Quest for the Spark

just a vegan K-pop loving cat mom on an epic search for joy in day-to-day life

[questforthespark]

My newest favorite meal. It's super quick and simple.

•Veggie, chicken broth, or water+bouillon

•gochujang

•rice cakes balls

•potato sujebi

•puff seitan

•green onion

°heat up your broth and add the gochujang until it melts into it. If you are using frozen rice cakes add those a couple mins before the sujebi. If they are both refrigerated, add them at the same time and cook until they get soft. Top with the puffed seitan and green onions. I like to squish the puffed seitan into the broth a little bit to help it start soaking up some. Ta-da!✨

[hyunjinz]

make me choose:

anonymous asked: jisung’s cheekies or jeongin’s dimples?

[questforthespark]

Remarkably productive day! First fermentation of kombucha, lacto fermented dill pickles, watermelon rind kimchi, water radish kimchi, and dill potato salad.

After spending the previous day cleaning the whole house, I still jumped out of bed with a ridiculous amount of energy and inspiration for the day.

I bought this scoby off of Amazon and was very pleased with it. The scoby itself is very healthy looking and it came with a good two cups of starter liquid.

I was in the store in the morning and saw these beautiful cucumbers and became inspired. I am pickling them with fresh dill whole black peppercorns crushed red pepper and some vinegar pickled garlic cloves. I am a little worried because vinegar tends to slow down the fermentation process, but I did give them a very good rinse and after a day I am noticing bubbles in the container so...it is alive!!! Also if you use Himalayan pink sea salt in your brine it's a beautiful light pink color 🤭

Making watermelon rind kimchi is probably one of my favorite things about summer. It is a little sweeter than your traditional kimchi and just taste like summer and is super refreshing.

This is my first time making water radish kimchi and I kind of merged two recipes to create a hybrid that I think will turn out very delicious.

With all of the extra dill that I had from making pickles I decided to make potato salad. I make my potato salad with chopped baked potatoes with the skin on because I find them delicious, a little sticky, and moist. Other than that there is onion, green onion, pickles and juice, dill, crushed up tofu with a little black salt (to mimic boiled eggs), a small amount of American yellow mustard, a lot of whole grain mustard, and vegan mayo. Basically everything is just to taste.

I also made mango sticky rice topped with coconut cream and sweetened condensed coconut milk. Yum! 🤤🤤

[questforthespark]

This morning has felt like a dream. I had a 30 minute zoom call with my favorite member of a K-Rock group. The group is called 2Z and my favorite member is the bassist, Junghyun. He is such a sweetheart and put me right at ease. He even remembered me from the pen pal website pocketdols.

Isn't he a cutie?!

[questforthespark]

This man deserves the world 🌎 Show him some respect and stream Waterfall.

[questforthespark]

I've been feeding this squirrel peanuts periodically over the past couple months and this is the FIRST time I've actually seen him eating them. His name is Hannie, after my ult bias Han Jisung of Stray Kids. This is the high point of my day! 😂🥳🥰

[questforthespark]

Today I made garlic soy marinated grilled eggplant and japchae.

I was excited to make the eggplant because I got to play with my new cast iron grill pan, which worked so well. The marinade was pretty simple: soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, gochugaru powder, pepper, spring onion, sesame seeds, and a little bit of sugar.

For my japchae, this was my first time ever using whole leaf spinach, definitely needed to wash the grit out.

I soaked some shitake mushrooms while I blanched the spinach. I also chopped a bunch of partially dried out button mushrooms, they're perfectly fine in this.

I like to use up what veggies I have in the fridge, which included some cabbage, onion, green pepper, and green onion. I also added a bit of vegan chick'n (although japchae is traditionally made with beef).

My japchae was not as pretty as traditional japchae, because I didn't have any carrots and I used green peppers, rather than red, because they were cheaper at the store🤷‍♀️ still tasted amazing. Japchae is make with sweet potato starch glass noodles. They have a super yummy chewy texture.

[questforthespark]

I spent this overcast morning first cleaning off my porch chairs and then relaxing with my second cup of coffee.

Isn't my mug awesome?! I bought it at the Renaissance faire 2 years ago. It's hard to tell but it's a beautiful deep teal color. The color is one of a kind because it was caused by their kiln burning out halfway through and them having to refire it. It's my favorite color so I felt like it was made for me.

The neighbors bird feeder had a lot of activity this morning.

