I’m drinking Coors Light right now. Is that bad?
After going to surprise my mom for Mother’s Day (she nearly dropped the baby she was holding when she saw me walk through the front door. The baby and my mom cried in unison.) I came back to a changed garden. And though she’s not necessarily my favorite author, I agree with Margaret Atwood when she said,
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
Lately, that has been me every day.
I’ve been gardening. Since moving houses, I’ve cut out this tiny 4’ by 13’ patch of dirt in front of my house, hoping something would grow.
Happily, something did, even prior to fortifying the soil like my good friend Allison suggested. Before I had a chance to to add two bags of sand and humus, my kohlrabi and pea seeds popped out of the ground and have been growing half an inch a day. My plum tree’s doing okay, too. However, note to future self: label seeds so you don’t step on your infant cilantro seeds, thinking they’re weeds.
Recipe:
1 part Kraken Rum
2 parts Jasmine tea
4+ ice cubes
Combine.
So, in the past month I’ve…
A series of photos based on some projects I’ve had going lately:
1. Homemade dairy-free, corn syrup and cane sugar-free granola.
2. Compost bin made for Blue Spruce! Getting a bin of loose leaf and coffee grounds for my garden every shift.
3. Tomato, basil, cilantro, and pepper starts indoors. Seed potatoes drying on a shelf soon to be planted.
4. A picture of Ag students Allison and Ethan helping me tear up a plot of ground in the backyard for a garden. Thanks, guys!
I’m starting a garden!
On long days when I come home and don’t want to cook for anyone, I make Asian Noodle Soup. This is my personal version of homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Hope you enjoy it.
Asian Noodle Soup for one person consists of:
Chicken Broth, 1 1/2 cups
Coconut Milk, 1/2 cup
Rice Noodles (a.k.a. Rice Sticks, Rice Vermicelli. Crepe Myrtle in Stillwater and Lam’s in Seattle both have them.)
Three slices of fresh ginger
Fresh basil
Some kind of meat or tofu, or a scrambled egg
Fresh garlic, salt, sriracha, rice vinegar, and pepper
-Let the chicken broth heat with the coconut milk. Add a small splash of rice vinegar and the spices. If you want to put vegetables in, go for it. I would recommend broccolini, cabbage, or peppers.
-If your meat is raw, put it into the pot well before the rice sticks. Once your meat or protein is safe to eat and fully cooked, add the rice noodles and the basil (you can add the basil whenever, I just like mine green). The noodles literally take 3 minutes, tops, once your soup is rolling at a low boil.
-Cook for three minutes, test the noodles to make sure they are done, and then EAT.
Hello and welcome the first post in Stillwater, Oklahoma!
Two nights ago I decided to make 5 gallons of mead and a half a gallon of chai. Sounds ambitious, but actually pretty easy if you have a wort chiller—or just one large bag of ice. First the chai:
Big Squaw’s Home Brewed Chai
Grab 4-6 black tea bags, one cinnamon stick, 10-15 cardamom pods (pummeled with a pestle), 6 or so allspice berries, nutmeg (use real nutmeg nut if you can), 4-6 cloves, 1-2 anise stars, and 1 cup of honey or sugar (more or less depending on what you like). I let it boil in a couple of quarts of water for 30 minutes to 2 hours. The longer the stronger.
It’s been ages since I’ve posted, simply because I’ve been
a. busy, b. in the process of moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma, and c. bloody fed up with the eensy space I had in my kitchen.
In March I made an all-grain mash stout, complete with cocoa and Japanese red peppers. Problem being, when working with a small kitchen/bathtub brewing system, cleanliness is hard to maintain; in the final week of my secondary fermentation, the beer went kaput and molded. My fault. I need a bigger kitchen and to raise my standards of clean equipment.
But meanwhile, here at my inlaw’s house in Watson, I have a monstrous kitchen to work with, a thunderstorm overhead, and Sam the Dog to keep me company.
Dear Christmas Juicer:
Thank you for clean apple juice and green fruit juice that hides the taste of the bunch of spinach I put in you. I love your sweet nectar.
