darchildre: a mad scientist lady doing mad science (malita is doing SCIENCE)
This morning, I went to the grocery store in order to prepare for my parents coming home and bringing several relatives (Granny, my aunt, one of my sisters) with them. And I was in the produce section and decided it was time to make more shrubs, so I bought fruit. Troublesome fruit, really.

I bought lychees. Because I love lychee flavored things and it will make an interesting experiment, if nothing else. They are pretty messy to peel and very messy to pit, FYI. But now they are all peeled and pitted and macerating, so that's done. We'll see how that turns out.

And I bought cherries. The thing about cherries is that, not only are they annoying to pit, but the darker varieties look sort of horribly, viscerally meaty when pitted. And leave red juice all over your hands. So now I have this bowl full of cherry corpses and I feel kinda like Lady Macbeth.

Ah, well. I'm trying a new thing - using the recipe on this page, where you actually cook the fruit and vinegar together and add the sugar several days later. I've never done it like that - all of my shrubs so far have been cold-processed - so it should be interesting to see the difference.
darchildre: a crow being held in one hand.  text:  "bird in hand" (bird in the hand)
Shrub update: the two I've made so far are pretty great. The apple spice is a little mellower than the blackberry - possibly due to the fact that the blackberry has some apple cider vinegar in it, as well as plain white vinegar. I think I'd like more bite to the apple, but the spices and the brown sugar in it worked really well. Next time I make it, I might change up the vinegar content. (And make more of it - I only used one apple and so only ended up with about 1 1/4 cups of shrub. That is too little of something so delicious.)

Today, I am making shrub #3: balsamic grape. ExpandDetails. ) So we'll see how that goes.
darchildre: clark kent drinking cocoa with his mom (cocoa with the kents)
ExpandShrub #2 (apple spice), details so I remember them: )

I bought bottles yesterday, so the first shrub now has a more pleasing home than the jar. I think I'll try that one today and see how it turned out.
darchildre: a crow being held in one hand.  text:  "bird in hand" (bird in the hand)
Things:

- We got a new combination printer/copier at the library today. It has a working coinbox and a print release terminal! Which means that the patrons don't have to come up to the desk to get me to release their printing any more! I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the patron who prints out at least 30 pages every day so that I can tell her that she gets to print those herself. Ahahaha.

- I have made my first drinking vinegar! (Well, I have put it together - it has to age in the fridge for about a week so the flavors can meld properly before I actually drink it.) ExpandDetails, so I can remember them. ) I have a couple more I'd like to maybe start this weekend, and I'd like to get some reasonably attractive bottles to store them in. Jars are workable, but not very pretty and harder to pour from.

- So, my mom volunteered to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones with me last night. I'm pretty sure she liked it - she said she wanted to watch more tonight - but it had not occurred to me how much of a learning curve that show has for people who haven't read the books. Seriously, the first episode throws something like 20 different people at you, along with freaky-weird politics. We had to pause every couple of minutes so I could remind her the relationships between characters and explain what the hell they were talking about. So she's started making up nicknames for people in order to keep them distinct - the only character to have a really distinctive one so far is Joffrey. He has been dubbed "the boy with the weasel teeth", which seems pretty appropriate.

And that is my day so far.
darchildre: a cup of tea.  text: "tea break" (tea break)
I am kinda grumpy today because it is hot and I am tired from my weekend, so instead of fantasizing about setting people on fire (which would make things hotter), I am distracting myself by looking up drinking vinegar recipes and planning which ones I want to make.

I have found several recipes for apple, one for cucumber mint, and a black cherry balsamic vinegar one with black pepper by which I am very intrigued. I also find myself trying to make up my own, since the basic concept doesn't really change no matter what you put in it. I want to make a pumpkin spice one, when I can get pumpkins, with cinnamon and allspice and nutmeg. I am pretty sure that would be awesome.

I'm going to have to buy fruit this weekend.
darchildre: Tiny Flash with his arms up going "yay!" (flash says yay!)
I am at the Lovecraft film festival, hooray! And have been since last night. Yesterday, I saw some awesome short films and La Herencia Valdemar which, alas, I did not care for. But my program for today looks totally awesome!

Also, I went to the Hollywood farmer's market, where I bought cookies and drinking vinegar. OMG you guys, drinking vinegar is amazing. I've been intrigued by the idea for a while now (much like the vinegar pie, which I will someday master) but had never managed to try one. But there was a booth with samples at the market, so I had to make the attempt. And it is great - tart and fruity and totally refreshing. They mixed it with club soda, which was very good, but I kinda want to try it with a sweetened soda, because I have a huge sweet tooth. 8) I only bought the blueberry lemon kind, because they had sold out of the mint, alas. The bottle wants a corkscrew, so I have to wait till I get home to drink it.

Now I totally want to make my own. I think an apple ginger one would be great and if you can do mint, maybe you do basil. (Everything is better with basil.)

Have any of you experimented with drinking vinegars? Tips, recipes, horrible warnings?

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darchildre: a candle in the dark.  text:  "a light in dark places". (Default)
Renfield

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