3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 small onion, chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup ketchup
1/2 cup sugar

1 pound baby spinach
6 slices bacon, cooked
6 ounces water chestnuts
3 eggs, hard boiled
6 button mushrooms, sliced

1. Combine oil, vinegar, onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt, ketchup and sugar and mix well.
2. Toss together spinach, baby, water chestnuts and mushrooms. Dice 2 of the eggs and combine with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Garnish with remaining egg.

Makes 6 servings

8 ounce rib eye steak
5 tablespoons sugar
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger puree
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup hot fermented chili paste
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Combine sugar, garlic, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, chili paste and sesame oil.
2. Tenderize steak with a mallet and marinade overnight.
3. Remove steak from the marinade. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the steak. Sear the steak well, then flip and sear the other side. Continue cooking to desired doneness.
4. Allow meat to rest, then slice into thin pieces. Serve with lettuce leaves, cooked white rice and additional chili paste as desired.

Makes 2 servings

After Joseph took us out for Korean Barbecue, I figured I'd better figure out how to make a Korean dish or two. I tried to recreate the flavor of the grilled beef, only without a grill and using sirloin steak instead of prime rib or whatever it is that we got. Since he had explained a few of these dishes as, "You like spicy? I show you spicy!" (which is somewhat terrifying, not knowing what to expect), I tried to make the Korean Beef live up to that. He'd given us some fermented chili paste (gochu jang) to take home, which is great since I'd be unable to find it anywhere. The flavor seems a little off now that my mouth isn't coated with Scotch, but it's still pretty tasty. I thought Shannon was going to love it, but she thought it was too spicy. The spice didn't get to me, but I thought the fermentation part was much more apparent this time around. I think this is technically called bulgogi, when you roll the meat up with rice in a lettuce leaf, which is how I'd eaten it.

I found a recipe for a Korean Spinach Salad that I thought looked interesting, because it's not very different from spinach salads we typically eat. I didn't particularly like the dressing, but Shannon was really into it. To me, it was basically like diluted ketchup. Still, as far as that goes, it's a good way of getting a bunch of vegetables into your mouth.