Komucha and keema

My cold continues to be stuck in my head. I've noticed the first sign I'm coming down with something is a runny nose, and a plugged nose is the last symptom to leave. I had the flu more than a week ago, yet I still can't taste things, and I'm using my neti pot so many times a day I can't count. In an effort to get rid of the lingering effects of the flu, I've been drinking garlic-honey tea, and lemon-honey tea. I've continued with my kombucha brewing, as well.

This is the latest, gallon batch. There's a thin film over the top of the tea, so I suppose that means it's coming along. Still quite early, though.

My batch that contains the actual scoby looks pretty good now, though. The new baby on the top is thickening ans spreading to cover the surface of the liquid, and the scoby itself has started to float a little bit. I've drunk quite a bit out of this jar, and even thought about bottling it today, but decided to wait until the baby scoby develops just a BIT more before I did.
The same jar from the surface. The bubbles mean it's growing correctly, apparently.

My last half-gallon jar and the one I'm most concerned about. There's plenty of baby scoby floating in it, but they aren't growing together. The flavor seems to be developing the most quickly, but then that brownish baby looks odd to me. It looks like it's growing though, so I'm going to leave it alone to develop.

I mentioned my nose at the beginning of this post. One of the side effects is I have absolutely no sense of taste. I can down a glass of steeped raw garlic and barely taste it. To compensate, I've been cooking spicy food for dinner, like the chickpeas, so I at least get a tiny bit of flavor. Today I made some bok choy that was in the back of our fridge and we'd forgotten about, topped with some sesame dressing. The main dish was keema curry with genmai. I'm trying to be healthy and get well here.

The recipe I used was different from the one I used to make keema curry last time, and this one was a bigger hit with my husband. I couldn't really taste it, so I can't tell, but I hope I'm doing better tomorrow and can give a fuller report. At any rate, as my husband likes this one better, the recipe I used today is the one I will use from now on.


In related news, I've been talking to my father about giving up sucrose after reading an article in the New York Times. I think I may start tomorrow, I'm sick of being sick. As long as I have honey, I think I can do it and I'll be OK. The kombucha converts all the sugar into vinegar, so I think that would be OK too.

In addition to my dissertation, I think I really need to focus on getting myself healthy. I'm tired of catching colds.