Thursday, March 10, 2011

Blame it on a lack of green...

      EEEEKK! It has been over a month since I have posted!  In my defense, February was a busy month(I will post some pics tomorrow). March started with T home from college for Spring break, then I had the flu:(  I am back, but definitely suffering from a lack of anything green in my life.
     February in Cincinnati may be the grayest experience of my life. The sun does not shine. Is it a river effect?  Is it that Cincy is on the western edge of the eastern timezone? Rick and I lived in San Francisco's "Fog Belt". As the name implies the rent was cheap and  it was foggy all the time, but never cold.Cold is not such a problem for me as it means I actually can wear the sweaters that I love to knit. No kidding, there was one  slightly sunny day the whole month. Between the snow blanketing the ground( white) and the temperature that barely made it above freezing, I felt the lack  of color.  The combination of the  gray and the  cold  makes me desperate for color.
      I have been canning marmalade and champagne jelly just to see the color in the jars!  The instructions and recipes in this book are fabulous.

The marmalade has not lasted long...
    
Today I swung by the grocery and saw ...cabbage.  Green, glorious cabbage!  Green in shades from bright to  so pale that it is almost almost buttery in  appearance.  I don't know how to cook cabbage so anyone will actually eat it, but again my canning book came to the rescue.  For 66 cents, I bought a one and a half pound head  of the Spring GREEN veg.  I was so excited to start the recipe, that I didn't take a pic of the intact head.  Instead, I slivered it up, dumped it in a bowl, sprinkled on 4 teaspoons of kosher salt and played in it by squeezing.  Do you know what happens?  I had no idea... The salt draws out the water, and before you know there is an easy 2 cups of brine.  You have figured out where this is going, haven't you?

SAUERKRAUT

This is Krissof's small batch recipe which fills  one two quart Ball jar.  You use a water filled baggie to gently press the kraut down in the brine while allowing the brine to trickle out as the cabbage compresses.  That is the reason for the bowl.  The green leaves are from B's pottery class, just liked the way they looked with the kraut.  The best part of all is that it the sauerkraut will sit on my kitchen table for ten days while it pickles.  By the time I put a lid on the jar and put it in the refrigerator,  hopefully there will be green outside:)!!