The First Pickles of The Season

On Saturday my friend JJ and I bought some pickling cucumbers at the farmer's market and set to work making the first pickles of the season. They're fermented, so they're garlic pickles instead of vinegar pickles like most of the ones we made last year. I followed the tried and true recipe from "Wild Fermentation," and it was the fastest ferment ever! They were done in four days, I guess because of the heat and humidity. They're supposed to take a minimum of 1 week to properly ferment, so it's a good thing I checked on them . . .

Me to Philly

A little bit of exciting news today: I've been asked to contribute to the fantastic and informative blog Farm to Philly! My friend Erin is the head honcho over there and she writes for Grid magazine (I'm a HUGE fan of this publication) on behalf of the site. Erin also writes her own vegetarian-focused blog, Veggicurious. Check out my first post, all about DIY sauerkraut (a subject close to my heart).

Can't Get Enough Kraut

I'm back into the groove of sauerkraut production and I might even try to can some of it this time. It's just so good and easy to make, I can't say enough about it. The recipe I use is from Sandorkraut's Wild Fermentation, of course.



Nicole's wedding was gorgeous and personal, as you would expect. Pictures to come.

My Veggie Booty

We got our first CSA box of the Fall! I took a hiatus this summer because I had no one to share my veggies with, my friend Sarah was living up at Lassen. But now my two new housemates are really into the veggie box and we've begun again. We got a beautiful box: Tomatoes, peppers, yellow onions, beautiful Bintje potatoes, Granny Smith apples, basil, a globe eggplant, and red Russian kale.



I couldn't help but arrange the food by color, and now that I'm looking at the photo it reminds me of the opening scene in "Girl with the Pearl Earring." It's a gorgeous scene where the main character is chopping vegetables for dinner and arranging them all by color. That movie was shockingly true to the book it's based on, I was very pleased.



I also finished the fermentation of my sauerkraut and pickles. The sauerkraut is really strong because I put a few cloves of garlic in the crock. I might not put so much in next time, it certainly is pungent.



I also used a different method to grow alfalfa sprouts in my kitchen. I drained them upside down in a jar, which I read in a book somewhere, I can't remember where. I think I'll go back to the old way next time because the sprouts just started growing down through the cheesecloth and I couldn't drain them or get them out without tedious tugging.



And thanks to everyone for the birthday love this week!

I got a pickle, hey hey, HEY HEY!

I made my first "half sour" pickles! It was so easy, and I've already eaten them all and refilled the crock with more little cucumbers from the farmer's market. I used a lot of garlic, as you can see, and $2 worth of cucumbers.



My new favorite book (I'm infecting all of my foody friends with a love for this book too) is called "Wild Fermentation: The flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture foods" written by Sandor Ellix Katz. I used it to make sauerkraut last spring, and I used it again to make my pickles.



Basically, you add peeled garlic, peppercorns, dill (fresh or dried), and grape leaves (to keep the pickles crunchy with their tannins) to the crock, add the cucumbers, cover it all in salt water and set in a corner to ferment. Mine came out incredibly salty, but I think I'm going to leave them in the crock for much longer next time and see what happens.



I also made a gingerbread cake from this amazing book I got from the public library.



I put jelly in the middle, and I tried to make chocolate icing for the top, but it failed (it got all lumpy and I think it's because I didn't "cream" the butter. My arms got tired, what can I say?).



I decorated it with pomegranate seeds, which I'm overflowing with right now because there are a few unharvested trees over at the student farm on campus.



I'm making a coconut cake today and enjoying my weekly dose of NPR. This book has totally infected me with a love of cake baking; I picked up over $10 of used cake pans at the thrift store the other day. It may also be because I turn 25 tomorrow.

Sauerkraut and baseball, a match made in heaven

Well, I've discovered my new favorite breakfast; scrambled eggs with Parmesan cheese, diced tomatoes, and sauerkraut. The combination of salty, sour, acidic, and creamy was exactly what I was looking for this morning. It's not that pretty, but the sauerkraut itself is a nice yellow/green color now. I took it out of the crock and put it in the fridge in a tupperware, so the fermentation is finally over. And I think I can promise that this is the last post with sauerkraut pictures (for now, mwahahahaha!).



I went to a minor league baseball game in Sacramento the other day, my first time. We were rooting for the Sacramento Rivercats, who are the minor league team for the Oakland A's. They lost, oh well. It was at Raley field, where they have lawn seats for $6 in back of the outfield, and it was a great way to spend a Thursday night. The stadium was surprisingly professional looking, with the regular vendors and everything, but it was all on a smaller scale. I'm going to see the Giants in San Francisco next weekend, so I'll be able to compare. Not counting Raley field, I've been to 5 baseball stadiums, which is quite a lot for someone who isn't really a big baseball fan. Shea Stadium (New York Mets), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals), Three Rivers Stadium (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies). Now I get to add AT&T Park to the list. What a terrible name. I don't know which is worse, AT&T Park, or Citizens Bank Park, ick.



