Accidental cooking lessons

Last weekend, my husband and I had a crazy weekend as we prepared to throw a birthday party for his grandma who turned 99.  We invited his entire extended family on his father's side, which came out to 19 people in total.  It was definitely daunting to think about cooking for such a large group of people, but I was ready for the challenge.  This would be the first time we hosted a large group like this in our not-so-large apt, and the first time I'd be cooking a korean meal for his family.  It was a lot of pressure!

So, Sy and I decided that we would go simple - or so we thought - and make 3 things: 1 main dish, and 2 side dishes.  We planned on making Bibimbap (korean rice bowl with mixed vegetables and meat) with baked soy garlic chicken wings, and crab/scallion pancakes. 

Man oh man.  It was a crazy weekend.  We went grocery shopping on Sat evening, and we thought, okay, we'll just prep the vegetables before we sleep and get a head start on Sun.  We ended up prepping vegetables from 11pm-2:30am. Why did it take so long?  Because our apt was not prepared to cook such large quantities of food!  First of all, it took forever to dice up 8 zucchinis. And then we had to saute the zucchinis - and our largest frying pan could not hold it all.  I had to saute all the zucchinis in 3 batches!  Repeat this exact process as we peeled, chopped up, sauteed 10 carrots. Btw, do you know how hard it is to wash 5 bunches of spinach? After you unbundle them and wash them, you're left with literally a mountain of spinach.  I had not enough bowls to place the cleaned spinach! Every large bowl in my kitchen was utilized to just hold the spinach and every inch of counter space looked like a greenhouse filled with spinach. And then I had to boil a large pot of water, then boil the spinach, drain it, squeeze out all the water, and set aside - 3x total! Each process was so long and frustrating!  I had no idea that cooking for 19 people would be so arduous and difficult in a small kitchen.

Let's just say with the rest of the ingredients, it was also a long process.  You try making 60 crab pancakes, and cooking 40 chicken wings. On Sunday, we cooked from 12pm-5pm when our guests arrived.  (side note, we even had to make an emergency run to Party City in the morning bc we realized we didn't own bowls that were large enough to hold bibimbap! what a fail!) So it's fair to say - this was quite an ordeal.

Our apt was complete chaos.  We put all the adults at our dining table, and brought out every chair, stool, and something to sit on we had. We sat all the cousins on the floor on a side table we store under our couch for emergencies like this.  And 4 small children jumped on our couch as a trampoline while we ate. It was nuts.

By the time everyone went home at 9pm, I was exhausted.  We had used every bowl in our cabinets for the soup that my sister-in-law had made.  There were 4 bags of trash. And at one point, the kids had moved to our bedroom, and used our bed as a trampoline again, and also had decided to throw all our pillows, pajamas, and stuffed animals on the floor. The thought of cleaning up after this marathon of cooking/hosting made me want to never want to host again. 

It really made me wonder - how the heck did my mother's generation do this on a regular basis?  I thought about my childhood and remembered all the happy times of family festivities and how easy it all seemed.  My parents' generation came from a time when the average sibling size was 6-8 kids. My mom is 1 of 6 kids. Growing up, every Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Birthday celebrations were always filled with a minimum of 20 people - and that was before all the grandkids started to come along. How on earth did my aunts/mom do this with no help?  Most of the men of their generation do not help out in the kitchen.  (thank God Sy helped me!) And they cooked big, elaborate dishes!  They made it seem so easy!  It seemed like bowls of hot, steaming food just appeared out of nowhere.  It made me wonder - did they start cooking days ahead of time?  Did they ever complain to their husbands?  Did they clean the house too?  (bc I made Sy do that while I cooked. There was not enough time for me to do both!)  I just started to realize how much our mothers' generation did for us.

