Sprouts

I'm in my new apartment in Montana, a drastic move from Chicago-land. But it looks like we might be moving again soon. That's actually a good thing. So I'm trying to keep my new projects down to a minimum until my next move.
Today I started some broccoli sprouts. I've tried sprouting in the past and it was a dismal, inedible moldy failure. Last time, I purchased a large sprouting jar. It was a big glass jar with a mesh lid. Well unfortunately I grew some mold in addition to my sprouts. So that jar just didn't work for me. I gave up sprouting for a while.
So in the health food store yesterday, I saw a sprouting bag. Hrm. I recalled when I was a child, my mother grew some sprouts in a mason jar with some cheese cloth. I had some cheese cloth at home, so I bypassed the bag. I had an idea.

Now I'm testing that idea out.
Day 1: I found a plastic container. I think it used to have a hard drive in it. But it was shallow and clamshell. I lined it with cheese cloth, sprinkled seeds over it. I soaked the seeds overnight.
Day 2: This morning, I drained the water, rinsed the sprouts. I put it in a dark corner in my pantry to start sprouting.
We'll see how it goes.
Day 3: Yep, the sprouts are growing! I have my 3 year old daughter spray them daily with a fine mist water sprayer. She gets a kick out of her little "chore" and she loves to talk to the little sprouts.
Day 5: Moved sprouts to a sunny window so they can get some chlorophyll.
Day 6: They taste great. A bit of a spicy flavor to them, but my 3 year old and 15 year old daughter love them. We're eating them like crazy. And no mold so I would say it worked. Unfortunately, it is hard to get the sprouts out of the cheesecloth as the seedlings seem to have grown through the holes. We have to try to pick them out one by one. I don't think that would work if I actually wanted them in bulk for something like a sandwich, but it's fun to pick them and eat them one by one, sort of.

Directions I'm using:
http://www.sproutpeople.com/seed/broccoli.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli_sprouts

A spicy mustard

I moved a good 1300 miles since my last post. I'm now mostly settled in my new apartment. One of the first things I did was make a batch of mustard. Hot stuff.
I mixed 1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds, 1/4 cup brown mustard seeds with equal amount of water. I let them sit a full 24 hours, topping off the water that evaporated when necessary. After the soak, I stuck the water/mustard seeds in the food processor and let it go for a while, adding a bit of additional water to keep it from being too dry. I let it sit for about 5-10 min then added some cider vinegar and red wine until it was the right consistancy. I also added some salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste. Then after relocating the mustard to a mason jar, I added about a 1/4 cup of honey.
I let this mix sit on the countertop for about a week. It was initially quite hot. As it aged, some of the heat dissipated. My husband would have had an instant heart attack with the heat as high as it was at first. Aging did help reduce some heat to levels edible to normal humans :)
My mother in law and father in law tried this batch of mustard and loved it. My husband actually liked it as well but my daughter Cassie found it too spicy.
I made a second mason jar full of a mild batch of mustard, using the recipe I used in my previous post. This is probably our regular mainstay as far as mustard goes.