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Sep. 10, 2008
What Passes For Fun Up Here
There are some who believe that the only things worth "doing" in life are XBox, movies, and TV. Regrettably, here out in the woods, we try to do other things in addition to all that electronica. Preferably things that don't require a plug at the end to work.
Even more preferably, activities that might have a little practical and pragmatic value!
Today was cooking day. Actually, pickling day is more like it. We went to Carver Farms in Newman Lake yesterday and picked a mess of stuff - cucumbers, squash, strawberries, purple bush beans, a few lonely hot peppers, corn, onions and the like.
Then brought it home where I, in a fit of energy, decided some of this stuff had to GO. But you can't cook it all at once, not everything freezes well, and no one could eat all of it in one night.
Not even me.
Pickling and fermenting became the order of the day. And the kids helped, because they like to diddle around in the kitchen.
Josh and Jessie getting rolling. Yes, my kitchen is a mess. Yes, someday I will have a pantry and 90% of the stuff sitting out on the counters will go away:
Joshua peeling cucumbers. He peeled a smaller one for his pickle "experiment" (regular vinegar, sugar, and water) and a larger one for my tsukemono experiment (rice wine vinegar, sugar, salt and water). Tsukemono is Japanese pickled cucumbers. (If you want the whole name, it's kyuuri no amasuzuke. Or so the Internet claims.)
Jessie tearing up the cabbage for the sauerkraut. We put sea salt, water, and some Bragg's Aminos in this. We had to do it in two batches because the cabbage starts out large and gets smashed down small.
Here she is smashing away with a meat tenderizer.
Tsukemono ready to sit in the fridge for a few days:
Half of the sauerkraut. This sits on the counter for three days or so to ferment and really taste good. I will admit, the first time I did this I was really nervous that I was going to poison us or something. But it all turned out well:
In between all of this, Sarah helped by eating cucumbers:
And then some strawberries:
After supervising all that, I'm really tired and feel like I need a nap. Then again, I feel like that most days, so what's new? Ultrasound (with whizbang 3D pictures!) on September 25th. Will keep you posted on whether the finished product will be a hot dog or a cheeseburger. The whole family will be there for this one, I'm looking forward to the kids' reactions to seeing their new sibling on the screen. (One example of how electronica can be cool. That, and Eureka on the SciFi channel.)
Anyone want to take bets on whether it's a boy or girl?
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