Best Kraut Ever!

Preparing and sharing food  is one of the ways I show love to close friends and family.  I firmly believe that cooking is one of the things that helped me seal the deal with my wonderful wife (2.2).  I've prepared the Thanksgiving turkey for over 20 years.  What started out of necessity evolved into an enjoyable pastime.

When I say I started out of necessity, I'm not joking.  When wife 1.0 and I split up, I was quite literally living hand to mouth.  I needed to feed myself and my daughters, and going out to eat was absolutely out of the question.  I frequently had meat once per week, and the only food items I could readily afford were rice, potatoes, canned tuna and frozen vegetables.  This meant that I had a choice between eating the same exact thing day after day, or getting creative with meal prep.  I chose the latter.

My preferred type of cooking initially revolved around feeding my family.  I started out with the stupid easy stuff like mac-n-cheese (Kraft), hamburger helper and similar stuff.  From there, I expanded into easy recipes like spaghetti and casseroles, eventually moving to more traditional meals with a meat dish, some starch, and vegetables.  I also enjoy doing simple but hearty meals that can give me leftovers for a few days, such as pot roast in the crock pot.  My forte is foraging around the house and preparing a meal based on what's on hand.  It's a great combination of creativity and practicality.

My repertoire of meals has greatly expanded over the years.  For example, I don't consider myself a baker, but I can work some serious magic with sourdough.  I make a mean jalapeno and cheese sourdough, and I've created a couple of unique variations such as dill pickle sourdough and a red wine/craisin sourdough.

A couple of years back, I expanded into pickling and preserving food.  I've got a couple of pickle recipes my family absolutely loves, and my friends light up when I give them a jar of my black raspberry jam.  (This jam is a once-a-year treat, because I forage the black raspberries.  I spend about a month gathering the berries and a week preparing the jam.  It's definitely a labor of love.)

I didn't like sauerkraut growing up and didn't really develop a taste for it until a few years ago.  Yeah, I'm late to the party, but I eventually arrived.  Once I started eating it, it didn't take long for me to learn to make it.  I no longer buy sauerkraut; I make it.  It takes a long time to ferment, but the actual process of making it is stupid easy.  It's also ridiculously simple to tweak the basic recipe with add-ins such as caraway or mustard seed.  NOTE: When it comes to add-in spices, a little bit goes a long way.

I just finished a batch of kraut that I'm deeming best kraut ever!  The recipe is simple... just add some shredded apple and shredded carrot to the cabbage.  (I used white cabbage, but you can absolutely use purple if you prefer.  The end result provides an extra touch of sweetness, but that tiny change adds a ton of complexity to the flavor.  You still add salt based on the total weight of cabbage+carrot+apple, using the same salting ratio.