Rice paddy sunset

I'm a sucker for a sunset in any country, and Korea has had a few good ones.  I'm excited to see them on the coast this summer and when the rice begins to grow.  I caught this view one evening while walking the dog.

Spring is definitely on its way, but has a long way to go before I'll be pulling out my summer sandals.  Afternoons have been in the 40s and 50s, but many evenings still get into the 20s.  There is also that bitter Korea wind that sinks into you at least as much as what I remember from Michigan.  Until the warmer weather arrives, I have no problem hanging out in my new red parka, which I bought on clearance my second week here.

It was an Eddie Bauer end-of-season sale and it even came in petite, so it was perfect!  Do you think I could just wear it as a robe in the evening?  It's so cozy.

When we left Tucson in December, we were still dressed for summer (in my book) and cooking like it too (doing a lot of grilling before moving to a place where we figured we wouldn't have a grill).  For most of the winter I was between homes with family in Michigan, and only cooked a handful of times.  Now that we've homesteaded in Korea, I've been cooking again, which is so much fun!  Our kitchen was a real challenge at first.  Every new home has its quirks though, and I have it down to a science now.  There's not much cooking involved with soup and a sandwich, but I was so in love with my grainy grilled provolone and swiss that I couldn't keep from photographing my food again!  We've been enjoying plenty of roasts, soups, and home-y foods like Sloppy Joes and Tacos.  The last two are among my official first week in a new home dinners:)  They help to lower the stress level and they are simple!

I've spent a chunk of time recently working on a winter menu.  I've been reading on various blogs like Simple Mom (so much more than just mom stuff!) and Small Notebook about the ease and simplicity of menu planning.  They're mostly referring to a two to four week rotation of meals, rather than the usual planning for the week or few days ahead.  They also discuss theme nights like Mexican or pasta to help guide your planning into something that takes less effort and creates less stress.

I was interested because:

  -It seems like I'm always forgetting to re-make something we've really enjoyed.

  -I end up making tacos every week.  

  -I buy something and never end up using it.  

  -I want to be able to plan meals that will work well with our evening plans -not roasting a chicken the night I won't be home until six o' clock because it's the only food in the house.

  -I'd love to use seasonal foods as much as possible, but that requires some forethought for me.

  -I plan meals and write out grocery lists anyway, and it always takes longer than I'd like.  Simplicity would be awesome.

  -I want to cook good, real food meals at home, but I don't want to be a slave to the kitchen.

So I have a winter and summer menu coming soon!  I have been cooking with the winter one for the month and it's going great!  I've even made an aisle by aisle bi-weekly grocery list to accompany it.  Just help me figure out how to upload a document to the blog, and it'll be all yours.  (Something about pdf conversion using ____ website...it's going to be free right?)