Bottling da Beer

First though.. aren't these cool socks.. oh.. and the slippers. But the socks are just cool. Just thought I should share.

Okay.. we had help this weekend ( thank you!!! ) .. which was a good thing because I've been feeling too whacked to do anything since this cold still insists on haunting me . I suppose it wouldn't be as bad if it was just a plain old cold to someone else but on top of all the other things for me.. well, it just wipes me out too much for beer bottling activities. First off , all the bottles have to be sanitized in the sanitizing bath then dried. The empty dishwasher works great for this . I'd already spent a very very long tiring day washing all the bottles (a few weeks ago) .. getting the labels and glue off and the mold out . I hate washing bottles.. I just hate it.. And I don't even drink the stuff. Why do I do this??? I still haven't figured that out yet.

ANYway, we sanitized the bottles and all the equipment.. well, they did.. I watched and offered encouragement . Then the beer gets siphoned from the secondary fermentor where it has been sitting for the past month into the bucket with the spigot. You are actually supposed to use the siphoning tube and a little bottle filler attachment thingy but Elly May and I have never been able to get it to work. The siphon always breaks and it takes about 5 minutes to fill a bottle and not being the most patient soul in this world.. ahem.. we ditched that method. I know we might be oxidizing some precious stuff by our method but it works.. and it doesn't take years to fill the bottles and the beer tastes fine. Or so I'm told. Oh.. I almost forgot.. the priming sugar goes into the bucket too after it has been boiled and hopefully cooled (oops.. ours didn't have time) . That is what give it carbonation. The sugar reacts with yeast left in the fermented wort and makes bubbles in the bottle. Unless you want to drink it warm and flat like the Brits.. but we like our bubbles here in America .

Okay , I screwed up the order on this.. they get filled , then capped.. Just imagine it that way.

My sole contribution was taking bottles from the dishwasher and handing them over to be filled. Really strenuous.. ;-)

What didn't fit in the bottles went to the Official Tester and Bottle Filler. He has to be paid for his work somehow. ;-) Tasters said there was a very very slight taste of peach. So I'm wondering if it was even worth all the effort to put the peaches in. Maybe after it ages some it will mature in flavor. Next up, Nut Brown Ale. But I need energy for that. But hopefully soon. Then another batch of stout. It is the preferred beer around here apparently . I personally think it all stinks like beer but hey, it makes them happy.

Casualty....

This poor baby.... is dead. He died of shock. Elly May went out back yesterday because the dogs were going crazy barking their heads off. She got out there to find Punker Man with a mouth full of something furry and trying to play keep away from J.B. J. B. would grab at various body parts hanging out of Punker Man's mouth and bark louder because he wanted part of the fun too.

Elly May was able to rescue the thing and it was still alive with no visable wounds. Feeling sorry for it.. she let it go in a sort of wild grassy area behind our house . But this morning.. she went out to check on it and it had died . So I guess they killed it afterall . The mighty hunters and their first kill. Sort of. ... kind of by default.. but anyway. It is gone now.

Kitchen Rambles

Well, no... he isn't part of the kitchen stuff but he is cute , so there. He likes to look out the window to check out what is going on.

Sick person soup. :-) I like to have broth on hand for whatever I feel like doing. It comes in extremely handy when you are sick and need to throw something together fast. I'd made this broth up before I fell ill and then I was able to just throw some onions, garlic, carrots , pre-cooked rice and a touch of cilantro (at the end) for a very nourishing and comforting soup.

Elly May was reading "Her Father's Daughter" again by Gene Stratton Porter again and there was a recipe for cactus candy she wanted to try. So we found some at our local farmer's market and she went to work peeling them. Not as easy as it might seem at first.

They are rather flabby when finished..

They get chopped and soaked in cold water overnight. You end up with this really mucousy liquid that is not unlike dog drool... anyway, that gets drained and then the nopales pieces are simmered in a sugar water mixture until it all cooks down . Then they are laid out to dry into little candies.. I didn't have any but I hear they are super sweet.

Bread.. the staff of life.

Aren't they beautiful?

A crown of rolls.. she made these for the lamb stew we had .

It was very very yummy. I even had lamb bones left over from 2 lamb legs we'd had earlier in the year at Passover and I made lamb broth out of those after roasting them. We had bought a whole lamb (well , it was frozen and in pieces..) from Chaffin Family Orchards (same place our chickens come from) and it was (and still is) absolutely delicious. Very very tender and not gamey at all.

