I have had a weird relationship with Kim Chee.  Not so much a relationship but a curiosity about it.  It looks like it would be really good, but when I have some it tastes like @%$^&*.  I mean, I think it tastes awful.  I don't know if it's the fish sauce or the fermentation or something else that people put in there, but it tastes just plain bad.  

Since I am a food explorer, I decided I would make some myself.  I went to several YT videos and looked up many recipes.  Of course, fish sauce is in all the recipes but I don't really like fish sauce - too fishy.  Like spoiled fish, fishy.  

I looked at all of them and decided I could do this.  But without the fish sauce.  I got all the ingredients then let the cabbage go bad I guess so I'd have an excuse to say I didn't make it because the cabbage was bad.  We live an hour from any where that sells Napa cabbage (I think) so that was that.

We were at that store yesterday and today I made the Kim Chee.  Without the fish sauce.  It turned out very nice with good flavors but nothing overpowering (like fish sauce).  I haven't fermented yet but so far the flavors are great.  We'll be having some with our fish cakes I'm making tonight for dinner.
​ 

We are trying to get creative and still be healthy during this time of quarantine.  We made some corned beef last week and had some left over.  Usually we would make corned beef sandwiches or reubens but we don't want all that bread.  I happened to have bought an extra bag of gluten-free wraps at the store and we came up with the idea of making a reuben quesadilla.  I sliced the corned beef, she made the comeback sauce, we put them together and grilled them in the skillet.  

It's just corned beef, 1000 island dressing (or comeback sauce like we did), sauerkraut and cheese.  Normally we would use swiss but all be had was cheddar and it was actually good.  I cut the corned beef into bite-sized pieces so it would be easier to bite off a piece.

​

Here's a dish we've been enjoying for years.  I love Thai food and I wanted to make some in my home.  This is the first Thai dish I ever made.  (not the one in the picture?).  I use the jarred paste you can get at the grocery then add a bunch of stuff to it to make it tasty.  It's easy and it's delicious.

Made this great dinner tonight.  Sunday is our usual cooking day.  Usually I'm getting everything ready for the week ahead but I had a hankering for Hamburger Steak so I went ahead and made a full meal.  The recipe for the Hamburger Steak can be found at  

www.callmepmc.com/hamburger-steak-onions-brown-gravy-recipe/

The Lebanese Potatoes are on my site under Sides.

​When I first heard about them from my sister-in-law a long time ago, they just didn’t sound right.  Now they are ubiquitous and there are lots of delicious ones out there.  Problem is, they can be a bit pricey so I wanted to make them at home.  I read a few recipes and decided I could make a good one that would be easy to make.  Here are the tips:
 
1.Make the Mango Salsa and the Avocado Cream Sauce before starting the fish.
2.Make the marinade and marinate the fish.
3.Get you pan to a medium high before adding the fish.
4.Chop you cabbage if needed and anything else that sounds good to you.  Pumpkin seeds?  IDK.
 
Once you start it goes pretty easy since everything has been prepared ahead of time.  You can get regular tortillas or make your own paleo tortillas.

Salsa is just the Spanish word for "sauce" so anything can be a salsa that can also be a sauce.  In this case this is really an accompaniment that marries well with the flavors of the fish tacos.  I like to experiment with other recipes to see where I can make something better from what is already out there and that is what I did here.  The recipe is very easy and you can use it on chips or anything that strikes your fancy.  I'll post how to make the fish in an upcoming post.

The recipe is under "Dips, Marinades & Sauces" or you can go directly here:

​http://www.youcancookthat.com/mango-salsa.html

​

The recipe is ridiculously simple, and it’s a genius discovery by the amazing folks over at Cook’s Illustrated who used science to figure out how to make truly crispy wings in the oven. There are 2 unique steps in this recipe that make all the difference are:
 
1. Tossing the wings in baking powder which draws moisture to the surface of the skin and helps make it crispy. Rest assured you can’t taste the baking powder at all; and
2. Baking the wings at a low temperature first, which melts the fat under the skin (which also means less calories!), then cranking it right up to crisp up the skin.

These are fairly easy to make and have a huge payoff.

Look for them under Appetizers and Snacks at

​www.youcancookthat.com

Hummus is one of our favorite quick snacks that we can make at home and know what all the ingredients are.  Now you might think your favorite Mediterranean restaurant has great hummus (and it probably does!) but there is nothing like making it just the way you like it with as much lemon, garlic and tahini you want to put in it.  In case you don't know, tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds that by itself is not great but in dishes it turns magical!  

Hummus is best made from freshly cooked garbonzo beans when they are still warm but canned it the next best thing.  

It seems every country on the Mediterranean has their own version of this dish but they are all similar in the basic ingredients they use.

Use this recipe to wow your friends when they come over for the best hummus ever and find out that YOU made it.