Monday Monday

Can focused thought heal?  If you happened to read or see the Dan Brown book/movie THE LOST SYMBOL, one of the characters in the book is conducting experiments in which she endeavors to weigh thought.  Crazy, but what if thoughts have some slight mass and can aggregate and cause something?

Too much holiday cheer for you?  Read about the NOCEBO effect.  If it works in reverse, shouldn't it work in drive?

I am hoping to hear from anyone regarding healers who are alive and practicing today.   There is a healer in Brazil named John of God.  He has an internet presence so he can be googled.  As far as I know, his services are free of charge.

The Ten Talents Cookbook is a treasure

Trying to find a cookbook that speaks to me is a Sysifisican task.  Perhaps that's why I married a chef.  El Exigente has been baking and cooking now for almost 70 years.  He is a hard act to follow;  followed by El Exigente, Junior, who IS following in his papa's footsteps, becoming an even harder act to follow!
Therefore, it behooved me to move into the household baking-cooking tasks.  I'm NO natural cook.  I have searched and finally found a cookbook I can appreciate.  The Ten Talents is an old cookbook.  It's so old it gives you Rules for Eating.  But, their rules (though outdated) make sense to me.

The NOCEBO effect

Some friends encountered the kind of doctor we all call Dr DOOM.  They googled 'nocebo effect' and did some reading.
NY Times article said this

“…the range of possible nocebo responses stretches far beyond stomachache (in extreme cases, ailing patients who are mistakenly informed that they have only a few months to live will die within their given time frame, even though postmortem investigations show that there was no physiological explanation for early death)”

And this:

“*In the Framingham Heart Study, women who believed they are prone to heart disease were nearly four times as likely to die as women with similar risk factors who didn't believe. (Voelker, Rebecca. "Nocebos Contribute to a Host of Ills." Journal of the American Medical Association 275 no. 5 (1996): 345-47.”

What do you think about this?  

Can prayer heal?

Have you heard of a healer in Brazil called John of God? 

G Going Viral-did u rd ths frm NYTIMES?

READ THIS AND WEEP FOR THE TEACHERS...and the kids
This bloomberg-person...what can stop him?  Do you care?

N.Y. City and State Said to Reach Deal for Schools Chief's Appointment

The state's education commissioner, David M. Steiner, and the
Bloomberg administration have reached a deal that will allow
Cathleen P. Black, a media executive, to become the next
schools chief.

A top education official in the city's schools system, Shael
Polakow-Suransky, the chief accountability officer, will be
named the chief academic officer to serve as the No. 2 to Ms.
Black, according to a person with knowledge of the agreement
between the state and the city.

In return, Mr. Steiner on Monday will grant Ms. Black a
waiver from the state law requiring the chancellor to have
certain education credentials that Ms. Black, the chairwoman
of Hearst Magazine, lacks.

Mr. Steiner had expressed reservations about granting Ms.
Black an exemption and had made the appointment of a chief
academic officer a condition for considering her nomination.

The move is a major concession from Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg who typically resists any intrusion into his
management of city agencies.

Happy Holiday!

I love any holiday that gets the family together with friends and the accompanying baking and cooking.
For my part, I made soy milk, tempeh and two kinds of sprouts.  El Exigente is making Baba Au Rhums, Cream Puffs, Eclairs and other pastry inventions.  He's also making the stuffing.  Our Sandgate friends down the street are hosting.

(So to all who read this)

HAVE A GOOD ONE!

A series of unfortunate incidences leading to NO INTERNET!!

One thing led to another and for some unknown reason we have no internet!!  Not a cloud in the sky, but no satellite service.
I'll let you know how it all turns out.

FOUND: OLD UNPOSTED...Kritters in the garden

Scribed...who knows?  must have been when the bears hit the bee hives and critters ate the tender garden shoots

Just like everybody else, I do like furry creatures.  Rabbits are cute.  We used to raise them.
Nowadays, people have all kinds furry of pets...even ferrets and minks, known for nasty tempers. 
I have issues with bears and ground hogs, lately.  The problem is not just that they eat the food we work so hard to raise, as we are willing to share it.  It's because the kritter will take bites of EVERY veggie in the garden row, leaving us with not much that is edible.

