Kimchi Express Recipe

This is my express Kimchi recipe. Usually Koreans do what is called Kimjang, during which families and friends get together and prepare dozens to a hundred napa cabbages to make into kimchi to eat all through the winter. But I only like to eat fresh kimchi, and thanks to the green houses and napa cabbages from California, I have access to fresh napa all year!

Kimchi is traditionally made with the whole head of cabbage only cut in half or in quarters, but I like to cut my cabbage into little pieces first. The kimchi doesn't stay fresh as long but it cuts down on time a LOT, and I only make a couple heads at a time anyway and always finish the whole batch before it turns sour (fermented, some would say).

Prepare the cabbage first! This is the longest step and will take about 2 hours.

Kimchi 김치

Ingredients
- 3 heads of napa cabbage (배추)
- 2 cups of salt

To get the napa cabbage ready to make Kimchi, cut each of the napa cabbage into a quarter. Cut off the stem, and slice the quarter into thin strips of 1/2 inch. Then cut those strips into 2 or 3 sections. Put them all in a very, very large bowl. I just cut mine inside the bowl.

Fill a large size salt shaker with salt (I just use a plain measuring cup and sprinkle slow), and salt the cabbage "generously." Do it one cup at a time and pour water all over the bowl on top of the salted cabbage. Repeat until salt is all gone. (My mom just makes really, really saturated salt water. You can just pour that all over the cabbage. Just make sure that the all of undissolved salt doesn't get left on top only.)

Here is a picture of my over-sized bowl with all the salted cabbage. The water doesn't have to come up all the way to the top. The cabbage will release more water in the salt and you will be turning it over halfway through. Just fill it up with water almost all the way.

Leave the cabbage in the salt for 2-4 hours, rotating the top and bottom layer half way. When you think the cabbage is ready, pick out a small size leaf (3-4 inch long) and test it (make sure to thoroughly rinse it under running water). When the leaf bends easily and you can taste a little bit of salt (you don't want it too salty because the sauce is salty because of the fish sauce), it is ready. Rinse the cabbage a couple times and squeeze most of the water out.

*Picture of the cabbage before (very crisp and snaps if you bend it) and after.

Kimchi Sauce Recipe
*Note. This recipe is big enough for 9 heads. I usually only use a third of this for my 3 heads, then freeze the other two thirds in freezer bags until later. Then I only have to prepare the napa cabbage next time and mix with the thawed sauce. :D

Ingredients
- 3 cups of chopped Korean radish (a medium size radish)
- 1 large onion
- half cup of minced garlic (or 15-20 cloves)
- 1 cup of fish sauce
- 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 2 cups of chopped green onions (I use about 2-3 bundles)
- 4 cups of Korean cayenne pepper flakes (고추가루)

Prepare the radish by chopping it very thinly or using a slicer.

Blend the onion (add the garlic if you are using the garlic cloves).

In a small pot, mix 1/4 cup of sweet rice flour with 1 1/2 cup cold water. Heat up the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

*As the mixture heats up, you will start to see little chunks. When this starts to happen, keep mixing, until the whole thing turns into a glob of glue...
In a big metal bowl (or any bowl you don't mind getting stained), mix the radish, onion juice, garlic, sweet rice glue, chopped green onions, fish sauce, sugar, and the hot pepper powder.

* My mom says this is the best tasting fish sauce (and one of the most expensive). I haven't tested any other brands, but I'm sure they'll work too. I do really like this brand though and use it in other recipes too.

* If the sauce looks too dry or too thick, you can add 1/2 cup of water.

Final step, mix the sauce with the washed and drained cabbage (squeeze the excess water out). Make sure to wear gloves when handling the sauce. It will stain your skin and clothes. Enjoy!

Chess

Since we moved to Washington, Alden has been really into chess. He really likes playing board games, and chess is one board game that Joe and I encouraged and would be willing to play. Ha ha. Shortly after we moved here, we found out that the Korean Branch down in Federal Way had a free chess club every Saturday. Alden was very interested in going, so we have been going down there every Saturday morning as a family. Since then, Alden's chess skills improved drastically, from just knowing how each pieces move, to eventually beating me and Joe.

