A Korean 1st birthday girl!

Our wonderful friends we met when Brandon started his aeronautical masters degree in Dayton, OH had their baby girl a year ago. They invited us last weekend for their baby girl Graces' 1st birthday. It is the MOST important birthday for a child, a big deal in the Korean culture. Let's meet our contestants today!

Pat, Grace and Hye Sung sitting down at Graces mini table with layered fruits, cookies and cakes. Layering is important because it represents length of life. They're in their traditional dress right now. I thought Graces hat looked like a purse. It was TOO cute!
Grace trying to "boo" at the cake
This isn't only traditional in Korean culture but in the Chinese culture as well where you set out a number of items that represent the child's future infront of him/her and wait till she/he picks one up. The flute is for a future in music, money for riches, pen for intellectual and noodles for long life. She chose the flute! Hye Sung plays the flute.
OH! The other day in food prep was great! We were studying vegetables so I was excited since I don't eat bloody meat. :-b Anywhos there was a dish that one of the guys made that made me literally pass out on the floor cause I thought itw as so good. So here's the recipe. I changed it a little.

Pinto bean and vege bake

1/2 onion, small dice

1/2 green pepper, small dice

corn (frozen and thawed) 8 oz

16 oz can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained

chile pepper powder

salt and pepper to taste

shredded cheese (to top)

bread crumbs (to top)

1. Heat some olive oil in a saute pan and sweat the onion
2. Then add in chili pepper powder and cook for a minute
3. Add peppers and corn and cook till tender
4. Add pinto bean and season to taste
5. Top with shredded cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven to melt the cheese
6. Top with bread crumbs and broil till golden brown. SO GOOD

Side note: Adding poblano peppers (canned) makes it MORE tasty!

For some reason, I tend to attract female jerks to talk to me. You know how you first start class in a new year, in a new school, whatever the situation may be, you TRY to pick a table with people who you think you would fit in best with. Considering I'm older than most of the people in the culinary school, I decided why not go for the table of girls who range from freshmen to their 30's. Inevitably, I made "conversation" with this 30 year old. Now, after several weeks of sitting with the same people, you can't quite move to a different table once you find out you think they're crazy and childish. Our class is so small that the boys sit with boys and girls with girls. How stupid is that! SO there's no way for me to move without offending anyone.

Last week I went to class and I was extremely excited about the fact that I had made truffles the day before so here is the convo:

me: "Guess what? We made truffles yesterday!"
girl: "Shut up. No one cares." (she doesn't say it in a way where she hates you, but her tone definitely makes you think 'what???')
me: "Piff, you're just jealous cause you don't know how to make truffles."
*silence* --> Girl is nice to me the rest of the class

It's not that she's a mean person. She's VERY high school in her way of thinking and acting and speaking. Seriously, I had to resort to silly high school responses to make her realise she's not All that and a batch of frozen cookies; presliced.

A couple weeks ago I had mentioned to her that I was in a hurry to get to my bible study after I got off work and I only had 2 hours to make something sweet for the bible study. So I opted on making bread pudding which I have never done before nor tasted. I commented that I did not really like the taste of it. She told me "Why didn't you just make a pie?" In the 'you should have made something more elaborate' attitude. This coming from a women who does not work ontop of school. I have limited time with work, school, the gym, the puppy and a husband to have time daily to "bake a pie" in under 2 hours.

So I replied to her "I just didn't have the ingredients that I needed and the time it would take to make a pie from scratch."
Girl: "Why, you should have just gone to the store. You know they do have frozen pie crusts there."
I seriously almost blew up in anger. I AM A PASTRY STUDENT. WHY WOULD I BUY FROZEN STORE BROUGHT PIE CRUST?????????

SO glad I'm not her lab partner.