When it comes to condiments, people generally fall into one of two camps...mustard or ketchup. Personally, I would give up both if I could just put Chick-Fil-A’s sauce on everything. If you have ever tried it, you will understand my obsession. However, given the choice between ketchup or mustard, I will choose mustard each and every time. The zesty condiment comes in a variety of flavors and selections and has the added bonus of having the herb with medicinal qualities (turmeric) as one of its ingredients. Did you know that there is even a Mustard of the Month Club? Recently I was faced with a situation involving mustard, but it wasn’t as simple as choosing dijon or classic yellow.
For the first time in my life, I heard the phrase: MUSTARD ALGAE. I had never put those two words together before! What appeared to my naked eye to be dirt on the bottom of my backyard pool turned out to be something more difficult to clean up...yes, you guessed correctly...it was mustard algae. I won’t bore you with the details of how one goes about eradicating this yellowish-brownish pesky nuisance. I will just tell you that if I had known that one day I would own a pool, I would have paid much closer attention in my high school chemistry class! Pool owners know that it is all about getting the chemistry “just right”. The water has to be the perfect balance of PH, hardness, calcium, chlorine and phosphates. When one thing is off, everything else is impacted.
The weather this summer has apparently provided the “perfect storm” (no pun intended) for imbalanced pool water. The extreme washouts wreak havoc on your salt level, which in turn disrupts the salt-to-chlorine conversion, which ends up lowering the amount of free chlorine in the water. On top of that, the heat and humidity create the ideal “food” for the very hungry algae. I am extremely lucky to have the World’s Best Pool Guy. He answers my calls on the first ring, responds immediately to my texts (even the ones that come in on weekends and holidays) and he was able to diagnose over the phone that my pool had more mustard than my 4th of July hotdogs! As if that wasn’t enough, the World’s Best Pool Guy showed up the next day with all of his magic potions and equipment to 'cut the mustard' right out of our pool.
If you have ever felt sluggish from eating unhealthy food or fatigued from not getting enough fresh vegetables and fruits, then you know the feeling of needing to cleanse your system and hit the reset button on your diet and exercise plan. Just like the chemistry of pool water, if one thing is off, your whole balance can be thrown off. There are ways to fix this and thankfully, you don’t have to chug gallons of acid and chlorine shock to do it!
We are surrounded by nature’s bounty right now...the perfect time to stock up on fresh and healthy food that will reset your body’s imbalance. Adding fresh blueberries and strawberries to your morning cereal bowl will help fuel your body for hours. Switching out your daily sandwich of luncheon meats and cheeses for a salad packed with locally grown leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers will do more than quell your hunger. You will be providing your body with flavonoids and phytonutrients that will support the health of your heart, brain, lungs and kidneys. The nightly decision of “what’s for dinner” is so much easier to deal with when you open up your fridge and find a drawer of asparagus, zucchini and eggplant waiting for you.
Let’s make a promise to ourselves that we will use the rest of the summer to rebalance ourselves with fresh fruits and vegetables which are natural body cleansers that are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Adding them to your daily menu will help to bring your body’s chemistry right back into balance. If you don’t know how to whip these things up into an easy and delicious entree, look no further than the screen of your iPad at a website like thekitchn.com for answers (“52 Summer Dishes to Make in 20 Minutes”).
Who knows? You may even find a recipe or two that calls for mustard!