Cinnamon Rolls

This weekend has been quite relaxing. Saturday afternoon was spent shopping and walking around on the cobblestone streets and enjoying the amazing weather around Isu station with the Simmering Seoulmate. The evening was spent having some pizza at Bonny’s Pub and enjoying a few drinks with friends. We came home quite early, which was nice for a change, as most nights that we go out, I am left spending Sunday exhausted. Since I was well rested and feeling great, I thought today would be a good day to try out some cinnamon rolls. I have wanted to make cinnamon rolls for quite some time now, but have been discouraged about the time and effort that goes into making them. I came across this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, which seemed like it was easy enough and looked yummy. I hope you try out this recipe on a lazy afternoon and I promise they are well worth the wait!

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Rolls:
2 and 3/4 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 milk
2 and 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter 1 large egg

Filling:
3 tbsp unsalted room temperature butter
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Directions

1. Rolls: In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and yeast and stir together well.

2. Pour water, milk, and butter into a microwave safe dish and heat for about a minute and a half stopping to stir every 30 seconds. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the egg and stir until the dough form into a ball and come away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 3 minutes. Then, set dough into a lightly oiled bowl and let rest for 10 minutes. Heat oven to 140ºF or 60 ºC, then turn off once heated.

4. Filling: After 10 minutes, roll the dough out onto a cookie sheet. Spread the butter across the dough. Mix together sugar in cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough.

5. Cut the dough into 8 even pieces. Roll each piece up and place in a lightly greased pie or cake pan.

6. In your warm oven (turned off), place the rolls inside and let rise for 90 minutes. After the rolls have risen to about double their size, cook for 25 minutes at 375ºF or 190 ºC. After about 10-15 minutes cover with foil so the tops don’t burn and finish cooking.

7. Glaze: While the rolls are cooking prepare the glaze. Combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk and stir until there are no lumps. Once rolls are finished, drizzle over rolls and serve warm.

Rolls can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 days. Enjoy!

*Recipe adapted from Sally’s BakingAddiction*

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Happy Sunday everyone! Last week, I made stuffed peppers for the second time. They are quickly becoming a weeknight dinner favourite in my house. They are fairly easy to put together and you can add whatever kind of meat and veggies you’d like. The quinoa really fills you up! This is a dish that can be made vegetarian by simply skipping the meat. I hope you give them a try.

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable stock
500g ground pork
1 head of broccoli chopped
½ onion finely diced
4 cloves of garlic
4 large red peppers
Pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder

Preheat oven to 400  ̊F. Add quinoa to vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer on low for 15 minutes. While the quinoa is cooking, steam broccoli for about 10 minutes and chop into small pieces. Cook onions and garlic with ground pork in a frying pan with a splash of olive oil and some salt and pepper, until the pork is no longer pink. Cut the tops off the peppers and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Once your quinoa is finished cooking add the pork mixture and steamed broccoli and stir to combine. Spoon the filling into the peppers until filled all the way.

Topping
3 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tbsp butter
½ tsp Italian seasoning

Melt the butter and combine ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle on top of the stuffed peppers and bake for 30 minutes at 400  ̊F

After stuffing the 4 peppers fully, there was some filling left over, which I ate later that week for lunch, but you could definitely stuff 6 peppers if you wanted too. 

White Wine Sangria - Party Sized!

For summer vacation, I went home to Canada for the week. The weather was cooler than Seoul, but it was a refreshing break from the heat. My mom and dad threw me a lovely barbeque filled with food, friends, and fun. I thought it would be nice to make a classic summer drink to enjoy, so I took advantage of the Ontario fresh fruits and whipped up a HUGE party sized white wine sangria.

Fresh veggies from my parents garden!

A delicious artichoke and cream cheese dip.

Ingredients

2 bottles of dry white wine 1 bottle of sparkling dry white wine
2-3 cans of soda water
1 lemon
1 lime
1 peach
1 pear
1 granny smith apple
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup strawberries

Cut all of your fruit into slices or small chunks and throw into a large pitcher. Pour one bottle of white wine, sparkling wine, and one can of soda water over top. As you drink the sangria add in more soda water and the remaining bottle of white wine. Don’t forget to enjoy the delicious liquor soaked fruit!

This recipe made enough sangria for about 8 people to have 3 to 4 glasses of it and there were still leftovers!

Fruit Infused Water

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. I went home to Canada for my summer vacation and had a busy week back in Seoul following that. The hot summer temperatures continue in Seoul and boy is it humid! Just last week the weather report indicated that it would be 32 degrees and 97% humidity.What IS that!!! With it being so hot, I've tried to increase my water intake. Our school has lots of water coolers for me to refill my bottle daily, but I've haven’t been doing such a great job.

Last year, a friend of mine showed me her CitrusZinger and I was intrigued. It’s a water bottle that essentially has a citrus juicer built into the bottle. All you have to do is pop a lemon or any other citrus fruit inside the bottom and fill it with water. The Simmering Seoulmate had noticed that I was interested and got her to pick one up for him. He surprised me with it and I've been using it ever since. I mostly use it with lemons, but recently I've been using grapefruits and WOW is it good!

I've wanted to increase my water intake at home as well, so I made some fruit infused water in a jug. I made it with nectarines, sliced blueberries and of course grapefruit. All you have to do is fill a large pitcher half full with ice. Then, add about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of your desired fruit and fill with water. Leave in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and enjoy.

Drink Up!