A week in the life of me, via Instagram photos

Instagram.  I have mixed feelings about it.  

Being an over-sharer, I love it, however I sometimes feel like I am overloading myself and others with a little too much Katie when I post a picture to Instagram, Facebook, and my blog.  

Not that it is possible to get too much Katie, let’s be honest.  Nor does that stop me from doing it.  Nope.

I joined Instagram in the early days, two years ago, before it got huge.  Before it was integrated with Facebook.

Side rant:  What isn’t integrated with Facebook?!?  I mean, I read an article online and when I get to the end, the site asks me to tell all my facebook friends that I just read it!  Or I order a t-shirt and after placing the order, it asks me to post it to facebook.  NO AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME.

I realize that that previous statement is ironic, given that I do post random photos to both Instagram and Facebook, but I do have a semi-orerational filter.  No one needs to know that I read an article about…I can’t even think of anything embarrassing.  More than likely it would be something ultra nerdy, yet equally embarrassing.

So, for those of you who aren’t on facebook or instagram (yes, there are people like this left in the world, believe it or not.  Right Megan?), I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the banal story of my mundane life.  

Like the picture of my over-flowing Target cart.  What would the world do without the knowledge that I bought sliced mushrooms and various other sundries?!  

Or that I got dirt in my garden beds on Friday and started to plant them?

And that, 12 hours and lots of trips to the store later, I had finished planting my garden and had covered the little babies for the evening.

 

Yeah, I did all that in one day.  What of it?  

It was a long day.  A really really long day.  I had a great time, don’t get me wrong, but WHOA with the digging, and planting, and buying, and more plating, and figuring out where stuff goes, and them seeing that overnight temps were in the low 40s and scrambling to cover the babies lest they perish on their first night at home.

Nothing died.  All is right with the world.

With no more planting of vegetables to do, I made some kimchi.  More kimchi.  Always more kimchi.

While there was no planting to do, there was, in truth, much more yard work to do.  Mowing and weeding will never end.  <- That isn’t a complaint.  I actually enjoy mowing and weeding.  (After the first sweep through, weeding kind of becomes enjoyable.  Zenlike.)

Oh, and for those garden-curious out there, I’ll be updating soon with pictures aplenty.  And stories of my inevitable foibles.  And a graphic representation of my garden layout to prove just how nerdy and garden crazy I am.  Neither of which will shock anyone.

Then I capped off all that work with a nice bike ride on Saturday evening.  I still love my new bike, but DUDE.  I have got to learn to dress appropriately for the chilly evening air.  

Oversharing be damned.  My life is too exciting to keep the world in the dark about it.  (That’s sarcasm, there.  I should think that was obvious, but in case not, Captain Obvious is back.)

What are your thoughts about all the social media?  Are you on instagram?  Facebook?  Pinterest?  Twitter?  I really have only gotten into Instagram in the last couple weeks, but I’ve been a devote Facebooker for a long time.  I love it, save for the fact that everything on the entire internet has to be linked to it.   

 I don’t have a twitter account, and quite honestly I don’t get it.  I don’t want to get it either.  

What are your thoughts on gardening?  Target?  Biking?  Kimchi?  

For the love of pickles (And a Today I Made update)

When I was in college, my roommate used to say “It isn’t a drinking problem, it’s a drinking solution.”  Now, I realize that this saying is now incredibly cliched and old news, but back in the Cretaceous period when I was in college, it was new and very funny.

[I've never had a drinking problem, nor known anyone who does, so I mean no disrespect.  No offense intended.]

Now that I’m older and I don’t drink much (to say I’m a lightweight is an understatement), I have developed a new “problem.”

That is NINE pounds of extra fine gherkins.  I put a regular sized can next to it for comparison’s sake, so you can see what NINE POUNDS of gherkins looks like.

Fun fact: gherkins are not cucumbers!  I always thought they were just small cukes and they are the same species, but they are different cultivars.  Who knew?  

