Our Favorite Tuna Fish Salad Sandwich & Doing Around the Kitchen in Appalachia

Kefir water video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eJVvCH0my8&t=13s
Kraut video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frn8XhKgTlM&t=4s
Light bread playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1hkzqrN_R52zxeWlaLBwyBFLsNechI_a
14 day pickle video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ov1lARTqxQ&t=29s

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It is a cool, airish morning here in the mountains of southern Appalachia. I’m working in the kitchen this morning. I’m doing around the kitchen, as Granny would say. So, I’ve got some things I need to do around the kitchen this morning before I get started with the rest of my day. Actually, it’s almost dinner time, so part of my day is already gone. One of the first things I need to do is I’ve had my kefir grains in the refrigerator, kind of taking a break every so often. If you do that, it kind of helps them um do better for you. So, I’ve had them in there. So, I need to get my kefir water started again. I have my pear vinegar that I tried to make a few weeks ago. And it’s smelling really good, but I need to drain the pear part out just so the rest of it can continue to to do its thing as far as turning into vinegar. And then I’ve not tasted any of me and I have not tasted any of the kraut we made this year. So, that’s on my list. First of all though, I’m going to get my kefir off. And then also, I forgot. See, it’s sitting there. I want to show you how I make tuna fish and talk about light bread a little bit. But first, let’s let’s start with my grains here. This is probably enough for two two um half gallons like I’ve got and maybe a quart, but I’m going to I’m going to put them all in these two and we’ll just start from there. I’m always paranoid when I put them in the refrigerator, then when I get them back out, they won’t work. But they always do. And if you don’t know about kefir water, I have a video where I talk all about it. It was back when I I’ve been making it a little while when I made that video, but I’ve been making it ever since then. Now, let me get me a spatula so I can get all that stuff out. But in that video, I talk a lot more about the the details and basically it ends up being a kind of a fizzy drink sweet. Our favorites are pineapple. I love grape. I only like grape though if it’s the scoopong grapes and then ginger and lemon. That’s mostly what we make. Of course, in the summer I have I’m able to use the wonderful lemon balm from our garden. In the winter, I just buy lemon from the store and use it. So, I’ll make sure I get all the grains, seeds, whatever you want to call them, out. There’s lots of different ways and methods, and like anything else, I would suggest if you want to try making kefir is that you just kind of figure out what works best for you. In the beginning, I did exactly what the directions told me to do that come with my grains. And since then, I just kind of make it up as I go and it seems to work. Okay, so let me get these filled with water, put the lids on them, and then we’ll go on to the next thing. So, I’ve got them filled. Now, when I first started, I just used a paper towel with rubber band. That works really, really well. You want something breathable. Then later I got these little silicone things that have a has a hole right there so that it it can breathe. That’s what you want. But this is the first step. So just you can go watch that video for more information. But just if you were confused, we won’t drink this. This fermentss and then we make the second fermentation is what we’ll drink. So that’s why I didn’t put any of those things I mentioned in this. Let me set these over here out of the way. So, I just leave them sitting in my kitchen summer or winter. But in the winter, I will tell you, it takes a little bit longer just because it’s cooler. It’s not got really terribly cold outside, but it is cooler, of course, than it was in July or August. Let’s taste the kraut next and then we’ll worry about the vinegar. I figured that I may have to go back for a different jar. Matt’s gone hunting. So, I can’t if I can’t open this one. Pecked on it with a case knife and got it to open. Kind of yucky, but we’ll clean that up after we see how it how it tastes. You heard that little whoosh of air coming out. Smells delicious. Let’s get some way down in there. It’s very good. I shouldn’t double dip. I know, but I already did. Delicious. I have a video about how we make kraut. If you want to watch it, I can link to that one, too. Me and Matt always made it the traditional way with just salt and cabbage in a croc. And I don’t know, a couple of years ago, I decided I was just wore out and didn’t want to go through all that. And I thought, well, gr I wanted to make kraut though. And I thought, well, I’ll just make it like granny does cuz it’s so much easier cuz you do it in the jars and then you’re done, you know? And I’ve been making it that way ever since. It’s so much so much easier and just seems like every time it turns out perfect. So, really delicious. I’ll clean up on the outside of the jar, though, before I put it in the refrigerator, and I will mostly eat this. Uh, I know I always get comments from people that’ll that’ll be like telling me that I double dip. So, I realized that I did that. But, you know what? We’re family. So, we double dip after each other all the time. And of course, if company was coming, I wouldn’t wouldn’t feed them something like that. But for us, we’re family. It’s funny when um me and Stephen Paul were growing up, I don’t know why, but we were really picky. Like, we were really like, “He drunk out of that, you know? I don’t want it if you tasted it.” I don’t know what made