He says:
I love cultured foods. If you've been reading this blog you know that fermentation is one of my interests. I only have a few permanent cultures in the house (sourdough, kefir, kombucha), but I do a lot of one time fermentations (like sauerkraut, kimchi, ginger beer). I have to stop myself from buying more cultures because I don't want culture maintenance to become a huge time sink.
So ignoring any misgivings about time management, I ordered another culture. This one is called viili and it's a Finnish yogurt strain. Much like my kefir and differing from store bought yogurt, you don't have to incubate the milk, it just sits on the counter for 24-36 hours. How easy is that?
It is described as being more "ropey" than most traditional yogurts. Sometimes it will pull back into itself if you try to scoop some out with a spoon. I find this characteristic exciting, while Abby is grossed out by it. I thought I would have an aversion because it was described as having a mucous-y texture, but it isn't at all offensive. My only complaint is that it isn't as sour as I thought it would be. It's very mild much like a thick milk. Abby says it tastes like liquid glue would taste. I suppose that could be true, but hopefully it carries more health benefits...
I'm going to see if it develops into something altogether different than my kefir strain. I hope it does since I don't really see a need to keep two extremely similar cultures alive and fed at the same time (time sink warning!).
Friday, May 24, 2013
Caffeine Vacation
She says:
I am currently on day five of my vacation from caffeine. <----- That's the nice way of saying I'm ending my addiction.
A while back I realized that even though I love coffee, I wasn't handling caffeine very well. Without my morning cup of coffee, I ended up wandering through my day with headaches and the light-sensitivity of an oncoming migraine. In less than a year I've gone through an entire 100 pill bottle of migraine medicine (which has caffeine in it!). If I caught up on my coffee intake later in the day or had an extra serving to help me along with evening classes, I end up feeling jittery (minimum) or about to have a panic attack (maximum).
This past week without caffeine has not been particularly pleasant either. Headaches galore! Weird sleeping patterns! Unable to regulate my body temperature! But in the end, it is all for the best. I still plan to drink coffee on occasion (because I love it!), but not to the point that it makes or breaks my everyday life.
I am currently on day five of my vacation from caffeine. <----- That's the nice way of saying I'm ending my addiction.
A while back I realized that even though I love coffee, I wasn't handling caffeine very well. Without my morning cup of coffee, I ended up wandering through my day with headaches and the light-sensitivity of an oncoming migraine. In less than a year I've gone through an entire 100 pill bottle of migraine medicine (which has caffeine in it!). If I caught up on my coffee intake later in the day or had an extra serving to help me along with evening classes, I end up feeling jittery (minimum) or about to have a panic attack (maximum).
This past week without caffeine has not been particularly pleasant either. Headaches galore! Weird sleeping patterns! Unable to regulate my body temperature! But in the end, it is all for the best. I still plan to drink coffee on occasion (because I love it!), but not to the point that it makes or breaks my everyday life.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Our Green Babies
He says:
I fancy myself a bit of a gardener, and the "bit" should be stressed. While I have grand plans for our future property, right now I have to settle with what we have - a 1'x12' gardening strip on the side of our house. I've heard that we all have to start somewhere.
Last year I planted so many things, but I think a mixture of bad germination rates from the seed packets and a horde of voracious slugs claimed everything but two cucumber plants, one pitiful daikon radish and tons of mustard greens in pots. Fun fact: you can scorch your mouth by eating raw, fresh mustard greens. Every salad that I had only had one ingredient (mustard greens) and each one ended with me crying from the heat.
This year I learned from the my previous mistakes and bought some plants as transplants and then seeds from a reputable source that moves a lot of product so they should be fresh. So far the strawberry and cabbage transplants are doing well, the peppers not so much probably because we get a paltry amount sun on the side of our house. We have 2 strawberries! It appears that our slug problem is still the death of most of my seeds so I decided to grow them as transplants.
Last weekend Abby and I planted 20 seeds in tiny seedling containers. We've got kale, malabar and regular spinach, swiss chard, and cucumbers. Abby only helped me because cucumbers were included, just kidding? The idea is that we will transplant these seedlings once they sprout then move them into a bigger containers and then finally into the ground. That way when the ravenous slugs emerge from their vile ground dwellings and descend upon my garden the plants will have a little more defense than if they were just seedlings.
So far two of the kale "babies" have emerged. Nothing else yet, but I guess it's still early. Every day I take them out in the morning, water them, and then bring them back in at night so they're safe. I can't wait to taste them.
