Tips for Stephanie!

(Or anyone else ready to make their own fermented vegetables!)  Here are some tips for jumping into fermenting.  I'd love for you to link into Amazon with these items  (Amazon is about to pull my account, as no one has linked in to order.....)

The following is in no particular order and random!  Sort of like my life!!

Salt.  Ridiculously expensive, this salt is perfect for fermenting.  And it's beautiful.  Nothing else in it but salt.  Love this stuff - thanks Coralia for this gift which I now use all the time!  Awesome Salt

Lids.  I think fermenting in one quart jars is the way to go.  Small batches are ready in 2-3 weeks, fun to watch, and pretty on the edges of the counter (where it is dark).  These lids are easy to open, have a cool way to mark the day the product starts, and breath out only, keeping this process anaerobic.  It's really easy to over-fill a jar and lose that wonderful brine.  I recommend a 3/4 full jar.  These lids come with a pump which removes air when you store your ferment.  Trouble is, then your lid ends up on a jar in the fridg.  Mine are in constant use, so this "bonus" isn't that handy.  Wide Mouth Fermenting Lids

Weights.  You need weights to hold the whole thing down.  Once the bacteria get going, things start happening in your jar.  Do not buy the ones that are just flat.  Mistake (take it from me!).  Get the kind you can pick up from the top of the jar.  I love these Glass Weights for Inside of Jar

Pounder.  I resisted this thing and now, for reasons of being in a hurry and not paying attention, I now have two!  They are good tools.  Stephanie, I'll send you my extra on Monday.  It is really important to get your vegetables smashed into the jar tight.  Air is not good.  This tool beats the heck out of pushing it down with your fist (again, I speak from experience!).  Packing Tool

Help.  This is the very best fermenter out there online.  She is passionate.  Sign up to help Holly reach 50,000 people fermenting in a year.  Her recipes are spot-on.  Every one I have made has been delicious!  Holly Howe Rocks!

Recipe Book.  This was one of the first things I got when inspiration hit.  The book is beautiful and walks you through process.  Recipes galore as well.  It's worth the money if you are jumping into fermenting.  Recipe Cookbook

Lastly, don't be afraid.  This process gets the pH down to a safe level for preservation.  Don't cook this stuff - you kill all the beneficial bacteria!  Be inspired, there are a zillion combinations of things to ferment - I've used fresh cranberries in a batch and they were amazing!  Enjoy!  Besides the health benefits, your fermented creations will be delicious!!  

Many of the below are coming out of their jars this week!!  Yum!!

End of a Busy Week

Monday was a government holiday.  For some.

Thanks to a fire in the chase of a giant chimney in a giant house, I spent my Monday doing fire investigations.  The house is 13K square feet.  Wow.  That's a whole lot of house to clean!!  This is the Teton Village Truck set up for roof operations.  This is the kind of stuff that firefighters LIVE for!!  My "day off" was a bit cancelled.  Oh well.

Kraut continues to ferment in the kitchen.  The one I am watching is called "By The Sea".  It has green cabbage, blood orange, and arame sea weed.

Off to Freedom tomorrow afternoon.  FREEDOM!!

Winter Returns

Over a foot of wet, heavy snow arrived during the night.  Mike and I spent the day moving it.  Heavy and stubborn the snow has been scraped off decks and walkways, blown off car aprons and parking spots, and plowed away to giant heaps at the end of the road. 

Here, a view through the orchids.  Do note, the orchid sending out a blossom stalk!  Always a noteworthy event, for me, when you can get an orchid to bloom again.

Crazy for Kraut

Or just crazy.  Your call!!

 

Living Vicariously

It is a beautiful morning in Freedom.  I sit at my desk in Jackson, enjoying the view!  I got the cameras for Mike's birthday.  Not too expensive and seemingly kind of slick, I thought it would be a good gift.  Live web cam.  You can find these cameras at Fos Cam .

The cameras tie into the wifii there and can be pulled up off an app where ever one might be.  I cannot be there every day in person, but I can be there vicariously, viewing the changing weather, the sun moving shadows across the new snow, the clouds scattered in the blue morning sky. 

There is an added security feature for one of the cameras; live recording in the Cloud so if something funky happens, we can roll back to that time and see what went on.  So far, the coolest event was an owl coming in to snag a mouse at 2am.  There are three cameras now.  One on the garage, one in the Corporate Headquarters (this a portable camera which moves to various places), and one out at the hanger with a big northwest view of the place.  I am happy to share the user name and password with family and friends.

This long President's Day weekend finds friend Jason and son Ollie enjoying the Freedom home.  Mike and I will make weekend day visits, working on various projects in the hanger.  Enjoy the long weekend, if you are so lucky to have one!

PS  The time stamp is wrong!  I'll fix that right now.

For the Love of Valentine's Day

Who doesn't like Valentine's Day?  I suppose people who are alone do not.  We celebrated with an amazing meal and good friend Janet last night (her guy, Todd, off doing some training).  Shipped fresh from Legal Seafood, we banked the wonderful gift certificate Steven and Victoria send for our enjoyment every Christmas.  And enjoy, we did!  Mike got out the big boiling pot, gas flame roaring outside the front door.  As the water heated, we drank delicious wines, tasted appetizers, munched on a fresh green salad, and slurped the rich clam chowder that arrived with the lobster.  Mmmmmm, so good.  Then came the crustaceans!  We all got quiet and serious about the chore of releasing the tender sweet flesh from the exoskeleton holder.  This might need to become a tradition!!

