or my very shortened and thinning eyelashes. I had gotten eyelash extensions at a tremendously horrible place and it nearly plucked my existing eyelashes out. Then I heard about Jamaican Black Castor Oil and I've been using it for about a month and voila! It works! My eyelashes are long again. I had long-ish lashes to start with before the horrible extensions, but I think it's even longer. Hurrah!

8. Weeding out the toxic in my life

While I've enjoyed a wonderful, peaceful balance in my life for a long time now, there has been a toxic presence that has been stressing me out lately. I am working to weeding it out. 

9. Netflix

So many great things on Netflix. I have enjoyed From In This Corner of the World, Wild Wild Country, The Keepers and Stranger (Korean drama). I am currently watching Fallet and have Children of the Whales and Ugly Delicious in my queue. 

10. Japanese interiors and food 

Lately I have been very much interested in following accounts on Instagram that showcase wonderfully homey, rustic, countryside Japanese interior homes. They are far away from Tokyo, from that city scene, and it's just my vibe. Food and bento pictures are also so very interesting to me and it makes me keep busy in my own kitchen. Not just cooking though, but presentation and also photography as well. Not lavishly staged but somewhere along the lines of more natural. I have such a long ways to go to nail the whole concept but it's always nice to have an interest that drives you, doesn't it?

What's been going on in your neck of the woods? 

So I definitely goofed!

I had no idea that the powdered flavor packs inside ramen actually includes beef broth. A friend sent me a link the other day letting me know that there is now vegan ramen selling at a local Korean supermarket and that's what prompted me to look at the ingredients in the ramen that we had at home. Doh! I definitely had ramen twice since cutting meat out last November and I thought I've been meatless and bone broth free since then but I was wrong! 

So what else has been up since my last post? Not much difference, actually.

I am still very much consuming fish and I am thinking that I really cannot part with it at this point. I had given myself about 5 months to transition out but I need more time or this may just be a diet and lifestyle that works for me right now. I cook mainly Korean food at home and while a lot of the side dishes I enjoy are plant based, there are some that are seafood based that I love. 

Dairy products are still no go for me in terms of drinking actual milk, eating eggs and cheese but if they snuck inside their way into bread or even cookies, I have definitely had it at least once or twice a month.

Again, I am very much ok when I am home but I do worry when we are traveling. We are planning to go away in June and even next year when we plan on doing another international trip and that's when I worry about finding everything that is meat and dairy free. Right now I am telling myself to just stick to that hard line that I promised myself not to cross, which is the consumption of meat, and the rest is more like, try not to eat it but don't beat yourself over if you do.

It's hard though. Sometimes I wonder how many passes can we give ourselves? If you're gonna do it then do it. I wrestle with that black and white, absolutism mindset vs. not stressing out completely.

For the month of May we are planning on trying a few things from The Herbivorous Butcher. I'm really looking forward to that. Also for our trip in June, there are a couple of vegan restaurants we hope to try if we have the time. Fingers crossed for that.

I miss this life with you.. I like this life with you // 021

"There's no place like home."

 -- The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

New spot for Piri and Bartles and Thursday evening ramblings

Yesterday I rearranged the bedroom. Actually I've been rearranging the bedroom for two straight days because I can't seem to find a groove I like. 

This all started because I told Yangkyu how it would be nice to watch movies from our bedroom from a projector during summer nights. And so I was trying to find a good spot for the bed where it would be convenient to watch facing an empty wall. And the only wall that ended up working was the one where I had hung the Night Sky prints of when Piri and Bartles crossed the rainbow bridge. So I said a huge apology to the boys and gave them a new spot in the room. Which was refreshing nonetheless.

But it brings me to my second random rambling. 

See, I began this whole food journey last November and in the new year I actually started another journey. A journey to spend less and not buy things I don't need. It all stems from trying to consume less to produce less waste. And it began with not buying personal items for me (things that I want to buy like clothes, make up, accessories and other random things).

So how have I been doing? 

Ehh... I thought I was doing pretty well and so I tracked what I spent so far and well, the list was longer than I thought. Some items I think were good buys while others were definitely a waste (womp womp womp).

