My kombucha adventure to date

Good morning all!

As I am stuck in a chair holding a sick, clingy toddler, I've chosen to do an update for you all on my latest adventures with "kombucha".  Strange stuff that...

I was first introduced to it in my mid-teen years by my cousin. I didn't care for it at her ferment level.  Too bitter/tart for my liking, and as a teenager my mindset was still that of invincibility, so I just wrote it off in my mind as to whether I would ever get into it or give it a chance as far as health benefits go.

Fast forward about 15-years, and here we are.  Everyone is older and wiser (we hope), some of us are showing signs of health issues, and I have begun to feel the lower levels of my own mortality.  Funny how having children, and wanting to be there for them, then having several close calls when you KNOW that God was watching over you will do that to a person...

I've not hidden the fact that I am not in the utmost health and have had some close calls from our close friends & family, so in an effort to help, one such friend offered to split down her SCOBY and give me a starter for my own batch.  At first I refused, continuing to hold to my initial judgement of this fermented tea, but after thinking on it, and reading about the benefits of this strange concoction, I told her I would give it a try.  That was 3-months ago, and we've had some adventures along the way!  😁

Since then, I've brewed a new batch every day.  My sons, mother & father are drinking it regularly, my sister has given it a try but is less than impressed.  (I believe she would also drink it if I found the right flavor combination for her taste preferences.)
**  My husband has also tried it, but he did not really give it a genuine taste since he seemed to have made up his mind prior to the taste test as to whether he would like it or not so I do not really think too hard on his opinion of my fermentation adventures.  👀

When I first embarked upon this adventure, I still didn't EXACTLY care for the taste, but I thought "this isn't so bad, I can just power though this".  What I did NOT know, was that there are so many different variables involved! 

• You can drink at first ferment, between days 7-10.  [My preference is day 7]
• You can brew that first ferment with either black or green teas [Didn't know that until I started experimenting]
• You canNOT do the second ferment under an airlock (like the type used to make wine).  [It will fizz & fizzle itself right into a frenzy & dribble out the top of the airlock].
• You can do the second ferment with pretty much ANY type of fruit, including home canned, dried, fresh etc.
• You can do that second ferment in either a wire top bottle or an open air container with a coffee filter over it.  [Did not realize this through online research, instead found this out through trial and error on my own].  The ONLY notable difference between tightly sealed vs. open air, was:

1. It formed its own SCOBY, encompassing the fruit, which you just throw away.
2. It was less fizzy [which didn't break my heart really].  Which is not to say the fizz was non-existent.  That isn't true.  There was fizz.  It was just LESS intense.  
3. It was not such a high risk during the fermentation process.  AKA I didn't have to worry about it EXPLODING in my kitchen and creating a BOMB with glass shards in it! 
4. I didn't have to "burp" the bottle once per day to prevent that bomb effect. 

**  You don't HAVE to burp it every day, but one of the first weeks that I was experimenting with the second ferment process, I didn't touch it for all 7 of the 2nd ferment days, and when I finally did open it, the wired down cork had so much pressure behind it that it literally shot off the bottle, put a dent in the ceiling, and I had to later locate it and repair the wire so that it could be reused again.
**  Not only all of that, but the kombucha itself (which happened to be the 4-berry brew), and all of the fruit in it that was being used to flavor the concoction, went shooting out of the bottle and all over the wall.  I had red kombucha, with fruit, running down the wall behind the stove, all over the stove, down the sink... it was incredible how big of a mess this stuff became in less than 5 seconds.

The multiberry brew, freshly frosted from the night before. 👇

So far the flavors I have experimented with have been:

• 4-berry/multiberry (red & black raspberries, blueberries & strawberries)
• Pineapple ginger
• Apple pie
• Pina Colada
• Cherry; which we didn't get to try because I did not use fresh, frozen or dried fruit.  Instead I used a "pie filling", and it was a major flop.  It had artificial sweeteners in it that I wasn't aware of and it tainted the entire thing. 
• Blueberry ginger
• Blueberry pineapple

So far, the multiberry is the family favorite.  I can LITERALLY not make enough of this stuff.  The last batch I made resulted in 3 full size wine bottles, and they were gone within 24-hours.

On all of my fermentations, I never let the ferment go past 10-days.  If it does, I add more sweet tea in to balance out the "tart", with the exemption being to one batch that I did not realize had gone too long, got my days mixed up, and ended up bottling for second ferment on day 14. However, since it was being bottled for second ferment, it did not make a big difference in the grand scheme of things and actually turned out to be a pretty solid brew with good flavor interactions.

The jar on the left is my "first ferment" jar.
The jar in the middle, is a half gallon pickle jar, second ferment, doing a pina colada brew.  Haven't tried that one yet, just started it yesterday.
The one on the right, is the apple pie.