Our moms are amazing people.  I think marriage has made me realize just how much my mom did for us. I can barely cook dinner for us every night.  Pizza is just such an easy solution.  But not when I was growing up.  We always ate a home cooked meal.  Every time I go home, my mom packs me bags of frozen marinated food.  I've always taken it for granted.  But now I know, she must have sat at the kitchen table, prepping all this food for me for hours.  No wonder she's always fishing for compliments!  She's exhausted!  =)  I have no idea how my mother's generation did so much. (granted, I'm sure the larger cooking equipment will help for sure if I ever invest in them) But still!  I'm so amazed. I'm so impressed.  And most of all, I'm so humbled.  I took it all for granted. I wish I could go back in time and hug all my aunts for all their hard work.  I wish I could tell my mom that I appreciate all that she did.  All I know is, from now on, I am always going to say thank you, and be genuinely thankful for it.  They deserve our praise.  And what they really deserve is a break - but I don't know if I'm ready to take this on every time. Haha!

Well, thank goodness we survived.  The food came out great, all the relatives were happy, and all of our furniture is still intact.  Whew!  Hopefully, we won't have to host again for at least a few months. =)

p.s. lesson learned - bibimbap is actually a really hard dish to make for a large group of people.  apparently, sy's mom internally laughed at us when we told her the menu and that we thought it was simple.  *face palm

It's a miracle!

This past Sunday, I heard a man tell his testimony of how he was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 20, and immediately began chemotherapy, and endured years of trying to fight the cancer.  He talked about how when he finally finished all his treatment and was declared in remission, every once in a while, he would feel a deep sense of gratitude to be alive - like when he watched his sister walk down the aisle, or when he had his first baby.

As he reminisced these feelings of gratitude, it reminded me of my single days.  I used to have a "theory" or rather statement that I talked about frequently. When I was single, I strongly felt that finding the one was like witnessing a miracle. So many "stars" have to align for a marriage to happen. 2 people need to meet somehow; and also be at the right point of their lives where they are ready to be in a serious relationship; and both people need to be in the mature mindset to see and accept each other; and both need to get through enough dating without any outside circumstances to get in the way to derail them; and then both need to have families that will help move them along to marriage; and lastly have the financial means to get married. 

I guess this is why every person before the one is the wrong one. But it's also based on all these stars aligning.  Sy and I often say to each other that if we had met each other years ago, we wouldn't have dated the other.  It was only because we were both where we were when we met that we were open to each other.  I think about my friend who was madly in love with a guy amidst a terrible family emergency.  She was so stressed and emotionally needy that this guy couldn't take the heat. If she hadn't been going through that family situation, would they have survived?  Quite possibly!  But it all depends on all the stars aligning JUUUUUUST right that sparks fly and marriage becomes a glowing dot on the radar.  I used to always cry out - it's a miracle if you find the one!

When I was single, this theory of mine freaked the heck out of me. It was frighteningly daunting to think about my odds of finding love.  And now that I am married (and I won the marriage lottery), I realized how so many other things in life are miracles like this.  You always hear the cliche "a baby is a miracle." And when I was younger, I always thought that was a bit of a dramatic statement. People have babies everyday.  What's so hard about it?  But now, as I am older, I hear countless stories of friends who have trouble conceiving, or fears from nervous mothers that their babies will be born with some kind of defect or illness.  AGAIN - all the stars have to align perfectly for a baby to be born healthy!  A single chromosome can change your life. Everything is so delicately placed into order.  Having a baby is seriously a miracle.  Having a healthy baby is a miracle on top of a miracle.

As this man spoke about how every once in a while, God reminds him of things to be grateful for, I realized that I want to be that grateful for all my own miracles.  It's a miracle that Sy and I found each other and fell in love.  It's a miracle that my sister is pregnant!  There are so many miracles around us that we never notice bc we don't realize how miraculous it was to make it happen. 

I really hope that I don't need a leukemia story of my own to remind me to be grateful every day.  Although, I often look at Sy and feel like he is my own miracle reminder when I reflect back on all the heartache I endured. But in the meantime, let's see the miracles in our lives every day!