He completed in two beginners tournaments in Bellevue, during which he crushed all of his opponents and won 1st place with gigantic trophies. He kept the first one for himself, and gave Ellie the next one. The next tournament he participated in was a smaller game night at Chess4Life called Friday Night Quad. This was consisted more of kids from the Chess4Life programs, and was a lot more challenging because he played kids a few years older than him (they were paired by rating). But he learned a lot and enjoyed playing all those games.

Today, Alden participated in a bigger chess tournament called Winter Chess Fest, hosted by the Orlov Chess Academy and Chess Mates Schools in Seattle. It was really big. There were more than 50 kids in just Alden's division (K-1). Most kids there seemed like they were there as a part of a team with their school chess club. A lot of them were wearing chess t-shirts, indicating that they probably have been playing for a while and with intensive training with a coach.

It started at 10AM, and we didn't want to be late, so we left the house really early and got there 15 minutes early. We packed Ellie and Eli backpacks full of toys, books, and snacks to help them occupied.

As soon as we got there, kids were eager to pull out their bags and start on their snacks.

I was so surprised at how big it was... There were so many kids, who were good, I mean GOOD, at chess. The 1st game went pretty well for Alden. He was paired with a kid rated at 400. But the next game, he was paired with a kid rated above 1000. (Alden's rating is in the 700's.) He came close, but lost. But Alden has been learning that losing does not matter much, that you can learn from losing. He was excited to keep playing more rounds and ended up winning the next three rounds. Turned out, the kid he lost to, took first place in the division. 

We were there from 10AM to 3:30PM, but Ellie and Eli did really well. James even took an hour long nap. We had Domino's for lunch, munched on a lot of junk food, and watched Alden play, taking turns watching the little kids. Alden seemed like he was really enjoying himself and didn't seem nervous at all.  He ended up taking 4th place, winning another trophy. He gave it to Eli, and Eli was soooo happy, he kept smiling and saying "My, my, my." Because he won more than 3 matches, Alden is now qualified to go to the State Tournament in April in Spokane. 

Waiting for the 1st round to start

Contemplating the next move

Notating so we can review the games later

Capture

Award ceremony

Eli with "my" trophy

After the tournament, we went to Alderwood Mall, mainly to get Cafe Rio. Kids wanted to play at the playground, so Alden and Ellie ran around the indoor playground while Eli took a nap in the stroller. After that, we visited a few stores and even went to a candy store where kids got to pick out their favorite candy to celebrate Alden's win. We gave up on Cafe Rio because we realized that it was in the outdoor part of the mall and we didn't want to go out in the rain. Al wanted to eat pretzels for dinner, so we got some pretzel bites then came home. It was a really long day but we had lots of fun as a family. :)

James Jihu Rigby

James learned his first word! He says "Mama." Guess what he is referring to? WATER! 

Yeah... Water... before he even learned to say Mommy or Daddy. So sad. But he is so cute! He is growing up fast. Not sure really about physically. He's got his 1 year check up tomorrow. But he is learning to do new things everyday. He loves to pretend to play the wii by holding up the wii remote and shaking it up and down. He can actually turn the TV on and off, although he doesn't really seem to be interested in much of what's on the TV.... He loves to smile and mimic you if you yawn. 

In just the past couple days, he has grown really, really clingy. He would not let me get out of his sight. He does play really well with his siblings, or even by himself, as long as I am sitting in the same room. But as soon as I stand up and start to walk to the other side of the room, he starts to cry and crawl towards me, super fast. If he can't catch up, he will put his head down on the ground in despair and cry even harder.

He is a big daddy's boy. He looks the most like Joe's baby pictures out of all of the kids, and he is the first one to prefer daddy over mommy. I think it has to do with the fact that I can no longer pay more attention to the baby with all the kids swarming around, and daddy is always there to pick him up when he is being "abandoned" by mommy. Joe loves it! The other day, he had a nightmare and woke up crying. I picked him up and rocked him for about 20 minutes before he realized that daddy was sitting close and pointed at him. As soon as Joe took him, he stopped crying. 

He can now stand up on his own and stay standing for a few seconds before he decides to sit back down to crawl.

On his 1st birthday, he chose the thread indicating a long, healthy life.

James gives us a lot of joy. He makes everyone around him so happy with one of his silly smiles. His siblings adore him and love to play with him and get his attention. He eats well, sleeps well, and poops well (too much sometimes). I will update again when I have the stats from the doctor's office!

