Kimchi and Defrosting

This week is busy trying to get ready for the hog killing...what better time to throw in some other projects? 

Today I decided it was high time to defrost the 'ole fridge. This thing is ancient, and it still runs like a top. Every once in a while it makes a funny noise and I hold my breath, but it keeps on going. This fridge was brought down from the Ponderosa hunting camp my great grandfather had in New Hampshire. I think it got used for a bit and ended up in the old barn. When I moved into my house in FL on the grove my dad helped me haul it out and clean it up to see if it still worked. That was in 2002, and it has pretty much been running since then. Pretty good, huh? 

She gets frosted up pretty bad, but so far I'm still willing to put up with this in trade for the coolest fridge ever. I forget how strange it is to have a fridge this old. 

Funny to see the contents of your fridge all laid out...

We also decided to make kimchi today with some chinese cabbage from the garden that needed to be picked. So the cabbage heads were waiting in a basket when all the slugs started to crawl out, heh. Leon collected them all for me with a spoon, cause you know that slime is hard to wash off. 

Almost done. I use a large knife and the hair dryer on high heat to reveal the icebox once more. 

I buy baking soda in bulk from the feed store because it's so cheap. I didn't want to spend a couple dollars on one of those nice deodorizer boxes, so I jerry rigged my own from this box and a coffee filter. I think it will work quite well. 

All clean!! Finally. 

 Meanwhile SIlas kept busy by playing with the water faucet on a dribble. 

Leon found a cabbage worm and played with him for a while. First worm ever to get a train ride in our house. 

Here's the cabbage cut and soaking in salt water. It gets wilted down before you put the rice paste chili sauce on it, with a bit of fish sauce and lots of garlic and ginger. Yumm. 

This is a decent sized daikon from the garden. Bottom? Carrot and radish grated are added to the sauce as well.

The boys actually worked together to clean up a mess without WW III breaking out. Leon's getting pretty handy with that broom. 

He even knew to clean off the bristles. I bet Nana taught him that. 

I tried to eat kimchi with rice, supposedly the traditional way to consume in Korea. It was ok...a little kimchi goes a long way, but it's so good for you I'm trying to acquire a taste.