us like that, but it’s like we were afraid of each other’s germs. Really, we already had each other’s germs when you live in close uh con contact with people all day long. But Cory and Katie was never like that. So, they’ll say, “Give me a sip of that. Let me taste that.” And we do it to them, too. Me and Matt do. So, so we share in our germs, but me and Paul and Steve didn’t for some reason. And that one, it’s got so rusted. I think I’m I’m going to throw both those away and just get a regular lid to put on it. Or a plastic lid, I should say. And then I can put it in the refrigerator. Okay. Before we do the pears, I want to show you one other thing that I’ve been doing. I’ve been working on making apple butter for I don’t know three or four days now I’ve been cooking on it. So I do show a little bit of it in our upcoming video about the month of October. So you can be on the lookout for that. I don’t really give a stepbystep process though because I’m doing it kind of weird this year. My apple butter and I’m not even I say this year but I didn’t make apple butter last year. I don’t think I made it the year before either. So it’s been a while. But this year, I’m actually making my apple butter with a combination of apples that come my way and then pears. Uh y’all know that um I did some pear jelly and pear preserves and also pear bread. Well, some more pears come my way. So, with those pears, I just took them and the apples that I had and I combined them all together to make my apple butter. I guess it’s technically apple pear butter. But I put them all, washed them, you know, cut them up, put them in my big giant roster. I’ll show you in a minute. And I let them cook in it for it took me a day or so to let them cook till they were really soft, you know. And then I put them through. And the reason it took that long is because I was having to leave the house and come back and I didn’t want to leave it going without me or, you know, with me here to check and make sure it didn’t dry out and scorch or something. Anyway, then I took all those softened apples and pears and I put them through my ricer. You could use a food processor or a food meal would work good or whatever. You’re just separating out the the seeds and the um stems and things like that. And the and the um peelings. Couldn’t think of the word peelings. So, I did that and I got all my sauce. I ended up with eight quarts. I couldn’t believe it. Eight quarts. So, of my pear apple mixture. Then I put it back in the roasting pan and then I’ve added sugar and brown sugar and cloves and cinnamon and I think that’s all. And then I’ve been letting it cook ever since then. So I’m thinking that by tomorrow I’ll be able to put it in the jars and I will process it for probably I don’t know 10 15 minutes or something like that. Water bath just water bath it and then it’ll be be ready to go. I will probably store it in the um little, you know, thinking about pint jars and maybe even some jelly jars so that I can share it uh with others too. And that way if we just want a little bit, we open it. I always think it stays fresher. Like you could certainly put it in the quart jars, but if it’s going to take us a month to eat that quart jar, I’d rather have it in the smaller ones. So let me show you what that looks like. So this is my apple pear butter. I’ve left the lid off of it today. thinking it would get a little bit thicker and then I would be able to uh put it in the jars tomorrow. Makes me want a biscuit to go with it. I always liked apple butter and peanut butter on a piece of light bread too for sandwich. Make a sandwich out of it. I always liked that. But I especially love it just on a on a biscuit. It’s awful good. But I’d like for it to get thicker. I probably need to turn it up a little bit and let it cook a little harder so that it will I’ve tasted it though and it’s already fantastic. Okay, let’s look at the pear vinegar. Definitely smells like vinegar. So, I’m just going to pour it through the colander here, the seieve, and strain out the pieces. And then I’m going to pour it right back in this jar. I wonder if I should There’s little pieces stuck on the bottom. I’m going to get those. Do I pour it in here or do I pour it out? Maybe I’ll pour it out. You can tell I’m not a vinegar maker expert. Corey and I did make apple vinegar, apple cider vinegar a couple of years ago though, and it turned out so good. It was just lovely. It was just lovely. And we didn’t know what we were doing it then either. So, I’m just doing the exact same thing that I I did at that time. Definitely smells like vinegar. I got that my little compost bowl to put these in, but there’s no way that’s going to hold all of them. I’m going to have to get me a different bowl. Maybe I’ll just set it in it for now. I know there’s more liquid in there. So when I made the vinegar to begin with, somebody said, “Well, what will you use that with? What will you do with it?” I would do anything. I mean, I imagine that we will cook with it is what we’ll do. We would do anything that we would do with apple cider vinegar. Matt loves to use apple cider vinegar. He uses it in soups and stews and it’s just like his favorite thing. He thinks it just adds a a flavor, a deepness, a richness to things. He even puts it on meat sometimes. So, I think we would just use it like that is how we would use it. You know, salad dressings or like the food items that Matt, mostly Matt makes. I use it sometimes. Like I’m thinking deileled eggs, potato salad, those kind of things. Some people put vinegar in their slo. So, you could use it definitely for that. I think that’s about all it’s going to come out. And then I’m going to put it back in this jar. I wonder if I should got a little bit of crud as I don’t know what else to call it around