The cheap gherkins, by the way, are probably just small cukes, but true gherkins are a different species.  Man, I love wikipedia.

Here is the jar, all divided up into, ironically enough, old pickle jars.  

So, how about a Today I Made update?  It’s been a while, no?  You can get all the updates on this page, whenever you want.  Or whenever I update it, I guess.

We left off on…my birthday, but I didn’t make anything on my birthday.  I spent a large portion of it in the car, after chilling at the lake with family that morning.

 So that brings us to Tuesday: I started another batch of kimchi carrots and I made the Best Cookies Of All Time.  Or….the Best Cookies That I’ve Made In Recent Memory, but that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Vanilla-Ginger Cookies.  You’ll get the recipe soon, I promise.  These were so good that I ate the whole batch (in my defense, a batch of my cookies is only a dozen, usually bite-sized, cookies.  Also?  I didn’t have a birthday cake, so these were my cake.) that I made another batch two days later.  

On Wednesday, I made the pulled pork that I told you about.  

I also did a crapload of gardening which really should count as something I made.  I’m making my yard pretty.  I’m making food for birds.  I’m making a relaxing restful space to hang out in all summer.

On Thursday, I made a clothespin hanger.

I still sew even in the summer months, just not nearly as often.  I’d much rather be outside riding my bike or playing the dirt or even just sitting on my lounge chair reading.  But, I’ve still got a few inside house projects to finish up, so I’ll still be sewing.  

Expect less of the sewing blahblahblah, and more garden blahblahblah is what I’m saying.

I also made, that same day, some AWFUL looking bird feeders. A total craft fail that will never see the light of day.  Just trust me, the internet does not need to see this, and my ego doesn’t need to be reminded.   If I were to hang these feeders, I think they would drive all the birds away from my yard.  Trust me.

On Friday,  I made lots of hanging baskets full of flowers for my front porch, which we have already covered.  I also made a batch of cashew butter, including a new flavor.  Maple Cinnamon.  

The flavor is great, but note to those of you who reuse jars for storage – clean them well and, here’s the key, allow them to air out the smells.  The Maple Cinnamon Cashew Butter is great, but the slight pickled garlic aftertaste…..?  Not so much.

On Saturday, I made a couple raised bed gardens.  

No biggie.  Ho hum.  

Yeah, I cleaned up the fence line there.  It looks much more presentable now.  Not so white trash.  I also finished laying the landscape cloth and…did other stuff, which shall be discussed in another garden post that will come…soon.  Ish.  Soonish.

On Sunday, I made Cherry Vanilla cookies, which I didn’t take a picture of.  Whoops.

On Monday,  I started a new crochet project.  I’m making a rug for my bathroom, but it will probably be a year before I finish it.  (I’m also still working on the blanket, if by working on you mean looking at the unfinished project sitting on my glider chair every day and thinking I should work on that which is obviously what I mean.) 

On Tuesday,  I made more cookie dough bites – Hazelnut this time.  They all look the same, so you’ll have to forgive the re-used photo.  

I also made a veggie sauce for massaged kale salad using roasted red peppers and avocado with garlic.  Again, no picture, but imagine a bright orangeish redish sauce and then imagine that covering a big bowl of kale and that’s what it looks like.  

I’ll probably eat some again today, and maybe I’ll take a photo.  Maybe.

 What have you made lately?

 Any guesses as to how long it will take me to eat all those pickles?  Hint: I opened this on June 2nd, and I’ve already eaten one small jar.

I’m a winner!

Yesterday I got a phone call from the coop telling me that I won the May basket giveaway.  Of course, I never win anything, so I didn’t even wait for them to tell me what’s in it before kind of sort of squealing into the phone. 

I would have gone right there to get it, but I had a stupid dentist appointment so I had to wait in anxious anticipation while getting my gums, I mean teeth, scraped with a pointy sharp tool that amounts to a pickax.  I swear that they train dental hygienists in the art of pickax yielding.  

