Good Things Come in Jars

You know that avjar and malizzano I bought a while back? I never got around to finishing them off, so I took them out today. The avjar (red) smells like alcohol, and the malizzano grew some whiteish, slimy mould in some places. How cool is that?! I've made alcohol and a probiotic environment!! :)

Assessmentless

Or rather, what I do when I procrastinate on a bit more of a sophisticated level when the assessments/exams I have aren't impending and looming behind me.

I grow, of course! I showed you my shallots on Monday, and look how much they've already grown in three days. How crazy are they?! I've also tried some dirty English spinach this morning from a terribly gritty breakfast (how traditional peeps had a pica habit for health I'll never know) and I just made a jar of cucumber because a. we have no pickles left b. my intestines... ahem... would like some pickles c. I didn't know how the hell I'd for the cucumbers into my non-cucumbers meals d. I wanted to experiment a little. So nothing's really certified 'sterile' but I'd really hope a knife, a jar and some cuckes will be pretty bacteria-free (for now), and I added white balsamic vinegar because I couldn't find white vinegar and the last batch of just brine was boring.

Now, back to work!

Extra Day

Pupil free days are like a breath of relief and give me time to do random stuff I'm too busy to do during the week. Since we haven't got any impending assessments coming up, I decided to spend a few hours in the kitchen making stuff - mostly just because I can.

I started off with a batch of shortbread cookies to take down to half star, where s'mores aren't only a tradition, but a NECESSITY. So I needed a graham cracker to put my future chocolate (coconut oil and cocoa) and marshmallows on. I found a fantastic recipe over at Paleo Spirit and whizzed it up. Only problem was, she said it would be super crumbly, but mine was a pretty wetish dough. So I had to keep sprinkling coconut flour and arrowroot on until it became a little drier. It was still a dough when I sliced it up, but it did start crumbling a teeny bit when I tried to put it on the baking tray. And the batter tasted good. And you know what that means...

After cooling, they turned out FANTASTIC. Ok, so I burnt them a wee bit, but I always burn shortbread. But like I said, they were uber tasty and shortbready. Guess who's ready for some arrowroot cookies made with actual arrowroot???

Then I transformed half-eggs into a half-jar of mayonnaise (this emulsion baffles me every time I make it). I'd bought some mustard powder so I wanted to try it out, because it's what people seem to be putting in their mayos. And I added three yolks and less oil because... why not? Yolks are probably better than oil, and I didn't want to use up all the olive oil (which probably would've happened if I was allowed to keep going). The mustard added a bit of a chilli kick. You'd take a lick of the stick blender and then wonder if your tongue is burning slightly from the mustard or the blade. But you'd continue licking it anyway.