It feels so good to be back in the kitchen. It really feels like the heart of my home and I am so happy when I am making delicious and nutritious food for my family to eat. 

I love making things myself. Instead of buying little jars of pesto and bottles of salad dressing at the supermarket, I prefer homemade. No preservatives, the best ingredients I can afford and of course, fresh!  Not to mention all the benefits of using your hands to make the things you need. It really satisfies my hands, head and heart when I make it myself :)

I recently made homemade, fermented mustard. The recipe by Kirsten K Shockey came from Issue 10: Seed, of the fabulous Taproot magazine. I read this article a long time ago and always wanted to make it. I'm so pleased that I finally did!

Making mustard was really easy. There was a moment of doubt when I placed all the ingredients in the blender, pressed start and nothing seemed to happen.  Then after a little while, the mixture began to thicken until I had my very own mustard.  I can't believe how simple it was and how much mustard I made with only a couple of cups of ingredients.  I love the alchemy of the kitchen - magically turning raw ingredients into something delicious!  

Then it was just a matter of sealing up my little jars for three days to ferment, adding some vinegar and then done!  As Kirsten says in the article, mustard doesn't need to be fermented but its nice to add some extra-good fermenty goodness to the mix.  I made the three little jars of yellow mustard and the Lovely G made the big jar of horseradish mustard which my oldest girl devours. 

It's so wonderful to have homemade, fermented mustard with our winter Sunday roasts!