Catie: Good Kimchi!

Well, the Kimchi turned out AWESOME.  Actually.

I kept saying I thought it would be bad, bad, bad, but it's totally not.  Maybe a teensy bit too sweet (though that should decrease over time, even in the fridge) and I think I'll use soy sauce instead of Yoshida's next time, but it is good.  Like seriously good.  Way better than even our favorite Korean BBQ place across the street and I've always liked theirs pretty well.

But maybe I Americanized it somehow so it appeals to my palate a little more.

[caption id="attachment_485" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="yummy."][/caption]

I am eating some right now, just plain because.. I don't have anything else to eat it with.  I had it with eggs and bacon for a weird dinner (because I put the chicken in the crockpot too late to actual EAT it for dinner...) and that was good, too.

Kimchi's the best with meat, though.  Especially if a meal sits really heavy, I've noticed.  If I eat some kimchi, it just digests a lot better.  Plus it's all, y'know, good for you and stuff. Amazingly good, actually, and the more I read about it, the more I find that foreigners here fall in love with it if they just give it a decent chance.  It's a little strange the first couple times and the smell is intense, but it tastes a ton better than it smells and you won't believe how many points it'll earn you with the Korean population at large, all of whom eat kimchi at every single meal including breakfast.

My sourdough starter came to a miserable demise (perhaps due its being left too near the kimchi?).  It got all watery and smelled just terrible.  I was pretty excited about bread for a while, but now after several irritating failures, I think I'm ready to just wait until I can either get someone to hold my hand throughout, or until it's worth it for me to buy a bread machine.  Right now, it's just not.  Besides, all I've read about bread makes me think we may be better off without it.

In other news, I've taught myself to haphazardly read crochet patterns.  It is NOT as easy as reading knitting patterns... probably just because I know what most knitting pattern abbreviations mean, and usually there's a key at the bottom for odd ones in case you forget, but that doesn't always seem to be the case with crochet patterns.  I end up googling abbreviation after abbreviation and, in the end, I make up my own dumb pattern because I just can't figure out what they're talking about.

Still, though, I got a cute little market bag out of it:



It's a bit skinny and stretches long, so it's kind of funny, but it works really well.  I'm making another that's wider and it will be shorter, too.

I got my gold yarn in today, finally, from New Hampshire.  I ordered it back at the very beginning of January, but it was on back order and things ship slow to Korea where everything has to be opened once it arrives and is usually stuck in customs for several days.

It's really nice and I'm happy with the color (a few other ones looked very different on the website and, thankfully, Ben liked them, but I thought they were a little blarghy).

[caption id="attachment_488" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="delightful, golden Cascade 220"][/caption]

With it, I think I will be making the Garter Yoke Cardigan or.... maybe the Tea Leaves Cardigan.  Not sure yet.  I really like the Tea Leaves one.

Lastly, I got this book in the mail:

[caption id="attachment_489" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon"][/caption]

And it's my new super-fave.  It's more a cookbook than anything with all sorts of crazy recipes for things like beet kvass, fermented berry preserves, baby formula (......?), potato cheese, fermented ketchup and mustard, and a whole section on organ meats with recipes for kidneys, liver and hearts.  Ooh.. and brains in wine sauce.  Maybe someday...........  It also has a totally lame recipe for kimchi (1/2 teaspoon red pepper instead of 1/2 CUP), but I am willing to overlook that because of the fermented root beer and sweet potato soda (?) recipes.

I'm pretty excited.

Anyway, I need to go do something with this yarn because.. it looks lonely.

- catie