So sorry about that absence being longer than a week.  Came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning after my trip.  Though I’m feeling much better now, it was not the most pleasant week.  Anyway, let’s get back into it shall we?

Jon and I just bottled our 4th homebrew batch.  Did I ever tell you how batch 1-3 turned out?  Pretty good, actually.  Honestly, I was surprised when we opened the first bottle of the first batch and had actual, drinkable beer.  Our 2nd batch turned out ‘effing amazing (pardon the language).  It was a clone of the Stone Ruination IPA (currently my favorite IPA).

Jon, I have to admit, has kind of taken the lead on the whole homebrew thing.  Although I have great plans to be a super cool brewer chick, in reality, I’m the pretty assistant.

The batch we just bottled is a pseudo-clone of a Lagunitas beer we both really like.  Sadly, it was awfully hot the weekend we decided to brew and when we tasted a bit (un-aged, obviously) during the bottling it was kind of… not good.  It smells like a million dollars, but… I think it’s going to need a lot of time to mellow in the bottle.  So– no more brewing until autumn or until we can use a friend’s basement to ensure the temperature stays at a reasonable range.

By the way, should you find yourself in DC in the next week or so I highly recommend stopping by Pizzeria Paradisio’s “JulyPA” event.  31 IPAs on tap.

Sorry the oil tracker was up there for so long– let’s move onto something a bit more positive, okay?  This week I picked up our first CSA share from the good folks at Evensong Farm. I picked this farm for a number of reasons: 1) it’s owned by women (and you know I’m all about the girl power), 2) it’s near Antietam Battlefield (hello 19th century history, my favorite), and 3) they don’t use “synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or genetically modified inputs.”  Oh, and if you’re confused by what the hell a CSA is look here.

We’re just doing a half-share; Jon and I can barely plan when we’re doing laundry let alone an entire week’s worth of dinners-at-home (between classes and lectures and friends and work happy hours we eat out more than I care to admit).  Anyway, this week we got an enormous head of romaine lettuce, a “spicy” greens mix, peas, radishes (yum), bok choy,* green onions/chives, cilantro (yessss!), and garlic scapes.  Sorry, does that read like I’m bragging?  I kind of meant to.  Kind of.

A recipe for the excellent and 100% vegan dip I made from the radishes is after the jump…

This recipe is a variation of one in this month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living.  I can’t find it online yet, but it’s in the one with the hamburger and person in a blue checkered shirt on the cover (by the way, looks like there is a $1 off coupon on the site– wish I’d seen that).  Anyway, here is my variation on her garbanzo and radish dip– it is a bit more garlicy and I used cilantro instead of basil because a) that’s what we had and b) we are BIG cilantro fans in this house:

Ingredients:

2 cans unsalted garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (keep about 1/3 cup of the liquid)
2 Tbs olive oil
Sea salt, pepper to taste
Cilantro to taste
9 radishes, chopped
2 cloves garlic
juice from 2 fresh lemons
Pita chips and/or bread for dipping

Instructions:

Lightly mash garbanzo beans, oil, salt, and pepper in a bowl until creamy but still chunky.  Stir in the lemon juice, radishes, garlic, and cilantro.  Stir in some of the reserved garbanzo bean liquid until dip holds together.  Refrigerate at least 30 min before serving.

Note: I tried mushing up the beans with forks and a blender.  The blender did NOT work well– spewed beans all over the kitchen.  If you have a stick blender like you use for soups I’d suggest using that.  If not, one of those things you use for pie crusts.  I have no idea what they’re called– the semi circle of like 4 wires on a handle.

*If you play your cards right, maybe I’ll share Jon’s insanely good recipe for spicy Asian noodles with Bok Choy.  I have no idea how he makes it, so actually paying attention for once might be smart.

We spent the weekend in NYC with friends and a lot of oysters.  I haven’t had that much fun in a long time– college friends always make me feel like less of a weirdo.  I suppose at college you’re just surrounded by folks who are weird in much the same way you are.  Anyway, no photos– too busy having fun to worry about it.  However, I did make a quick drawing of the oysters for the 64 Shades of Wax project.  I think I heard our hosts say they had over 100.  I believe it, I must have eaten 8 or 9 and there were at least 15 people at the party.

On a totally different note, I like how our scanner is starting to get a build up of crayon wax on it– it’s making the scans fun and a little unpredicatble.  I’m not sure though if Jon will find this as fascinating as I do.  Plus, it is entirely possible that I’m just trying to make not cleaning the scanner bed okay.  Hard to know…

My goodness… that was fast.  It’s almost 2010?

Like SouleMama, one of my favorite crafty-lady bloggers, I’m a tree-out-the-door on the morning of the 26th kind of girl.  Or, in my case, folded up and put back into its box.  The glitter snowflakes are down and so is the garland.  The wreath will stay on the door until New Years’ but that’s all that’s left.  But, also like SouleMama, I like that I get to share (and see) some things that were happening behind the scenes for the last month or so.

Today, a few shots from our Christmas day.  Tomorrow, a few shots of some craft projects and a give away related to my holiday cards.

No-knead bread– this might be my best loaf yet!

That vintage glass decanter is from Jon… I am in love with old glass things right now.

The blog will be pretty quiet this week, I’ll be out of town for work and then Jon and I have lots of fun plans: NFL game, decorating for the holidays, and enjoying this dark time of year– perfect for this cocktail and nights on the couch with a book.

