Saturday, January 1, 2011

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS




I'm generally of the opinion that you don't need a new year to tweak yourself, but this year I happen to have two big resolutions.

1. Eat Slowly Again.

I used to be a very slow eater, still on the main course while everyone else moved on to dessert. This worked out well since I don't usually eat dessert. But in the past year I've been eating faster and faster. Why? Because now that I am feeling better, I am back to trying to squeeze more out of my day, feeling the need to hurry up most of the time. And also because The Poet eats very fast, and when he's done he starts eating the food on my plate. To defend against this I've started eating fast. Life should not be this kind of competition!!! I will eat slowly again and tell The Poet to get his own food.

2. Make Kombucha

Here's one I've been resisting for some time. Yes, people have told me you can make it at home. One guy at the grocery store, who saw me buying a $3.29 bottle of the stuff went off on a monologue about how he brews it up in his bathroom. "Yuck!" I thought. "I'll just keep buying it."

For those who don't know: kombucha is this fermented drink full probiotics. You can get it at Whole Foods or you organic co-op, but it's pricey. And it disappeared for a few months this summer after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms advised stores to pull it from the shelves because the alcohol content (natural result of the fermentation process) might possibly have been above the legal 5%.

Kombucha fans know how expensive a habit it is, and hard core fans might suspect it's just not as good as it used to before it took its hiatus and came back in government regulated form.

Meanwhile, the massive doses of Amoxicillin I'm on are doing a number on my digestion. I've been going through $50 bottles of probiotics like they're bowls of popcorn. Kombucha also helps, but how can I afford to drink it every day?

So when I saw an article in the Washington Post on how easy it is to brew Kombucha at home, I knew it was time. I'm in DC now visiting the family, but I'm back in Seattle next week, and day 1 at home is day 1 for Kombucha brewing. I'll keep you posted.

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