Obviously these are all quite happy where I've plopped them.  👍

Multi-cooker Ranch Chicken Chili with cream cheese

Cooks notes: Can be eaten as a soup, served over steamed rice, or in tortillas/taco shells.  With optional toppings: sour cream, freshly grated cheddar cheese, avocado, fresh lime, and fresh cilantro

Needed items:

2 chicken breasts, cubed

2 cans chicken broth, low sodium

1 medium purple onion, diced
1 can Rotel diced tomatoes, with chilis
1 can corn kernels

1 can baja corn

1 can jalapeno corn
1 can mixed chili beans, mild sauce

1 can red chili beans (mild)

1 can white chili beans (mild)

1 can black chili beans (optional)

1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese, cut into smaller bits

Corn starch & water to thicken as needed

1 Multi-cooker, capable of at least 8 functions

Directions:

•    Put the cubed chicken & diced onion into the multi-cooker under the "sauté & simmer" setting. Sauté until chicken is white & the natural juices have come forward.
•  Wisk the ranch dressing into the chicken broth till its smooth then pour over the chicken and onions.
•  Add the tomatoes, corn, & beans, stirring to combine, then top with the cream cheese.
•  Continue to let it simmer, stirring occasionally until the cheese has melted/blended into the broth.  Allow the soup to simmer until the simmer setting flips into the last 10-minutes of cooking.
• In the last 1 - 2 minutes, thicken soup with a corn starch & water slurry.  Let the cooker flip into "keep warm", let sit for a few minutes to let the flavors meld, then serve. 

Heidi's Cabbage Stew

Chop:

• 1lb potatoes, small dice
• 2 onions
• 4 large carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 head cabbage

Meat:

• 1 pound fresh ground pork, or Jimmy Dean sausage
  - OR -
• 1 to 1-1/4lb kielbasa, smoked sausage, bratwurst, polish sausage etc.

Seasonings: To taste.  

• 4-6 garlic cloves or 1 tbsp granulated garlic
• 2 tsp chicken bouillon
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper
• 3 tbsp Basil*
• 3 tbsp Oregano*
• 3 tbsp Parsley*
• 1/4 tsp Cumin*
• 1/4 tsp Coriander* 
• 1/4 tsp Paprika* 
• 1/2 tsp Sage*
• 1 tsp Thyme*
• 1 tsp Rosemary*
• 1/4 tsp Tumeric
• 1 large bay leaf

Liquid: 

• 4 cups of water or chicken broth

1. Brown the sausage in the Instant Pot using the saute function.  Deglaze thoroughly. using the chicken broth or water.   
2. Throw all the remaining items in the Instant Pot starting with the root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions) and ending with the celery and cabbage. Cook at High pressure for 4 minutes.
   
   
   Note:  

• Items with a star can be replaced with 1/4-1/2tsp Italian seasoning mix
• The cabbage will give off a good amount of water (close to two cups I'd wager), so if you don't want "soup" you could cut the liquid back as far as to 1 cup if needed, but then it would stop being "stew" or "soup" and would instead just be a bunch of steamed vegetables with sausage. 

Rice cooker fried rice to die for

Rice cookers with multiple functions are my friend... also... I am an instinctive cook. I will "follow" a recipe, but... Not usually to the letter. I'm like a pirate following the pirate code... "The code is more like guidelines really"...😛

That being said my kids (2 & 3) LOVE the recipe I concocted for "fried rice" in the rice cooker. That way I can dump it all together, push a button & forget about it till the beep. So I can get the table set & any "extras" prepared.

Recipe is:
2 cups white rice, rinsed
Water added according to rice cooker directions
Chicken bouillon, oyster sauce, hoisin, soy & butter to taste. I usually start with 1 tsp each then work up from there depending on the crowd I'm feeding & how they like it.
Set it to the "white rice" setting & walk away. It'll be done in 20 min give or take.

While that's cooking, if you like extra gravy like my kids do, it's 2 cups water, soy, hoisin, oyster to taste (yes you need to taste as you go; I'm a firm believer in tasting along the way.) 1 tbsp Sugar or molasses or sorgum depending on your taste preference. 1 tsp of ginger. 4 garlic cloves minced, or garlic powder to taste. Start with ½ tsp & go up from there. & for those who like a bit of a nip... ½ a smidge of rooster sauce. Kids & I don't, but hubby does.

After I've set the gravy to simmer, I start in on veggies. Usually frozen, but that's just for convenience, nothing says you have to use frozen, or that you're stuck with "peas & carrots & cabbage". Other things can include mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli... Pretty much anything that tickles your fancy. These veggies can either be added to the raw rice & cooked all the way through the process, placed in the streaming tray and streamed all the way through, or held back till the last 10 minutes. The scrambled egg can either be cooked separately, chopped up & added last, or cooked in the steamer tray using the egg poacher gadget. Just make sure you're whipping the eggs & not ACTUALLY poaching them just like they come it if the shell... That TASTES ok, but does not look as nice...

Once your gravy is beginning to boil, taste it. Make adjustments as needed to suit your preference. Then thicken. I prefer a slurry of corn starch... But others might prefer flour and water. It really doesn't matter how you get it thick... Just go with it. Then eat! My kids DEVOUR this.