Pasta... awesome style

It all started with kombucha. I'm going to have to update you on the kombucha and scoby process...it's doing quite well actually.

But it didn't end there.... all of this is only the beginning. Enter chickpea pasta...

I found a recipe on a blog called foodie fiasco and it was only two ingredients.  Chickpea flour (can also find it under other names like gram flour or besan). So it's just chickpea flour and egg. If you don't love the taste of chickpea or you hate hummus, this probably won't be your cup of tea but I love it. I love this pasta more than regular pasta, actually.

When I first made it I tried to roll it out with a rolling pin and I just couldn't get it thin enough.  But I bought a little inexpensive pasta machine that rolls the dough thin (Marshalls, I love you.) and cuts it spaghetti style and voila!

I love love love it fresh like mix, roll, cut, boil, eat (repeat). But you can also freeze it and if I have no space in the freezer, I dry it and store it in an airtight container.

Having tried it fresh, frozen, and dried.... I have to say that it's truly best when it's fresh. I'm talking about, just made it and let's go drop it into boiling water kind of fresh. But hey, if you're short on time during the week and can't make it on the spot every time, you do what you gotta do.

I still favor it over regular pasta.

Updates on Domestic Adventures

Well there have been some #failures and there have been some #successes.

I started 2 sets of sauerkraut. One had to be dumped. Not enough liquid so some mold developed. :( Sad. I put the surviving one in the fridge. But next time-- mental note of using less salt. a little goes a long way cause i feel like it gets saltier as it sits. Oh boy does it get saltier as it sits! When I tasted it right after I made it, it was bad. Now it's inedible. High blood pressure in a jar. I just haven't brought myself to throw it away yet. Like I think it's magically get better. Maybe once I make a new batch, I can let this fiasco go.

Looks good enough to eat, right? But beware. There's so much salt in this thing you could put it out for the horses to lick.

Mold also attacked the large container of kombucha starter. The sauerkraut that got mold and the big kombucha container were right next to each other so the kraut probably contaminated the buch.

I got a very thin SCOBY from the small jar but the kombucha was so vinegary-- I guess I can't call it kombucha, I should just call it vinegar tea. So I took the SCOBY from it and I tried again by adding some more sweet tea.  I also started two other containers, this time using a higher ratio of store bought kombucha (I use GT's raw Original kombucha) than I did on my first try. I was getting a bit worried because I had read a lot online about how store bought kombucha wouldn't produce healthy SCOBYs anymore. So I thought I would just have to go online and buy a SCOBY somewhere but was leery of buying bacteria from strangers, I was leaving the option as a last resolve.

Lo and behold, I did it!

These pictures were taken after I took some out of the containers and put them in jars to second ferment. The SCOBYs were higher on the liquid originally but the moving around to get the liquid  -- I used a turkey baster to suck out the liquid and get it into bottles I got that idea fro Gutsy Girl: http://www.sarahkayhoffman.com/2013/07/18/how-to-make-homemade-kombucha/) .

There they are all ready to start their second ferment. 2 have ginger in them and one has a lemon yuzu concoction used to make a sort of tea. I got it from a little Japanese grocer. One of my favorite teas so we'll see how it does.

And that's the story of my kombucha adventure thus far. Other news in fooding.

I made pickles. I love love love Tsukemono so i decided to try my hand at that (inspired by http://justhungry.com/introduction-quick-japanese-tsukemono-pickles)

They turned out so well, I will definitely be making them again! And again! And again!

Domestic Adventures

So....... I decided to try some new things at home. There's this whole Kombucha craze. I've tried some of it from stores and found it quite tasty. But also kinda pricey. It's supposed to be all kinds of good for you.

I like Capital Kombucha in DC.

It's yummy and their website is here: http://www.capitalkombucha.com/ . The picture is obviously courtesy of their website. This is a shameless plug so hopefully they don't mind me using the picture.



I buy said brand of Kombucha from Smucker Farms. Did I mention that i LOVE Smucker!! Amazing Produce. Amamzing Staff. Amazing Quality. You could practically replace you supermarket -- I definitely buy a lot of produce from there. Stellar spaghetti squash. Butternut Squash. Acorn Squash. AAAAANNNNDDDDD................ Asian Pears!! Yippee! And the items change... why, you ask? Cause they're a far--duh. They bring you stuff that's from the farm so it's in season and oh so totally FRESH!! Check out Smucker online at http://www.smuckerfarmsdc.com/ . (I couldn't find a good image for a shameless plug.

I haven;t yet decided if shamelessly plugging things I like is going to be a problem. You know how you have those favorite gems. Like that tiny unknown coffee show that you can't stop gushing about and soon word has spread like wildfire and it become over run with hipster assholes like ants on sugar. Well let's hope for fabulous success for these great people  but hope that it continues to be the places we love with the same feel and retains all those reasons we fell in love with it in the first place.

Ok, speaking of sugar.

Back to my experiments in domestication, Adventures on the list:

1. Kombucha - I thought about buying a SCOBY online or getting one from someone -- as stranger in my case cause i don't know any brewers. Will I still buy Capital Kombucha-- yes. Sometimes you want to enjoy someone else's flair. Home cooking is cheaper but we all still go out to dinner sometimes. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat other people's cake too. ;)

2. Sauerkraut - I hear this is the easiest thing to start with. People say there's pretty much no way to f*ck it up. Well these people haven't met me. Either it'll be a out of the dugout home run or i'll have to take it base by base to win the game. Either way, I'm excited to develop my own sauerkraut. I'm excited about the potential to give it my own flair and use it for everything from perogies to havin it with sausages. Miht I stop buying commercial sauerkraut ... maybe.

3. Asian pickles - think a bit sweeter and less dill-y that normal pickles. I want to start learnin to pickle all kinds if things. Trying tsukemono first. I imagine this one will be the one that I end up experimenting and tweaking the most to find what my favorite taste is.  

Well I will try to keep you updated on this. It might be a reason to start blogging again. And who know what topics i'll decide to discuss. This may just be the tip of the iceberg........

Yet another blog about someone's adventures in cooking

Yep.
Here we go.
It's another one.
Another friggin cooking blog.
I know. What can I say?
Except this one is MINE!!!!!!! MINE. mine. Mine

(Yeah, play that over and over and see how fast it gets really annoying.)

Anyway, this is an intro to my experimental cooking blog. Is mine better than other people's? Nope. Is it necessarily different? Nope. In fact, I'll be making stuff from a lot of other people's cooking blogs and from pinterest and writing about it. As well as tweaking recipes for my own purposes, needs, and tastes. And when I get a chance, I'll make up ones of my own. Will I be providing you with in depth nutrition info and calorie counts? Nope. I dunno about you but I ain't got that kinda time. It's just a way for me to record my adventures.

Am I a doctor? Or a dietitian or nutritionist? Nope.

I'm just a kid who loves to make a mess in the kitchen. And I happen to be fond of taking pictures of my concoctions -- when they work and when they don't. LOL. So I figured I'd make this public so some of my friends can follow along with what I'm attempting to cook this week. If I don't know you but you wanna come along for the adventure, I'm happy to have you.