So, I’ve been gone for, like, ever and where have been? Oh, you know, here….there…everywhere…nowhere. Is that vague enough for you? Because the truth is, I’ve been doing nothing. My camera broke, and I was unable to take pictures so I got super bummed and no longer wanted to blog. I have recently tried out a new form of blogging called vlogging, which most people have hear of. So, please, check out my oh so adventurous life in my very first vlog: I’m ‘Bout That Vlog Life.
In light of me trying something new, a few days ago I decided I wanted to further take up photography. I’ve shown interest in taking pictures of the things that I see and those around me ever since I got my first camera phone maybe 8-9-10 years ago and I had a photo shoot with my unnie in our backyard. The pictures were amaze if I do say so myself. I got pictures of her jumping in the air, twirling around in the grass, picking flowers and sitting underneath the tree in our backyard. The pictures looked like something that could’ve easily been in a Teen Vogue magazine… or at least I think they did, I can’t be sure because I lost that phone and the pictures on it when I dropped it in dish water a few months later. This bitters me to this day. Did I really need to be listening to “The Rain” by Missy Elliot while I washed the few plates in the sink? The cups? The bowls? Can I really do nothing without music? I guess not. And now… because of me, my phone can’t stand the rain.
Here on my blog I tried a “photography” post which didn’t go over very well because it was weird (I made birds talk) and was frankly a bit boring– So I decided to do research. I looked up types of cameras how to use them the different settings et cetera et cetera, and somehow ended up on Youtube were I found a plethora of goodies given to us in the form of Shamelessness. There was a time way way in the past (*cough cough* last summer) when you couldn’t get me off of Youtube and I knew of ShamelessMaya from said older sister and knew that she herself was a photographer. She has posted a lot of techy videos but I zoomed in particularly on these two:
For All of Your Shameless Camera Needs
This video showed me what I wanted and where I could get it.
For All of Your Other Shameless Camera Needs
This video showed me how to use what I wanted.
After watching these videos I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to happen right now. I mean, do you see the price of those cameras which I wanted all of? Every time she said “inexpensive” I heard really expensive.
Specs:
Canon Eos Rebel T3i $549 @ bhphotovideo @ Amazon/ $579 on Prime/ $659 Bundle on Prime
Amazon stars: Ranges between 4.4 and 4.7 stars
bhphotovideo stars: 4.3 stars and 3 reviews
Sony Alpha NEX-3N $398 @ Amazon FREE SHIPPING with prime No longer Available @bhphotovideo
Amazon stars: 4.4 stars and 176 reviews
bhphotovideo stars: 4.6 stars and 59 Reviews
Nikon Cool Pix P330 The prices for this one change. I can’t find it on the bhphotovideo website and on Amazon it the price ranges starting at $238.
Amazon stars: 4 stars and 85 Costumer Reviews– The reviews on this were mixed. Makes me not excited if I were thinking of getting this camera.
Canon s110 $249 @ bhphotovideo FREE SHIPPING with prime @ Amazon
Amazon stars: 4.2 and 261 reviews
bhphotovideo stars: 4.5 stars and 114 reviews
Nonetheless, Shameless gave good tips for each of the cameras in that video and for the camera I have now–which hasn’t been the same since I dropped it. Boo.
If I had to choose which one to get besides the Canon Eos Rebel T3i (because everybody wants that camera) It would be the Sony Alpha NEX-3N. It’s got amazing reviews and it’s fairly “cheap”. So, because it seems as though I have bitten off way to much with this one I am going to real it back some and look into a few things that I can easily (and cheaply) do from home. Next up: Animes.
For more on this visit the page “The Idea” and if you have suggestions as to things I can try visit “The Suggestion Box” or comment below I would love to hear what you have to say!
