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My SIL made sauerkraut & it turned out just fine - the biggest issue was the jar overflowing as the cabbage fermented. I found “pickle pipes” and bought her a set (plus the weights) for her birthday. Warning - they are NOT cheap, but I hit a nice pipe/weights combo sale. The reviews on them are pretty good - you can get regular or wide-mouth. Here’s a link:

https://www.masontops.com/products/pickle-pipe

In the meanwhile, as of two days ago, I (and my mom) are on an anti-inflammatory ‘diet’ ... I prefer to call it a way of eating/living. This year, she started having arthritis flare ups that leave one hand or the other useless for a week. She also had it in an ankle & after an MRI, ended up with a cortisone shot so she could walk. My issues have been building for about 3 months - I won’t bore you with the details, but after a day or two of sitting down and really analyzing what I was eating & doing some research, I know the culprit. It’s going to take a couple of months to get all “systems” back in order.

Mom bought a book (asked the bookstore guy for some books on the subject & liked this one) called “The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book”. I love the recipes .... right up my alley. It’s sort of a combo of Mediterranean with some Paleo. I started Wednesday - ate “well” all day & yesterday I was surprised that I felt noticeably better. Today, I feel a lot better than yesterday. Dr. Black does have some of her recipes on line - here’s a link (note - mini grain-free pumpkin ‘pies’ are going to be made for this Thanksgiving):
http://drjessicablack.com/recipes/

My SIL (next door) has a flock of young chickens that are free-range & they’ve just started laying - she’s swamped with eggs so I am the happy beneficiary of eggs on a regular basis. For lunch yesterday, I had the ‘Banana Eggnog’ except I had no banana so I added a few frozen blueberries. It was tasty & held me all the way to dinner without a blood sugar drop. Dinner was a Curried Quinoa with Vegetables salad (in the book) - quinoa, red peppers, scallions, raisins, olive oil/lemon juice with curry/allspice dressing. Delicious!

I’m excited to be feeling better & hopefully this will help mom with her arthritis. I’ve known about the “inflammation” issue & ‘diets’ for years, but it never applied to me personally the way it does now. I still need to go mostly low carb, but that’s not hard to do with the foods/recipes we’ll be using.

On an unrelated note, I was feeling inspired yesterday (because I’m taking control of the health situation & doing something productive about it) and taught myself to knit with double pointed needles. I can knit with straight & circular needles, but have always put off dpn projects. I’m making the sweetest little baby hat for a relative’s baby boy who is due around the 1st of September. It’s a good way to spend time when it’s ridiculously hot & humid to be outside.