All in all, for the past four months I purchased - 

1. Two pairs of pants and 1 pair of jeans - I regret one of the pants I bought. It was in the boho style that I thought would be hard to come by so I bought them. They are also really flowy, which is perfect for days when I'm caring for dogs. But when I bought them I couldn't wear them because it was too cold and the pants are thin. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm not sure if I will actually wear them. *sigh*

2. Two books - I couldn't find them in the library and I was interested in the content and so I bought them. One book was good while the other wasn't. *shrug, although Yangkyu always tells me to never hold back from buying books if I really want to read them* 

3. Digital files which I realized I didn't need as soon as I bought them. *sigh*

4. Four hair treatment products - I've been using three of them well and one I haven't used yet. 

5. Two apps - using well 

6. Vitamin - don't need *double sigh*

7. iPhone tripod - don't need and haven't even used yet *wasteful*

8. Vinyl record - don't need but I really liked the music *shrug*

Which brings me to this projector.

I already made space for the room but do we really need a projector? Will we use it for a long time? I'm not really sure. And so it's currently on our wish list along with a few other things. I've been into Kaico products lately and wanted to purchase a pot and also a kettle and a food processor to cook more vegan food. The food processor I plan on buying next month because I've been keeping up cooking often at home and am very much interested in continuing to cook more vegan as well. The Kaico products are more on the "not really necessary" list. I told myself I would buy them when spring comes but I'm pushing it back again to the fall. Or perhaps pushing it back until I think I need them. Whenever our kettle gives out and whenever it's time to switch out one of our pots perhaps that's when I'll buy.

At first I wasn't sure how I would do not buying things. I was so used to just buying with a simple click, but I haven't even touched Amazon and we are even planning on getting rid of our Prime membership. 

Four months in, I am just really curious to see if this mentality will last an entire year and I wonder what it would like to look back in December. So while it began as my contribution to be less wasteful in a very materialistic world, it is pretty much driven by my own curiosity at my will power and a little bit of stubbornness, too.

Shiraegi-guk and other happenings in the kitchen

I am finding that lately my blog posts are repeats of what I put on Instagram. In the past I have been so very mindful to not do this but lately the line between Instagram and blog has been a bit blurry.

I'm trying to find what I want from each space. Being on Instagram for what is now my 8th year, I felt as though I needed to do new things all the time. New content, new angles, new stories, new places, new experiences. I worried about being boring and what I thought people wanted to see came first before what made me happy. It's been a long detour to find my footing again but I think I'm slowly getting there.

I have also cleaned out my Instagram following list. Not entirely because it's a bit tedious to do, but I have deleted about 3,000 accounts. Being on Instagram for so long now there were too many inactive accounts and I hated the inflated follower number. I think there are still thousands more that are inactive but I'll get to them. One year, Instagram actually cleaned out the inactive accounts for us. I lost about 2,000 accounts then. I secretly wish they would do it again.

Anyway, I've digressed a bit too much. 

I wanted to talk to you about what's been going on in my kitchen lately.

I am still very much meat free. That includes meat and bone based soups. I cook with meat though, for Yangkyu and also for Lady, and it hasn't been difficult, meaning I haven't been tempted to eat it. Yangkyu also doesn't ask for meat and is completely ok with whatever I prepare, but sometimes I feel bad and include it for just his portion of his dinner.

Dairy products has still been one and off, but 95% non-consuming and the rest consuming. And I am still very much eating seafood. But I am beginning to get more and more interested in plant based diets and have been more proactive about incorporating them into our meals plans. 

I decided not to be too harsh on myself and still keep the meat-free lifestyle as my hard boundary to never cross. 

A few weeks ago at our local Korean grocery market, they were selling stems from radishes. You might be scratching your head like, what? That's edible? Isn't that part something you just throw out?

I thought so as well until a few years ago when I learned that one of my favorite soups is made with this. It's called shiraegi-guk and is made with ingredients that you might as well throw out - stems from radishes or even the outer most leaves on Napa cabbages. 

I love the concept of not throwing any part of the vegetable out. I think it originates from back in the days when people were poor and they weren't wasteful with food because it was just so hard to feed mouths back then. And so people found ways to use everything, including scraps to cook.

I love that my favorite dish has these roots. (Don't you love stories behind food?! I just love it. I wish there was a Korean cookbook with stories like this.)

My neighbor who is Korean, grows her own radishes and she dries these stems and cooks with them at home. She even grows her own red peppers, dries them and makes her own finely ground pepper flakes. She's kind of hardcore. Perhaps one day I'll be just as hardcore, too.

If you're ever interested in seeing what is on our table, you can following along at #janeandyangkyustable on Instagram for a glimpse of our meals.