My first SCOBY

That’s right, I’m brewing some kombucha.

I feel like I’m one step closer into awesomely crazy-crunchy mom world, but I’m loving it, ha! Have you tried kombucha? It’s full of good probiotics and is also tastey and fizzy, win-win! I suppose some people aren’t too fond of the yeasty flavor, but I like it. It almost reminds of hard cider… almost. But buying kombucha can be pricey and some of my friends are making their own so I knew I could get my hands on some SCOBY (more on that in a bit) to make my own.

There are a ton of how-to videos out there, so I’ll just direct you to one I like from Cultures for Health and instead tell you how ours is turning out. Here’s a quick recap: first, brew some tea (I had 6 bags of Lipton’s) and steep it with a cup of sugar. Add the SCOBY and enough water to fill a gallon jar and let it sit for a week on the counter. Pretty easy, no?

The only thing that has taken me a while is finding just the right container. Apparently plastic and metal containers are a no go so we need to stick to glass to keep the bacteria and yeast happy. I wanted to do two ferments to flavor the kombucha so I needed to find bottles for that too.

I ended up buying this and this from crate and barrel (they had a great sale!) and then used some pint and half pint canning jars that I had on hand. I also bought some extra goodies, but they aren’t necessary! Cuppow makes a lid to add to the canning jars so you could drink from it and I like using a straw so I bought these stainless steel straws too. It makes drinking my kombucha a little fancy and fun!

I was able to pick up a SCOBY from my friend (thanks Pamm!) before my jars arrived and was so excited to start making a brew that I just used the largest glass container I had on hand. It has the plastic/metal dispenser, but it didn’t affect it at all.

So back to the SCOBY. SCOBY is an acronym for Sybiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast and is pretty gnarly looking.

The bacteria and yeast live off of the sugar and ferment the tea into some yummy, healthy fizziness! It feels a bit squishy, and after each original ferment, you grow another SCOBY to share with your friends! I’ve read you can give it to your doggies as a treat or compost it for the garden too.

After the tea has sat on your counter for a week, then you can rebottle it and add some flavorings to make it extra fizzy. I added clementine segments and ginger to this batch.

I muddled it up, added the fermented tea, put the lids on and let them sit on the counter for another two days. Ok, I didn’t really let them sit there, I had one every day and noticed how much fizzier and tangier it got. They were all yummy! And Starr Lil’s loves it too! I also tried strawberries and it was amazing.

Here is the only warning – true story, my sister made a batch and the pressure from the second ferment exploded a bottle and kombucha went flying all over her kitchen. I still chuckle imagining her cleaning kombucha off of the ceiling. So you might want to refrigerate the second ferment after two days, just in case!

I’m excited to try some different flavors soon, like apple cinnamon, and I just found a recipe for spicy chocolate!

Up next on my fermenting adventure… water kefir! Have you tried some of these yummy/healthy fermented foods?

Improving sightlines turned mini-kitchen reno

Ever since we moved in, Morgan has wanted to tear down walls and make our house have that open-concept feel, but the wall he wants to tear down is load bearing and, well, expensive to remove.  So the next best thing is to remove this hanging set of cabinets that gets in his way. I wish I had a better before picture, but you can see it here.

The hubs is kinda tall and apparently this little set of cabinets is was the bane of his existence.  You think I’m exaggerating, but every weekend for the last 2 years he has asked me if we could just tear it down.   He claims that it constantly blocked his view and (I’m not kidding) he felt the cabinet actually lunged at him and hit him in the head anytime he bent down near it. It must not have been fun…

But we couldn’t just take it down! It had valuable kitchen storage! Where was I to put all our bowls and cups and things? And then last weekend, Morgan had a brilliant idea. Just move the cabinet! Shift it over to the other side of the dining room and we wouldn’t lose any storage. There are four cabinets, so we could hang two on the wall and place the other two underneath to make a little counter.  He was on a roll and just went with it.  In just a few minutes we had this.

We had to do a little research on how to remove cabinets and found that we needed to take off all the doors and all the trim to find hidden screws.

We knew we’d need to reuse some of the trim, so we were extra careful taking it off.  And then they were down!

I know I was hesitant, but the lack of cabinets really does make our kitchen feel a whole lot bigger! My only requirement was that I have a functioning kitchen while we did this, so before we go patching up any drywall, we needed to reinstall the cabinets since the dining room table was storing our stuff, ha!

Taking down the cabinets was one thing, but putting them back up required yet a little more research! We have this Home Depot book that was gifted to us and it is never far whenever we tackle a project.   I like having pretty books around and this one is an eye sore, but even I have been caught skimming through it and learning interesting tidbits.

Well, after doing some measurements, finding studs, drawing on the walls and cutting some wood, Morgan made a ledger to sort of “prop up” the cabinet and then secure it to the studs.

Putting in the bottom piece was a little trickier.  We had to remove shoe molding and cut some custom pieces to fit around the base board, use some shims and level it, but it finally fit in perfectly.

I’m pretty happy with it!

It’s not quite finished yet though.  The doors have to go back on, some light sanding, repainting, and a counter top too.  Not to mention restocking it! But it’s almost done.

I just love actually getting projects done.  This one wasn’t even on our list, but it certainly makes hubs happy every time he walks in the kitchen! Do you have any projects that you tackle spontaneously?

Meal Plan 9/3-8: Quick and Easy

Last week we were struck with illness in our house, and took a few days off from life as a result.  I sometimes think it’s God’s way of telling us to slow down a little and get some rest.  All are better now, so back to the usual.

Tuesday:  Tomato soup (with spinach and stars), pesto/provolone/ham melts (My soup starts off with sweating some carrots and onion in butter and olive oil, then add in broth and diced tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, chopped basil, maybe a dab of honey if it’s super acidic, puree it all after it simmers…then you can add in other stuff, too.  Like a splash of cream for creamy tomato)

Wednesday: Lamb Burgers with feta and tzatziki, sweet potato fries, and Greek salad

Thursday:  Spaghetti and Meatballs with salad (I made a large batch of meatballs awhile ago and froze them in portions, so Doug just has to make some noodles while I’m at work and reheat the meatballs and sauce)

Friday:  Country Fried Steak with gravy over egg noodles with broccoli

Saturday:  Cookout with friends

Sunday:  …raid the fridge?

Man this time of the year seems so busy!!  What exciting meals do you have planned for this week?

The camera thief

I was looking through my pictures the other day, actually, a couple months ago and I found a bunch of pictures that I hadn’t taken. Mostly they were shots of the fan and of blurry little hands and fingers but every once in a while I saw a good one like this.

She has a good eye, right?!
I’m not in the habit of letting Starr Lil’s play with my phone, and I even have it passworded (is that a word?) so she can’t use it. But my iPhone has that go-straight-to-the-camera-with-the-slide-of-a-button option and that’s how all these pictures were taken.

She really knows how to capture some cute moments though.

Sometimes I’ll hear her telling Stone to say cheese or her stuffed animals to smile.

I love seeing what draws her attention and even though the pictures may have been more accidental before, they definitely have more purpose now.

She sure loves her feet!

Do your littles have a camera?