So Long, Blogger!

I've decided to abandon frustrating Blogger and move to friendly Wordpress. You can now find my blog at: http://kangweyant.wordpress.com Farewell, Blogger!

New Editor Function in Blogger Messed Up My Blog

You'll see that everything, pics, text, is wonky. That's because the new editor in Blogger is terrible and has wrecked my posts. I am sad.

Lily is Three Months Old!

A friend of mine told me that it all goes by much faster the second time, and she was right. Lily seems to be growing stronger, plumper, and droolier by the second. With Kate's encouragement, Lily has been practicing lifting her head. "Look at me, Lily! You can do it!" Getting both Lily and Kate to look normal in a photo is an interesting challenge.

Sweet Lily.

At three months, Lily likes to eat drumsticks and hang spoons off her nose...

...she likes to express how she feels about her Appa through her wardrobe... ...and is enthralled with Kate's left hand. At three months, Lily graduated from the sink to a giant yellow duck for bathtime. And today, Lily held up her head all by herself! It was sweet to see how excited Kate was for her.

We also noticed two tiny central incisor buds starting to sprout in Lily's mouth. That explains all the drooling Miss Lily has been doing.

Lily's also been chatting more, and working on her raspberry:

Happy Year of the Tiger!

To close out the Year of the Ox and the Year of Lily's Birth, Kate and I decided to try our hand at making mandu so we could have it with our dukgook on New Year's Day.

Kate loved how the small circles of mandu pi (dumpling skins) felt cool and soft in her hand, and I was very happy to see how much she enjoyed making them with me.

I used halmoni's recipe of tofu, garlic, ginger, scallions, and sesame oil, substituting ground pork for beef. The smell of the ingredients, the texture of the skins, and dipping my finger in the bowl of water for the "glue" all reminded me of halmoni and the times we made mandu together. Now that I have kids, I appreciate those seemingly simple moments even more. While Kate and I gabbed and stuffed, Lily enjoyed some mat time and pondered how the parrot got on top of the arch. Voila! Mandu for New Year's Day soup and a few for frying.

Kate spent part of New Year's Eve reading to her sister, who is always captivated with big sister's voice.

Lily also enjoyed some standing and Giraffey gazing.

Kate asked me to make her a little paper hat. Next thing I knew, it was propped on top of Lily (a.k.a. Popeye)'s, square head, and Kate was cracking up.

Jaunty Lily didn't seem to mind.

After Lily went to bed, Kate, Chris, and I had a special dessert (klondike bars on a stick), a special drink (Naked's Blueberry Machine), and tossed up some of Kate's homemade confetti before the countdown.

Then we got to the real stuff.

Where are the Times Square sweepers when you need them?

Attractive, aren't we?

On New Year's Day, Lily joined us for lunch on the table, finally able to hold her neck up in the bumbo seat. Huzzah!

Rice cake soup for New Year's Day.

The mandu came out great, thanks to Kate, and we all "ate another year."

After dukgook, the whole family went to see "Princess and the Frog," a surprisingly good and minimally offensive Disney princess movie. We returned home just in time to enjoy this incredible sunset.

Sae hae bok mani badu saeyo! Happy 2010! Kate and Lily (and anyone else who is reading), here is the mandu recipe, a combination of a recipe from halmoni and from the Eating Korean cookbook:

MANDU (KOREAN DUMPLINGS) INGREDIENTS: 1 lb of ground pork or beef (I prefer ground pork) 1 package of firm tofu 1 cup mung bean (sookchu) or green bean sprouts (can usually find this in the regular grocery store, or definitely Asian market. They look like very small, white beans with a teeny-tiny yellowish top). 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped 2 scallions, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon ginger, minced 1 egg, beaten 1 tablespoon sesame oil 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 50 dumpling wrappers, or mandu pi (can find these at any Asian market. They usually read, "gyoza" on them. Get the small, round ones, not the "extra thick skins," but the regular ones. canola oil for frying a small bowl of cold water for the "glue" TO PREPARE: 1. Open package of tofu and pour out water. Wrap the brick in cheesecloth or towel or paper towels. Squeeze out as much water as you can (this is important). Repeat as necessary. Crumble tofu in a large mixing bowl. 2. Blanch the mung bean sprouts. Rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Squeeze out as much water as you can. Chop them, put them in mixing bowl. 3. Add the remaining ingredients (except dumpling wrappers) and combine until mixed. 4. Get a large tray or flat surface for laying down the dumplings as you make them. Get small bowl of cold water. 5. Place a mandu pi in the palm of your hand. Spoon enough filling into the middle of the circle to leave about a 1/2 inch of empty skin (about a tablespoon). Dip your finger into the cold water and wet 1/2 the edge of the dumpling skin. Fold the skin in half, sealing the filling inside, making a semicircle. 6. If you want to be fancy, you can make small ridges on one side of the edge as your seal, using your finger and thumb, making about 5-7 ridges on each dumpling. 7. Repeat with each wrapper until all the filling or wrappers are used. TO COOK:

