Kickin' it with Karen : Beyond Sauerkraut

I have migrated to a new site. Please follow this link to get there.

Taco Tuesday is a THING in our household. YES, WE LITERALLY MAKE TACOS EVERY TUESDAY FOR DINNER! My husband and I LOVE Tex-Mex and this is the one meal we both can agree on that this is a weekly MUST! The good thing for me is that TACO's are gluten free. And even if my husband wanted flour tortillas, I don't have to have that. Tacos are cheap enough that we can afford both flour and corn tortillas. But, before we get into the recipe: Let's learn a little bit about the TACO! Where the taco originated, nobody really knows. Katy June Freisen, of Smithsonian.com believes they come from Mexican miners. She states, " My theory is that it dates from the 18th century and the silver mines in Mexico, because in those mines the word “taco” referred to the little charges they would use to excavate the ore...The first references [to the taco] in any sort of archive or dictionary come from the end of the 19th century. And one of the first types of tacos described is called ...

Back in the beginning of December, I was boo-hooing and  lamenting in my post  about my Thanksgiving Blues. I stated, "I have a cabbage waiting for me, ready to be turned into sauerkraut. Not just any sauerkraut, but an Apple Jalapeño Red Sauerkraut. I have Apple Ginger and Orange Ginger Beet Kvass waiting to be bottled. I have a batch of Apple Cider Vinegar that is ready to be placed in a secondary fermentation vessel. And it's Kombucha time! I am ready to make some Pomegranate Kombucha (TO DIE FOR!!!). Oh, and lets not forget the Fermented Green Chili Sauce -SOOOOOOOO GOOD!" I had so many good projects waiting and so little time to complete them all. As I look at that list, I see that I have accomplished much of it, but not allthat I had hoped. I have made the Apple Jalapeño Sauerkraut and it was DELICIOUS. I have made the Apple Ginger and the Golden Ginger Turmeric Beet Kvass. The Apple Ginger Beet Kvass was perfectly sweet, savory and salty!  This past weekend I...

See on YouTube: It's Kombucha time! Ahhhhhh, Kombucha. What is it and what is that THING that floats at the top? A mushroom? A living being? What is it? Why, it's a SCOBY of course. A SCOBY is a "Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast". It's all those bacteria and yeasts that are good for our gut all slopped into one big slimy  GELATINOUS film.  A SCOBY forms when oxygen and the liquid containing the bacteria and yeast intermingle. SCIENCE... I guess. A SCOBY is the essential ingredient in Kombucha. It helps transform an otherwise simple sweet black tea into the very complex flavors in the slightly fizzy beverage found in the hands and homes of most of today's Millennials. Oh, and some of us elders who took a chance on something that looked absolutely GROSS and tasted slightly like vinegar. You can find a tremendous variety of Kombucha on the shelves of virtually every major grocery store or food co-op. The flavors can vary from fruity, to spicy, to ...

Nashville, Tennessee has got to be one of the most interesting cities in the United States. And as soon as I can upload my pictures, I will write a complete post, pictures, videos and all. For now. Hang tight. I'll be back with a piece of writing that thoroughly reviews my experience there this holiday season. Here is a Sauerkraut video to watch while you wait. Enjoy. And please join me over on YouTube .

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut How on Earth is Christmas over already? I was just doing the countdown to winter break and BAM! Just like that 6 days have past, and Christmas is all over. Another one done. It was a whirlwind. I always look forward to the holiday season and especially Christmas because I like to give and get gifts. I'm not going to lie! I love receiving gifts. I LIKE PRESENTS. But what I like more is making homemade gifts and giving them away. This year, I made a variety of things: Macha Tea Soap , Mint Flavored Lip Balm , Orange Mint Hand Salve,  and my favorite, Lavender Scented Reusable Rice Heat Packs. I will add a post on how to make the hand salve in the next couple of weeks. Today, I want to focus on the Reusable Rice Heat Packs. Why would I use a rice pack over an electric one? First, the rice pack will mold to whatever body part you put it on. It will drape easily around the neck, hang down your shoulder to your mid-back, it will rest ni...

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut Thank you for being patient with me. I had to take a break from writing for a week while I trudged through the last week of school before winter break. It is a difficult time for some students. I do my best not to cause them any more stress than they may already be experiencing. Bless them. So let's talk about Beet Kvass: In the video is a "Apple Ginger Beet Kvass" I did back in October of 2018. What is beet kvass? It's a fermented beet juice, a probiotic liver tonic touted to be excellent for heart health, gut health also the, "phytonutrients that give beets there deep crimson color also have powerful anti-cancer properties (Mecola). But what about golden, or orange beets? Do they pack the same powerful punch as the red ones? They sure do! Though their colors differ, golden beets are red beets nutritional equals (Corleone). Beet kvass is made by chopping up beets, salting them, adding water and letting them sit ...

"Just a simple sauerkraut without all the fancy stuff, please".  Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut   A colleague of mine asked me if she could buy some sauerkraut from me. How strange. I never thought anyone would want to buy something made in my kitchen. But, she really wants the natural, fermented probiotics that are bioavailable in a quality sauerkraut and the only place she knows where to get it is from Whole Foods (EXPENSIVE) and well... from me. Probiotics are so important for our gut health. As a reminder from my previous sauerkraut post, "Probiotics are the good bacteria that line the intestines and help break down food and help your body absorb nutrients as well as help regulate and increase energy". We need probiotics to support our immune system and regulate our metabolism (Axe). For my colleague, I am glad to oblige. But it is so easy, anybody can do it. There are a thousand and one million hundred gazillion recipes out there in ...

Kickin' it with Karen: Beyond Sauerkraut Is anybody else out there a teacher? We are just a week and a half out from winter break and I feel like I have been hit by a bus. Exhausted much? Holy Hallelujah! These are they days when waking up - even if I have gotten 9 hours of sleep - feels like I'm waking from the grave. I think most professionals would say, "What are you doing for self-care?" - something I think teachers regularly forget about. We are so busy caring for our students, making sure they are meeting the standards and making progress, as well as making sure they are "OK" in and out of school. Our students face a myriad of challenges and with that comes the trauma and the drama.  Everything that happens to them out there in their world often comes back with them to school. When we get wrapped up in their story, we can experience secondary trauma.  This takes an emotional toll that if we don't pay attention to it, this can end up having rea...