Second harvest of the year (although my first was only rocket) sweet peas, rocket (arugala), parsley, Thai basil and a touch of coriander. Mixed into a salad with browned salmon and sumac butter.

My fermented hot sauce was bubbling and brewing away in the corner for several days. It developed a little bit of white mold, which I promptly scraped off. I did notice mentions of mold in various blog posts so I didn’t worry overly much, it seems to relate to the fermentation process.

Once I felt that it was fermented enough (use your intuition) I slipped on a glove and picked through the mixture removing all of the green stems. I then dumped the mixture into a saucepan with about half a cup of white wine vinegar and let it boil for several minutes.

I put in a teaspoon of salt and then poured the whole saucepan into my blender and whizzed it up until I liked the consistency. The sauce then took another journey into the saucepan for another round of boiling while I sterilized a few little jars. I tasted it again as it boiled and decided to add a teaspoon of white sugar. This just seemed appropriate.

I never used to like hot sauce.

That changed during my first camping trip. I was 19-years-old.

Traveling to the site with a fellow newbie girlfriend, en route we picked up a lot of beer, a 12-pack of hot dogs and a sack of buns. That was it.  We had no tent, no sleeping bags, no nothing. Just beer and hot dogs. We joined a big group of experienced campers. They had barbecues, food tents, frying pans, cooking sauces, venison, and…

Sriacha sauce. That lovely fermented garlic hot sauce, you all know it, the squirt bottle with the green lid. The symbol that you’re in a good restaurant. I mean, come on, Morimoto uses it.

Sieu Thi Dong Thanh Supermarket!

I was let on to a little food gem this morning and I sense my relationship with Vietnam will never be the same.

This is a great way to keep your complexion lovely well into old age. The skin of the face improves with the help of the humidity and the temperature of a facial steam. This effect is intensified with the addition of either a mixture of herbs or from specific herbs for a certain purpose. This is recommended in particular for skin with large pores or impurities.

Delicious probiotic rich pomegranate kombucha with raw lychee ice-cream makes a delicious and nutritious gut-pleasing, taste bud tantalizing treat.

We had a delicious opportunity this week with unexpected access to an extra large bottle of fresh raw cream from a local community dairy just when lychees are in full swing in the markets. We can never get enough of these exotic fruits so we just couldn’t resist making them into this delectable trip to tastebud shambhala. This recipe is especially good for folks on the GAPS or SCD diets as it is full of living grass-fed dairy fat, raw and easily absorbed local free-range egg yolks, local raw honey and lychees. (Lychees are the source of a powerful beneficial yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii).

It was my brother’s birthday on June 2nd or 3rd (I always forget), which coincided perfectly with the curing of my pig cheek.  To celebrate his 26th birthday I decided to make an EPIC pork-filled breakfast and it was EPIC indeed.

This is my last semester of classes before I finish my Masters degree. While I still have a practicum to finish and thesis to write I am beginning to feel like I am close to the end. In honor of this ending, I wanted to really celebrate the student life this summer, by this I mean not working full time. One of the many activities I have scheduled is volunteering at the farmer’s market for a small certified organic farm called Klippers Organic Acres!

The Roman bacon was ready. It had been ready for a couple of weeks but it was trapped in my storage closet. (See Part 1: Roman Bacon for recipe and details on making this tasty treat)

I have lived in my apartment building for seven years. I have had a key to my storage closet kicking around solo for seven years. I have never lost it, or misplaced it, ever. When do I lose it? Yeah, that’s right when I have a pig cheek hanging from the ceiling.