With TikTok shutting down, I’m on a mad dash to download and copy all the recipes I’ve saved. It feels like the early 2000s on Black Friday when herds of people squeezed and trampled each other for a toaster. Only now am I snagging ideas for fermentation.
Actually, more than ideas. Just a few minutes ago, I set down my phone and rushed to the kitchen to make salsa from a recipe: a few cloves of garlic, half an onion, a handful of cilantro, and a couple of Roma tomatoes in a jar. I covered it with a cup and a half of water mixed with a teaspoon and a half of salt, weighted it down with a part from my immersion blender (the only thing I could find on short notice), twisted the lid, and placed it in front of the heat blowing from the ice bullet maker.
If I’d had jalapeño, I would have added it, too. But now I wait—for three to five days—until it’s nice and bubbly.
Fermentation people are a fascinating crowd. I haven’t read an article or watched a video yet where someone isn’t touting the miraculous benefits of fermentation. Ferment what? According to them, pretty much anything.
In the past, I’ve made sauerkraut and much preferred the homemade version to the shelf-stable stuff at the store. Right now, I’ve got two jars of water kefir fermenting on the counter, plus my newly started salsa. I’m running low on jars, and I’m beginning to imagine my kitchen turning into a bubbling lab, like the one in The Absent-Minded Professor. Hopefully, I don’t blow it all up or accidentally make flubber!
On a different note, I’m optimistic (and Dave’s leaning pessimistic) about whether we’ll finish Evelyn’s SkyFort II playset in time. Annaleigh and I have been hauling wood and fasteners, while Dave, Tim, and Hudson drill, mallet, and assemble. At one point, Evelyn looked at the scene of chaos and said, “All these people are working to put this together for me?” Her incredulous voice showing true gratefulness made me proud of the little human she’s becoming.
And just two more sleeps until our three-day vacation! Are you getting excited, too? My friend Kristen is strangely obsessed with Dollywood and has already requested tons of pictures, so I’ll be doing a little “two birds, one stone” situation and taking you along for the ride as well. I hope you don’t mind!
The trip will include a pirate show with dinner, the hotel’s indoor swimming pool, snow sledding, and other adventures we stumble across. I’m looking forward to giving you the full experience—from the comfort of your home or wherever you’re reading this from.
But for now, it’s time to wrap up. This headache needs a chance to dissipate, and hopefully, a bit of shut-eye will do the trick. Plus, I’d like to sleep through the final hours of my fast. I’m aiming for 36 hours and, at 26 hours in, a nice long siesta should carry me to the finish line.
Woohoo! Alright, I’m out.
Love,
Jaclynn
Going On 40 