some festivities and some triumphs

christmas came and went. big deal for those who celebrate it, somewhat of an anticlimax for those of us who don't. there is a common misconception that channukah is the equivalent of christmas for a jew. not so. it is not a holiday that lights us up, or one to which we look forward all year. merely it is an opportunity to exchange gifts and meals (should we choose to) or, more commonly, to light up the sparklers for the wee ones. not having any wee ones proper we spent one day this weekend exchanging practical things (merino socks, mittens, shearling lined boots) and drinking out of every available fancy glass in the house. cheers to mum who can assemble a party quick as a bunny, we were all more than satiated.

one thing that happened was something i have truly been yearning for my whole life. something cast iron, with an enamel finish and a very blunt little name tag

yep. it happened. a covered french masterpiece with a myriad of uses. i had to keep creeping into the living room to peek under the lid and ensure it was really there.

it was!

after we ate too many lovely things, and drank early in the morning and so of course had to allow ourselves a nap just for posterity. (well, some of us. others of us (ahem) had to go to work and serve christmas dinner to strangers.)

cava, orange juice, stovetop espresso, steamed milk, kahlua, b & b (to each their own, not all at once of course.)

and then after, the dutiful ingestion of the cleansing food. a shot of orange juice mixed with a tablespoon of the most green spirulina (tastes just like it sounds) with a grapefruit chaser. smoothies with rice milk, chia, hemp, kale and bananas and, newly, water kefir! it is an experiment i have been working on for a few weeks. milk kefir grains (who subsist on lactose) can be transmogrified (or transmogged) to ferment juice, morphing into something very close to (although completely different than) water kefir crystals. this is done by training the milk kefir grains to switch their eating habits to sucrose or dextrose (not ideal, the dextrose.) once they are used to sucrose they are left with a fistful of raisins to ferment the basic sugars into a beverage with an astonishing probiotic load. (similar to kombucha). truth be told the process scared more than a few folks away from the counter

and understandably so. but it worked! huzzah! this morning the first fizzy (indeed, these guys give off some substantial carbonation) throaftful of water kefir, flavored with a clutch of raspberries from this years pick frozen to hold us over until something vital occurs. like this!

cheers.