My first!

During this week's menu-planning process, I decided I needed to make fasolakia to counteract the obscenely large amount of ice cream I consumed over the weekend. While my version is simpler and is basically just green beans, onions, and garlic stewed in tomatoes, water, and olive oil until somewhat soft, the dish in the link brings back fond memories of Greek tavernas.

A discussion of the merits of Greek cooking is not, however, the point of this post.  In an attempt to actually use some of the food I put up this past summer, I got out a jar of tomatoes in water. It looked a bit odd, but they were Brandywines. But then, I opened the jar with surprisingly little effort. At first I thought I had finally happened upon an easy method of taking off the stupid damned lids, but no. I am not that clever.

Instead: my first seal failure!!!


Ick. There was totally green mold growing across the inside of the lid, and chunk of white something floating with the tomatoes. I was skeeved. Now I have to figure out what went wrong - all of the other jars from that batch seemed to seal fine.

Last night was not simply a night of failure, though.  I checked on my pink sauerkraut and it's slowly but surely fermenting! I'm considering moving it to a warmer part of the house; it's already been close to six weeks and it doesn't have much kick. Still, given that last year the sauerkraut had to be trashed due to an overly generous application of salt, I am pleased.

Next stop, une choucroute garnie! Who's coming to dinner?