Dog pile.. I can't see how this is comfortable but they seem to think it is. I know I wasn't that comfortable. They are heavy bruisers. But we all wuv each other vewy much. :-)

The Cat's Meow

Socks.. and stripes.. I love them. But you can never find just the right kind. So the other night when I could not sleep because my lovely joints were out and aching like crazy , I came down to sit at the computer in the wee hours of the morning and search for socks. I found the coolest shop that is up in Portland Oregon. And they have thing highs . How cool is that ? With stripes. In a bazillion different colors. Boy howdy was I excited. Why get boring socks when you can have these?? Granted, my skirts are all about ankle length so no one but me knows I've got them on.. I guess I need to make some slightly shorter skirts... but anyway... they got here today . Since I was already wearing a fuchia colored sweater , I went for the stripes to match ( I also got some blues and purples) . Are these cool or what??
I mean.. they're so spiffy.. so topping.. so absolutely ripping. The cat's meow, the frogs croak , the chickens cluck , the cow's mooo and all that jazz . Sock Dreams.. I thank you for such cool socks.
In other news, I've got lots of photos and projects to post about sometime in the near future here. I'm still fighting remnents of this cold but Frank is gone. Although , like a complete idiot I left my window open a crack last night and it got really cold and my throat has not been happy with me since... nor my nose. I'm hoping this is just a passing thing and it doesn't go back to the full blown thing it was before. But if it does.. I can just put on more socks and smile at them.

Annabelle is Sick

Fascinating I know. But that is why there are no adventures. Well, things are always happening around here ... but just now, I have a frog in my throat and unfortunately, I can't take a picture and show you. But he is there just the same. I've found I can sing a whole octave lower than usual. I can mimick all those cool deep voices I've never been able to master... so you see , everything has a silver lining to it. I wonder if I should name him. I want to call him Fred but I'm afraid I end up calling everything Fred . Fred was the lobster.. , Fred was the spider on my ceiling , I think I even called a vacuum cleaner Fred once. It is just such a lovely go-to name. It fit them all . Oh well, maybe I'll just call this one Frank. Frank the throat frog. He is most active in the morning.
Anyhow, Frank and I are going to go rest now and sip some hot raspberry leaf tea . I do hope he goes away soon. There are so many things do be done !

Cover Crop Update

Well no, he isn't a cover crop. But he sure is cute. And large.

Field peas pushing through.

Rye, from the rye and vetch mix that was planted. The vetch is barely showing.

Some where in there is the vetch...

A Soup Kind of Day

Look at those gorgeous eyes... well. They are closed , but he is gorgeous anyway. No cone collar!!! Anyway, today was overcast and cloudy. People are coming down with colds and what not (hopefully not me!!!), and it just felt like a soup kind of day. And any soup, starts with the broth. You MUST have good broth or stock. We do most things from scratch around here... though we didn't go so far as to kill our own chicken this time (I have done it in the past though) .

Oh, and good bread is good with soup too. Sadly, we don't have any today as the in house baker is coming down with whatever is currently being shared around here virus wise... but this is from a few days ago. And we can pretend it was here to go with the soup.

Okay , Great Stock 101... Brown your bones in the pot and add onions. Chicken backs make the best stock (this is from an organically fed, pasture raised chicken from http://www.chaffinfamilyorchards.com/ ) Then after you have brown bits on the bottom of the pan, turn the heat down, cover the pot and let the bones sweat for about 15-20 minutes. This brings a lot of flavor out and makes the whole stock process go a whole lot faster . Then add wine, I like vermouth, scrape those brown bits off the bottom of the pot (that is a lot of your flavor) , add water and bring to a simmer.

Now just with the bare bones of what we did already would make a pretty good stock. It is what I do most of the time. But we wanted a really really good stock for soup here. So we dumped in a lot more. I was using mushrooms in the soup so I pulled off the stems and used them in the stock, as well as ginger, smashed garlic , some Anaheim chili's I had , bay leaves, thyme , some sage and rosemary. Oh, and cilantro added later because it was fresh and doesn't need to steep to long.

When things come to a simmer, skim off the fat and whatever scum comes to the surface. I realize this might be easier before you add all the other goodies... then you aren't trying to fish around pepper seeds and bay leaves... Then just let all this simmer for about an hour and voila.. on to soup.

For our soup du jour, we started with onions , browned in some of the fat from the chicken broth.

Then add mushrooms and garlic... lots and lots of garlic. We had about 2 heads worth.

And of course I forgot to take a picture of the carrots, the celery, the tomatoes , and the rice going in... oh, and the broth... ladled and strained in from the pot behind.. but here it all is together.

We have company while we are working....

I added salt, some soy sauce (organic only!! no gmo's please.) , some black pepper .... and I think that is all I threw in.. It had to cook about an hour for the rice to be done (it was brown basmati rice) . Then dressed with chopped cilantro. I like it way better than parsley. Anyway, it smells really really really good. Secrets in the stock. ;-)

Now imagine that good bread with it and you have it. :-)