I floss daily, sometimes twice a day even, and still my gums bleed. I blame the evil hygienists.  

Seriously?!?  How awesome is that basket?  Winning that alone would have made my day, but inside are two t-shirts. a stainless steel water bottle, a $25 gift card, BBQ chips, a bottle of cherry coconut juice, and a couple other things I can’t eat.

And…..these.

Chocolate covered CORNFLAKES?!  

I told my mom about these and she said “You’ll have to save me some for when I come to visit.”   As though I won’t eat them all in a single days.  Maybe two if I’m feeling particularly will-powery.

It’s no holds barred when I get around chocolate.  

In gardening news, I did more yesterday.  Shocking, right?  Much like there is always money in the banana stand (which reminds me, why have they not cracked that joke yet in season 4?!), there’s always more gardening to do.  My grass has hit a growth spurt, and I busted out the weed whacker for the fenceline.

I took out my patio furniture and fire pit and set them up in anticipation of nice weather, which of course means that the next two days are looking like total garbage.  

I cleaned up this fenceline also, because my grandma of all people pointed out that it looked rather white trashy. (I’m paraphrasing there, but that’s the gist.  Wonder where I got my missing filter gene?)  

Yeah grandma’s right, it does look pretty white trash.  The concrete blocks, extra fence section, and scrap firepit wood are all gone now and it looks much more presentable.  It’s all about looks, you know.

I also finished laying the landscaping cloth in the beds, so bring on the soil, sunshine, and let me get planting already!

While we’re on the subject of relatives pointing out my mistakes, my dad promptly emailed me after my post yesterday and let me know that those corner brackets are supposed to go on the inside of the beds.  Whoops.  (Thanks, dad!  <- Not sarcasm.  No really, it isn’t.)

At some point this summer I should probably do some actual work work.  You know, the stuff that I get paid for?  But, I’ve decided to gift myself some much deserved time off though.  I’ve been doing little things here and there, but nothing big.  Plenty of time for that….later.

Speaking of work, there’s always outside work to be done and the clouds are rolling in and I should probably brush my teeth.  

Do you like when people point out mistakes?  I am one of the rare people who really does appreciate it. I’d rather fix it right away than continue to do something wrong and look like an asshat.

What’s the last thing you won?  

Big (unplanned) weekend project

I somehow let my first anniversary of owning a home (homeownerversary? houseiversary?) pass without mention.  I didn’t let it pass without acknowledging it, don’t worry.  I just didn’t mention it here.

What?!!?  Katie, you have a life outside of the confines of your blog?!?!  Why yes, I do.  It isn’t much, if I’m being honest, but things do happen that don’t get mentioned here.  I mean, I overshare like the devil on these virtual pages, but some things….don’t make the cut.

I mention it now only because I can’t believe it has taken me a full year to really meet my neighbors.  Although, come to think of it, they live across the street, and since the road between us was…well, a ditch about 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide for all of the hanging-out-outside months last year, I shouldn’t be surprised.

Remember this?   I’m talking about the neighbors who live in that house directly between those two backhoes.  So “across the street” doesn’t really apply here.

Anyway, I met them this weekend and they are awesome.  They have a garden that I dream of (and have promised me some of their bounty!), they hauled away a tree that I started hacking at without really thinking about where the debris was going to go along with several bags of weeds (yes, there’s always weeding to be done), and helped me move my raised bed gardens to their proper homes.

Right.  I didn’t tell you yet.  I made raised bed gardens on Saturday.

 

I’ve been going back and forth about whether I should make these.  I knew they are the way to go, especially in this climate, but I didn’t really want to commit to the time, money, and effort to get all the supplies and make the bed, and then still have to borrow a truck, get the soil, dump the soil, spread the soil….etc.

I finally decided on Friday to NOT make them.  

