i love fermented foods!!

i have taken a long break from them because after eating sauerkraut/pickles/umeboshi/kim chi/pickled garlic or some other fermented foods almost daily my doctor said the high concentration of salt was dehydrating me & may have contributed to my chronic migraines (which are mostly menstrual, but i certainly don’t want to tempt the fates by not taking proper care of myself no matter what time of the month it is). i haven’t had kim chi since then, & that’s probably the saddest thing (a bagel with a little earth balance spread & kim chi is the most delicious thing in the world, fyi).

tonight, though, i had this extra beet sitting around & i just could not think of what to do with it. i’ve already made frozen beet cubes for smoothies (1-2 beets in the blender with a ton of water, frozen in ice cube trays & saved long-term in a freezer bag along with my kale cubes — this is my favorite way to sneak veggies into my smoothies! carrot cubes next probably). i’ve already used them in lots of different recipes in cooking. i have yet to bake with them. i have yet to make borscht this winter, i’m really overdue…but i only had one beet left!

so i took one of my old empty jam jars, i peeled & grated my raw beet. i used the smallest, finest option on my grater because i decided to make a savory, fermented spread for sandwiches. once i had it all grated up i put it into the jar & added all the fixin’s. i eyeballed it & did a lot of taste testing, but i will give you approximate measurements:

1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp salt

1-2 pinches of crushed red pepper

1 tbsp finely chopped garlic

1 tsp black pepper

then i filled the remainder of the jar with water, put the cap on & found a nice place out of direct light to let it ferment in. someday i will have a cupboard in my house just for fermenting foods, but right now it’s just sitting next to my mugs & tea. it tastes pretty good already — we’ll see how it tastes in a week or two :p

Eating food and buying bras has been the highlight of my weekend. I had today off because of parent teacher conferences (I was in meetings with parents ALL DAY on Saturday). Mikhail took me to brunch at champs and we went grocery shopping and suddenly my mood has turned around. I love being in love and sharing a delicious meal together. There is nothing better!

• a gift card to LUSH so i can stop feeling bad about sinking all of my money into self indulgent lotions and foot scrubs (i excuse the ro’s argan body conditioner because it all but cured my psoriasis, that shit is a miracle & i smell amazing & feel amazing & don’t have to use chemical prescription bullshit anymore so i’ll spend however much i need to on that…the rest of it, though, i have no excuse)
• a dozen cupcakes (german chocolate, carrot cake, red velvet or lemon i dunno gimme cupcakes)
• a dozen donuts (rose, coconut or maple)
• pineapple pizza
• mikhail to come home so we can cuddle and watch more battlestar galactica damnit
• a job where i can wear makeup & nail polish (but honestly this is one of the ONLY complaints i have about my job so i should just shut up)
• freya (our cat) to take her medication & stop being afraid of everything & actually get comfortable enough with us to sleep in bed with us sometimes, or even just cuddle with us in bed

today for brunch i had a pumpernickel bagel

with toffuti better than cream cheese spread,

tomato slices,

mixed greens from my greenhouse

& a shit ton of old bay seasoning, which turned out to be a great idea

IT WAS AMAZING

i love granola. in the community where i live, the bakery makes the granola — but it has honey & i just cannot eat (conventional) honey. that is a very different discussion, of course…the point here is: everyone eats granola all of the time here but i can’t & usually that’s fine with me. usually. every once in a while i get a wicked craving for it — tonight was one of those times. i decided to just make it myself! even though i have never made granola before. i really enjoy making recipes up as i go along, i rarely follow a recipe at all & when i do i disregard half of the suggestions. this is not an exact recipe because i eyeballed almost everything & followed no general guidelines. this is highly experimental granola!! it’s in the oven now…hopefully it turns out ok :/

anyway, i’ll give you the ingredients list:

• rolled oats
• sunflower oil
• maple syrup
• 2 SMALL HANDFULS of unrefined sugar
• 2 PINCHES of flour
• 1 PINCH cinnamon
• 1 PINCH nutmeg
• 1 PINCH ginger
• raisins
• crushed walnuts
• flax seeds
• sunflower seeds
• pumpkin seeds
• 1 TBS crunchy peanut butter
• 1 TBS earth balance

SO EXCITED, Y’ALL

EDIT: i baked this around 350 for like 15 minutes & took the granola out of the oven half-way through to mix it up. add the raisins, walnuts, & all the seeds only AFTER the oats have been baked & cooled.