What I Eat In A Week: My Parent’s Garden Harvest

It’s entering a gloomy, rainy season – and time to collect my parents’ garden harvest. This week has been a week of gardening and rebuilding routines. My family spent this week in my parents’ garden, reminiscing about my dad while cooking all sorts of delicious recipes with garden fresh vegetable, from Roasted Tomato Soups to Homemade Grape Vinegar. Finding happiness again after loss is slow, but it’s about the little things that put a smile on my face, like making myself a matcha latte to start the day.

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My New Strawberry Matcha Routine

A new routine after grief looks a bit different—journaling, going on walks, cooking yummy food, and spending time with loved ones. This week, I’ve started a daily matcha routine to help me stay grounded and mindful, I started my day with a Strawberry Matcha Latte before a day of garden harvest and cooking.

Garden Harvest Tomato Soup and Confit Grilled Cheese

My parents’ garden had an abundant cherry tomatoes and garlic harvest this season, I couldn’t resist making the most delicious garden-fresh combo: Tomato Soup with Confit Grilled Cheese. My oven has been saving me in times when I just can’t get going. With both the vegetables from the confit and the tomato soup roasting in the oven, I can have some time to myself.

Combined with crunchy toasted bread and warm melty cheese, this confit becomes a comforting grilled cheese with garden-fresh flavors.

I also made a yummy Gut Friendly Miso Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup, featuring the beautiful garlic and cherry tomatoes straight from my parents’ garden. This oven roasted soup has such a complex miso tomato flavor, you’ll be surprised that it’s all natural. We’re entering gloomy rainy season, and this tomato soup is so packed with vitamin C it’ll brighten you up from the inside out.

Late Night Chili Oil Noodles Soup

If there’s one thing that always hits the spot when I’m feeling down, it’s late-night noodles and TV. This week has been a bit of an uphill climb. But, I’ve found moments within to hold my family closer. This Late Night Noodle is one that Dom and I share often late at night, as we did this week. There’s just something truly healing about being curled up next to your loved ones with TV and spicy, steaming bowls of noodles.

Harvesting and Prepping Grapes for Homemade Vinegar

Saturday morning, Dom and I brought the cats over to garden with my mom and make our grape wine and vinegar, a yearly tradition since my parents started growing grapes in the garden a few years back. My mom wasn’t sure if she wanted to keep the garden after my dad passed. After a summer of neglect, the garden still thrived.

As we’re sipping on the vinegar and wine from last year while harvesting and prepping the grapes he planted, it’s like he’s right there with us enjoying this family tradition, The garden and this vinegar is a gift from my dad to my mom, because love doesn’t disappear—it transforms.

Sharing Hot Pot Dinner on Cold Days

We ended a cold day of working in the garden with some easy, steamy hot pot. It’s honestly not just a festive meal, but a great way to feed a large amount of people without a ton of preparation. Our hotpot tonight included tons of fish balls, napa cabbage, and sliced fatty pork. Something about being with family, surrounding a boiling pot while we’re all picking our favorite ingredients warms every part of my soul.

My favorite part of the night is always trying a bit of everyone’s sauces. For some of my favorite hot pot sauce options, click the button below!

Bottling Grape Vinegar on Sunday Morning

After a night of air drying, it’s time to prep the grapes for bottling. To bottle grape vinegar, cut slits on each grape and add to the jars in layers of grapes and rock sugar. We use rock sugar because it dissolves very slowly, providing a gradual release of sugar. The jar is then sealed and left in a dark room to ferment for 6 months. It does take a bit of effort to make, but it’s a labor of love and memories together that my family and I enjoy often for the rest of the year.

Ending the Day with Spicy Korean Chicken Stew

After watching “Hi Bye, Mama” with my mom all last night, I’m craving some spicy chicken dish. While my mom finish up gardening with Dom outside, I decided to make some early cozy dinner with this Spicy Korean Chicken Stew. There’s just something about one-pot dinners served family-style that makes me feel so connected and at home. This Korean family dish is warming, both for my stomach and for my heart.

• 2 pounds chicken drumsticks or any other parts of chicken
• 2 medium potatoes chopped
• 2 large onions chopped
• 1 large carrot sliced
• 1 jalapeño sliced
• 5-6 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Korean Red Chili Paste gochujang
• 1 tablespoon Korean soy bean paste doenjang
• 1 tablespoon Korean red chili flakes gochugaru
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2-3 cups chicken stock or other stocks