💋
Korean Wheat Hoddeok (Original Recipe by Maangchi)
Maangchi’s Hoddeoks
This is the first Korean food recipe I ever tried. And also the best idea I’ve ever had. Now, I am not going to take all of the credit, my sister was the first to introduce me to Maangchi’s recipes. She did so because I was obsessed K-dramas and K-pop. It was around the time I started my first drama, Boys Over (before) Flowers. What she showed me was different than what I ended up trying (these Hoddeoks) but I was so happy that she suggested it. When I first watched the video (here) I was so excited to make them but my mom was not. I was running around saying, “Can we go to the store so that I can make sweet pancakes for you guys?! I really want to make them!” And my mom was saying “Sure, baby.” But then we never did it. I guess I shouldn’t have called them “sweet pancakes” (I wasn’t the best at pronouncing the literal name for them at the time), because we have “sweet pancakes” all of the time, and my mom wasn’t really interested in trying something new that she’d already eaten before. But when I finally got the ingredients necessary, I woke up extra early (noon :)) so that I could make them for my mom for breakfast. I was so excited when my first time making them wasn’t a disaster that as soon as they woke I was stuffing their faces with them. Little did I know that I was never going to get to stop. These things are so good that I have had to double, triple, and even quadruple the recipe all in one night. They joke that it is like a sweat shop in the kitchen, but I actually believe it. So I warn you, when you first make these you will never again get to just make eight. We now eat these in replace of actual donuts, and we can have them any time we want which is great for them but unfortunate for me. Now, the ingredients to these wonderful gifts from the kitchen:
Keep in mind that all of the ingredients are healthy, and/ or 100% natural. The flour is wheat, the sugar is raw, and the salt is from the sea. :p
Okay, I want to make one thing clear before we move on, I didn’t change the recipe (much). I switched out a few of the ingredients to make me feel less guilty when eating them and that’s all, the process is still the same unlike the goguma bap that I made earlier. So still follow the steps on Maangchi’s blog just switch out the white flour for whole wheat, the white sugar for raw sugar, and the iodized salt for sea salt. It’s called eating clean, and it is much better for you in the long run. Literally, you should eat this way if you plan to run for a long period of time. Wait, no, you should eat this way all of the time not just when you plan to run but you should still eat this way when you are running… never mind. Moving on, this is what the dough looked like after I mixed together all of the ingredients:
When mixing them, because I didn’t have a rice spoon like Maangchi did in the video, I used a broken mixing spoon that we had in our utensil drawer.
I had photos of the rising process, but they turned out blurry and the lighting wasn’t the best so I tossed them. But, one thing I suggest when waiting for your wheat hoddeoks to rise for both the hour and the 10-15 minutes is to store the container or bowl they are in, in a cool dark place. It will double the rising size, and they will be a lot more fluffy and light when it finally comes time to cook and eat them. When the hoddeoks are rising for that ten minutes after you’ve mixed them to release air pockets from when they raised for an hour, you want to make the fillings and prep your station for preparing the little sweet cakes. One last thing I want to mention, I didn’t have walnuts when preparing these (one: because my little sister is allergic, and two: I don’t really like them all that much). Usually I use almonds, but we didn’t have those either. So, because I didn’t have any nut-type substance in my house I used another sugar along with cinnamon and brown sugar. I used maple sugar, which is absolutely delicious—but also a little strong in taste, so if you decide to use it, you only need about a half of teaspoon to a teaspoon for a little over 1/4 cup of brown sugar.
Writing this post, I realize that I was very much so unprepared when I made these. Along with everything else I forgot or didn’t have, there was no shredded mozzarella cheese in the fridge. But that just proves to you that if there’s a will there’s a way. I cubed a huge block of mozzarella that we had in the fridge and it worked just as well if I would’ve had a shredded cheese. So if you are like me and still want to make these pockets of sunshine, even though you are not all the way prepared try this:
The numbers are backwards, but you get the gest. And any left overs can be used for snacks. Now because I like a lot of room when making these, I sprinkled flour on the table before putting the Hoddeok dough down.
It’s a mess but it’s also fun. Making the sweet pockets is quite easy and the way I make them, they have a little star shape on the bottom half. I’ll explain to you how, it’s very simple:
Take the hoddeok in your hand and after you’ve put your filling inside fold in each corner, one by one into the center and then press down so that they look similar to this:
And when you fry them they will have a little star or flower shape on the bottom. It’s not only delicious but pleasant to look at. For the cheese, if you had to cube them stack a few of them in the middle and when they are cooked there will be pockets of cheese all throughout the hoddeok:
Wow, I can’t believe we’re nearly done. After you’ve fried them you can finally delve your face into healthy deliciousness! These are the finish products:
I swear looking at these pictures just makes me want to go stuff my face with some more. Like Johnny Bravo would say, “Man , they’re pretty! Huh!” You can basically stuff these pretty young things with anything… wow that sounded wrong. Clear your mind of all filthy thoughts! Haha. But, anyways, I’ve also had them with chocolate, cream cheese (not the healthiest, but still delicious), and jelly. Flipping delicious.
I made this recipe to show that eating healthy is just as easy as not eating healthy and you can still eat what you want… healthily. So if you have a recipe that you would like me to try and make healthy email me or leave a comment below. My email: sagedandconfused@gmail.com
This way you can enjoy your nonhealthy snacks healthily and they will still taste delicious. Tell me what you think, I really want to know!