I fancy myself a bit of a gardener, and the "bit" should be stressed. While I have grand plans for our future property, right now I have to settle with what we have - a 1'x12' gardening strip on the side of our house. I've heard that we all have to start somewhere.
 |
| Ample gradening space, eh? |
Last year I planted so many things, but I think a mixture of bad germination rates from the seed packets and a horde of voracious slugs claimed everything but two cucumber plants, one pitiful daikon radish and tons of mustard greens in pots. Fun fact: you can scorch your mouth by eating raw, fresh mustard greens. Every salad that I had only had one ingredient (mustard greens) and each one ended with me crying from the heat.
This year I learned from the my previous mistakes and bought some plants as transplants and then seeds from a reputable source that moves a lot of product so they should be fresh. So far the strawberry and cabbage transplants are doing well, the peppers not so much probably because we get a paltry amount sun on the side of our house. We have 2 strawberries! It appears that our slug problem is still the death of most of my seeds so I decided to grow them as transplants.
 |
| Our strawberry crop so far |
Last weekend Abby and I planted 20 seeds in tiny seedling containers. We've got kale, malabar and regular spinach, swiss chard, and cucumbers. Abby only helped me because cucumbers were included, just kidding? The idea is that we will transplant these seedlings once they sprout then move them into a bigger containers and then finally into the ground. That way when the ravenous slugs emerge from their vile ground dwellings and descend upon my garden the plants will have a little more defense than if they were just seedlings.
So far two of the kale "babies" have emerged. Nothing else yet, but I guess it's still early. Every day I take them out in the morning, water them, and then bring them back in at night so they're safe. I can't wait to taste them.
 |
| Look at those babies! |
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
One Foolish Errand
He says:
Years ago a seed was planted in Abby's and my mind. It came from different sources for each of us, but it’s genesis was around the same time. About 2 years ago I was listening to a podcast about homebrewing beer and the host of the program mentioned that his favorite sour beer was New Belgium’s La Folie. I had never tasted a sour beer, and this host sure was talking it up like something great. I was interested. A friend of Abby’s had mentioned to her that during a brewery tour she had tried La Folie and liked it even though she didn’t especially enjoy beer. Abby was interested.
Being two self-actualizing young adults, we went in search of this beer. And search we did. I will say that our interest started about 2 years ago and we saw a bottle of it in person for the first time last night. Before that there were phone calls, store visits, and website searches to find this thing. Apparently stores get shipments in about once a year and then it flies off the shelves, usually right about the time that Abby and I would catch wind of it. It always seemed just out of grasp.
You can only imagine the excitement when we happened upon not one but two bottles of this supposed elixir. We purchased one, drove home, and drank it as soon as it was cold. After our first drinks, I can say that I was certainly glad we didn’t purchase both bottles. I won’t bore anyone with tasting notes, but I will say that I was disappointed (and so was Abby). It was sour, actually very sour. But that was it. No layering of tastes, no life changing new flavor, just sourness.
Certain stories and figures of speech come to mind that say that the journey is better than the end or that it’s not about whatever lies at the end but about how you get there. I can’t help but notice a similarity. We will certainly remember this saga. But, man, I sure wish the end to this journey would have tasted better than this.
Years ago a seed was planted in Abby's and my mind. It came from different sources for each of us, but it’s genesis was around the same time. About 2 years ago I was listening to a podcast about homebrewing beer and the host of the program mentioned that his favorite sour beer was New Belgium’s La Folie. I had never tasted a sour beer, and this host sure was talking it up like something great. I was interested. A friend of Abby’s had mentioned to her that during a brewery tour she had tried La Folie and liked it even though she didn’t especially enjoy beer. Abby was interested.
Being two self-actualizing young adults, we went in search of this beer. And search we did. I will say that our interest started about 2 years ago and we saw a bottle of it in person for the first time last night. Before that there were phone calls, store visits, and website searches to find this thing. Apparently stores get shipments in about once a year and then it flies off the shelves, usually right about the time that Abby and I would catch wind of it. It always seemed just out of grasp.
You can only imagine the excitement when we happened upon not one but two bottles of this supposed elixir. We purchased one, drove home, and drank it as soon as it was cold. After our first drinks, I can say that I was certainly glad we didn’t purchase both bottles. I won’t bore anyone with tasting notes, but I will say that I was disappointed (and so was Abby). It was sour, actually very sour. But that was it. No layering of tastes, no life changing new flavor, just sourness.
