Lox - Smoked salmon w/ cream cheese on a bagel

I love Lox. I remember that I would see peopl eating this smoked salmon dish on a bagel. It always puzzled me to see this because to me it looked like sushi on bread. It was a bit odd looking to say the least. I remember the few times I actually had a bagel prior to this, was with cream cheese. Then a friend of mine asked if I ever had one with a tomato on top. That again sounded very odd.....until of course I tried it! WOW! What an eye opener. Now I love lox. I loev bagels w/ cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, tomato and capers. That's the best.

Everyone knows how to make it but for the few of you who don't know....give it a try. You won't regret it.

bagel (toasted of course)
cream cheese
onions / red onions
smoked salmon
tomato slices
capers

Give it a try!

Pancakes!

I've always wanted to make my own pancakes and recently I had the chance. I have to say that they turned out great! I had no idea how easy it was. It just takes a little common sense if you want to substitute ingredients. For instance, I subbed buttermilk for soy milk and instead of using butter in the pan, used pam non stick spray and veggitable oil.

Ingredients:
flour 1 cup
milk 1 cup
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients until smoothe. Some small lumps are ok. Above amount makes about 4 large sized pancakes. Bring pan up to a good medium/high heat, oil/butter pan. Poor a ladel of mixture. Drop some blueberries to taste if you want blueberry pancakes.

Serve with some butter and syrup, eggs and bacon and a cup of joe! :)

Mandoo Guk AKA Korean dumpling soup

I love mandoo guk (mohn-do-gook). It's a dumpling soup in meat broth kind of stuff that's typically eatn on cold nights, for breakfast, when you're feeling down maybe, after a night of drinking or traditionally w/ rice cakes on New Year's day. I guess you can call it a Korean comfort food of sorts. Every Korean has had it, and most love it.

There are many ways to have this dish, below is a quick and dirty recipe. Cooking time from start to finish is about 10-15 minutes for a 2 person meal. If you're going to make the dumplings from scratch, obviously, it will take quite a bit more time.

Ingredients:
4-5 large dumplings should do although you can use more for smaller ones.
One (1) can of Swanson's chicken broth or beef broth. (I prefer the low sodium variety)
cubed sirloin steak, as much as you like, but don't go overboard
1-2 eggs
water
salt & pepper
green onions
flour or other thickening agent. Not needed if the dumplings are covered in flour already.

Pour equal parts broth and water into a small pot with dumplings. Half a typical can of broth should be fine. One tablespoon of flour for this much soup should be about right depending on how thick you want the soup. Again, if your dumplings are already covered in flower, no need for this step. Add dumplings, cubed meat and green onions to the soup. Boil about 10-15 minutes, salt & pepper to taste. When you're about done, crack an egg or two into the pot and slowly mix, careful not to puncture dumplings. The eggs should quickly become stringy and cook creating an egg drop soup like effect.

Enjoy with a bowl of rice and some kimchi! :)

Junk Food - Fast Food

Junk food is commonly understood as the stuff that tastes good but is highly processed and usually contains a high degree of fat, sodium, and sugar and little nutritional value. Sounds so bad but tastes oh so good.

Junk food is typically pointed towards as one of the chief causes of obesity. Junk food has taken over as the overwhelming dominant form of food that surrounds us. If fast food falls under the umbrella of junk food then we have a huge selection constantly bombarding us with advertisement and choices. Think about it, when was the last time you saw an advertisement for fruit compared to chips or soda?

The thing about junk food is that it's highly addictive. I personally go through phases but have had many favorites. I try to only enjoy this stuff in moderation but at times I have to admit that I've probably had more than I should. Here is that list. Maybe you'll find some of your own favorites here as well.

Dorritos - Spicey Nacho, Cool Ranch, and other flavors
Twinkies
Reeses peanut butter cups
Peanut M&Ms
Korean style read bean mochi dduk
Korean cream puffs
Vanilla, Cookies & Cream, Coffee, and other ice cream flavors
Donuts - lemon filled powder, Old fashioned, coffee bar, glazed, etc.
Egg rolls
King Taco
Del Taco
Taco Bell
KFC
Pizza
In-N-Out
Burger King Whopper
Wende's Double Stack
Diet Dr. Pepper - tastes like regular Dr. Pepper! :)
Coke Zero - no calories! :)
Mountain Dew - lots of calories :(
7-Up

Quick peanut butter and banana sandwich

This is a great quick energy boosting meal. It's perfect for breakfast, as a snack in the middle of the day or as a lunch when you just don't have time to get something and junk food isn't in the cards. Easy to make, nutritious, high in protein, potasium, and fiber. Great meal.

Ingredients:
whole grain or wheat bread (toasted if you like)
peanut butter (I prefer crunchy)
sliced bananas
honey

That's it. Spread the peanut butter over the toast and slice some bananas on top. spread a little honey on top and there you have it. I love to eat these every once in a while. Great filling meal.

SPAM

That's right this one is all about SPAM. Many of you have never tried SPAM. You consider it disgusting or strange. How can you say such a thing without trying it? It's way better than those gross vienna sausages, I promise you that.

Written on the can itself are the ingredients to SPAM: Pork with ham, mechanically separated chicken, water, salt, modified potato starch, sugar, sodium phosphates, potassium chloride, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrate. (Taken from the 25% less sodium can). Also written on the can is that it is fully cooked and able to be eatn cold or hot. Personally, I prefer to cook it.

There are many ways to enjoy this versatile food. What I'll list below are simply my personal favorites. I'm aware of other ways to eat it, but for me, there are just no better ways to enjoy this tasty dish. In no particular order...

SPAM and eggs.
Open the can of spam, cut into 1/4 inch slices and fry on both sides. Like bacon, the more you fry the saltier it becomes, however you don't want to burn it. Great with eggs and toast with a cup of coffee!

SPAM w/ eggs and rice.
Open the can of spam, cut into 1/4 ince slices and dip in egg wash. Fry on both sides and serve with rice. mmmmm mmmm.

SPAM in kimchi jjigae
Follow your kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew) recipe and add cubes of spam. Very nice. Eat with rice.

Masubi is one of Hawaii's most popular ways of eating Spam. It's essentially a piece of spam on top of a brick of sushi rice wrapped in seaweed. For my money, I like it the top three ways above. Just awsome!

Josh's Tastey Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of the great favorites of American picnics. Below is a flavorful, easy to make version that you can enjoy with steaks, sandwiches or as a meal.

Ingredients:
4-5 medium Golden yukan potatoes or any other favorite variety
3-4 eggs
1/2 large onion
2-4 tablespoons parsley and herbs
4 tablespoons olives
salt & pepper
mustard / dijon
mayonaise

Clean and boil potatoes and eggs. Put a pot full of cold water potatoes and eggs on the stove on medium/high to high. Sprinkle some salt in the water. When it comes to a boil, bring temperature down to medium. Bring eggs out of the water after 12-15 minutes. Let cool over cold water. Continue to boil the potatoes until fork soft which might be an additional 3-5 minutes per potato. Rough chop/cube potatoes, eggs and onions. Pour into large bowl. Chop green onions, olives and capers. Put all ingredients into a large bowl and fold with mustard, mayo and salt & pepper. Enjoy!

Put mustard, salt & peper to taste.