the top. Maybe I’ll try to get that out a little bit and put it back in there. It’s not going to fill the jar up this time because all the hairs are gone, but Probably should have got a smaller jar. I’m so silly though. This morning I was when I was getting out my stuff to do the kefir, I thought, well, where is my other big jar? Where’s my other big jar? So, I had to go to the basement and get one. Well, this is where it was. It was It had the vinegar in it. Okay. Then this needs to continue to sit for a while longer. And then in a few weeks, I’ll taste it and see if I deem it good. And then I’ll just put it in something with a lid, you know, and put it on my cannon shelves and we’ll use it when we use it. So, I’m going to get another paper towel though for the top. So, this is what I was talking about you could use for the kefir water if you didn’t have those little inserts like I do. And I could get one of those for this, but since I’m this is just handy right here, that’s what I’ll do. So, got that step completed or that little chore that needed doing this morning. So, now I’m ready to make my tuna. Let me get all the stuff together and then I’ll talk to you about it. So, I already drained my tuna and got it here in the bowl. I’m just kind of breaking it up. I like to use tuna that is packed in water. You can use tuna that’s packed in oil, of course. And there’s all different brands and kinds for you to use. um whatever your personal preference is and maybe you don’t even like tuna fish. So, uh if so, then it wouldn’t be any of the above. Sometimes I accidentally get the tuna in oil and if I do, we eat it. But I prefer the stuff in water. Just personal preference. So, I’ve got it kind of broke up. When it comes to tuna fish, of course, the sky’s is the limit. It’s like anything else. Any kind of little salad like or mixture that you would make. Thinking of I mentioned potato salad a minute ago. There’s so many different ways of doing it. And everybody kind of has their own personal family twist on it, what they like the best. So, by no means am I saying this is the best tuna in the world. Except I am saying as far as my family is concerned. Me and Matt especially, we think it’s the best tuna in the world. And the real secret of it for us is the 14-day pickles that we make. So, I have a a video I did several years ago, did through the whole process of 14 days of doing the pickles. And we really love them to eat. They’re crunchy, sweet, they’re a sweet pickle and they’re crunchy. We love them to eat like with soup beans or something like that, but they are just we can’t imagine tuna fish without them or potato salad without them. It’s those all those kind of things like that that we want the 14-day pickle. We love the crunch. We love the flavor. Does offer that little bit of sweetness. So, for us, that’s really what makes the best tuna. So, I’m going to open this jar here and need a knife though, don’t I? Get a knife and just start getting me some out. Now, as far as how many to put, and that’s just one can of tuna. I don’t have like a set recipe. I just do it till I think it looks right. And you know, maybe you don’t like very much pickles. Maybe you like a whole whole lot of pickles. So, again, that’s personal preference. A lot of people use like a little sweet relish like a I can’t sweet cubes or something like that it’s called in their tuna fish. So, that’s definitely an option. I’ve even known people that put dill pickles in their tuna fish. So again, like I was saying, it’s just kind of the sky’s the the limit when it comes to personal preferences and even the size of what you chop them up to be. So these these pickles are really chili, really chili, really sticky. I should have chopped up my onion first, but I didn’t. So I’m going to start with that. Actually, I can already tell I want more than that. Let me get me a few more pickles out. At least two. Sometimes too, I’ll just get like a little spoonful of the juice and put that in there for both this or also for sweet um potato salad. I guess you could eat them with sweet potatoes, but I don’t know how that would be. Okay, I think maybe that’ll be good. Now, my knife’s really sticky, but I’m going to go ahead and chop up my onion. And onion, again, how much do you want? Do you want to grate it in? Do you want big pieces? Do you want little pieces? I go for a pretty fine dice. And we like onion, so I put quite a bit in it, but not as much as the pickles. And I try I found this little piece of onion left over in the refrigerator. So, I’m going to try to hopefully make it make enough so that I don’t have to have to cut another onion. Maybe it will. We’ll see. That ain’t looking promising, though. I’ve got a few more little pieces. Maybe maybe that’ll be okay. Now, let me wash my hands and we’ll add the other ingredients. Maybe I’ll move this, too. Now, as far as seasoning, I only use salt and pepper. I’m pretty pretty bland, I guess, if you will. You could add any other kind of seasoning you’d like, but salt and pepper is usually all that I I use. And depending on your taste, of course, but also on the pickles. If you were using a salty pickle, you might need might not even need any salt. Now, I like to put mustard in mine. So, this is Dijon mustard, but I would use just yellow, regular yellow mustard, whatever. This is just what we have in the refrigerator here. And I just put a couple of squirts. And then, of course, you got to have mayonnaise. raging debate about mayonnaise. People can’t understand why me and Matt don’t eat Dukes. Matt likes Dukes. I don’t like Dukes. He likes it. Okay. But Matt also says he’s never really met a mayonnaise that he didn’t like. He likes them all. So, I grew up on Hailman’s. That’s what I like. Or Blue Plate. Blue Plate is very, very similar