I have been on a serious sweet potato kick lately, with the sweet potato rice, a few other things that I have yet to post, and now this? I am surprised I haven’t turned into a sweet potato…yet. Anyways, these muffins are absolutely delicious, and with the way I make them, 100% healthy, so you can eat them guilt free. The ingredients to make these muffins are simple, easy ingredients found at your local food market. As a matter of fact, the first time I made these muffins I had all of the ingredients in the kitchen already in my fridge and pantry so it worked out perfectly. I’ve made these muffins a total of maybe four or five times sense the first time I made them, each time they were delicious. As a matter of fact, If I had to grade these I would absolutely give them an A, just because they are so delicious and so easily made (even for someone like me, who usually burns everything I put in the oven). My only problem with Laura Vitale’s Videos is that the viewer has to go to her website in order to get measurements for the ingredients she uses. What happens when you’re feeling like a chef and you bring your laptop into the kitchen, press play on the video and can’t cook along with her, it’s kind of a bummer actually. But, I just realized, maybe that is just how she likes to cook and so far so good. So keep up the great work!
Okay, so, the grocery list:
I think I changed out just about everything she used for something healthier
except for the vegetable oil. Though it’s not in the picture, I use Trader Joe’s brand Vanilla Extract. It’s 100% healthy and has only vanilla beans in it, no alcohol and no High Fructose Corn Syrup like some extracts have, which by the way is in no way good for you—not even in moderation. Pssh, Liars.
Next, the recipe calls for the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients to be separated. She says the reason for this is to make sure the muffins don’t get tough, and I agree one-hundred percent with that. But still this part was a little confusing to me, because she considers sugar to be apart of the wet ingredients. After making these over twenty times I still don’t understand the reason for that, but I do it anyways.
On the subject matter of sweet potatoes (no, we weren’t just talking about sweet potatoes, but in my mind we were): I mean the gorgeous orange ones above. At my local grocer there are two types of sweet potatoes, just so we’re clear this is not a very good grocery store so you probably have more—white sweet potatoes:
And the orange ones. Now, I have made these muffins with both types of sweet potatoes. I personally, while they are both still very delicious, prefer using the orange sweet potatoes because the muffins come out a lot lighter. When you use white sweet potatoes the muffins are very heavy and taste a lot like cinnamon, so they have a very strong taste. *Great Sweet Potato Tip: Rinse the skin before peeling them, this makes them a lot easier to cut into. Especially if you soak them in water for about 5 minutes.* Also note that these, along with the orange sweet potato, taste absolutely delicious when you bake them, add a little olive oil, some sea salt and honey. Not sugar and not butter. Though you don’t use butter and sugar it tastes as though you did. And don’t boil these, all of the natural sweetness of the sweet potato will be boiled out.
Anyways, moving on, after you mix together the wet and dry ingredients:
And put them into your cute little muffin trays:
They should look something like this. Everybody’s muffins will look a little different then mine or even Laura Vitale’s and that is only because the size and shape of the muffins differ from the size and shape of the pans and also how much you decide to put inside the pans. Unless you use the exact scooper and muffin pans she used your’s probably want come out identical to hers. I didn’t get to make quite as many as she did but my muffins came out a little bigger than hers. The only reason I bring this up is because I realize that some people want the food they make to look exactly the way it does on the box, well in this case, the computer screen. So don’t freak out if yours don’t come out perfect.
When using wheat flour the amount of time you have to keep them in the oven may be different then when using white flour. With the oven I have I keep my muffins in for only 20 minutes and I keep them on the top shelf. Your time may vary because my oven is old. Anyways, while they’re in the oven, if I am not mistaking, she makes the butter mixture. I did mine a little different and that is only because I completely forgot the way she did it by the time I got into the kitchen.
I used melted, salted sweet cream butter (the ones that come in sticks) and raw sugar along with the rest of the ingredients for the butter mixture. Then I just dipped the muffins in like Patrick in chocolate sauce.
Or you could always spread it on with a butter knife. Now you’ll take the muffins out of the oven:
Then plate and enjoy!
Muffin w/ the Sugar Topping!
Everything she makes always turns out so pretty and just makes you want to make them or eat them or both. So I suggest you do. I trust that everyone had a happy Valentines Day and President’s Day Weekend. If you try the recipe using the switched ingredients please tell me! I’d love to know they turned out for you! — Sage
Link to Laura’s Youtube: Here
Saged & Confused 