Cooking Devil

This weekend, I got inspired to start baking in a big way. I didn't take that many pictures because I was seriously like a person possessed by the cooking devil and it had no time for photo ops. Having recently acquired a rice cooker, I found a lot of recipes online that use a rice cooker instead of an oven or stove. I told my friend about one for bread and he insisted it couldn't be done. Telling me something is impossible is basically like throwing down the gauntlet and of course I had to defy him. Turns out, the bread recipe takes 4-5 hours to make (2-3 hours is for the bread to rise) and I just did not have the time or patience for that mess. So, I opted for banana bread instead since I had some bananas just taking up counter space. It wasn't that difficult to put together, but I will never be doing that shit again. First off, I have an oven! What the fuck was I thinking? I don't need to make things in a rice cooker, other than rice. And I don't know what kind of rice cooker the recipe person had, but my cooker was being a dick and refused to stay in cook mode. After wedging a pencil in the switch to make it keep cooking, it started burning. So I took it out only to discover that it was burned to a crisp on the bottom and literally still dough in the middle. I had had enough of that piece of shit's attitude and refused to let it win, so I plopped it into a cake pan, cut off the burned bottom and stuck it in the oven to finish baking. It is NOT pretty, but it turned out rather tasty. Slather enough butter on something and it it'll taste amazing.

Then I decided I was going to bake some salmon I had as well. Jacky, why didn't you just cook it in the pan like you always do? It turns out great and SY loves it. I DON'T KNOW. Again, the cooking devil had taken hold and it refused to let me take the easy way out today. I think it partly had to do with this book I had just finished reading. It wasn't about cooking, but was about love that prevailed through the Holocaust and I don't know, I just felt like I needed to step up my wife game. Not that my life or my love even remotely compares to what those people went through, but you know, I still aim to please. I of course got carried away, like always and today will probably be the last time I try to make anything fancy.

Last night I also tried to get a little fancy with dinner and decided I would take on Japanese food. Like, wtf was I thinking? I am not that great at American cooking, or Korean cooking and I've been here for 4 years! Whatever, I've been to Japan 3 times, am 1/4 Japanese and have eaten at numerous Japanese restaurants. Obviously I can cook Japanese food at home in my tiny Korean kitchen. Thank you, internet, for foolishly allowing me to believe I can make anything other than rice. I had this super amazing beef rice dish thing at a Korean/Japanese fusion restaurant a few weeks ago and I was like, well certainly I can replicate that, it was so simple! Long story short, I couldn't. Even though I bough authentic Mirin (Japanese cooking stuff), it wasn't anywhere close to what I ate. It wasn't terrible, because you can't really go wrong with grilling up some beef, but I stupidly decided it needed cheese at the last minute and that kind of ruined everything.

I have had quite a lot of cooking adventures since then. Have I taken pictures of any of them? No, I haven't. But you are welcome to come over for dinner at anytime and I will whip up something fantastic for you. Not any sort of Japanese rice dish because that was embarrassing, but I have gotten pretty good at "Japanese style" (in quotes because it's a recipe from a westerner living in Japan so the authenticity is questionable) baked salmon, so come on down!

Dream big, people!