While in Bend we were staying at a kick ass condo that had pretty much every amenity you could ask for. There was a balcony in front and a raised deck and patio out back. And the patio had a perfect little grill. So one night we grilled up some steaks and asparagus and I caramelized some onions. Everything turned out really well, except for the extra burnt pieces of asparagus. But I really like burnt things, so I didn’t mind at all! I also grilled up some sweet corn, but it wasn’t very sweet. Trader Joe’s, you lied to me!

Another night, we switched to chicken. I can’t do just plain, so I grilled up some pineapple rings (thanks for the brilliant idea, J), and also used sweet baby ray’s hickory & brown sugar bbq sauce, which I’m rather loving right now. It’s hard not to grill when you have amazing sunny and warm, not hot, weather and are surrounded by majestic freakin pacific northwest beauty.

Since my uncle is retired now, he hangs out in the house a lot, when he’s not at the gym. Aside from the pumpkin porridge, he also digs dumplings a lot. In korea, we call them mandu. It seems that pretty much every culture has their own version of a stuffed dumpling. Mandu can be boiled, steamed, pan-fried, eaten in soups, really, however you want. So when my aunt decided to make some, I decided to document it all. Here are the ingredients. The only things not shown are salt, pepper, egg, sesame oil, and garlic.

They used 3 bags of mung bean sprouts (the ones without the head) and steamed them up.

One head of white cabbage, cut into thirds, and also steamed.

These ingredients are going into a fine mix, so you need to chop up everything quite fine. Chop up all the sprouts, squeeze out all the liquid, and throw them into a big mixing bowl. Emphasis on the big.

Chop up the steamed cabbage as well. Again, squeeze out the liquid before throwing into the bowl.

Chopping up some kimchi.

When you squeeze the kimchi juice, it looks like bloody death!

They chopped up 3 bundles of green onions. No need to squeeze liquid out of these things.

Cut up the tofu pieces and squeeze the liquid out of those as well. You can use paper towl or a cloth of some kind. Whatever it takes, just make it up!

Chop up some garlic and throw it in there. Add salt and black pepper to your liking. Add a little sesame oil. Add one egg. And add the meat of your choice. Here, they added about a pound of ground beef and a pound of ground pork.

Now mix, baby, mix!

Once everything is mixed together extremely well, it’s time to make the mandu! They used dumpling wrappers bought from the store. There’s really no need to make your own. These work just fine, taste just fine, and are effortless. Take a spoon of filling and put it in the center of the wrapper. Use a whipped egg as the “glue” to bind the edges of the mandu together.

Squeeze the edges together so that it’s air tight. If you want to put pleats in the edges, do so. Really, do these however you want. There are no rules! Repeat for as many darn dumplings as you want. While you’re wrapping, use the filling in batches and store the unused filling in the fridge.

Yes, it’s time consuming and quite manually intensive. So do what I do and just watch! But once you’re done, you have tons of these lovely homemade mandu. These freeze beautifully!

My mom makes this korean style pumpkin porridge, or hobakjuk, and my uncle and my sister-in-law absolutely love it. Like it’s disturbing how much these two like this stuff. It’s ok to me, perhaps a bit on the bland side. But hey, some people seem to really dig it. You’ll see this made many different ways, but this is my mom’s way.

So I have no idea what kind of pumpkin this is. Or even if this is a pumpkin. My mom didn’t know either, she just knows which one to buy when she sees it. So first, you cut the pumpkin up.

Remove the seeds. If you want, you can toast these and eat them too!

Peel the pumpkin rind. To make it a little bit easier, you can microwave these for a minute or two. But just do whatever it takes to take the peel off.

Once peeled, dice them up and put it in a big pot.

Fill up the pot with water, to cover all the pumpkin and then some.

Then throw the pot on the stove and start cooking it. The pumpkin will cook, soften up, and you can try to mash it up so there are no more chunks.

Cook it up until it’s not chunky anymore and it’s boiling. I suppose that if you were inclined, you could use an immersion blender to help get rid of the chunks.

Take some sweet rice flour and add water so you have a sweet rice flour paste. I can’t tell you how much of flour or water, because my mom has no idea. She just does it.

Add it to the pumpkin and the whole thing will coagulate into a thick porridge.

Then add a can of sweet red beans and mix it all together. That’s all there is to it! You don’t even have to add anything else. You can heat it up and eat it for breakfast or eat it as a snack. Enjoy!