food preservation – notes
I took a class on pickles and other food preservation class- these are my notes :
Fermentation: easy just Salt and veg or Salt water and veg. sauerkraut, kimchi , ad preserved lemons are on my list. ( by the way – I Hate commercial kimchi- but the stuff I tried yesterday was amazing – eyeopening . And not to hot) Start at about 70 degrees — move to cooler areas to stop fermentation. Can last a very long time.
refrigerator pickles: If you want them to last a long time – stick with tried and true ratios of vinegar, sugar, and salt. Cook the veggies in the hot brine to soften and get it into the veg- but raw works too.
Pickles – that go through the canning thing will last for ever. low acid vegetables like beets and tomatoes need a long time in the processing, but that means less sterilization ( clean yes, but sterilizing is different). Stick with tested recipes.
Note: Once processed – lots of canners leave the ring part off the lid. If the seal is bad the lid will come off – so you know where you are.
all this got me thinking about pickled limes form Little Women. Turns out it was a craze – so I might have to make them just to see
Watch out
I am white. I am upper middle class. I am a woman ‘of a certain age’. The first two things put me in a protective bubble. The third puts me in the corner. I can be ignored.
I was 13 or 14 when I first learned the power of not counting. Another girl and I joined a town soccer team. Back when high schools aged teams were just starting to be mixed. After the first practice, my friend never showed up again. I stuck it out. It was really awkward. I was uncomfortable. I hated practice drills. But I really liked playing soccer games. I was a halfback. I knew what the rules were and where I was supposed to be (so rare for me at that age) .
One game I went offsides. Not on purpose, but it happened. One of the boys on the other team pointed this out to the ref. The ref: She’s a girl, she probably doesn’t know the rules.
I was never a great, or even good, soccer player. I understood that part of sports was pushing the rules. But my soccer playing changed. I was a girl , I didn’t count and I could flout the rules.
It wasn’t the only time.
So that overweight, sometimes awkward, grey-haired woman over there? Might be more dangerous than you think.
sleep
or may I please have some more?
I don’t sleep well. I think at one point in my life I did , but somewhere it stopped. I remember staring out my window at night, especially in the summer. I know that once high school hit I read way into the wee hours of the morning. I know I didn’t sleep much in college, or in my retail years.
I don’t sleep much now. I get about 4.5 hours -give or take . ( according to my fitbit, which is how accurate? )
I do not have classic insomnia. I fall asleep pretty easily. I just don’t stay asleep. And if I wake up at the wrong time– I’m up for a couple of hours.
I’ve tried all the good sleep habits, cool room dark room, quite room, white noise,consist bedtime , no caffeine after noon, tried no alcohol( no really ) ,etc. I even took Ambien CR for a little. – it did keep me asleep but I couldn’t get past the grogginess
Recently a co-worker mentioned The Power of When. I took the quiz here. And Whee, I am a dolphin. Which means I don’t sleep well . And maybe I don’t need the 7 to 8 hours every night.
Now, I’m not going to say this book is Truth,but there were some interesting things.
- the book said I should do something active first thing in the morning, to get my blood moving, get my brain started,etc. About a year ago- i started sweeping the house every morning partly due to cats, but also – it seemed to help wake me up. Now it is talking about something more vigorous, but…
- it talked about going to bed later -and getting up at bit earlier. Shortening the time in bed. For awhile, I was going to bed later. It seemed to make sense, and I was not waking up for long periods of time as often. But I didn’t have a really thought out idea and I still thought I should be in bed for 8 hours. This is a plan for about 7 hours. So if wake up time is between 7 nd 730 – then bed time is between 1130 and 12. the books say 11- 630 , but 630 is un likely.
Right now, I am starting with two and hoping to add more to one. There are other things to do and try – but even a little more sleep sounds amazing.
a thought
So I can’t think of a single time that mass murder/shooting /killing has fixed things. Changed things maybe – but it happens again . There are always others, there are always enemies,there is another group of extremist.
Yet somehow, we raise people that believe that killing lots of people will make what they don’t like go away.
I don’t think killing is ever more than a short term solution. State sanctioned death ( aka the death penalty) stops one person, but doesn’t prevent a problem. Even killing that person that was going to harm you – only stops that one person. This is ot a judgement on defending yourself , but it just isn’t getting to the root of the problem.
We accept that killing is something that people do.
dreams are fun
Last night I dreamed I was asked to do a last minute presentation at a library convention. It was about Lilly Sombodyor another ( i don’t remember her last name) who was involved with a number of surrealist writers and a Shakespearean actor. I was doing all kinds of interesting last minute research. It was until about 10 minutes after I woke up that I realized that my brain had completely made up this person
diabetes ed
I went to a class for a condition I have had for 14 years. I expected to be bored, but I felt validated instead. The science word was used . so here is what I learned
1) Genetics. yup, that’s the cause. excess fat- that’s from the body not knowing how to deal with glucose. Validation. It is what I have read , what the newer research shows,but what people want to argue with me about.
2) once there is a diagnosis – diet and exercise alone won’t work. Your pancreas is tired- medicine is there to help. Some people need more medications than others- it is body chemistry. But this is why the lowering of number for diagnosis for prediabetes – it is to actually help you stay off medication longer. This validated my experience with food and gave me some information.
3) heat attacks, high blood pressure, high blood sugar etc, are now all grouped together known as metabolic syndrome
just sharing with the class
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