Here's a sneak peek of the weaving project. No details until it's done, sorry.

Summer is here

My finals ended last Wednesday and I took the week off for vacation (hence the lack of posts). My friend Chip came to visit and we had game nights and BBQs and family dinners galore, lots of wonderful summer activities.



It was over 100 degrees out for a few days last week, and the temp today is down to about 85, but I'm not crossing my fingers for it to last. This is just Davis in the summer.



The sauerkraut is aging well, I had some on my hot dogs for the BBQ. It's pretty salty, and the ballpark frank didn't help much, so I might try it on something else in the future. The Joy of Cooking suggests a lot of really terrible sounding recipes for sauerkraut ("sauerkraut balls" and "onions stuffed with sauerkraut" among them. It actually says "Not for ladies' luncheon" underneath that second recipe). Here's what it looks like right now.



It looks kind of gross, but it's actually pretty good all by itself. I've just been eating it slowly every day as I check its progress. I might have to transfer it to the fridge soon because this heat is aging it quicker than I'm ready for.

The craft center has been closed for the past week, but it reopens soon and I will get back to my massive weaving project that was supposed to be a Mother's Day gift. HA! Sorry Mom.

Back to "Normal" - more tea and veggies

School is almost over and I have my weekends back. I've been spending them well so far, even though I still have two exams left. Yesterday was my friend Sarah's 30th birthday party, and I helped her decorate her backyard for the dinner party. I'll post pictures soon. There have actually been a lot of birthdays this month, my friend Casey had a tea/B-Day party a few weeks ago:



Amanda brought green princess cake (marzipan "icing" and yellow cake with layers of raspberry jam, mmmmmm). We also had blooming jasmine tea which I've been really wanting to get for myself, but I can't justify the expense. The tea leaves and jasmine flowers are hand tied into little balls, which "bloom" when you pour the boiling water over them.

Here's the latest CSA box:





I bought the corn at the farmer's market (5 ears for $1!) but the CSA box had beets, basil, zucchini, carrots, cabbage, and beans. I put most of it into a huge fried rice dish, which I'm still eating. But I had something special in mind for the cabbage. I'm making sauerkraut!



That's right, you heard me. It's really easy, actually. All I did was shred the cabbage and sprinkle it with lots of salt to draw out the water and create a brine. A while ago I bought a crock for this very purpose, and I took the shredded cabbage and shoved it into the crock, pressing down and crushing the cabbage to draw more water out of it. I put a tupperware and water-filled glass jar "weight" on it, and the brine should rise above the cabbage in 24 hours. I'll let you know how it goes.

Food firsts

Last Friday was full of food firsts. I had an amazing dinner with my friend Nicole and her boyfriend that I helped to make (just enough so that I felt justified in eating a lot of it). We made ravioli from scratch with a pasta maker (first #1). It was really fun and the dough was a lot stretchier than I expected. Nicole has a ravioli form that was so easy to use; I'm thinking of getting one without the frilly edges to use when I make pierogies for Wigilia, the traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner that I have with my family every year. In the past I've used a glass to cut the form, then tried to fill them and press the dough together with a fork or with some water to glue the edges down. No matter what, the filling comes out when we boil them and they are ridiculous-looking, but everyone is nice about it and eats them anyway.


While this was all happening, I made cheese, first #2. Sounds weird, but I did and it was so easy and it tastes great! I heated a gallon of whole milk to a slow boil, then I took it off the heat and added a 1/2 cup of vinegar to make it curdle. I strained it through a cheese-cloth-lined colander, added some salt, and hung it to drip for a little bit. It looked like cauliflower afterward, but it tasted like warm hardened ricotta cheese. Yummy. Unfortunately, blogger won't let me put up pictures that have a vertical orientation, so I can't show you the pictures of the cheese.


Finally, Nicole made ice cream in her ice cream maker, using honey to sweeten it and putting actual vanilla beans in for the vanilla flavor. I'm counting that as a first as well, even though my only participation was to bring berries to put on top, and to eat the ice cream.


The whole cheese thing was inspired by this book I got from the local public library "Wild Fermentation: The flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture foods" by Sandor Ellix Katz. I will definitely write more about it later, because I am trying out a lot of the recipes in it. I have a sourdough starter going right now (picture above) and I've just made the "sponge" for some bread that I will bake tomorrow. So look forward to hearing about the trials and tribulations of bread-making. I'm flying back home for Easter this weekend too, so there will probably also be some stuff about the trials and tribulations of air travel in future posts. Fun.