Kookin' in Korea - Peanut Butter Bars + much more

Today is my first official day of vacation - kind of. Since I have to work three different camps I was unable to get 8 consecutive days off for vacation. So I am stuck with 2 Fridays off (giving me three day weekends) until August 17th, which is when my official vacation starts! I've finished my first week of camp, which was at my school. Yay! My school camp was ok...I was essentially paid to help the other teachers and sit around waiting for the clock to hit 4:30pm. The next two weeks I will be away working the Andong city camp which I'm not looking forward to at all. I've been told it's in the middle of nowhere with no air conditioning. Not happy about that. After the next two weeks of camp I will officially be on holiday...can't wait!

So what did I do with my day off? Well, I did laundry, gave myself a pedicure and tried yes TRIED to look up what is going on with the American Olympic female gymnastics team and this is what I found. After a few minutes of repeatedly coming across articles of comments about Gabby's hair I became frustrated and gave up my search.Not that the above article is bad; it actually addresses the same thing I'm about to. I just don't understand why people continue to bring others down and/or look too far into something. Being a biracial female and one who has personally come across a lot of the same comments and criticism is very frustrating and makes be angry.

1. Yes, the 16 year old African American girl decided to straighten her hair. WHO CARES! This does not necessarily mean she isn't proud to be black. It's just another way to fix our hair. Nothing more, just a hair style.
2. If she wanted to keep it natural she would have, but like so many other females we like the chance to change it up a bit. That doesn't mean we don't take pride in who we are.
3.  Last time I checked when one straightens their hair and then sweats, which by the way I'm sure she is since she's an athlete and has been continuously partaking in physical activity, the roots of your hair goes back to their natural ways.
4. Why on earth would anyone criticize a 16 year old for the way they look regardless if it's about their hair, looks or weight. Like young girls don't have enough to "live" up to.
5. MOST IMPORTANTLY - we should be focusing on this. Congratulations Gabby Douglas! You're awesome.

Next on my agenda. I just came home from watching the new Batman movie. It was great! Just one thing, was Hines Ward not in this movie or was I just seeing things? Just looked it up and found my answer. Since I don't live back in the U.S. I sometimes/frequently never know what's going on so of course seeing him run across the football field was a pretty big shock. I'm sure the Korean man sitting next to me at the movie theater would agree since I literally screamed, "Hey that's Hines Ward!" and he just looked at me.

Last thing before introducing the new aspect of my blog. I have a prediction this weekend is going to be a good one. Why? Because tomorrow I'm heading to Seoul to finally see the musical Wicked and Saturday I'll be in Ulsan for whale watching! The past few weeks I've been listening to music from Wicked. This is my favorite:

Peanut Butter Bars:

I've decided to include something new in this blog. If you know me then you also know I love food. I love cooking it. I love eating it. I also love talking about it.With that said, I've decided to include Kookin' in Korea posts. Every now and then I will post recipes I've tried here. These post will primarily be aimed for other people who live in South Korea and who want to make food they miss from home, but just may not know where to buy the ingredients or how to make it. Friends and family back home you may not get much from these post, but I still hope you enjoy!

  Need:

6 cups corn flakes cereal

340 g peanut butter

1 cup honey

250 g milk chocolate

wax paper

large mixing bowl

large spoon

pan for the stove top

11 x 7 x 1.5 in rectangular pan

prep time: ~35 minutes

ready in: ~1 hour depending on fridge/freezer temp

makes: 1 dozen

I bought all materials at Home Plus. You can buy chocolate and corn flakes pretty much at any local market. It does depend on that market if they have peanut butter and honey. I typically always just buy my peanut butter and honey at Home Plus or Emart mostly because I know those items will always be there. You must definitely check your local marts though...you never know what you may find there:)

First step: Add 6 cups of cereal to a large mixing bowl. Pour 340 g (I used the entire jar) into the pan which is over a low flame.

Just stir peanut butter a few times. When you start to see the peanut butter bubble a little, add 1 cup of honey and stir until the peanut butter and honey are completely mixed. You don't want to actually cook the peanut butter. You just want the mixture to be melted enough to mix into the cereal. If you start to smell the peanut butter cooking turn off the heat.This mixture should only be on the stove top for a few minutes. No more.

Once peanut butter and honey are completely mixed and melted, pour into the large mixing bowl that contains the cereal.

Stir the mixture by using more of a folding method. Make sure the peanut butter/honey completely coats all of the cereal. I also found by crushing some of the larger pieces of cereal the bars will stay together better. Feel free to crush away! The picture below does not show a well mixed concoction. This is what not to do. Keep mixing!

 

After all of the cereal is completely coated with the peanut butter/honey mixture pour into a  11 x 7 x 1.5 in rectangular pan. I personally lined the pan with wax paper, but this is not required. I just feel the bars are easier to handle when cutting after cooled.

Now for melting the chocolate. You need to add water to the pan. It doesn't matter how much. In order to melt the chocolate there just needs to be enough water to make sure it touches the bowl.

I found by breaking the chocolate bar into smaller pieces the chocolate actually melts faster and better! I bought two milk chocolate bars that were 200 g each. I used one full bar and a quarter of the other.

Once the chocolate bar is broken and the water is bubbling (NOT boiling), slowly place a small amount of chocolate pieces into the bowl.

While chocolate is melting, randomly stir the melted chocolate to break the unmelted pieces up. By melting the chocolate over water you are reducing the risk of burning the chocolate. Keep over water until all chocolate is completely melted.

Once chocolate has completely melted, pour over cereal bars until the melted chocolate is evenly distributed.

You can either put the pan in the fridge or freezer until firm. Once firm take the pan out and cut bars 3 x 4 making a dozen peanut butter bars.

Once cut, I individually wrapped them using wax paper. I feel the bar keeps better when in wax paper. However, feel free to do whatever you would like:) Enjoy!