Museum of Life and Science

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Making Kimchi

A friend on mine that runs a farm up in Virginia called me this morning to ask me if I wanted some Bok Choy, as she was over run with it from her garden. I said, “Sure, bring me five heads of it! I’ll think of something to do with it.”

Here are the five beautiful heads of Bok Choy she brought me. Bok Choy is a Chinese vegetable that is classified as a cabbage, looks more like celery and contains leaves resembling lettuce.

I opted to dehydrate two of the heads for making soup later on. I wanted to keep one for a fresh stir-fry meal in the next couple of days. That left me with two Bok Choy heads left. But what should I do with them?

I discovered that Korean Kimchi is typically made with Napa Cabbage but can be made with Bok Choy as well. What is Kimchi? Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented spicy dish most commonly made with napa cabbage and other vegetables such as radish, green onion, chive, carrots and cucumber. Kimchi is the most common side dish in Korean cuisine. Kimchi is also a main ingredient for other common Korean dishes such as Kimchi stew. I have never made Kimchi before but there is a first time for everything.

After a bit of chopping, measuring and mixing this is what my Kimchi looks like…

It is not done yet as it still needs to ferment for 2-3 days to get that sour tang you find in dill pickles and sauerkraut. Then I will put it in the fridge where it will be good for 2-4 months.

Horse 4-H Meeting

We belong to a horse centered 4-H club called the Southern Ring Rockers. Tonight was our monthly meeting. Baxter came along with us to see what we do there. The monthly meetings are mostly business events where we talk about what the club has done and make plans for future events as well. 

The battery died on my camera so I didn't get to take photos of Baxter at the table sitting with McKayla but he was there!

Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market in our small town officially opened for the season today.

After a few quiet days at home Baxter was ready to hit the town so he opted to come along with McKayla, Taylor and I to the market.

Our Farmer's Market is pretty small compared to some but it is early in the season and not all of the vendors have started coming yet.  Also, next month they are planning to build a permanent structure to house the Farmer's Market in as well. I am looking forward to that!

We purchased some fresh baked items to snack on... a rhubarb tart for me, oatmeal raisin cookies for McKayla and Baxter chose chocolate chip cookies... Yummy!

I picked up a few plant starts for the garden... a purple tomato, thyme, dill and oregano.  Then Baxter spotted these huge fresh picked strawberries!  It didn't take much convincing for me to buy 4 quarts of them.  We ate a few right in the parking lot, the rest I hid away until we got home so we could make strawberry jam with them.

We made Freezer Jam today because it is fast and easy as it doesn't require any cooking.  First I cleaned and sliced the strawberries up to equal 8 cups tightly packed berries.

Then we added in a package of Freezer Jam Fruit Pectin (this is different then the pectin for cooked jam).  Pectin is what makes your jam (with fruit chunks) or jelly (pureed smooth) get thick and spreadable.  It is naturally in many fruits but adding additional pectin helps achieve a thicker result.

The strawberries and pectin are mixed together really well to a consistency that you like.  At this point Baxter wanted to go swimming in the mixture it smelled so good!

Finally, after letting it set for about 30 minutes we spooned the jam into freezer containers (our batch made 11 half pint jars) and store in the freezer up to a year.  Not only is this great jam for sandwiches it is also great over ice cream and makes a wonderful stir-in for plain yogurt too!

Homemade Pizza Pockets

It was still too windy and cool outside to use our pizza box solar oven that we made yesterday.  So, we decided to make some pizza pockets for dinner tonight.

Baxter helped measure the ingredients into the mixer.  He really enjoyed watching the mixer go round and round.

Once it came together as a soft dough we took it out and I showed Baxter how to kneed it so it was a smooth stretchy dough.  We then let it rest for 15 minutes to proof (expand).  We rolled it out really thin...

and then McKayla came to help cut 3 inch circles out.  We needed 24 circles, 12 for the bottoms and 12 for the tops.

We added pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese to the 12 bottom rounds.

Finally, McKayla brushed an egg wash along the edges and put the top circles on.  The edges were crimped with a fork and I put them in the oven for 20 minutes.

Baxter wanted to try one right away but I made him wait until they were cool so he wouldn't burn his mouth.

Pizza Box Solar Oven

This afternoon we made a Pizza Box Solar Oven.  The kid's had seen a segment yesterday about these solar ovens at the end of a Curious George episode and wanted to make one.  We found the instructions here.  This oven can reach 275F and can cook things like mini pizzas, hot dogs, cookies or s'mores.

Here Baxter poses with the materials we needed to make our pizza oven; pizza box, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, glue, tape and box cutter.  The packing tape I used to attach the plastic wrap is missing from this shot.

First I cut a flap in the lid one inch from the sides.  Then we covered the flap with aluminum foil.  The inside of the box also got lined with foil.

Here Baxter demonstrates how I covered the hole with plastic wrap from the inside.  The oven is now done.  Unfortunately, it was too chilly and overcast for us to try it out this afternoon.  Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer.

After dinner McKayla wanted to play Memory.  Baxter thought that sounded like a great idea until he found out it was a princess version!  So girly!  But, in the end he played too.

Baxter and McKayla working together to play.  They ended up winning this round.

Gymnastics Class

Baxter came along with us to McKayla's gymnastics class.  But first we ran a few errands in town.

We had to stop at the post office to mail a package as well as some postcards we are trading with others around the world.  Baxter and McKayla mailed the postcards while I waited to mail the package at the window.

Our next stop was to the recycling center.  Our county (Person County) recently acquired a new recycling system.  We are now able to take more types of materials to be recycled and it does not need to be sorted ahead of time!  We recycle as much as we can here and the recycling center is a stop I make once or twice a week.

Finally, it was time for gymnastics.

McKayla, at 5 years old, is in a girls level 1 class and loves it.  The play equipment you see in front is for a toddler class.  McKayla's class uses the equipment to the rear of the gym like the balance beams, uneven bars, trampoline, dance mats, etc.

After gymnastics we all went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  We ordered what we always do; a family order of cheese breadsticks and a cheese lovers with half pepperoni on a hand tossed crust.  Yumm!

When we got home we discovered this postcard in the mailbox from Baxter's family.  It is the capitol building of New Jersey which is where Baxter is from.