Kombucha, Som, Pok Pok and a new Kitchen

Dear friends! As you can tell, I’ve been on a bit of a writing hiatus the past few… months! Works been busy, personal life has been busy, there’s been travel and apparently it’s important to sleep every now and then?! What a cramp on a busy gals schedule hey? But i’ve dearly miss and you and even though I haven’t been posting, I have still been cooking up a storm and gathering new recipes to share! We had the weekly staples- batches of kombucha,and almond butter.We traveled to visit our family and threw in a few beer soaked grilled bratwurst, paleo chocolate chip banana bread and Pecan Pies with fresh homemade crust (of course!). I can’t visit without baking a few pies! One of my favorite parts about visiting family is playing the role of both ‘imported resident chef’ and ‘kitchen instructor’. I have So much fun teaching the niece and nephews to cook! We had a ball in the kitchen and they do great!

photoBut, as I was saying. This entire summer has been booked SOLID with both work and play. And just when I thought things would calm down in the fall, our landlord decided to sell the condo after four years of renting so we had to find a new place. Luckily, we found a place that we just LOVE and we move this weekend. THIS WEEKEND! A matter of hours away! I’m so excited I can barely handle it! I can’t wait to unpack and organize the new kitchen! With the fast pace of the last 3 months, cooking as been more of a chore than it usually is. I’ve really leaned on simple recipes, the local pho restaurant, and cereal for dinner. But with a new kitchen comes new recipes and excitement to cook! Which brings me to my fall and winter sports.

I HATE to, and won’t, drive in snow and/or ice… so my fall/winter sports consist of cooking, baking, menu planning from the ridiculous amount of time I spend on Pinterest (A Byte of Life boards here), testing out my wine cellar, catching up on all the shows that everyones been raving about and listening to the rain falling outside. Oh, and pumpkins! I LOVE PUMPKIN!  I’ll eat slow roasted pumpkin right off the baking sheet! And Gingerbread. I LOVE gingerbread! But back to the point- my winter sports are gingerbread and/or pumpkin flavored, with a side of wine, and a good show in the background.

This year, I have a new hobby to add to the list. Pok Pok. If you’ve NEVER been to Pok Pok, you HAVE to go to either Portland or New York and experience their wings and one of their drinks with their drinking vinegar called som. Som is a drinking vinegar that has been an age old practice in many cultures around the world for it’s health benefits. Pok Pok has been serving their drinking vinegars since 2005, both as a cocktail mixer and diluted with soda as a soft drink. They use organic cane sugar for sweetener and let me tell you, while I’m not a soft drink person in the slightest, this stuff is downright addicting! You can purchase the Pok Pok Som online form both Pok Pok and ChefShop.com. A girlfriend and I just took an amazing cooking class at ChefShop.com so you can expect future blog post about them too!

Well, their chicken wings are known nation wide, and their cocktails are red-eye flight worthy. This, coming from a confirmed wine and anti-chicken wing girl. Let’s just keep this short and say that Pok Pok changed my life, as evidenced by the fact that after the first bite I waived down the waiter and asked if I could PLEASE purchase their cookbook but only if the amazing chicken wings were included. He handed me a copy to review. Each page coated in plastic which was an amazing idea because I was pouring over it as I was elbow deep in eating amazing chicken wings,The Pok Pok cookbook holds a special spot on my shelf , I personally confirmed that the chicken wing recipe is included, and it has been added to the list of fall and winter hobbies.

Tune in for more amazing thai inspired recipes from the Pok Pok cookbook, updates from this years International Food Bloggers conference (last years post) and to see how the Som Kombucha turns out! I had a bit of Som leftover and had a batch of kombucha ready tonight so I figured I’d do a little variation on my blueberry ginger kombucha and try some ginger som kombucha. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Grilled Bratwurst…Summer’s on it’s way

Amazing Brats for Dinner
Amazing Brats for Dinner

 

“The big yellow one’s the sun!” (From stand-up comedian Brian Regan…if you haven’t heard him he’s HYSTERICAL! Check him out here)

That big blinding thing in the Seattle sky.. what IS it!? This past weekend in Seattle was gorgeous and dare I say it…it’s getting to be “that” time of year. You know which one I’m talking about…the birds chirping while the sun comes up at 5am, blinding white legs are peeking out from shorts, sunglasses sales shoot through the roof because no one knows where they placed any of the 5 pairs they used last time it was sunny in Seattle. Baseball is in season and it just seems downright American to drink beer and grill on the roof! After last years extended snowpocalypse, all of Seattle seems MORE than ready to get out and enjoy a little much awaited and MUCH deserved sunshine!

What better way to enjoy than to channel our German roots and grill up some Bratwurst! We’re spoiled to have the most delicious Uli’s Famous Sausages right down the street in Pike Place Market and Macrina Bakery two blocks away for amazing fresh Potato Rolls but I’m sure you can find your local version of each and make an equally tasty meal! Not to mention, with a few short minutes drive we can grab a fresh keg of Georgetown Manny’s Pale Ale.

This is the perfect weekend meal! It’s so easy to prep and forget while you go about your weekend chores! Then when you’re hungry you can fire up the grill and have an amazing and rewarding meal! We LOVED this meal so much we made enough for four and had leftovers the next night! Added bonus: the whole house smelled of incredible German brats and beer all afternoon while we cleaned! Talk about motivation!

Grilled Bratwurst

2 40oz cans of Miller Light
1 large onion, chopped
4 Uli’s German Bratwurst
4 Potato rolls from Macrina Bakery
1 package Sauerkraut (I use the German imported style sold at Uli’s, it’s authentic and already prepared!)
4 ear of corn, husked
Ketchup/Mustard to taste
1 keg of Georgetown Manny’s Pale Ale (okay… I guess you can use whatever you’d like but if you’re Seattle local, this is the PERFECT beer with this meal!)

Meat and Onions
Meat and Onions

To marinate

  • Chop onion and place in large pot on the stove
  • Add both 40’s of Miller Light and add the delicious brat’s
  • Marinate on low for 4 hours
  • Husk the corn and set aside

1.5 – 2 hours before you want to eat

  • Soak the corn for a half hour then place each ear in foil. You can place whatever seasonings you like. I simply do salt and pepper but some like butter or oil and that actually helps it char up on the grill much more evenly and swifter. Bake individual corn foils in a pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes then transfer and grill directly on the pre-heated grill. Corn takes a while so start this a good 15 minutes before you want to finish the dogs on the grill.
  • Remove the dogs from pot and place in foil to grill.
  • Set aside to onions to pan cook or you can also wrap them in foil and do this on the grill itself if you’d prefer to not use a stove.
  • Miller Light
    Miller Light

    Wrap the Sauerkraut in foil and grill (or you can pan fry them but this stinks up the house a bit so I usually just warm them in foil on the grill).

  • At this point you should have oven cooked corn still in the foil, foiled sauerkraut, foiled brats, and be ready to either pan fry the onions or foil those bad boys
  • Heat up your grill as hot as it will go and cook the corn for 10 minutes, turning frequently to get an even char. Also put the foiled sauerkraut and onions on the grill to cook up (for these pictures I pan fried it since everyone in our building seemed to be using the grills and I wanted to reserve space).
  •  Once the corn has a good char on all sides, place the brats on the grill and char those puppies up.
  • Toast your buns, set out your condiments and get ready to enjoy one of the most incredible meals you’ll ever set taste buds on!

 

Enjoy your delicious and easy meal!!!

The Full Meal Deal
The Full Meal Deal

Another amazing part of this meal… if you’re cooking for two.. this gives you leftovers to enjoy the next night like we did!!!

Leftovers
Leftovers