Obviously.

Even when I went to the farmers market (where there was a whole lot of nothing going on because even though it is JUNE it is still basically winter here) on Saturday morning, I still had no plans on making them. Then, after talking with a couple people, I just said “eff it”, I’m doing this.  

I stopped at the building supply store, and left with $95 worth of lumber and I’m not kidding here, 1 1/2 hours later, I was done.

Since I knew you would all want to read about this, I even took some pictures along the way.  (Truth: I took them to show my dad.)

As is my style, I didn’t have a “recipe”.  I had nothing written down when I went to the store, I had nothing written down when I started making them.  But, I’ve done enough reading about them to have a pretty good idea about how to make a basic bed.

I knew I wanted 2 4′ x 8′ beds, and I wanted them 12 inches deep, so I got 2×12′s for the frame.  I also got 8 1″x2″ stakes for the corners and corner brackets to make sure that these bad boys don’t fall apart.  

I also got a pound of screws which turned out to be too short (note: be sure to double check that what the guys sell you is the correct product).  So, I improvised.  (Yes, I could have gone back and exchanged them, but I didn’t want to.)

First, I glued the corners in place with good old Elmer’s wood glue. 

Then, I pounded five nails in each corner.  

I know that it looks like  there are only three nails in the picture below.  That’s because there are only three nails.  But, after getting all the corners done, I still had a bag of nails and apparently some more aggression (and a lingering fear that these would fall apart), so I went back and added 2 more to each corner.

You’ll just have to trust me on that.

The first one was kind of practice, but it turned out just as great as the second, and you’d never be able to tell them apart.  The hardest part was balancing the wood to nail them together, since the wood glue wasn’t dry.  

So, again, I improvised.

The stakes aren’t needed until I officially nail the beds down in their final homes, but they served double duty to help stabilized the boards.

One last step, just to be safe, I added a corner bracket to each corner.  Between the glue, five nails, a stake, and a bracket, I think the corners are safe.

I know I’m not the first person to do this and this is hardly a tutorial for a DIY project, but I couldn’t resist taking pictures and patting myself on the back by writing about it here.  I mean, others have done this, but I haven’t!

I’m so proud of myself.  (Smug?  Maybe a little.)

Except…..wait.  I have done this before.  Kind of….

That right there is the last raised bed I made, back in 2010 in Flagstaff.  In defense of my shoddy workmanship, I knew I was going to be moving a year later, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and make it all nice.  It only had to last one summer.

Which it did, but barely.  At the end of that summer, the nails were coming out and all the corners were no longer nailed together.  It was falling apart in less than 4 months.  

But who cares, because I moved in May!  (Still that picture is really embarrassing.)

What a difference three years, home-ownership, and the knowledge that you (I) will be using these gardens to feed yourself (myself) for many years to come will make on your (my) handiwork.   

And then on Sunday, I moved them (with the help of the aforementioned neighbor) to their final homes, and started to lay down the cloth that will hopefully keep the weeds out.  I ran out of cloth, after the hardware store was closed of course, but I can get more and add it before the guy comes with the dirt later this week.

I also made a 4′ x 4′ trellis for beans with some chintzy wood stakes and chicken wire.  I will making a second for my cucumbers, after I go back to the store for more wood.  

Whew.  In addition to all that work, I did a whole SHITTON of weeding and pruning and cleaning (inside and outside – you should see my newly organized shed!) and now I am exhausted.  

My other neighbor gave me permission to cut any of her flowers to bring inside and liven up my house, so I cut myself a bouquet of tulips.  

I earned those tulips.  And the wine. And the restful Sunday evening on the back porch with my book and my lounge chair.

 How is your garden doing?  What were you up to over the weekend?

Asian week Day 3 (and other stuff)

Today’s recipe is brought to you by….me.  With a little help from that book that I won’t shut up about.  

