But who cares, really? Every day is just like the last one. Except for one thing.
I have all the ingredients, at the same time for BLT’s. Yes, you read that correctly- bacon, lettuce, and slicing tomatoes, plus, a brand new jar of mayonnaise. Oh, and do not forget the bread. We bought a new kind of bread, for us anyway. It is a light, whole wheat that is so soft and tasty. The last bread we tried was whole wheat as well, but too sweet. Yuck.
Yes, I know this is crazy, but we rarely have slicing tomatoes, usually we only buy Roma’s because that is what I use to make sauces, and soups. But, we have found a six pack of slicing tomatoes at Costco, and, after about a week on the counter, they are ready to eat. And they are delicious.
Let me tell you about the lettuce, though, as it was quite the achievement for me. Several weeks ago, we bought a mega pack of Romaine lettuce, at Costco, of course, and it contained six heads of lettuce. We gave two to Enrique, and had the other four in the vegetable crisper drawer for weeks. I kept thinking that I needed to make a salad every day for lunch, but that fell through.
Two weekends ago, I was getting ready to throw out all four heads because they had wilted so badly, then decided to find out what would happen if I soaked them in the disinfectant we use on fresh produce. What was the worst that could happen? They were already ready for the bin.
So, I did just that. I put them in my small salad spinner, filled it with water, and added about a teaspoon of the disinfectant, and left them to sit for the required fifteen minutes. When I returned, they looked they were fresh from the garden. I could not believe it- it worked. I spent about an hour and a half doing all of the lettuce in the spinner, then setting them on kitchen towels to dry off. When they had all been soaked, I used the spinner to finish spinning them dry. Now to preserve what I had done.
Several weeks ago, I purchased a small truck load of the best food storage containers that I have ever used. They are the Rubbermaid Brilliance collection, and they are wonderful. Between those beauties, and the altitude here, I still have about two heads of lettuce that looks, and tastes, as fresh, maybe fresher, than when it is first purchased. The leaves are beautifully green, moist, crisp- nothing short of amazing.
We have had the same thing happen with four loaves of bread we bought way back in April, when we first returned home. It has been in the cupboard for about eight weeks, no joking We have some of one loaf still left, and it has no sign of mold, or drying out at all.
The altitude has to play a major part because I am still having some trouble with my fermentation’s. Nothing seems to want to ferment. Though, when I did a search yesterday about the relationship of altitude to fermentation, the article said that over six thousand feet, it will be likely to take two to three weeks to start a bread or kombucha fermentation. We are at seven thousand fifty feet, or there about, so I am going to keep that in mind while I double my efforts.
Stay happy, stay safe, and stay vigilant.