We finally did it!  This weekend we brewed our first batch of beer.  It’s still fermenting, as we speak the wort is bubbling away in the fermenter.  At least, I think it’s called wort.  It has the yeast in it now, obviously, so perhaps it becomes something else?  Clearly I need to brush up on my terminology.

Here’s what it looked like right after I put the yeast in.

Brewing requires a lot of instructions.  Really though, I think it can probably be boiled down (no pun intended) to three things: keep things clean, follow directions, be patient.  Good life advice, really.

If all goes well we should be bottling about a week, then another week or two until we can crack one open.  I’ll keep you all posted.

“Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew” advises Charlie Papazian, writer of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.  After weeks of talking a big game about how we were for sure going to be brewing our own beer we finally made the trek out to the middle-of-nowhere MD to pick up some supplies.  We were all set to brew, got our sweet kit, the beer kit, and even read a few books.  Until we realized we’d have to pay a lot of money for a big stainless steel pot.  Sure we could get one closer to home for less than $100 we said “eh, we’ll just get it Sunday.”  Sadly, it was not to be and now we’ve got to wait 5-7 days for one to ship from somewhere on the Internet.

I’m trying to “relax, not worry, and have a beer” but man I’m bummed we weren’t able to brew this weekend.  Humph.  All I have to show you today is the bottles and our book waiting patiently next to the bookcase.

Sigh.  Maybe this time next week I can show you our beer fermeting away…

Jon and I spent much of Halloween brainstorming ideas and tracking down the excellent candy bits for our Halloween cupcakes.  We’ve made cupcakes like this almost every year since… maybe 2004?  Right after we started dating.  Anyway, we ran out of bone sprinkles a year or so ago and kind of lost steam.  This year, though, no problem– Target sold these awesome eyeball sprinkles AND bones in one package.  Love. It.

I wore a bandanna around my face (still feeling a bit under-the-weather) and refered to myself as the cupcake bandit.  Yes, it was that kind of Halloween– goofy.  Halloween might be the only holiday where the kid version is actually way better than the adult version.

Anyway, cookies for gravestones? check.  Zombie Teddygrams? Check. Gummie alligators, spiders, and worms? check.  Lots of laughs? Oh, check indeed.

Okay, we’ll start looking at upcoming holidays now– I’m going to try and get better about sharing what I’m making for a specific holiday before said holiday.  Maybe it doesn’t matter?  But it feels like Halloween is done and now lets move on, I’ve always been that way about holidays.  It’s Dec. 26?  Great.  Take down the tree.

I don’t like pickles.  For some reason I lump them together with blue cheese and really “good” brie as things that taste like rot.  This is absurd and I know it– I’m just really, really sensitive to bitter things.  Jon is always amazed when I complain about things that are too bitter.  Anyway, only 6 short years ago I hated olives and now I could eat green olives like popcorn.  Perhaps having Jon make pickles will change my mind, he did get me to convert to the olive after all….

Jon riffed on Alton Brown’s pickling recipe (and I was just the pretty assistant who photographed)– he cut the cucumbers into wedges instead of letting them soak for hours and used a lot of garlic and dill.  Oh, and he ditched the champagne vinegar.  The whole process, start to finish (excluding the cooling time) took about 30 min.  Of course, we haven’t tasted them yet so I can’t say if it’s okay to just make up your first pickling recipe as you go a long.

I promise I’ll report when we’ve let them turn from soggy cucumbers into actual pickles.  If they taste for-real (and not like soggy rot wedges) I’ll get the proper recipe.  I imagine Jon will be making pickles a lot if we discover it takes less than 20 min.

Hopefully they’ll turn out well– I’d like to get over the aversion to pickles that I feel.  If my sweetie can’t make pickles that I like I fear nobody can.

I can’t believe I forgot to share this with you– it’s our favorite summer dinner: cabbage salad from Orangette’s book (which I’ve posted about before); bean salad from my mother’s recipe (below); bread, butter, and turnips and; maybe, if we’re feeling fancy (and especially hungry) cream cheese and smoked salmon (or maybe brie or some other kind of yummy, fatty cheese).  Oh and don’t forget some olives to snack on while you stir like it’s going out of style.  The best part, nothing requires any actual cooking– on a hot DC summer day that is really important.

Of course, now I’m telling you all about this meal just in time for good lentil soups and roasts and things.  Well, maybe on one of these last balmy nights when turning on the stove is the last possible thing you want to do (what, you mean your kitchen doesn’t get to be 90 degrees by 4:30?) it’ll come in handy.
I am going to share this recipe with you but honestly, it is more a list of ingredients.  You’ve got to go by taste.  Jon and I love garlic so we use a lot, not so much salt, etc.  Also, feel free to use dried beans– I tend to default to cans since a) Jon and I rarely seem able to plan more than 4 hours in advance and b) it is an easy measurement.

Bean Salad

Ingredients

1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 large carrot shredded
3-5 cloves Garlic
Celery (optional)
A big spoonful of mustard (use the kind with real seeds not the super smooth yellow stuff)
Some lemon juice
Salt + Pepper to taste

Mix beans, chopped celery, onion, and shredded carrot together with a large wooden spoon so as not ot break too many of the beans.  Add mustard a spoonful at a time.  Press garlic into mixture.  Add lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste.

Serves: a lot.  This is a good for taking to pot lucks (esp if you’ve got Vegan friends).