Kombucha--The Beginning

Kombucha and I have been in a passionate love affair for many years now. But it's always been sort of an "unhealthy" relationship, where I spend all my money and get only 16 oz of pleasure. But that is all about to change! 

This weekend my room mate, Grier, and I went to a kombucha growing class! It was so awesome! The class was held at The Green House. They offer all sorts of classes on sustainable living. I'm really looking forward to more classes! But, back to kombucha. For $20 we were able to talk to a woman who has been growing kombucha for several years and was very knowledgeable, we got a starter kombucha, and we got inoculate. I learned a lot about kombucha as well. Here is what I learned that I didn't know about kombucha:

• Kombucha is the liquid produced by a symbiotic organism!! It is a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast). I always thought that it was a mushroom because it's often called "mushroom tea". 
• You feed the SCOBY a mixture of brewed tea, green or black, (that has cooled to room temperature) and sugar. 
• Depending on how strong you like your kombucha, you can have kombucha within three days!
• The SCOBY will grow to fit your jar and once it gets large you can cut it up and start new colonies!

My kombucha colony...DAY 1!

Jumbalaya, Jalapeno corn bread, and baked okra

This dinner is a compilation of some of my favorite dishes! But before we get into dinner...I would just like to brag about the bouquet I made this past Sunday. 

Ginger and birds of paradise bouquet

Isn't it so pretty?!

Ok. Dinner.

I got the recipe for baked okra from Pinterest. The original posting is from the cooking blog Cookin' Cowgirl. I LOVE THIS SNACK! It's so tasty and very healthy (if you ignore the mayonnaise-based dip). I have to admit that I have never had fried okra but I am seriously pleased with this baked recipe. And any recipe that cause my room mates to cheer whenever I say that I'm making it is a winner.

Baked Okra

• Okra, cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
• Buttermilk, enough to cover okra
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1 TBSP creole seasoning

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut the okra and toss in the buttermilk. Put the cornmeal, creole seasoning, and okra into a gallon ziploc bag and shake until okra is evenly coated with cornmeal. Grease a cookie sheet. Spread the okra on the sheet in one layer. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn each okra so the other side crisps. Bake another 15 minutes. They cool fairly quick so no need to cool, just put them on a plate and serve!

BBQ sauce aioli

• BBQ sauce
• Mayonnaise 

Aiolis are extremely easy, especially if you are lazy like me and use store bought mayo. I usually put 4-5 TBSP mayo to start and then add the flavoring in increments (BBQ sauce in this case). It ended up being about 1:1 ratio. I've also made a soy sauce aioli and a sriracha aioli to go along with baked okra. 

Baked okra with BBQ sauce aioli

Jumbalaya is one of the dinner recipes my mom used to make all the time when I was growing up. It's super tasty and healthy! It actually came from a Weight Watcher's recipe. I always double my mom's recipe because it's nice to have leftovers or in my case I cook for 7.

Jumbalaya

• 2 cups rice
• 4 cans diced tomatoes (14.5oz)
• 2 green bell peppers, diced
• 2 onions, diced
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 chicken thighs, cubed
• 4 hot link sausages, cubed
• 2.5 cups water with chicken bouillon 
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut up the peppers, onions, garlic, chicken, sausages, and thyme. Mix all of them together in a big bowl with the rest of the ingredients. My mom sautes the peppers, onion, and garlic first but I'm lazy and leave it to cook while baking. Same with the chicken and sausage, I just throw them in raw and they cook in the oven. Pour the mixture into a casserole pan and bake for 1 hr and 15 min. 

Jumbalaya 

Kevin photo bombed the jumbalaya

I love cornbread. It is so good. I usually put canned corn and chopped jalapenos in the batter and make corn muffins. However, I didn't have any corn in the pantry and I didn't want to drive to the store just for corn so I made pan cornbread instead.

Jalapeno corn bread with honey drizzle

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup corn meal
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/3 + 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 + 1/4 cup buttermilk
• Sliced jalapenos
• Honey

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients together but do not over stir. Pour batter into 13" x 9" baking pan and distribute evenly. Top the batter with the sliced jalapenos. Bake for 20 min. Remove from oven and drizzle honey on top. 

Jalapeno cornbread with honey drizzle

And for dessert, Kevin made peanut butter cookies! They were delicious! I don't have the recipe but if there is any interest I can post it later :)

Kevin's Peanut Butter Cookies

• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix the butter and peanut butter together. Add sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, vanilla, flour, and egg. Wait 1/2 hour for the batter to stiffen. Flour your hands and roll little balls. Place the balls on the cookie sheet and flatten them with a fork four times in a criss-cross pattern. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar and bake for 8-10 minutes. 

Kevin's peanut butter cookies