Here’s the thing though.  I didn’t take pictures of the finished product the first time I made this recipe, because I was too busy blissfully eating the fruits (vegetables) of my labor (I didn’t really do anything) to be bothered with taking pictures.

Notice that I said the “first time”, implying there was a second time?  There was.  And it is sitting in my fridge right now.  But my fridge is in the kitchen, my camera is in the dining room, and I’m on my couch in the living room.  These are the obstacles keeping me from getting up and taking pictures right now.

How’s this?  

If you pretend those daikon half-moon slices are a bright orange color, and call them carrots, we’re all good.  Because that what carrot kimchi looks like and carrot kimchi is what I’ve got for you today.

Plus some funny stuff to keep you entertained (and to compensate for my lack of pictures.)

This?  I’d let the class out early, too.  That’s pure genius.

Like most cooking methods/recipes, I tend to run hot and cold.  I get really into something, eat it/make it for a long time and then I move on to something else.   This happens with my dehydrator, that juicer that I used for about a week and a half; it happens with cookies (I’m on my second batch of ginger vanilla cookies this week…I think I win best recipe EVER for these, no joke), it happens with eggs, it definitely  happens with avocado.

Right now, I deep in the throes of a fermentation obsession.

I got the Bible of fermentation, aka The Art of Fermentaiton, last summer, and believe it or not, I’ve read most of the entire tome.  It’s only about 500 pages, but it is a wealth of information, and if you are science geek like me, even if you have no intention of fermenting anything, you’ll be fascinated.   Although, I’d be shocked if you can get through the whole book and not be inspired to try.

I think reading this book is what “ruined” the chapter on fermentation in Cooked (by Michael Pollan) for me.  I already knew it all.  (I’m so smart.)

Here’s the thing about fermenting: it seems complicated. It look like it is hard, based on how long the instructions are when printed out.  I promise you, it isn’t.  If it were, I wouldn’t do it.  

There are really just 3 steps: 1. Salt the food to draw out moisture, 2. Combine seasonings and drained vegetables into a sealed glass jar, 3.  Let the jar sit for as long as you want.  

Seriously.  That’s it.   

You want more details?  Demanding, you.  I am here to oblige though.  I’m your beck and call girl (movie?)

Carrot Kimchi

1. Peel and slice carrots; use however many you want, slice however you want (but the slices should be thin – more surface area is better)
2. Combine carrots with salt (about 1 T for a pound of carrots) and mix well
3. Let these sit for 2-4 hours.  After the water is drawn out, drain and rinse the carrots.  
4. Combine your spices in a large glass jar and add the drained carrots.  (For kimchi, I used 1 T gochugang paste, 1 tsp fish sauce, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp garlic, and a pinch of stevia)
5. Screw on the lid of the jar and shake it all up.
6. Set the jar, covered, in a darkish, coolish place for 2-10 days.  Check the carrots daily, opening the jar to release pressure and tasting the carrots.  
7. Put the jar in the fridge when the carrots taste good to you.  I usually do about 3-4 days in the summer, because its hotter in my house and fermentation is faster in the heat.

See?  Easy.  It looks long, I know.  It sounds nebulous.  It’s a “loosey goosey” recipe.  That’s why I like it though.  Loosey goosey recipes are the best – use whatever vegetables you want and whatever seasonings you want and let it sit for however long you want.

It’s all about you and what you want.  What’s better than that?

I’ll tell you what isn’t better than that.  This hamburger bathing suit.

I mean….are you kidding me?  Why would I want to wear this?  Why would I pay money for this?  Are there people out there who LIKE this kind of thing!?!?  *shudder*

Have you jumped on the kimchi bandwagon yet?  Fermented anything?  

Would you wear a hamburger bathing suit?

Seen anything funny lately?

Asian Week Day 2: Korean food (Also: Flowers!)

One of the best parts of summer is that I don’t have to set an alarm.  I usually wake up with the sun, which means that I get up around 6 am or, if I’m really tired, 7 am.

