A sack of rice

When we arrived here a year ago, the price of this bag of rice is only 16 dollars and something, but now it cost $23+ already. Can you believe that? Everything is going up but me hehehe. Kidding aside, I am just wondering how other families who don't have fix income can survive economic downturn. We are not rich so wise budgeting is very important to us. How about you?

The Place we Called Home

When I first moved in the States, my husband and I lived for over a year at my father-in-law's house. We lived there for the main reason of helping him recuperate from my mother-in-law's death. My husband siblings were very happy because Dad went back to his healthy lifestyle again. With that progress, my husband and I decided to buy our own home. Finding a home is very difficult, you have to have a good real agent that knows the area quite well and a reputable realtor. Thanks God, He provided us with a very helpful real agent who helped us through out the process. The picture below was taken two years ago at the back of our house in West Virginia. Oh I miss our home so badly, can't wait till we go back there in December.

Korean Mixed Vegetables and Rice (Bibimbap) Recipe

Ate Cecille of Life is Good and Beautiful requested if I can share the recipe to one of our most favorite Korean dish, Bibimbap. I got this recipe at koreanfood.about.com. The author of this recipe (N. Imatome-Yun) said

"Bibimbap is delicious, gorgeous on the plate, and easily tweaked for different palates and spice levels. I've included 6 vegetables in this recipe, but you can easily make it with just 3 or 4 or what you happen to have in your fridge. Koreans usually eat this rice dish with some beef, but I usually top mine with just an egg fried sunny side-up."

Ingredients: * 2 cups medium-grain Korean (or Japanese) rice

* 1 large cucumber, sliced into thin strips

* 1.5 cups bean sprouts, parboiled and squeezed of excess water

* 1.5 cups spinach, parboiled and squeezed of excess water (3/4 lb before cooking)

* 2 carrots, julienned

* 4 shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated if dried and then sliced

* 1 zucchini, sliced into thin strips

* 1/2 lb meat (optional, both and cooked ground meat work well)

* Fried egg as a topping (optional)

* 2 Tbsp sesame oil

* Sesame seeds

Preparation: 1. Cook rice in rice cooker or on the stove.

2. Give cucumber strips a saltwater bath for 20 minutes and then drain.

3. Season spinach with 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp salt, and a dash of sesame seeds.

4. Season bean sprouts with 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp salt, and a dash of sesame seeds.

5. Sauté carrots with a dash of salt.

6. Sauté mushrooms with a dash of salt.

7. Sauté zucchini with a dash of salt.

8. Place cooked rice in large bowl and arrange vegetables on top.

9. If desired, beef or egg can be placed in the center.

10. Serve each with small bowls of red pepper paste (kochujang) and sesame oil.

11. To eat, add a small amount of oil and desired amount of red pepper paste to your bowl and mix everything together with a spoon.

So here you go Ate Cecille, enjoy.. Don't forget to leave me some okay lol..