Dukunbayi's Whole Shebang

[dukunbayi]

Aaaaaaaah.... sitting my ass on the couch with a cup of strong coffee.

We had enough foresight to clean the house before we left, so we came home to relative order. We went down for a nap at about 7pm yesterday, and I slept straight through till this morning. No fireworks for this girl. 

 

OK, folks, get comfy. Here is my post-W30 oriented vacation slide show! Apologies for the sidewayzers... I don't know what's going on with that; it only happens when I attach here.

 

Rewind to last week; here is what I packed for travel food. Oh yes, I felt righteous.

 

Our 1st breakfast (homemade) after a hellish trip in:

 

Friday night gathering at a place called Radegast Hall and Biergarten in Williamsburg, vaudeville music  sausage, and homemade sauerkraut. Delicious.

 

Saturday night family dinner bash, these are the pork leftovers. Took some of these babies back to our Airbnb, and it kept us going for a couple of breakfasts.

 

Some lady on the street saw us looking, lackluster, at a Thai menu and stopped to recommend this Colombian restaurant in Park Slope called Bogota, saying she takes all her out of town guests there. We had pork in various forms including chicharron and blood sausage plus potatoes, peppers... perfect. Leftovers for breakfast.

 

Spent a day at the Museum of Natural History (sideways-?!-sorry)

 

Saw primordial booch (actually, just bacteria, no yeast):

 

Later, got a burger at NY Burger Co. Not recommended. I asked for medium rare, but got something very bloody and, I swear, still mooing. Took a walk in the rain on the High Line, old railway turned park. Stopped and got a nectarine-jasmine People Pop and a smooch.

 

 

Our last day we slept till noon (bliss), then went to The Cloisters in Washington Heights, one of my favorite places. We met up with an old and dear friend of mine who I haven't seen forever. Her youngest and my oldest are 2 weeks apart, and we met when they were 3 and 5 weeks old; her son stopped by to say hi. Our babies are all grown up!

So we meandered and talked. Incredible medieval art, lovely gardens.

Should I grow some of these witchy plants?

  

 

Indian food for dinner at a place called Kismat near the park. Very good. Leftovers for breakfast the next day before heading to the airport for the trip back which went, mercifully, without a hitch (if you don't count getting through Penn Station and the solid wall of 20-something year old girls headed to the beach for the 4th. Holy shit). 

 

Potbelly Sandwich Works salad. If you're ever at Midway Airport for a layover, this is the place:

 

Came home to this.  

 

A couple days before we left I got another booch batch going (so this would be batch #3), with green tea and the original OK scoby, which I had kept. It is gorgeous! This is what it looks like after only 10 days!

 

Meanwhile, the batch with the flavored tea looks like this...   and I am just gonna trash it. Living and learning in boochville! 

 

It's good to be home. I have a couple days before I go back to work.

And, bonus! I am a couple lbs lighter than before the trip! Boom!

[Physibeth]

Sitting at the airport in Chicago. Lunch at Potbelly Sandwich Shop... "A Wreck salad," swiss and blue cheese included, with balsamic and dark chocolate which I had to search the whole airport for. Dark chocolate covered ginger for the connecting flight home. I'm not as well-fortified as the trip in.

The wedding was fun, but the cake sucked, so I only had a couple bites.

I have been a very good girl and I ate well and pretty damn on track. Pictures when I get home.

 

I don't know about you, but before I would have eaten the whole piece of cake even if it sucked. Isn't it nice to know we don't have to eat substandard food just because it is there and free?

[Physibeth]

Great trip report and a couple of lbs lighter after vacation! Boom!

[dukunbayi]

Totally, Physibeth, re: the cake. It's still ingrained in me to hoard sugar and eat all I can, so it's weird to have a couple bites and pass. 

[Moluv]

Columbian...blood sausage; I'll never hear those words and not immediately swoon for a Columbian ex-boyfriend, 8 years my junior, pro bike racer, gorgeous, romantic brrrrrrrrr memorieeeeessssssss <3

[Moluv]

Did you see art by Sarah Sze on the skyline?

[dukunbayi]

LOL, Mo.... Colombian blood sausage memories. Glad my meal account gave you a little zing. 

Do not recall Sarah Sze, but we started at 23rd St rather than 30th, and walked downtown in the rain with an umbrella, so we weren't really stopping to look.

 

So my gut was all in a kerfuffle last light. Two causes, methinks:

1. I drank a cup of Smooth Move in the afternoon to assist with post-travel stasis. That usually just helps move things along without creating distress. However,

2. I had a serving (yes, one serving, not a pint, not a gallon, not even a 2nd helping  ) of vanilla SO Coconut Milk. This, I looked up in the wee hours, is sweetened with erythritol. Erythritol is a sugar alcohol like maltitol and sorbitol, both of which turn my intestines inside out; even just a tiny bit does it. Unlike maltitol and sorbitol, however, erythritol is largely (90%) absorbed into the blood stream via the small intestine and then excreted in the urine. The remaining 10% travels through the gut and is thereby excreted in that customary fashion. This 10% is far less likely to cause the unpleasant side effects of the other sugar alcohols, in most people, quothe Wikipedia. I wonder if I am not 'most people,' and the erythritol/senna combo caused my gut kerfuffle.

 

I guess I'll wait a couple days and try the SO frozen treat on it's own. Will report.

