my wife's mom can't go up or down the stairs without huffing and puffing, and my wife's dad can't do it without SIGHING like five times. it's so annoying... if you're that out of shape, go do something.

the other day i made kimchi that turned out really gross, so i chopped it up, washed it a bit and put it in an omlette with leek and it became perfectly edible. yesterday we got various grocery store sales so we basically bought 600 SEK worth of food for 500 and bought a TON of stuff. i started making:

— "fish sauce" (chopped-up whole seafood, in my case herring, that ferments in a jar with some salt + a spoonful of kimchi juice). fish sauce can also be used as a soy sauce replacement. you can buy it in stores but it's both expensive AND includes stuff like glucose syrup; if you're buying actual fish and making it yourself you can make the same amount as 1 store-sized bottle for like $1 USD. my jar is going to make 4-5 bottles at LEAST, and the fish (20 herring? more?) cost about $4.

— fermented ketchup with garlic (literally just ran tomatoes and garlic through a blender, added some salt + a spoonful of kimchi juice). this isn't even truely fermented yet, it's only been sitting out for like seven hours but i had cravings for it just from SMELLING it this morning so i put it on my kimchi-omlette and it was really good. i made 2,5 blender-fulls and the tomatoes cost $5.

soybeans are about $2 a bag, half a bag makes enough nattou for a week. white cabbage was about $2.5 per head, and you end up with 1/4th the cabbage density when you turn it into kimchi (as i haven't made good-tasting kimchi yet, i don't know how long it lasts).

today, once i can be bothered, i'm going to start making miso and soy sauce (boil soybeans, mash them into a cake and dry them, let them soak in water). traditionally it takes AGES but i can speed things up by using a "dehydrator" (aka our normal hot-air fan) and not being picky about the taste. apparently in order to not have to use so much salt, you simply make the sauce thicker and spade it out with water when you go to actually use it on your food. i'll also make more nattou and kimchi and hope they turn out fine this time.

some of these things take a few tries but they're really great when they turn out well... like yesterday, simply because i managed to eat the bad kimchi and it's so nutritious, i feel GREAT today. even though it tasted bad, the very first night i had some i actually DREAMED ABOUT EATING MORE. "my kimchi's ready now, time to eat!" kind of dream. and of course, i have more motivation for everything, my skin is softer, yada yada.