Maura's Illuminated Manuscript

I'm not much of a cook. Most of you know that, especially my hapless Thanksgiving victims, but people who've recently added me just found out. So it is with a certain amount of pride that I tell you that the Wendling and I gave the following recipe two thumbs up.

white woman's improvised doenjang jjigae (soybean paste soup)

Makes four to six servings. All quantities are as approximate as fuck.

5 cups water - It's supposed to be stew-like.
15 small potatoes, washed but not peeled, and cut into bite-size pieces
10 oz. fishcake* - I used the yaki chikuwa, which are tubular, pre-grilled surimi jobbers - cut into bite-size pieces
6 oz. nappa cabbage kim chi* (i.e. the most common kind of kim chi)
1 cup chopped green unions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red miso*, because unlike its cousin doenjang I knew where to find it

Heat up your water. Boil your spuds for about eight minutes. Add everything else, stirring enough to dissolve any miso clumps. Cook just enough that the onions aren't crunchy, because it's pretty easy to overcook fishcake.

Easy. Delish. And aside from the sky-high salt content, not that bad for you. I found a recipe online that calls for anchovies instead of fishcake, but I remember the latter from the long-gone Korean Kitchen in the U district, where I was introduced to Korean food.



*Seattle-area people, I got all this stuff at Uwajimaya, natch. The Pal-Do World on Aurora - which I went to on a date once, no kidding - has closed, so if you want real Korean ingredients, you might be in for a bit of a drive.

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M'boy finally did his taxes after my pointing out that a) he has three days left to do them, b) he had nothing better to do tonight, and c) I was just going to keep nagging him until he did them.

I was happy to help him out by finding the 46 pages (!) of instructions for the 1040 EZ and answering his questions from them; no way was I going to print that out. He still has the handwriting of a toddler; I sure hope Uncle Sam can decipher it. Le sigh.

He said he needed to go for a walk afterwards because doing his taxes made him feel like force-choking somebody. Oh, kiddo, wait until you're no longer eligible for the EZ.

I was supposed to drive a long way for dinner with Taller Woman last night, but she had a cold, so I agreed to a dog park date at (ungh) 1000 this morning. But that date got the kibosh, too, when her cousin's kitchen caught fire and TW volunteered to help clean up. I don't think it's a brush off, because TW sent me a photo of blackened cabinets and a partly melted microwave. I still want to see her sooner or later, but I'll have to arrange it another day.

It was just as well, though, because the Norwegian had a birthday party at her place in the CD. It was all lovely. One of her housemates works for Beecher's and brought cheese curds OMGdairycrack and educated people about cheez; and another works for Chef, deployment software with which I've spent the last week wrestling.

But you know that wasn't why I was there. Yes, the Norwegian flirted with a lot of the guests because that's how she rolls, but while I was there I was the one who got the most... attention. Yeah, I so win, and we're into each other on multiple levels. I found at she's a biochemistry geek with serious indie cred and has oxytocin tattooed on one shoulder. She wants to do something sober with me later, which is yay. She had to talk herself out of "sexualizing" me a couple of times, and I'll admit to being on the fence about whether I'm OK with that. But when she talked about getting over the awful relationship she just got out of, she said, "It could take me a year." I hung my head. Still, these are all most promising developments. And I once again have Funny Lady to thank for it; we're checking out a Korean place later this week.

Mental note: Get in touch with Elder Goth, with whom I have no dates currently scheduled. I just now had to check my calendar to make sure I do, in fact, have a date this week with Much Younger Woman in addition to one with the Tickler. Believe me, this is still weird for me.

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Meanwhile, back at my Lake Place, I fired up my food dehydrator for the first time with a bunch and a half of kale in it. The kale chips dried out in (maybe a little less than) three hours, which is pretty zippy for food-drying. I need to take it easier on the oil & salt next time, but they're definitely edible. I have maybe half a gallon of them. I can make jerky in there, too, which I didn't at first realize, but I wish they had instructions for tofu. I do believe my need for food that doesn't need refrigeration at Burning Man is essentially taken care of.