January 2, 2007

New Year Food

Being a fourth generation American on my Mom's side and a DAR on my Dad's side, it's hard to claim any particular traditions. As a 1.5 generation Korean-American Jrex has a clearly definied culture. Out of self-defense, I claim random items as being necessary for my 'German' cultural identity (mostly dessert and beer). The only other specifically German tradition I have is pork and saurkraut for New Years day. Koreans tend to eat duk-gook (a dumpling based soup) for New Years. Most years we have soup for breakfast and pork in saurkraut from the crockpot for dinner.

I think he's fully corrupted me though. This year we had duk-gook for brunch and then Jrex made a FANTASTIC New Years dinner. He ad libbed a recipe involving rosemary and thyme encrusted chicken breasts on a bed of wild rice surrounded by steamed veggies. For dessert we had mixed fruit with honey and almonds. As my friend and I cleaned up after dinner, Jrex played piano in the living room. Ms. P turned to me and exclaimed, "If I'd known it was this good here, I'd have been here months ago!"

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I provided the key ingredient for dinner. A couple days ago as I walked the dog past the retirement home, I realized the bushy hedges separating the cars were rosemary. I brought some home and used it for dinner.

As I started out on a dog walk yesterday I heard someone calling my name. I turned back to find my husband. When I got closer to him he said, "Could you pick up some rosemary while you're out?" I looked confused, "But I don't have any money and the stores are all closed?" He gave me a look that signaled I'd had a DBM. "Oh!" I exclaimed "You mean 'pick up' some rosemary!"

Those poor bushes are going to be stripped by spring.

5 comments:

Rachel said...

We had duk-gook for lunch and black-eyed peas and cabbage for dinner.

It's so funny what you say about the rosemary because my husband and I have a running joke about picking rosemary from our neighbors shrubs. We've never done it, though. I don't want them to get mad at me.

You are a lucky woman. JRex sounds like a great cook.

Anonymous said...

That's so nice that you have an herb garden of your 'own'! Did you say "played piano"?? Oooh, I'm so jealous - I'd love to have someone play the piano in our house... I suspect LN may be my only hope since PN and I are too old to really pick it up. Wait... so JRex is outdoorsy, plays the piano, is a scientist, AND cooks?? What a rare gem...

Anonymous said...

T's family tradition is that the first thing you eat in the New Year is pickled herring. He's a European mutt so I'm not sure which branch of Scandinavia cursed us with that one.

Beloved said...

No dduk-gook in our house on New Year's. Hubby doesn't like it (or rice cake in general) much. To me, it's just "okay" so I don't miss it either. I think I may start a new kamja tang tradition (in spite of my vegan delusions of grandeur).

Snickollet said...

We had friends over who have an adopted Korean son the same age as the twins. GH made mandu guk, bulguogi, bean sprouts, spinach. It was yummy. Your meals sound wonderful, and how lucky you are to have such a creative and talented cook for a husband!

I'm DAR on my dad's side, too. In fact, for my 18th b-day, my grandmother gave me all of the paperwork I needed to become a card-carrying member. All I needed to do was sign on the dotted line and send it in. Somehow, I just never got around to it.