Scribed...June 19th...The Tao of Sandgate

Sandgate has been part of my life since the 60s.  I loved coming up on weekends from NYC and visiting my friend Bunny.   She showed me that I, too, could live my life in the Tao of Sandgate.

Big Boys Don't Cry!

Well, the big boy for VT Governor is PETER SHUMLIN.  No cryin' in Vermont.  The state went TOTALLY democratic, along with Colorado, and California.  I hear the whole rest of the country went red.

Bernie and Leahy and Welch and Shumlin are going to try to make Vermont's health care system the best!  So universal single-payer health care may be coming soon to a township like mine.

I hope our green mountain boys can help the President to stop apologizing and kick some republican political butts.  Why won't they stop giving everything ($) to the rich and then blaming the poor for the cost of entitlements?  At the very least, we should not allow those rich people to obtain the entitlements they are trying to cut.  Let's get some MEANS tests out there, soon!

It's all over but the cryin'...

November Elections AND the World Series...DONE!  (thank the goddess!)

As for the world series, two undervalued teams played, the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.  Luckily, the Giants were able to win quickly so much boredom was avoided.  WE don't care much for either team...what can one say about the state that gave us GWB?, and, we remember when the Giants were from New York City.

Moving right along to the election news:
Jerry Brown won the govenor's job in California (Governor Moon Beam is BACK!), Boxer kept her seat, Pelosi's out, Bonehead is IN as Speaker  (and keeps crying during press conferences, neurological damage? *Alzheimer's Disease?)
Here's the research:
***It is important to note that a person with AD may be weeping but not necessarily feeling unhappy. Tears may be the expression of multiple emotions ranging from sadness to unbridled joy....the best treatment is to understand that the cause of the behavior is the disease and not the true emotion being felt by the AD person. Once you have realized the person expressing the tears is really quite calm and not feeling sadness, the best response is to simply tolerate the behavior while acknowledging its probable cause.

WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS INFORMATION?     We're screwed!  Boehner is contemplating impeaching President Obama, not to mention his plan to repeal everything OBAMA.

In the great state of Vermont, we may not know who won the governorship for quite some time.  If the candidate does not win by 50% of the vote, the legislature may have to decide the race.  Right now, Peter Shumlin is ahead 49.4% to Dubie's 47.9%.
Perhaps all is not lost. 
Leahy won and we still have Bernie!

I'll keep you blogged...omg we're in deep doo-doo

Halloween Day in the Gate

***New Feature***WADAYANO? PUT YOUR ANSWER IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER*** *** #1       What was the name of Cisco the Kids's horse? (too young to remember Cisco?)
                                                  
Everybody did their celebrating last night as this holiday falls on Sunday this year.  It was pretty quiet.  Everybody was tired after watching saturday baseball, football, basketball and the fabulous RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY AND/OR FEAR.  It has been a wild election season and I'm afraid, just like that baseball brainiac YOGI said, "it's not over til it's over".   Many of the best Tea Party candidates would agree with YOGI that "when you come to a fork in the road...TAKE IT!?"

It was so cold out there this morning that we decided to harvest, blanch and freeze as much rapine as our frozen fingers would allow.  They had lovely little heads on them and will be delicious in December.

We all had some oatmeal for breakfast this morning.  Since no one had any suggestions for anything else that could be construed as breakfast...I just thought of babies and egg pastina, spinach pastina,  weren't they breakfasty?

We're almost done getting the wood in.  (Do people outside of rural areas know what this means?  Felling, chopping, splitting, moving & stacking wood and making kindling to use somewhere inside the home preferably near a wood-burning stove)  Soon we'll be thinking about plans for the spring...
In the meantime, those CSA Veggies are cooking up in a tasty fashion.  It started me thinking that I should make some tempeh to go with those veggies.

