Woah! Like seriously…WO-AH! This week has been A WEEK to say the least! I swear I had every intention of getting at least ONE post up before today, but well how about we do a quick recap of the week?
On Sunday I spent half the day in the SLC airport with multiple flight delays only to arrive home Monday morning where I slept half the day before finding a little bit of time to socialize with actual humans until I had to slip back into zombie mode on Tuesday where I got my first taste of our new computer system at work and by Wednesday, after having two mental/emotional breakdowns over said system, I try to log into my blog only to get some message about it being unavailable for maintenance!*
*What do you say? Best run-on sentence ever? 😉
So yesterday…knowing I had emails to respond to, Blend recaps to type, and a refrigerator to restock, I did what any woman at her mental breaking point would do…
Under the premise of getting a birthday present for a friend, I did good to only walk out with a $4 pair of party rockers sunglasses for myself, but GOD…weaving in and out of those aisles, taking in the smell of new merchandise, surrounding myself with all sorts of goodies…it was cathartic in every sense of the term.
I know pretty much every one of my blends has already came, saw, and conquered their blend recap posts, but well, I’m still recuperating. And I will continue to recuperate with a bottle of wine and my besties tomorrow night. And hopefully by Sunday, I will have recuperated my ass to the farmers’ market and grocery store…unless I plan on living another week off cheese and condiments!
Let it be known that even the CHEESE DRAWER is dwindling! 😯 Anyone up for some maple shirataki noodles with pickled beets?
But I promise to be back next week. To tell you more. To tell you how I was carefree and adventurous. To tell you how many amazing new friends I made. To tell you how I rocked out a six minute and fifteen second plank. To tell you how I kicked my fear of public speaking to the curb with Sunday’s breakfast. To tell you how NOTHING could have made this past weekend better…well, besides the whole flight delay stuff!
But most of all, to tell you why I can’t wait to go again next year! 😀
And while you wait for me, be sure to click here and check out my giveaway for Julia’s life changing cookbook if you haven’t already! You have until 11:59pm (CST) tonight to enter!
Yep, yep! As you read this, I am soaring hiiiiiiiigh in the air making my way to Park City, Utah for what I’m sure will be one HELL of a weekend with some of my favorite blends! The fact that I am midair means I can tell you that I somehow managed to get to the airport on time (on ZERO sleep thanks to a storm tripping my security alarm! 😯 ), figured out where the hell to park (long-term? short-term? please don’t tow me!), AND made my way through security without having a coronary. Puh-LEEZE tell me I’m not the only one who gets super nervous at the airport! I swear I’m not a terrorist…I just want to eat snakes snacks on a plane!! 😉
What this ALSO means is that…
I pulled out some magic tricks in order to cram three weeks-worth of outfits into ONE bag without losing any fingers or toes. Oh and I may be bad at math, but three weeks for one weekEND is totally acceptable when you’re a woman…oh and the second bag is all for SWAAAAAG!
I finally made a decision on what shoes to wear for the cocktail hour on Friday night…which UNFORTUNATELY will not be these beauties due to the fact that I almost broke an ankle walking around TJ Maxx! Why oh WHY must I have the grace of a three-legged elephant?! Unrequited love I tell you!
I polished off my UMPTEENTH salad for the week, successfully obliterating the produce platoon that was staking claim to my crisper drawers this week. I will say they put up a good fight, but they were no match for me and Mr. Beano! Oh, I’m sorry, was that TMI? Too bad! 😛
I have yet ANOTHER playlist under my belt…which may or may not be 75% Portugal. The Man. Sidenote A: You know the true value of a friendship when the day before your trip you get a, “Hey, I bought this the other day and thought you might want to burn it”. SCORE! Sidenote B: How cool is that cork holding the CD to the case?!
But the BIGGEST thing…the thing I can now FINALLY tell you?
I GOT A SPONSOR TO BLEND!
I’m SO excited to be able to work with my friends from Yoplait Greek and Nature Valley! I hope to represent them the best way possible and? Well, hopefully I don’t pass out when I go to speak at the breakfast come Sunday morning! Me? Public speaking fears? Shaaaaaa…it! 😉
We all have things in life we want to learn…simple things from sewing on a button to more complex activities such as unearthing the mystery of IKEA’s furniture assembly instructions…but no matter the trade, there’s always a fair amount of intimidation in the beginning….the fear of the unknown. That’s exactly how I felt about kombucha-brewing until just a couple of months ago.
