Welcome to a new cooking experience!

I started this blog so family and friends will no longer ask me to write down my recipes. Here they are, conveniently located in an easy to search blog! For our first recipe, we're going to start simple. I mean really, really simple.

Kimchi is a Korean side dish served with practically every meal. All the people on Food Network and Travel Channel are constantly calling this a "pickled" dish. True kimchi is very hot, not sour, even though it technically is pickled in Korea. Kimchi is typically buried in the ground, which I would not advise (in other words, don't do it).

You can make kimchi out of cabbage, which is the most traditional, as well as turnips and cucumbers. The cucumber is great in the spring and summer months, so that is what we are starting with!

Ingredients:
Three large cucumbers
1/4 cup salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cup korean hot pepper to taste (you can substitute red pepper flakes)
pinch of garlic powder

Wash and dry your cucumbers. Cut your cucumbers into 1/2 inch cubes, and place in a bowl. Slowly add in your salt, stirring to coat each piece. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. The mixture will be watery, but do NOT drain it. Add your hot pepper to taste. Add garlic and sugar. Stir and place in container with a lid. Refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Tips
*Kimchi gets hotter the longer it sits in your refrigerator. Don't make it too hot at first, as it will only intensify over time.
*ALWAYS store with a lid on it. Trust me, you don't want your refrigerator smelling like this every time you open the door.
*When using turnips instead of cucumbers, you can grate them instead of cubing them. This makes the kimchi hotter, and easy to eat.
*Kimchi is not only spicy, it's salty. Be sure to always eat with something starchy, like bread or rice. Pregnant women with high blood pressure, or anyone with high blood pressure for that matter, may wish to keep away from this. I learned that the hard way.

Good luck, and good cooking!