Once More in Praise of Sauerkraut

[rinue]

I'm on another sauerkraut kick. It's perhaps not surprising that this is a perennial favorite, given my love for foods that are salty, tart, and acidic. (Also in this category: grapefruit, hot sauce.) Aside from eating it on its own, I've been adding it to grilled cheese sandwiches and to mashed potatoes, both of which are within the normal bounds of German cooking, but I've also found it improves beef teriyaki (an idea I tried based on the use of pickled seaweed in some Korean dishes). That little hit of cabbage and vinegar kicks the whole dish up a level. I realize pickling was invented many times by many people across many cultures, but I love all of them and would like to go around and shake their hands.

Despite one day being mostly indistinguishable from another right now (sit in front of computer; refine content), I have few routines. Most nights before going to sleep at 3 or 4, I check to see that the doors are all locked, which they usually aren't. When I go up to my office in the morning, I open the shades while the computer boots up. I close them later in the day, once the sun sets, currently around the time dinner ends. Sometime between 11am and 1pm, I make a large mug of one lemon's juice, low-sodium chicken broth, a little sriracha, and a dash of maggi sauce (basically a source of glutamate), heated in the microwave. It tastes the way the medicine in Neverending Story always did in my imagination. (Ciro independently arrived at the same reaction upon tasting it, without my saying anything about it.)

Comments

[bevjunior]

Which is not to say that what you are experiencing is something like inertia: my feeling of lost entanglement at work was budged somewhat by a 2.00 an hour raise with over a month of back pay and refinancing my car such that I had enough left over to pay off the not small credit card debt I built in a year as well but without having to extend my loan term or having it go up very much. All of which has worked to get me out of bed earlier and to stay later so I can make that paper so someday I don't have to get out bed at all to werk. Also rupaul's drag race season is upon us again and god bless me if I'm not thinking of taking out stock in Nair.

[rinue]

Nair is amazing stuff. It is possibly the most exciting and mad-scientist-like home grooming product I have ever encountered. Also, I am predictably rooting for Raja, the fashion-forward one.

I know what you are saying about the money trap. I don't work your hours or have your commute, but I wind up doing $500 of overtime a month, more if they'll let me, and don't like to take any time off unless I'm taking a whole week off, because otherwise it feels like a waste of OT opportunities. One of these days, we will be less in debt. And when that day comes, considering I'm currently putting half of my income or more into paying off debt, I will be able to cut back to part time and have my life back and can, you know, write a short story again, or something. (Fiction output since February: less than one page.)

On the plus side, Hayseeds is looking reasonably good, so I think it's not out of the question that it gets picked up and we at some point make some cash. I'd be an idiot to say "definitely," but it is certainly in the realm of possibility. The beginning's still rough (working on it), but by the time you hit the back half you're pretty emotionally invested.

[valancy_jane]

I hear you on that. I've been hearing the siren song of part-time for a while. Just don't know when it'll be financially feasible. Sigh, argh.

[knaveofstaves]

I'm in crazyland, these days, where it's financially feasible, but unworkable because I'm too important to my boss' gameplan or something. *sigh*

[rinue]

There are a lot of jobs that don't really work part-time (being on a film set, for instance), but I have to admit grocery stocking as an essential "one man, one job" occupation strikes me as fairly, as you say, crazyland.

[valancy_jane]

Useful is good! That's great to hear, even if not ideally what you want.

[(Anonymous)]

Sometime between 11am and 1pm, I make a large mug of one lemon's juice, low-sodium chicken broth, a little sriracha, and a dash of maggi sauce

You've pretty much hit on my fail safe hangover cure: chicken or vegetable bouillon + spicy maggi = salty goodness, and the only thing I can keep down on a roiling belly. Never thought of adding lemon juice tho - cunning.

em

[valancy_jane]

1) What is maggi sauce?
2) That does sound very comforting!
3) SAUERKRAUT IS AWESOME.

[rinue]

1. This. You mostly find it in Asian groceries, although it's a Swiss product and the best version is German. Tastes sort of like soy sauce, sort of like liquid bouillon. Has wheat gluten in it, sadly. I've heard San-J Wheat Free Tamari recommended as a celiac-friendly substitute.

[valancy_jane]

Ahhh! Well, at least I know how to approximate it. I can see how that would come together beautifully.