Today I slept until NINE am!!  In truth, I woke up at 6 and read my book for a bit and then fell back asleep, but still.  NINE O’CLOCK, kids.

Obviously, my body is still playing a bit of catch-up from the craziness that is my May term class.

It could also have a lot to do with the busy day I had yesterday.  I am using that word, ‘busy’, in a good way though, contrary to how you normally hear it.  I love being busy.  I guess that’s why I love my job and this lifestyle I’ve chosen.

I spent the vast majority of my time outside – playing and digging in the dirt, mowing the lawn (because all the rain that we got means that the grass suddenly grew like WHOA in the last few days), transplanting some flowers, planting seeds, and filling and hanging three new bird feeders.

There also may have been some lounging in my favorite  reclining chair with a book.  If by “may have been” you mean “definitely was,” and I do.

I picked out a few annuals at the store a couple days ago to plant into containers for my front porch.  In years past, my super smart self (<- sarcasm) would buy containers of these flowers, pre-planted, but turns out those things are actually pretty easy to plant yourself.  For much cheaper.

Who knew?   Oh, right.  Everyone.

So gardening happened.  Cool.  Fun times that I’m sure you care about so let’s talk about what you come here for.

I know it looks like those plants are dying, but they perked up.  

Intelligent conversation.  Right?

I’m kidding, obviously.  I know you come here for the funny pictures that other people make (and I steal) and you tolerate my yammering about work, gardening, and food.  Thanks for letting me fill in the spaces with food talk.  Because I like food.

Like I alluded to yesterday, I can’t get enough of asian food lately.  So much so that I’ve even created a new board on my pinterest page for all things Asian.  (Which, again, sounds dirty and I swear I’m not doing this on purpose.)

So, with another amazing introduction, welcome back to Asian Week!   (WOW, that sounded unintentionally dirty.)

This next recipe, which is really two recipes, were inspired by this book, which I have now renewed three times from the library.  Three times is the limit, which means I have to return it (sad) and maybe just buy it already.

In all honesty, these are hardly recipes, but if Rachel Ray can post a recipe for microwave bacon, well….you see where I’m going with this.  In my defense, these are much more involved recipes than microwave bacon.

One of the things that I love about Korean food is the variety that is included in most meals.  The book devotes several pages to basic sauces that you can make in bulk and several more pages to side dishes (banchan).

Most Korean meals are based on this concept – see the chart below if you’ve never heard of it, but it is a perfect way of eating “family style” where everyone can create their own perfect meal.  Pick a base, add some vegetable sides, a meat, and mix it all up.  Or not.

It’s kind of like how Taco Bell has created an entire menu out of combining 5 ingredients in 100s of different ways.

So these recipes stick with that idea.  I’ve combined a vegetable side dish, with one of the basic sauces, to create a veggie-heavy snack.  Or side dish.   Appetizer?  Whatever.

Seaweed Salad

• 1/4 cup (or so) dried mixed seaweed (I used this brand, but there are many out there.  You can also just use your favorite seaweed.)
• Cold water, to cover the seaweed
• 1/4 cup Soy Scallion Dipping Sauce (recipe below)
• 1/4 cup prepared Kimchi

Put the seaweed in a bowl with the water.  The seaweed expands almost 10 times its volume, so add lots more water than you think you need.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes, drain, and add Soy Scallion Dipping Sauce and prepared kimchi.  Stir to combine.  Serve chilled.

Soy-Scallion Dipping Sauce

• 3 T soy sauce
• 3 T rice wine vinegar
• 6 T water
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• sweetener, to taste

Combine all ingredients.  This sauce will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

 

You certainly don’t have to add the kimchi and you can use any spices or seasoning you want for the seaweed salad, but this is how I’ve been eating it.  You can also use the dipping sauce for, you guessed it, dipping things.

