pickled kitty

i feel i should start this post by mentioning two things: my apartment is 515 square feet.  also please note one of the labels of this post is "tmi".

the space issue makes for difficulty storing things i accumulated over 3 years of living in a house.  so when i get out my ginormous pot to process jars of delicious snacks, i have to move a bunch of baking tins and a cupcake tree.  frank finds this process fascinating and i feared my cupcake holder might meet its inevitable doom.

frank sniffed for awhile and then settled down next to it instead of testing his favorite part of physics - gravity.
my first batch of gingery pickled beets!  and ummmm since you needed to know, a warning about beets.  they color your natural bodily functions in terrifying seemingly deathbed-approaching ways. 

but theyre so damn tasty!

speaking of dietary issues.. i also roasted some jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes aka "gastrointestinal distress inducing" deliciousness.  welp let me tell you.  having dealt with lactose intolerance since i was 16... a little bloaty gas [fortunately thats all] is totally worth the nutty crispy slightly soft but not too squishy wonder that is roasted sunchokes.  no they are nothing like artichokes, which i also love. they are like weird potatoes that are a pain in the arse to scrub clean.  but delicious alone or on a salad.  just be careful..

also pictured - not-intestinally-wrenching okra and some other random jams i re-boiled and processed.  i have no idea if this is safe since it sat in my fridge for a few months, but i figure i have ocd and germaphobia so if it all seems odd i will dump it out in a few weeks. 

and i swear this will be my last pickle post in awhile.  and by awhile i mean ..probably 2 weeks.