Certain stories and figures of speech come to mind that say that the journey is better than the end or that it’s not about whatever lies at the end but about how you get there. I can’t help but notice a similarity. We will certainly remember this saga. But, man, I sure wish the end to this journey would have tasted better than this.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Dress Up
She says:
I have books, journals, and a "crafts" folder in my favorites bar chock full of things I plan to make someday. This dress from Target was yet another thing that I saw and thought "I could make that!" So I bought it. The dress cost something like $21.99, which I supposed is a reasonable dress price to some people, but is about $17 more than I would want to spend on it. My plan was that I would have to make myself a dress in order to return this dress (I was going to use it as a pattern), and since Target has pretty strict return policies, I knew I would have to get it done in 90 days if I wanted my money back. This helped move someday to today!
I used a couple of tutorials that I had previously saved in my "crafts" folder (here and here) along with using the dress as a pattern to come up with a way to sort of recreate the dress. However, I decided not to put in the pockets. I know pockets in dresses is the thing, but that's extra fabric at my hips that will absolutely never be used as pockets, so I nixed them. Instead, I spent my time learning how to use bias tape to make my neckhole nice and neat (and an alliteration).
I went a little bit crazy buying clearance fabrics to try to use in this project. I ended up buying all the good-looking fabrics I could find on the super-cheap ($3 per yard), which got me 5 different patterned fabrics to work with...so I made five dresses. It felt like it was taking forever sewing in little bits and pieces whenever I had time: a side seam while my quesadilla was cooking, closing up the armholes after finishing homework and before moving on to more homework, etc. But I got it all done within the 90 day Target return window (waaaaaaaay within, thank you!). I returned my one dress for $21.99, and kept my five new dresses (which cost a total of $26 in fabric, thread, and elastic purchases).
I have books, journals, and a "crafts" folder in my favorites bar chock full of things I plan to make someday. This dress from Target was yet another thing that I saw and thought "I could make that!" So I bought it. The dress cost something like $21.99, which I supposed is a reasonable dress price to some people, but is about $17 more than I would want to spend on it. My plan was that I would have to make myself a dress in order to return this dress (I was going to use it as a pattern), and since Target has pretty strict return policies, I knew I would have to get it done in 90 days if I wanted my money back. This helped move someday to today!
 |
| Target dress. |
I used a couple of tutorials that I had previously saved in my "crafts" folder (here and here) along with using the dress as a pattern to come up with a way to sort of recreate the dress. However, I decided not to put in the pockets. I know pockets in dresses is the thing, but that's extra fabric at my hips that will absolutely never be used as pockets, so I nixed them. Instead, I spent my time learning how to use bias tape to make my neckhole nice and neat (and an alliteration).
I went a little bit crazy buying clearance fabrics to try to use in this project. I ended up buying all the good-looking fabrics I could find on the super-cheap ($3 per yard), which got me 5 different patterned fabrics to work with...so I made five dresses. It felt like it was taking forever sewing in little bits and pieces whenever I had time: a side seam while my quesadilla was cooking, closing up the armholes after finishing homework and before moving on to more homework, etc. But I got it all done within the 90 day Target return window (waaaaaaaay within, thank you!). I returned my one dress for $21.99, and kept my five new dresses (which cost a total of $26 in fabric, thread, and elastic purchases).
 |
| Even though this is the worst lighting in the world, all five dresses are there! The front one is red with small white hearts. The second one is purple with yello polka dots. The third one is navy with white polka dots. The fourth one is maroon and tan checked. And the last one is a gray and pink paisley. |
Monday, February 25, 2013
Hey Diddle Diddle
She says:
During the epic snowstorm we had last week, I got to stay indoors (yay!) and do homework (boo!). The good news is that one of my homework assignments for this week was to write and illustrate a childrens' book.
If you want to take a look at the most adorable cow ever (and more!), here it is:
Hey Diddle Diddle Book Project
Stay tuned to see what we come up with during this week's snowstorm!
During the epic snowstorm we had last week, I got to stay indoors (yay!) and do homework (boo!). The good news is that one of my homework assignments for this week was to write and illustrate a childrens' book.
If you want to take a look at the most adorable cow ever (and more!), here it is:
Hey Diddle Diddle Book Project
Stay tuned to see what we come up with during this week's snowstorm!
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