What's new for breakfast for the over 60 crowd? Nuttin Honey!

Ahhhh, it's eggs, or cereal.  Forget the bacon.  (and forget the eggs if you believe they raise your cholesterol)  What's left?  CEREAL.
So we have a storm brewing at the house of El Exigente.  Which cereal is most nutritious?
Well, only the cooked cereals really have any nutrition.   Is the healthiest Granola?  Farina? or Oatmeal?
Granola wins for the most calories.  The more home made, the more calories!
Farina wins for the best texture and some say the best taste.
HOWEVER, after a quick search in cyberspace, the answer is:  OATMEAL!

El Exigente loves farina.  He will not be happy.  While, farina is a great source of iron, it is not a whole grain and therefore cannot be as nutritious as a whole grain (like oatmeal).

The rainfall lately has been on the order of deluge.  The good news is that the water table is up and the rivers are roaring.  The not so good news is that basements fill up with water.  OUCH.

On another weather note, since the first snow, the weather has been rather warm.  It was 70 yesterday in Dartmouth NH as we traveled to visit our favorite cardiologist.  Both weather and medical reports were good.  We ended a beautiful day by picking up our first installment of veggies from the LOCAL CSA we joined.  The veggies are MEGA-BEAUTIFUL.

Can the over 60 folks eat veggies for breakfast??  Would you? Could you? DO YOU?


Got an idea or recipe for breakfast veggies...


DO TELL!

Learning all the time...

I guess I still haven't thrown all caution to the wind, though I'm certainly old enough.  You really have to be brazen to learn anything in cyberspace.  Today I finally clicked the comments button. 
I FOUND COMMENTS!  I'm not alone! 
Thanks for the comments.  I will check them from now on.

It's Snowing!

There is snow on the mountains.  It started snowing at about noon.  Big flakes, some tumbling, some streaking, started to make little accumulations on the deck. 
It stopped.
It looks like the sun is pushing those dark snowy clouds away, to lure you out without a coat or hat.  It's too cold out there for that!
Gotta get the rest of the wood in.

Well dog my cats!

Hey there,
Whenever I get a chance to do something to or with this blog...I'm going to, hence the review of a pair of sneakers I bought from online shoes.
These sneakers actually helped me when I had hip surgeries and was asked not to bend forward (as bending forward tends to pop the hip bone out).  Picture yourself getting your shoes on without bending forward!
There is a way.
Have you pictured it?
Hint:  it involves sitting on a bed and getting your foot near your hip so your hip-knee-foot configuration forms a V shape.  Staring at your heel, and assuming you've gotten your sock on, (same position for that), now wiggle that shoe over your toes and onto your foot and VOILA!  Tie it!
OR you could shell out for a pair of Skechers D'Lites--the Tie-less sneakers and STAND while you push into these beautifully designed puppies.  If you've ever done the push-in thing with a pair of loafers in the old days, the heels get mis-shapen and the shoes get ruined...not so with Skechers D'Lites.  The heels keep their shape. 
In conclusion, these sneakers are actually a really good buy.  They cost about $50.00.  The only place I find them is at a site called 'online shoes'.  They ask their customers to rate their purchases so I did.  They also suggested placing my review on my blog by clicking "here".  I did that and magically, my review appeared here as the previous post.  
And that's that story!

My Review

Originally submitted at Onlineshoes.com

Delighted with D'Lites!

By supermoo87q from Vermont on 10/18/2010

 

5out of 5

Pros: No more laces to tie

Cons: Sizes do not include WIDE

Best Uses: Every day

These are the ONLY sneakers you don't have to tie! The heels do not get pushed in or down. They last and last and look like everyone else's sneakers...but better!

(legalese)

HELLO, again

It seems like years since I've been here.  Summer took a long time turning into Fall.  Fall has become the shortest season, too short to talk about.  Lots of company has come and gone.  We're making ready for Winter and planning for next spring...

