It's a Crock

It has come to my attention that it's been 21 days since I last posted. I did not mean this to happen, really. It's not that I didn't know that December is almost half over, I think I just thought I had posted since November 23rd. You would think that at the very least I would have wanted to tell you about my lovely Thanksgivings (I had two, one on the day and one on Saturday). I made pumpkin cheesecake for the first one and some pear bruschetta for the second. But that ship has clearly sailed. Time to move on.

What have I been doing that has been so distracting? Well, I must say I haven't really been doing very much. Mostly I've been looking forward to my upcoming vacation. I'm taking Christmas week off. That hasn't happened since I was in college. The whole week of Christmas. It makes me feel beatific just thinking of it. I can bake in a leisurely manner rather than cramming it all into one weekend. I can go to the Cloisters and see the Christmas display they have there. I can decorate my apartment and finish the holiday knitting. Have I mentioned that I cannot wait until next Friday? I can't. And yet there are several loose ends I must tie up at work before then. But I won't think about that now, I'll think about that tomorrow.

I've also been making sauerkraut. Really. From purple cabbage. I won't bore you with the process that led me to buy a Harsch Crock. (If you have interest in pickling your own veggies I suggest googling it.) It wasn't strictly necessary, you can make sauerkraut in a plastic bucket, but it appealed to me both aesthetically and practically.

Here is the crock. It's kind of big and kind of heavy but it is admirably suited to its job.


And here is the kraut.


Kind of mild this time. I think I will add some spices next batch. Or just leave it fermenting for longer. I'm also going to do a whole head, ungrated. There is a Yugoslav dish called Sarma. It involves wrapping some beef and or lamb with onions and some other things in sour cabbage leaves and then braising. I haven't had it in forever since you cannot find whole sour cabbage leaves. My grandmother always made her own. Now I can too. Then I might do some pickled beets.