Foodie Friday #6

Have you ever been one of “those people?”

You know, the ones that grocery cashiers hate? The ones that have an entire cart full of… bulk bin and vegetable items. Basically meaning that though your cart looks deceptively small, it’s going to take almost twice as long to go through all of these items. And on top of it, your handwriting isn’t exactly legible?

It’s all the Sharpie’s fault, I promise.

Last Friday, that was me. I think I spent twenty minutes at the bulk bin section of Whole Foods, if not more, and got very small quantities of spices, and some fruits and veggies. And olives from the olive bar… Actually my only scanned items were peanut butter and potato chips. (After all the bulk foods I needed some junk). So most of what I made this week came from that haul.

I made salt encrusted sesame seeds to spice up my bento lunches. And then I salted some peanuts and pumpkin seeds. And then used the same method to make lightly candied peanuts. I just used sugar and a little bit of salt instead of all the salt. They were all delicious.

I also made gummies again, and this time they even worked really well! I ‘borrowed’ orange juice from my roommate, so really, this cost me about a dollar and it made two pint jars packed with gummies.

Chai concentrate was on the menu, made with the small amount of spices I got from Whole Foods. Most of the recipes called for cloves, which Whole Foods was out of when I visited. I decided to just ignore them, and my concentrate is still pretty good! I bought a couple of cardamom pods and some black peppercorns, combined it with some ginger cut like coins, a cinnamon stick, and five cups of water. I simmered that for about thirty minutes, then added 10 tea bags for about ten minutes, and then I let it cool a bit. Added some sugar, heated until the sugar dissolved and cooled and jarred. I’ve been using coconut milk as creamer, and it needs a bit of added sugar as well, but it makes a delicious cuppa. I’ve been using about four parts hot water, one part concentrate, a dash of sugar and some coconut milk for the perfect treat.

Earlier I also decided to make sauerkraut. And when I say earlier, I’m not sure whether it was sometime two weeks ago or the week after, post-writing up my Foodie post early. I had bought this head of cabbage with this intention and then didn’t follow through for almost a week. Then I celebrated finishing homework early by massaging salt into cabbage. No one ever told me I was normal… I followed this procedure set up by the Kitchn, but I didn’t have a big enough mason jar. I did have a bucket, though, and I used a ramekin as the tamping device. My sauerkraut turned out crunchy and tasty after about four days of fermenting. And I’ve been enjoying it immensely ever since! The recipe did make a lot for a single person, but it will keep for forever in the fridge, so that’s good!

See you next week!