to Helman’s. Very, very similar. So, this is a brand new brand new one. So, I’m going to have to open it and get me a get me a spoon, too. See if I got a spoon here. So, I just start out with a a spoonful or two and then see see what I think as I mix it up. I think the mustard really adds something to it. Miss Cindy and Matt really taught me that about mustard. I find myself putting a squirt of mustard in a lot of things, whereas I would have never ever done that before I I met Matt. And I didn’t really ever see Granny doing that either. I might have got a little bit heavy on the mayo, but maybe it’ll be okay. I think my pickle ratio is good. I may be wishing I had more onions to put in it, though. Let me use this to taste and then I’ll get another spoon. Always try to get the balance right. It’s actually pretty good. I don’t think I need anything else. Really good. Let me get a spoon. I could have used the spoon out of the mayonnaise. I already touched it. I never think about stuff like that. So, now when it comes to what you want to put your tuna fish on. I grew up in a family that ate light bread. I still eat light bread. Y’all comment sometimes. You see my sunbeam over there? That’s the kind that we like. Now, of course, today there’s lots of healthier options, I suppose, out there, but I think it really does. So many of our food taste and desires and memories and all that are tied to our childhood. So, granny brought bought light bread. She also made cornbread and biscuits every day, one or the other, at least, sometimes both in the same day. But, so I we ate that bread, but we ate a lot of light bread. So, I have a whole playlist here on YouTube and I’ll link to it. But the first video I really talk about the way lightb bread really plays a role in appalachin food ways. It just truly does. It truly does. And the videos after that, I kind of talk about different ways that we use light bread. I did not do a tuna fish, so now I can add this video to that playlist. But things like banana sandwich, of course, egg sandwich, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, whatever. and um BLTs, peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, fried jelly. If you’ve never had a fried jelly sandwich, you’re missing out. So, there’s just all these sandwiches that I know I’m missing some of them. And oh, and then there’s the I was thinking about what was I going to say? The toast thing. So, cinnamon toast, sugar toast, French toast, all made with light bread. And because of growing up like that, if you offered me a BLT or a tuna fish sandwich and you said, “I have this kind of, you know, like a handmade bread or whatever, or I have light bread.” I would prefer light bread. I just it’s just what I my personal preference is. It’s interesting. A lot of times I love, you know, old pictures and of course I love the history of Appalachia. so many times in old photos of maybe where people are sitting down to eat at a even at a kitchen table. Um sometimes they might be outside dinner on the grounds or having a picnic, but even at the kitchen table there’ll be a a plate stacked with light bread and that was just part of the meal. You know there is the whole thing to think about and I talk about it I think some in the light bread video but how oftent times I don’t know how to exactly say it but you think storebought might be better especially in those days when all the storebought stuff was just such a novelty whether it was bread or you think about clothes you know women went from having to weave and make all their fabric to then being able to buy it for one it’s easier it’s definitely easier for me to buy a loaf of sunbeam than it is for me to make it myself. But uh somehow in your mind you think it might be better. I think in those days I don’t technically think it’s better for you today myself. And I have a bread machine so it’s not that hard to make bread. I just think it tastes better because that’s what I grew up on. But it’s all those things mixed together. You know, it’s really fascinating and interesting to work to think about and study on. Food becomes such a part of who we are. you know, no matter where you’re from, whether you’re from the mountains of Appalachia or somewhere halfway around the world, food really becomes part of our um our being and is tied to so many of our memories and so many of the things that we look at at life. It’s a very simple thing in one way because it’s just our daily bread. You know, what we technically I didn’t mean that pun there, but it is daily bread. Um, but daily what we feed ourselves, you know, we all have memories like that, whether it’s tied to some kind of special dessert, your favorite cereal, your favorite drink, you know, what your grandma and grandpa ate or did that you thought was unusual. You know, maybe they ate with the you’ve heard those stories about older people that ate I call it a case knife, a butter knife, the knife that comes with your silver wire with a case knife like that and they lined their food up on it and ate like that. There’s just all those different things connected to food, all the traditions and the food. So, I’m going to make me a tuna fish sandwich and I’m going to get me some chips to go with it. Get me something to drink. I wish I wasn’t out of kefir cuz that’s what I would prefer, but I’m going to get something else to drink. Maybe a little cup of milk and I’m going to go sit down and take a load off as they say. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me this morning doing around in the kitchen. I hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me how you make your tuna fish if you like it. There’s so many variations. I know yours would be really, really interesting. I’m always glad when you stop by to help me celebrate Appalacha.