In the kitchen: Kraut-chi and other fermented veggie experiments

Do any of you have the tendency to read and book about a topic that really excites you, and then become completely obsessed with said new topic until you have a major reality check slap you in the face? 

No? Yes?

Well, I have that tendency, and it kinda kicked my butt last week!

I kept coming across blog posts about the benefits of fermented foods, but Sandor Katz's book The Art of Fermentation was what really sent me into overdrive. Particularly all of the info about making kraut-chi (combo of sour kraut and kim-chi) and other fermented vegetables. 

My first attempt did not fair so well because I was trying to mash off of my cabbage using a wooden spoon. Then I found this lovely wooden mallet at my favorite thrift store for $2 and really went to town!

And when I say "went to town", what I really mean is that I totally forgot that I have arthritis in most of my body and spent hours mashing away at cabbage, and then could hardly move for the next several days. Now you know why I went so long between blog posts! Oopsie!

Making a brine for some brussel sprouts that were on sale last week at Aldi's was so much easier so I anticipate making more veggies like this!

I even remembered to tape notes to the jars so that I can make them again if they turn out well! 

Would love to hear if any of you have tried fermented veggies, too!

In the kitchen: comfort food for crummy colds

The Lowens Haus got hit with a round of colds this week. The drippy nose, constant cough sometimes accompanied by a fever, up several times during the night kind of colds. Bleh. 

I'm sure it won't come as a big shock that I haven't been painting much. I just don't work very well when I'm sleep deprived. There would have been a time where seeing my unfinished work just sitting there would have left me restless, but I've started to enjoy just going into my studio to look at my work, the tubes of paint lying where I left them last and my houseplants bathed in nice northern light.

The weather is just cool enough that a bowl of warm soup still sounds like the best thing after a day of using copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  For this meal I made 

Curried Lentil Soup by the Nourished Kitchen (skip the pre-soak and cook lentils in soup)

Balsamic Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts (hold the bacon to make this meal vegan)

with roasted craisins and sunflower seeds to top it off.

I had originally planned on recording on Periscope for my first time on Saturday but think that will be just too much for me. Fingers crossed that everyone gets better this weekend!!

If you want to go ahead and follow me in anticipation of my fist broadcast my handle is @rachelloewens. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!

In the kitchen: brining and baking

If you were two sum up how I have spent my free time this past week, it would only take two words: brining and baking. Or maybe I should say reading about brining  because I've spent significantly more hours learning about the brining process than actually doing brining work.

After reading this lovely post on The Nourished Kitchen about preserving lemons, I knew I had to try it myself. 

The prep work was super basic so it looks like the real challenge will be waiting for the lemons to cure. In the meantime, I'm searching Pinterest for recipes to try when they are ready. 

Now, for the baking news. My whole family loves my modified version of the Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food cook book so much that I always make a double batch. I don't know about you , but I always have this "ahhhhh" moment when bread goes into the oven. I pour myself another cup of coffee and stick it in the microwave...

...only to discover that I forgot to put in the melted dairy-free butter. Yeah. Mom fail. Thankfully it is still yummy and even tastes more bready and less cakey which I like. The only downside is that it doesn't stay moist as long do I think I'll just use about half of what the recipe calls for from now on. 

In other baking related news, I found a stack of 5" wide baskets for 98c at my favorite thrift store! These will be perfect to prove small loaves of sour dough bread in later this week!

To see more pictures of my baking/sketching/knitting adventures, make sure you follow me on Instagram!!