Uber-productivity

I'm still here but getting a bit bored without a job. Hopefully that will change soon but I've tried to take advantage of the free time to be, as the title says, uber-productive, most in the kitchen.

I've been interested in foods with probiotics for a couple months now but didn't want to start something big right before we moved. As soon as that last box was unpacked though, I got to work.

I started by making homemade sauerkraut. After three days fermenting and one day chilling in the fridge it was ready for tasting last night. I was really worried about it being too "weird" to eat, especially for Craig as he is not sure about this whole fermented food thing.

It wasn't too bad but I'm not sure it is ready yet. It tasted like a mix of cabbage and sauerkraut so it might need a few days but I've gotten different time lines from different sources so that isn't surprising. It was also super salty and I don't think time will heal that wound. I'm not sure where I went wrong, maybe my cabbage was small and not medium so I should have adjusted for that? Or maybe homemade sauerkraut is just really salty but this was really salty. I think it will be okay if I just rinse it right before I serve it though. Hopefully that doesn't rinse away all the good bacteria.

I'm also trying a sourdough starter for the first time. This one is a bit of a "cheater" as it used yeast too but it's smelling pretty good and it's from a bread machine book so I can use it my machine. I'm crossing my fingers!

I also made a big batch of my famous spaghetti sauce and froze it in little BRC-sized portions (aka - 1.5 c). It is pretty easy to make a batch but I never seem to get around to it on the weekends so I'm glad I have a nice stash in the freezer.

Last night I made another batch of granola. And speaking of granola, my mom reminded me that I never went back and posted my recipe. Oops. I put it up as a separate post right below this for all two of you who wanted it.

I don't want to be misleading, not everything I made was healthy. A couple days ago Craig and I were both needing dessert. Sometimes you want dessert, sometimes you need dessert - this time it was a definite need. We found this recipe for peanut butter oatmeal cookies and it was amazing! The only thing I changed was the oatmeal, I used rolled instead of quick oats and upped it to 1 cup. And I used crunchy peanut butter but that isn't really a change, just a choice. They were so moist and chewy.

After a trip to the sad little gardener's market here in town, Craig decided he needed to get into the kitchen too and whipped up some zucchini bread and muffins with the veggies we got. They weren't too shabby either.

So basically, we have been sitting around the apartment, watching the Olympics and eating. It's a dangerous combination but it's too hot to do anything else.