TO FRY THEM: In frying pan, pour enough oil to cover the bottom surface and heat over medium. Carefully, place the dumplings in the pan, filling it without crowding them. Should have enough space in between them in the pan. Fry until golden brown and crispy on one side. Flip them. Continue until all dumplings are cooked. Note: this is what I do -- I fry one side for 3-4 minutes, flip them, then add a 1/2 cup of water (steam will shoot up), quickly cover the pan with a lid, lower the heat and continue cooking for another 2 minutes. OR, you can cook them the following ways: TO STEAM THEM: Get a steamer. Lay a wet cloth on the bottom of the steamer to prevent sticking. Add a single layer of dumplings, making sure they're not touching each other. Steam over boiling water for 10-15 minutes, until filling is cooked through and the skins are slightly translucent. Servie immediately with soy sauce and vinegar. TO BOIL THEM: Boil a large pot of water. Add dumplings one at a time, careful not to fill the pot. Let them cook 8-10 minutes. Fish them out with a slotted spoon. You can also boil them in beef stock and make dumpling soup (mandu guk)! Just top with chopped scallions, some dried seaweed, and cooked egg strips! Makes 50 dumplings. Serve warm with soy sauce and a little vinegar. --You can freeze the uncooked dumplings if you have too many. If have left over filling, make them into patties and cook.

Enjoy!

Tea For Two

As a post-Christmas treat, Kate and Mom went for afternoon tea at The Huntington Gardens. After all the tea-party playing and pretend tea sipping, I thought Kate was old enough to experience the real deal. Kate had orange blossom tea for the first time and really liked it. But she especially liked the delicious tea sandwiches ("they took off the crust!") and side salads. They had Kate's favorite -- hummos and black olive tapenade -- and she even sampled caviar for the first time. As she chewed, she smiled, "Mom, I like it!" and then, "Mom I really don't like it!" and washed it down with water.

We sampled fruit tartlets and little brownies for dessert, and got to take home the wonderful scones for Appa to try. Kate wanted to take home a ton of sandwiches for Appa, but I could only sneak out a couple while maintaining my dignity.

It was a lovely afternoon with my girl, Kate. We can't wait for Lily to be old enough to join us and make it tea for three.

Merry Christmas!

While the Kang-Weyant family slept, Santa and his cute little helper paid us a visit. Woot! Woot! It's Christmas time! Time to par-tay! Kate crawled into bed with us at six o' clock and mercifully slept for another hour. Later on, I hurried downstairs to turn on the tree lights and get the video camera ready as Kate shouted down, "Mom, did Santa come last night? Did he eat the cookies??" "Whoo hooo!" But even after seeing the piles and piles of presents under the tree, the first thing Kate wanted to do was give Chris and me our present: A handmade "Christmas ornament, not a potholder." Seeing it hanging on the tree, Kate realized that it might, in fact, be a potholder, but we all agreed it was too beautiful to be sullied and left it on the tree. Kate was very curious about what was inside this gigantic package from Uncle Tom in Canada. A ginormous giraffe for Kate and Lily! Kate was over the moon. And Lily...well, Lily cooed and drooled. Chris and I knew that somewhere, Tom was impishly giggling to himself, wondering if we were furious at him for sending such a ridiculously huge present. Truthfully, Chris and I both dreamed about having a giant toy animal when we were kids, like Richie Rich or Ricky Schroeder in Silver Spoons. An impractical, inconvenient, and expensive toy no parent would buy. Thanks, Tom! Of course, giant giraffe upstaged Santa's big gift to the girls -- a play refrigerator. Still, our darling daughter was grateful, and told us so. Pop-Pop and Grammy Marianne sent matching dresses with a beautiful Korean print. As well as a couple of pretty princess nightgowns for Miss Kate. And some cute owl p.j.'s for our owl baby.

Kate was the proud new Mommy of Bitty Baby "Carol" (for "Christmas Carol"), thanks to Samcheon, Sookmo, and Emma!

Who came with her own diaper backpack/carrier.

Aunt Soo sent a bunch of "Little Miss" books, and beautiful matching outfits for the girls.

Kate received a wooden microwave from Nana, and Lily got an owl buddy to keep her company.

Santa left clothes for Mom...

...and a T-shirt for Appa, among other things. Since Chris does all the vermin-trapping, bug-killing, and toilet-unclogging chores in our family, he has become our de facto janitor. Chris said all he needs now is a basement office with a girly calendar and a soiled cot.

Giraffey and Kate bonded over a bowl of Cheerios.

Santa's little helper needed a diaper change or two.

And enjoyed some sing-songy conversation with Mom.

This snowman ornament reminded us of Kate and Lily.

Later on, Lily paid a visit to Kate's hair salon.

And received a very fine hair fluffing.

Santa also brought Kate a few "Magic Tree House" chapter books, and Mom read the first one to a captivated Kate and Giraffey.

Ever since she was a baby, Kate has always loved books.

After all the gift-opening mania, we delivered Kate's Xmas cookies to our neighbors and got some exercise.

Even after getting an enormous amount of presents, Kate said that the best ones in the whole world were "Mom, Appa, and Lily." Here's hoping she feels this way for at least another year or two.

Merry Christmas!