Tom was away hunting again, leaving last Friday.  So I took the opportunity to try some recipes that he wouldn’t like.  

Since I am only allowed to drink one glass of wine, I am not able to drink my cocktails.  So I decided to make some non-alcoholic fermented drinks.  They should be more interesting in flavor than water and have some health benefits as well.  

I started Friday with making a Ginger Bug.  I have done this before, but it has been a while.  Here are the ingredients I started with and the bug started.

On Saturday I decided to be adventurous.  I made Provencal-Style Fish Soup with Rouille from Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food.  This was an undertaking.  It started with cutting up a Rock fish.  Here is the head and fins I used to help make the fish broth.

Here is the broth cooking.

I miss sipping a cocktail while cooking.  So I decided to make a Honey Berry Kombucha Smash instead.  I hadn’t made my own Kombucha yet so had to buy some and some ginger beer to make it.  Here are these ingredients.

And here is my drink.  It was fancy like a cocktail, fun to sip on while cooking dinner.

And here is my soup almost ready with the mussels opened up.

And here it is in the bowl with the crouton and rouille.  I was really good and different.  I don’t think I have ever had mussels before.  So an adventure for me.

On Sunday I started my own Kombucha.  Here is the sugar, hot water and tea steeping.

And here is the purchased kombucha I used to make my SCOBY.

On Monday I made cauliflower steaks.  I picked the last of our basil to make the pesto.  Here it is.  I do prefer Salmon Pesto from Alice Bay Cookbook instead.  

Tonight I made Succotash using the last of our zucchini and some of our frozen corn.  It is from Alice Water’s cookbook as well.  I had to use frozen lima beans as I couldn’t find fresh ones.  Here it is all cooked upon.  I had a sausage with it.  It is really good.

So that was my week of cooking and fermenting. Tom came home this evening a little early after he got a four point buck this morning. So now there will be venison on the menu. Although I have already thawed on of the chickens for tomorrow’s dinner.