 

Diary of a Food Hoarder

As I wailed in pain after the brick of frozen meat fell out of the freezer onto my toes, Michael mumbled something about me being a food hoarder.  The proof of this statement was directly in front of me.  Sour cherries, frozen flat in a ziplock bag waiting to become a pie - from 2012!  Flat stacks of frozen peaches from the Presbyterian church annual peach sale.  Flat packages of frozen pulled pork, green chili verde, bags of nuts, packages of slices cheeses, rounds of elk burger, some packages of frozen lasagna.

Like any addiction, recognizing one is addicted is the first step to curing the illness.  I pulled out the cherries and made jam, incorporating some hibiscus flowers.  It turned out delicious. 

There is a certain pride in having full cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer.  I recall the time in my life when money was as scarce as the food in the empty cupboards.  Like a person who lived through the depression, I take pride and relief to see there is food, plenty of food.  Food to eat, food to entertain, and food to save for when food is needed! 

There are several tools which have been extremely helpful in my food hoarding obsession.  I was using a sealer similar to this one last night Seal o Meal , and pondered how this little creation has changed and improved my freezer hoarding.  Inspired from Alden, Seth's amazing and creative wife, during our summer pack trip, I knew as soon as I unsealed the breakfast burritos from their airless heavy plastic packages that I had to have the unit that made all this happen. 

More batches of fermented vegetables are coming out of the kitchen.  Happily, I have found some folks who really like and understand the bacterial benefits of fermented vegies.  Soon, there will be more kraut around here than I can give away!  Mike says our house smells like an old shoe.  This is a real hazard of making your own fermented vegetables!!  You really should sign up for Holly's email newsletter Start here to find out more! and help her with the quest to get 50K people making fermented vegetables!  Her recipes are spot-on and easy to follow.  I've made three recipes with success!  No more $13 pint purchases of kraut for me!!  And, I created my very own label! I love Publisher!!

This summer found me buying a beautiful (extravagant) copper pan for jam making.  Actually, Mike got it for me for Christmas - I think he knows that.....!! This Beautiful Thing is not only practical, it is a piece of art, hanging on the wall, waiting for the next batch of fruit to simmer up inside its shining walls. 

The best batch was the apricot jam.  Sweet and tart all at the same time, the jam was thick with pulp and just the right consistency.  I found a great book to help me along the way of jam making, Blue Chair Jam .  I read something about this gal buying 2000 pounds of fruit weekly in the summer.  Whoooa, that's obsessive!!  Mike and I went to the winter's farmer's market yesterday and found jam at $6/cup.  I guess at that price, you could do well to make a bunch of jam.  Honey was $18/quart.  There was a lot of honey around.  I bought $4 worth of fresh butter crunch lettuce from Vertical Harvest which I am always happy to spend a bit-too-much for the things they produce (check them out, what they do is pretty darn cool).  Also bought a half pound of fresh shitake mushrooms, a dozen delicious green chili chicken tamales Great Tamales (brought home and frozen up for later - HOARDER I AM!!), and the non-pasteurized ice cream from Shumway Farms .  This stuff is truly amazing.  Look for this at Michael's big birthday bash September 1!!  At $7 a PINT, they've got something going!! 

Dinner last night - pistachio encrusted sea bass cooked in a parchment bag, fresh butter crunch salad, and a taste of amazing ice cream.  Working on a batch of bacon-ends split pea soup to take to work tomorrow and for dinner, spaghetti and meatballs (the meatballs were found in the very back of the freezer last week!). 

The Winter of 2018

Things got colder after Sunday night, thankfully.  Now the slop is ice-hard and crunchy.  For a bit, the ice was treacherous, but it is what we call "rotten" now (ice and snow that have warmed and melted and warmed and melted) and traction comes easier.

Here are some pictures taken before we left on Sunday.  Uck.

Lastly, check this out!  These are some crocus bulbs I planted last fall - clearly confused! - showing their brave selves!! 

Soggy Ground Hog

Truth is, there are no ground hogs in Wyoming. We have badgers and marmots and chislers living in the ground.  Had any of them emerged from the frozen ground, they would have been pretty disappointed in the winter of 2018.  The day began with snow and quickly warmed up to slop and rain.  Last night's temperature never got below freezing.  Mike and I wore hats as we soaked in the Freedom hot tub, our exposures pelted with cold raindrops.

The yard is showing splotches of grass.  The roofs are sliding their burden of snow with the sudden and unexpected crash and clamor that always causes surprise.  Dark clouds lay heavy on the mountain tops.  Are we in for four months of spring mud season and dreary weather?

I am unclear what it would mean had one of our underground critters emerged from the frozen ground yesterday, but today things aren't looking much better and the thermometer hovers at 38 degrees.  Ugh.

There will be no cross country ski this weekend.  Two Adirondack chairs need painting, dinner with neighbor Pam, and an early Sunday departure to get back, make chicken wings, and head to friends' for the Super Bowl.  I'd rather watch the President's state of the union address - which I did not anyway because, thank goodness, we don't have TV!