The other day I finally bit the bullet and went to the local nursery to find some house plants that would be safe around Albus. I ended up getting a Boston fern, a polka dot plant, a spider plant, and a species of pepperomia. I also got a pot of rosemary to sit on my front porch (hopefully I won't kill this one.... Or any of them😬)

[questforthespark]

Today has been a day of few successes and many failures. My projects today began last night with the soaking of soybeans and mung beans.

The mung beans will be sprouted. I drained off the water put them into colanders in big bowls, gave them their first watering, and then covered them with a dark towel.

My next task was rinsing the soybeans and removing their skins. Then I boiled them, drained them, added them to a blender with fresh cold water, and blended them to make soy milk. Then placed the soy milk through a nut milk bag and squeezed it to remove the pulp, or okara.

The soy milk was a success although it's got a decently strong beany flavor. Next up on the docket was taking eight cups of that soy milk bringing it almost to a boil, shutting off the heat, and adding an Epsom salt coagulant to try and separate the curds from the whey in order to make tofu. This was an unmitigated failure and I'm not sure why because I followed the recipe to a T. It started to separate and then never continued. So eight cups of soy milk literally went down the drain. (Featuring the tofu press for the tofu that never was 😭)

I also tried my hand at making homemade mayonnaise with vegetable oil, vinegar, and some of my homemade soy milk, but it refused to emulsify It's currently in the fridge and I will work on it later or repurpose it.

The grand success of the day has been dinner, which was general tso's tofu with broccoli over sticky rice.

[questforthespark]

So yesterday was the first day of my 6-day vacation from work and honestly I don't have much to show for it. I was lazy.... Like lounging around the house in your pjs lazy. I did reorganize my pantry though.

As you can see I have a very well stocked pantry which is why I want to get a bit more creative with my cooking and actually take advantage of the items that I have.

The one thing I am making today is roasted garlic focaccia bread. Luckily I have a beautiful jar of olive oil preserved roasted garlic in my fridge.

And it's been a long while since I have made bread from scratch and I had forgotten how much I enjoy the process. Kneading bread is therapeutic.

And the time that it takes for the bread to rise allows you to do other random household chores.

The final product was delicious🤤

The base recipe I use is from the the ethicvegan.

Ingredients

4 Tbs. olive oil

2 Tbs. fresh rosemary, minced (or dried)

3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1.5 cups warm water

1 package (.25 ounce) active dried yeast (approx 2tsp)

2 tsp. salt

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Additional olive oil for brushing

Kosher salt for sprinkling

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together water, active dried yeast, and salt and sit aside until the yeast produces small bubbles. In the meantime, heat the olive oil, rosemary, and garlic until aromatic in a small saucepan. Add the infused olive oil mixture to the yeast mixture and stir. Add 4 cups of flour and stir until combined. Knead the dough in the mixing bowl with your fingers for about 3 minutes. Gradually add the remaining flour until the dough is soft, not sticky. If it’s still sticky, knead in extra flour until the dough is soft.

2. Cover bowl with cling wrap or a clean towel and let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about one hour. (I like to preheat the oven on the warm setting, turn the oven off, and let the dough rise in the oven with the door slightly open). Gently poke the dough with your finger. If your finger imprint remains, it’s ready.

3. Brush oil on a 10″ x 12″ rectangular baking pan. With oiled fingers, stretch the dough evenly over the baking pan. Cover and let rise for about 45 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 400°. Use fingers to create dimples in the dough. Brush top of dough with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and decorate as preferred. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

**Keep in mind that if you decorate the top with veggies the bread would need to be refrigerated and will not last as long.

[questforthespark]

ONF's fanship welcome kit is quite impressive😱😍

I'm using the little Fuse glad jar to house my homemade curry spice blend.

[questforthespark]

Just a 34yr old woman's search for joy in an otherwise monotonous life. I have plenty of things to be thankful for; a stable job, a house that I love, a decently new car... but as we know these things don't necessarily equate to happiness. I live a rather introverted quiet life of work to home. I'm a Virginia transplant in Michigan and although I've been here for 4 years I still have yet to make friends. How does one even make friends at this age?

I have online friends all over the country (and the world) thanks to my involvement in the kpop community. I was to meet some of them for concerts this past year, but covid has put a damper on those plans. Eventually it will happen!

I have been vegan for 12 years now and I love to cook and bake. I make my own kimchi, bread, and coconut yogurt. My next task will be learning how to can and pressure can. I also want to start scratch cooking a majority of my foods along with looking to reduce my plastic usage and waste.

This blog will be a diary of sorts... daily musings, kpop reviews, cooking and baking recipes, possible adventures out into the community and world, and random cat pictures.

This is my 4 year old demon, Albus Severus.