Holiday Break

I've decided to take a holiday break from this blog until after the New Year!  I'll be down in Illinois with family for the rest of the month, and probably won't be doing a ton (if any) of my own cooking. 

If I can, I plan to try to get to some international markets such as Mitsuwa or H-Mart to see if I can find some ingredients that aren't readily available where I live!  And speaking of international markets, I'll surely be heading into downtown Chicago to visit the German Christkindlmarket.  I LOVE that place and try to get there every Christmas, if I can.  It's always really crowded, but I think it's still worth it.

See you next year!

Make Your Own Darn Taco Seasoning

 
There's no need to buy those packets of seasoning for tacos - chances are, you have the ingredients right in your spice drawer.  Making your own seasoning will save you the time of going to the store to buy the packets, the cost of buying the packets (I know, they're like $1, but still), and the space of having to store them in a small kitchen.  It takes literally five minutes to make, and uses very common spices.  And the best part?  It tastes much better!

Swedish Meatballs

Apologies for the absence.  I've been preoccupied over the past few weeks with reorganizing my one bedroom apartment and baby-proofing everything, since my 8 month old just learned to crawl!  Anyway, I managed to cook (and take pictures of) Swedish Meatballs.  However, I was in a bit of a hurry when making this meal, so even more apologies for the lesser-quality images.

This is a meal that my mom made for us growing up for as long as I can remember, even though we are not at all Swedish.  I'm not really sure where the recipe came from (I guess my grandma had it before my mom, but I'm not sure where she got it), but all I know is that it's super good!  It's not a very exotic meal, but it is much more of a challenge to make these from scratch than buying frozen meatballs from IKEA (there's nothing wrong with that though - I love IKEA's Swedish Meatballs)!  Plus, Swedish Meatballs (köttbullar in Swedish) just such an iconic Swedish dish, so I think that regardless of how common it is, it still counts as a gastronomic trip to another culture!

Fried Rice

Today I'll be featuring one of the most popular Asian dishes - fried rice.  I typically follow a rough recipe for this meal, but I also tend to use it as a convenient way to get rid of some leftover vegetables!  I've been able to get this dish pretty close to the quality found in Chinese restaurants using the following method. 

Soba Noodles in Peanut Sauce

Hey everybody!  First post!  Welcome to Big World, Tiny Kitchen!  I'll be preparing meals with origins around the world from my tiny kitchen in my tiny apartment in a tiny town!  My first recipe will be one that features Soba noodles with a spicy peanut sauce.