Food

I enjoy cooking and baking. When I have the energy and time (which means I got a good night's sleep-- rarely happens--and the little kids are taking naps and the big kids are doing something independent), I will get in the kitchen and create something fun. I will cook something that Joe really likes (there are a few in the repertoire) or try out new recipes. It's happened a lot less since we've moved to Washington, with the new baby and the lack of family support. But since James is getting older and more independent, I am going to try to do more. (My new year's resolution for the family was to bake more this year.) So hopefully I can continue to upload more pictures of food here. Below are pictures of some foods that I've made in the last month.

Ellie's birthday pumpkin cheesecake

James' 1st birthday

New Year's Day - new recipe (bacon wrapped chicken)

Pancake breakfast catered for the Rigby family

Primary Talk Assignment

I remembered during sacrament meeting that Alden had a talk assignment for primary. So I wrote the topic on top of the page and told Alden that we needed to write a talk on Christmas. Except for the scripture, Al wrote the talk all by himself. After he finished, he said, "I'm going to take this up there so I can remember my talk," then stood up! I guess he thought that he was supposed to give a talk during sacrament meeting. What a brave guy... He did a great job in primary.

Merry Christmas!

(Picture was taken at the Bellevue Festival of Nativity.)

Every Christmas, Joe and I try to teach the kids that Christmas isn't just about Santa or presents. This year was the first year that the kids actually knew the right answer before we told them. "Christmas is special because we celebrate Jesus' birthday!" Great. Now we needed to actually teach them the meaning of that.

Alden knew exactly what Christmas was about. It is to "celebrate" Jesus' birthday, and not really his actual birthday, because that's in the spring... Ha ha. I tried to have small conversations with the kids whenever I could about Christmas being the time of sharing and giving. I reminded the kids how lucky and blessed we are to be able to afford Christmas presents (even if some/most of them are from a second hand store like Goodwill). We talked about some people that may not be as fortunate as we are, and they agreed to donate some of their toys to other children that could use them. They helped me pick out the toys, organize them, and wrap them up so that we could give them to a family in need (we posted on craigslist).

I tried to teach them that they should be more forgiving and sharing during the Christmas season, and they should appreciate presents they've gotten, even if they may not be as awesome as they want (Ellie got a whole build-a-bear set inside a cheerios box. You could tell that she was a little disappointed when she saw the cheerio box.).

On Christmas Eve, we were invited to dinner at the Chens. Kids had a blast, playing with Kaden (and his toys). The food was absolutely delicious. Joe and I had fun playing monopoly with Breanna and Andy. After putting the kids to bed, Joe and I stayed up until 1am to wrap all the presents (I had pushed it off until the night before... oops.).

Christmas morning, when the kids woke up, they walked into our room to tell us it was Christmas morning. Joe and I mumbled something like, "Go check out the Christmas tree," and we could hear their excited squeals and yells. After spending a few minutes to see how many presents each of the had gotten, they snuck back into our room to ask when they could open the presents.

Kids really had fun opening up all the presents. We were able to get them a few presents each (mostly because all the presents were regifted or second hand-but loved just as well), plus they had gotten a few more from grandparents and uncles and aunts. They spent the rest of the morning enjoying the presents they got.

The two sets of missionaries (elders and sisters) came to our house to make their phone calls to their families, so we got to spend the rest of the day with them (noon to 6pm). It was so fun to actually get to play games with them and chat for a while, instead of having to rush them out the door within the 1 hour limit of dinner appointments.

Ok, here we go...

Okay. So here it is again. My come-back-from-the-dead post. After reading my sister-in-law's blog last night at 3 in the morning, I've decided that I need to get better at this. Not necessarily better at writing more interesting content, but just how often I post. Every time I try to start the blog back up, it seems like I am trying to play catch up and write a really long post on what's been happening to us. But then I never actually get around to finish the post and never end up publishing it.... I probably have a few half written posts saved as drafts... So I am going to do better, even if it is just a short paragraph and a couple of pictures, or just a whole bunch of pictures and a few phrases to describe what is going on. Life is too precious to miss out on remembering all of these moments, and I need to do better so I can look back and recall all the good times we've had. So here is my first very short but published post. Hopefully I can come back soon to write another post with some pictures!