 

Oh, and I stepped on the scale this morning and saw a number I haven't seen in years, probably since before my foot surgery two Octobers ago. It was all the walking in NY. Lesson to self: get off thy ass  .

[Moluv]

Oh HA! I didn't mean it like THAT! He talked about eating blood sausage when he went home is all but now that you mention it.....

[Beets]

The Cloisters: best. Haven't been there in awhile but I should go back. Sounds like a great trip! My good friend lived in P Slope a fee years ago and was really into that. Columbian place. Bravo on the cake!

[dukunbayi]

Make the trip up there if you can, Beets. The subway ride alone is worth it in the heat and humidity. It was such sweet relief to get on those ACd trains, Maybe you can tag-team the museum with a friend or your hubs so you can look at the art in peace without worrying about crazy kiddos running all over the place. They'll love just running around the park. There, I have planned an outing for you. Don't forget the picnic basket  .

 

I am gheeing, booching and krauting today. (And maybe kayaking if the sun comes out).

Just waiting for everyone to wake up before I start clamoring around in the kitchen.

I have all sorts of fruit and herbs to choose from for 2nd ferment, sweet green tea now cooled to room temp, and cabbage, beets (red, yellow and orange), and carrots for kraut. Add a case of mason jars and I am in business.

 

Catfish defrosting for dinner. Leftover bison burger and sweet potato for breakfast.

 

Here's N and me at the wedding. 

[Physibeth]

Tease! The picture didn't post. 

[dukunbayi]

Look again!

[Nadia B]

I am in love with the dress, you both look so fancy.

Aha just a regular day of a paleo girl in the kitchen. Happy Sunday!

[Physibeth]

Look again!

 

Beautiful and radiant! I love that dress on you!

[Derval]

Gorgeous! love your lippy, what one is it?

[Moluv]

Gorgeous! And radiant!

[dukunbayi]

Thanks, y'all. 

 

Derval, I have no idea what lipstick... I borrowed it from N's daughter. I am a make-up moron, and usually steal some from my daughter when I wear it, which is rarely!

 

I have made mayo and booched today. 2nd ferment: orange, peach and parsley, blueberry vanilla, grape vanilla. And got a new batch of green brewing. 

 

Reading about kraut and fermentation, a whole new world. Trying to figure out if I need to cook the beets before fermenting. Also reading about lacto-fermentation, but I think I'll skip the whey. Wild Fermentation looks like a good book, but I have been spending whey to much $ lately (get it? get it?).

[Nadia B]

Posted in fermenting thread about beets

[dukunbayi]

My Sunday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dukunbayi]

 

[Nadia B]

Sobbing. Honeycombs. Ghee. 

 

Your booch looks like it came from Medieval apothecary. Hehe. 

[helen]

Just checking in with you.  Still going strong I see.  Been a busy summer for us.  I am finally having some consistent success with Kombucha.  My first batch was awesome and then I had a few that were gross.  Finally figured I needed to pull them sooner since they continue to ferment a bit in the frig.  Last two batches were delish.  I'm doing a 80/20 Paleo now.  The 20 being mostly beer and margaritas for the summer.  I plan to do a Whole30 in September though to detox.  Happy summer!

[dukunbayi]

Sorry, Nadia  . Don't weep... one day maybe, one day.

 

Hi Helen! So glad you stopped by and that you're hanging in there too. Have you been to the kombucha thread? Lots posted in only 6 weeks or so. I'm working my way through it.

 

Hey guyz!!!!! I bought a brand new, in the box, never opened Gardenmaster 4 tray food dehydrator off Craigslist for $25!!!! Nuts!!!!

That was my happy purchase.

 

My sad CL purchase was a ceramic water dispenser, which I then read was not appropriate for CB kombucha because of the probable lead content. Boo! That's what I get for not doing my research.

 

At the beach all afternoon. Vitamin D, check.

Back to work tomorrow  .

[helen]

I'll check it out.  My SCOBY multiplies like mad.  I'm getting the hang of it.  Also, I've quit drinking smoothies.  I totally burned out on them one day and switched to raw veggies (carrots, cukes, etc) for breakfast since I can't function until afternoon to cook.

 

Jealous of the beach!

[dukunbayi]

Quick check-in. I've been MIA here but on track for the most part, dark chocolate notwithstanding. Note to self: do not buy it.  

 

Another wedding yesterday afternoon and evening, had chicken skewers, prime rib and roasted veggies. Bloat-inducing stuff in the sauces, all to be expected. 

Had a slice of cake, this time it was good and worth it. Jelly beans... not so worth it.

 

Went straight to the hospital after the wedding and worked overnight. Blissfully quiet. One of my colleagues on early maternity disability, so I get to work even more this week. Oh joy. Every day I am either working or sleeping. At least the kids are with their dad this week so I can be a slug when I am not at work.

 

Trying to do at least a mini-workout every day.

 

What else?

Dehydrated nuts in my Craigslist score of the century, finished them off in the oven for that lovely oven-roasted crunch.

Booch a little vinegary but I am enjoying it. Had to toss a moldy scoby but I had one in the hotel to start a new batch.

Never krauted. Too ambitious with all the other stuff, so I boiled the beets and am putting them in salads.

 

N's had the plague, fever gone but still hacking out a lung. Going to the wedding last night didn't help.

I'm starting to feel a little yuck in the back of my throat but I am blasting it with all my magic tricks. It would not be a good week to get sick. Ex-husband stuff stressing me out. Not helping the immune system.