RSBC Week 2 Roundup: Krazy for Kraut

Welcome back to Run Swim Bike Cook 2016!  Here's our roundup from Week 2. 

Apparently it was the perfect week for making sauerkraut from scratch.  Erin, from Small and Simple things, made this adorable kraut and snapped a photo a few minutes into the fermenting process.  Don't you just love the cheesecloth hat?  She's also been busy running, biking, and hopes to swim just as soon as she can get her hands on a suit.  Bravo, Erin!

Great minds must think alike because our family also made kraut.  I was amazed by how simple the process!  Just cut up your cabbage, knead in some kosher salt, and stick it in a mason jar with a breathable top so that gas can escape.  The strange blue stuff in ours is actually a baggy full of marbles to weight the cabbage down the cabbage so that it would soak in its own brine.  Here's Jason modeling our fresh batch...

...and here's our kraut three and a half days later. 

Okay, in full disclosure, I sampled the kraut one day into the process and was completely grossed out.  For those of you who have seen Inside Out, Disgust was working overtime.  The cabbage which had tasted so refreshing was an undesirable wilted mutant, neither cabbage nor kraut.  The overall impression was simply "rotten."  I remember telling Jason that good for you or not, I just didn't know if I could do this whole fermentation thing.

And so, it was with trepidation that I planned a meal of sauerkraut and brats for a few days later.  I persevered, inspired by all the great memories of eating brats with Christy and Ben during our Illinois days.

And the kraut?  It was excellent.  Still young with a long distance to travel before fully ripe, it was mild with a touch of crunch and only a hint of sour tang.  Even though I'm generally not a kraut lover, I piled it on and scooped up a little more to eat plain as a side.  Adios, Disgust.  Joy--Bienvenue!

Other updates:
Run--8 miles for a total of 15.2
Bike--34.2 miles for a total of 65
Swim--.64 miles for a total of 1.2

For next week's culinary challenge, check in with Chou at balancefood.blogspot.com.  For those who didn't know, besides being a term of endearment, Chou also means cabbage in French--quite appropriate for our week full of kraut.