I’d been told that home brewing was incredibly easy and how ANYBODY could do it, but, well I’ve also been told that it’s next to impossible to kill a mint plant…and we all know how that turned out. Honestly, I never really looked into it (probably the same reason I’ve yet to learn anything about canning), but I was always convinced that I’d just mess it up…or worse, make myself sick! 😯
So you can IMAGINE my excitement when Julia, my long-time girl crush, contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing her newest cookbook, Delicious Probiotic Drinks (available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble), which contains not only well laid out instructions for how to brew your own kombucha, but also a TON of other good-for-your-gut drinks as well!
As soon as it arrived, I did what I ALWAYS do with cookbooks: flip through each and every page annnnnd…look at all the pretty pictures, decide I want to make EVERYTHING, overwhelm myself, and put it away. The only thing that was standing between me and the start of my kombucha-brewing greatness was getting my hands on a SCOBY (aka “the mother” as in “the mutha-trucka running this show”…or ya know, a “Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast”). 😉
There are THREE ways to obtain a SCOBY: 1. Make your own from a bottle of store-bought kombucha.
2. Purchase a dehydrated one online and rehydrate it at home.
3. Beg a friend to have sympathy for your timidity and share hers.
Obviously, since I didn’t even think I could successfully make my FIRST brew, starting from scratch was COMPLETELY out of the question. And well, when it came down to it, I was too worried about “wasting my money” (you know all those dolla dolla bills that I throw wildly in the air each and every time I step foot in a Whole Foods) to buy one online. So there I sat…SCOBY-less.
Until something AMAZING happened…
While catching up with a coworker, she took out a jar of pink-colored liquid and took a sip…just before telling me that it was her latest batch of strawberry kombucha! My look of awe and admiration must’ve been apparent because she then went on to tell me (just like everyone else) that it was SUPER easy and that I should do it too. My slight hesitation was met with an offer to have a SCOBY in my hands by the next day. What?!
I wept tears of fermented joy.
The next day, the clock started. I knew I didn’t have long. As soon as I was off for the week, I reread each line of Julia’s instructions AND because I’m a visual learner, You-Tubed some videos on home-brewing until I felt like I had grown some cojones psyched myself up. I went to the store to purchase the handful of ingredients I needed and back at the house, I went to work. Excluding the time it took for the tea to come to room temperature, the initial brewing honestly took me about 15 minutes…
And the rest is history!
As of today, I’m working on my THIRD batch and with each batch I brew, I feel like I’m getting better and better! Most information out there will say that the whole process should take 5-7 days, but it really depends on your personal taste preferences. My first batch was still pretty sweet (my sister thought it tasted like regular tea) so I ended up letting it go almost a whole week more before harvesting, taste-testing along the way until I liked the flavor. And my last batch went 9 days because I got busy. See? No pressure! FYI: The longer it brews, the more sugar “Big Mama SCOBY” eats…so the more acidic/vinegary it will taste. After the week or so, you can harvest the kombucha and put it in the fridge or you can do a secondary (flavoring) fermentation which will only take 2-3 more days. I really like the taste of plain kombucha, but it’s been fun playing around with all sorts of flavors. Just remember to peel those citrus fruits! Lol
So there ya have it folks…how I conquered my fears…an unexpected love story…from zero to hero Kombucha GODDESS in less than 1000 wordsFIVE WEEKS! 😉 Now that I’m feeling confident, I’m ready to take on the challenge of making more of Julia’s recipes for probiotic drinks…ginger beer, here I come!
Moral of the story: Don’t be a weenie like me.
But wait!! There’s a bonus to the story…an epilogue if you will 😉 Julia is offering one lucky KMB reader a copy of her book for FREE! And there are no crazy hoops to jump through. And? She’ll ship to ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!! Are you excited?!
Just leave a comment (any comment!) on this post as your entry! Giveaway will run until FRIDAY the THIRTEENTH of June at 11:59pm CST (ya know, to boost your luck a bit!). In the meantime, check out theseposts from Julia for even MORE about kombucha…what it is…why it’s good for you…and some delicious recipes to make at home!
Good luck and may the bacteria be ever in your favor! 😉
My name is Heather! I'm a southern gal with a passion for food, fitness, and photography...and alliteration if you didn't notice! Here you'll find a mix of random musings, delicious recipes, and hopefully a chuckle or two! Check out my "About' tab to learn more!
