At home for the weekend

I left my camera cord at home, so no photos until tomorrow.
My sister Rachael and I didn't make it home for Christmas (among the joys of retail reporting are day-after-Christmas shopping stories) so we celebrated Friday night. My mom and stepdad were quite generous: a stand mixer, a Cuisinart food processor and a Cuisinart immersion blender, plus some other goodies. Pair that with my dad and stepmom's fancy new knife sets and you've got one happy cook. I also have two new aprons -- I'm wearing the one my mom made me right now -- and some kitchen rugs, along with some green dish rags.
It has been a weekend full of board games, yoga classes at the new studio where Sarah teaches and, but of course, food. I'm making a Korean feast for my family, who somehow has never tasted Korean food. I opened the jar of kimchi Friday night, and the smell was less than appreciated. I think that bulgogi (for them), mapo tofu (for me and others), sesame cucumber salad, veggie pancake and kimchi soup will be appreciated a bit more. Raw kimchi is a bit hard to stomach for many people. I certainly took a few weeks to get used to eating it daily.
We've just finished pancakes -- my mother's are perfectly fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside, always glossy and perfectly golden brown. While others had syrup, I stuck with my resolution: no HFCS-based breakfast "maple" product. Instead, I used leftover cranberry-orange relish on my pancakes.
My mother has never and probably will never own a dishwasher. What for? my stepdad says. We can do the dishes just fine. However, it becomes a tedious chore that's divvied up among the children all weekend. I fell asleep while we watched a movie last night and forgot to do my load. I did them this morning, which annoyed my stepdad, whose a bit anal about a clean house. (Ha! My sister just started doing them! I'm free.)
Yesterday we went to a fabulous health foods store, which I'll post about tomorrow. Photos are necesaary. I was AMAZED at Jo-Ad Natural Food Store.
A demain...