Making kimchi: Part Two

February 15th - While off work on my snow morning, I finished the kimchi.  At least to the point of letting it sit and ferment more.

To the brined cabbage, I added fresh ginger, garlic and scallions, the Korean red pepper, salt and sugar.

Here's the first jar, filled and capped with a bag of brine.

I filled one quart and one pint with the original kimchi mixture.  To the rest, I added 1 teaspoon of the dried anchovy mix seen in the photo above.  I've eaten kimchi both ways, so I wanted to try making it both ways.  The finished count was 3 quarts total.

 

Pretty, isn't it?  Now I just have to wait 3 to 6 days, depending on how sour I want the taste.

Snow day!

February 15th - We finally got snow.  It's kinda weird when locales south of us get snow and we don't.  I mean, we ARE in the Mid-South, so it's freaky when the Deep and Coastal South get dumped on and we don't.  So in celebration, I took a snow morning!

Here's what my yard looked like when I peered out the window this morning:

But I should have taken a snow afternoon, because this is what I saw from the office windows later in the day:

Making kimchi: Part One

February 14th - I love kimchi.  love, Love, LOVE!

I decided to celebrate the day by attempting to make kimchi, that irresistably spicy, tangy, fermented cabbage pickle from Korea.  A few months ago, I discovered a book, The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich, at the local library, and had to buy it so I could try the recipes.  Naturally, kimchi was the first thing I tried.  A few years ago, my friend Nayoon and her hubby came for a visit, and she brought me Korean red pepper and anchovy powder.  I finally used it.  Thanks, Nayoon!

Here's the Chinese cabbage being chopped.  Two heads, cored and chopped into 2" pieces.

Here's the cabbage packed into the churn Mom loaned me.  Thanks, Mom!

Here's the cabbage with brine, weighted by a plate and a heavy glass.  Now we wait 12 hours for the cabbage to brine and reduce in volume.

Oops!  Almost forgot the daikon radish.  Chopped that and added it to the brining cabbage.  Re-weighted it and covered it with a dishtowel.  Now...back to waiting.  Impatiently, I might add.

Bathroom ceiling: check!

On February 7th, when most Americans were glued to their seats in front of the television, watching the Superbowl, I got busy.  My friend Amy came over to help and keep me motivated.  In exchange, I cooked chicken satay and sesame noodles with peanut sauce.  Mmmm.  But back to business...

The bathroom-in-progress hadn't progressed in a year.  To paraphrase splatgirl at  http://moderninmn.blogspot.com/ , usable is not done.  Once the bathroom was to a usable point, we learned to live with all the other undone stuff.  Like the ceiling, the trim, the stripped down closet and the walls.

The breaking point came when I was scrubbing mildew off the ceiling (flat white paint - WTF?!?) for the THIRD time.  I told CC he might actually have to commit me if the ceiling mildewed one more time before we took care of priming and painting it.  At the very least, I would have to take to the bed.  Mildew is depressing.

So Amy came over.  First we primed.  Fun, thick stuff.  Then we took a break to check on the marinating status of the chicken and have a beverage.  The primer dried.  We didn't watch it.

I decided to custom-mix the final color from leftovers and oops paint.  Amy and I thought the first attempt was beautiful in the can, but WAY too dark on the ceiling.  CC concurred.  No way the tiny window and lights could have compensated.  So, we added some white trim paint to lighten the color, and voila!  What you see is what we got!  It turned out to be this beautiful silvery sage that looks great with the shower tile and is neutral enough to complement the blue beadboard wainscoting.  Can I get a WOO-HOO?