It’s also really good as a marinade for meat or veggies and as a stir fry sauce.  You really can’t go wrong here.  Awesome, right?

Do you like seaweed salad?  I used to hate it – the slime factor, you know.

Do you eat “family style”?

I’m obviously not really creative right now.  I can’t think of any interesting questions.

Catching up

For some strange reason, I really want to start this post with the word “Yo” but I’m holding back.  I suppose that right there is kind of a de facto way of starting the post using the word “yo”, but not really in the way that I intended, so I’m calling it a win.

Annnnd, that right there may have been the stupidest, most non-sensical thing I have ever written and I could go back and delete it, but I won’t.  For posterity sake, you know.

This introduction is ridiculous.  I apologize and I implore you to keep reading.  It gets better, I promise (she says before having even written anything, but  it can’t get worse, right?)

I haven’t given you a proper update on my Today I Made challenge in a couple weeks, but I have updated that page.  I did, however, allude to several things that I have made in this post, and some of you even asked for more information.  

Laziness, a birthday, the last two weeks of teaching, and a weekend away from my computer got in the way of me heeding your calls and catering to your desires, but I’m ready now.  We’re about to embark on what I am going to call “Asian week”.  

Nevermind that it is already Wednesday and the week is half over.  I’ve got three great recipes, and there are three days left this week.  Serendipity?

 

The recipes are all easy recipes, as any you’ll find on this blog are.  I’m all about the easy cooking.  

Take, for example, the slow cooker.  This is one of my favorite appliances which is, as I sit here typing, slowly cooking a pork shoulder that will become pulled pork.  I’ve never made this before, but I am really excited. That’s not what I’m talking about though. 

I’m talking about a different easy kitchen appliance that doesn’t get nearly enough use in my kitchen lately.

My dehydrator.  

When I first got this, I used it almost every week, but these days, I only bust it out to make beef jerky (note to self: make more beef jerky) and that, friends, is a shame.

I have dehydrated many a vegetable, but I’d never dehydrated peas.  But plain, dry peas?  Boring.  

I love spicy anything.  The spicier, the better.  Which probably explains why I love asian food so much.  Sure, you can get non-spicy asian food, but if you ask me, that’s like going to the world’s best burger joint and ordering a salad.  (To be fair, I’ve ordered salad at burger joints, but I order them in addition to the burger.  I make a mean hamburger salad and if you keep reading throughout the summer, I’ll probably mention it once or twice.)

One of my favorite snacks has always been wasabi peas.  I could eat an entire bag of those things.  I think of the peas as a vehicle to get the wasabi into my mouth, because that wasabi burn?  LOVE it.

(Side story: I once squirted wasabi directly into my eyeball.  It hurt.)

 

Wasabi peas are full of crazy ingredients, including of course gluten, so I haven’t eaten them in a long time and OH how I have missed them.

So I did what I do best, or what I do out of necessity and sometimes works out but not always, and that is this: make my own.  DUH.

As it turns out, wasabi peas are deep fried, which is probably why they are so damn good, but I’m not about to fry anything.  I’ve got a deeply ingrained fear of hot grease stemming from a childhood trauma.  This is also why I never cook bacon.  Any food that causes pain to cook is not worth it, if you ask me.

 

I’m only telling you that so you don’t make these expecting them to taste like the deep fried version.  They have the same flavor, but a far different texture.  Slightly chewier and less crunchy, but since all I really care about is the wasabi, that’s fine by me.

Dehydrated Wasabi Peas

• 16 ounces frozen, thawed sweet peas (1 bag)
• 2-3 T wasabi paste
• 2 T rice wine vinegar

Mix the paste with the vinegar and toss with the peas, to coat.  You want them to be coated, but not dripping in liquid.  Spread coated peas on dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 150 for about 4 hours. 

 

Store in a ziplock in the fridge for up to a week, or longer in the freezer. 

 

Do you like wasabi peas?  What is your favorite dehydrated food?