Sandgate Sunflowers and Gigi's Chipmunk are pictured here to assuage any feelings of disappointment at winter's approach.  

August 13-16th 2010 Family Party in Sandgate

We had so much fun that El Exigente and I forgot that it was our wedding anniversary!  When Alessandra called to say that on her way to Rhode Island she remembered that while in Sandgate she had forgotten to wish us a happy 34th!  Then it circulated thru the bloodline from Alessandra to El Exigente, to El Exigente, Jr. to Mooma who had also forgotten that we all had amnesia.   It has to be a first!  I put it on SPACEBOOK for entire extended family to see and LOL.  They sent us hundreds of well-wishes and posted and tagged pictures of all of us.  If I ever figure out how to send pictures from spacebook to blogspace you will see, in living color, why we forgot.  It wasn't just the Karaoke Singing Game on Saturday night that sent us into this stupor.    

The entire extended family is on spacebook.  That's where the pictures abound.  That sounds like some of those puns we heard.  Don't know where the quotables end up getting published...Gotta thank Uncle Jack for the puns.  

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?  Practice safe eating - always use condiments!  In fact, condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion!!  I had a photographic memory but it was never developed.  A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat!  A hangover is the wrath of grapes.  Not to mention, a chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.  It reminds me that if you don't pay your exorcist, you get reposessed. 

Which reminds me that I need to thank the river people who made the creatures, river guardians, I think, that I came upon this evening.  I took some pictures of them...

May the river guardians keep us all safe and happy 'til we meet again.


As David and his brothers in NC say:



PEACE OUT

JULY IS GOING, GOING, GONE...

All in all, it was a good month, though much too hot and very busy.  It's a party month in our town.  From the FOURTH OF JULY to the METTAWEE RIVER THEATRE COMPANY's wonderful annual outdoor performance at the Sandgate Church Lawn, it is a socially packed month!

The veggies are growing like wild fire and the harvesting and processing just doesn't stop!  The worst part of all is that there is no more room in the frig or freezer to store the burgeoning crops.  I just got two more gallons of fresh cow's milk, so I must say good bye for now and start thinking about what to make with the milk, mozarella & ricotta or marscapone?

Confessions of a Novice Sandgate Blogger

I admit I have been plagued with blog worries. 
At first, I worried that I had to write every day.  Then, I worried about being interesting. 
To exercise my worry, I tried to write short amounts so that I would not bore.  I've tried not to mention names...to protect the innocence of friends and relatives.  But, face it!  No one cares how worried or careful or trying I try to be. 

So I'm (probably) coming out of the closet soon. 

I'll decide not to worry about topic, or boredom or innocence.  I shall not worry about hiding my udderlying desire to regain my Jersey Cow and expose my bean fetish for what it is.  I'm Lactose Loving!  I lust after all things cholesterol.  I cream for cheese.  I churn for butter.  Can the bean ever fill me?
I'll name names!  Don't laugh.  My husband, El Exigente, my daughter, Alessandra, my son, El Exigente Jr, and myself, Mooma.

I'll confess that there is no such place as Sandgate, except in my capacity to conceive such a place and your capacity to believe it.   Come along now.  Relax.  Enjoy
 

It's JULY!

It's JULY and time for KIMCHI!  We harvested some Napa Cabbages, radishes. carrots, onions, garlic, hot peppers, storebought ginger root and using the recipe in Sandor Ellix Katz's book, WILD FERMENTATION, we made some kimchee.  If you are interested in health and nutrition, this is a great book.

Here we are in the kitchen preparing the ingredients.

The next step is to combine the ingredients with the brine solution of about 4 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of sea salt.  The brine is VERY salty.  Toss the ingredients together with the brine solution.  Pack the thoroughly tossed ingredients into a container and add any brine left in the tossing bowl to the container.  Use a plate and a weight to make sure the kimchi is submerged under the brine solution.  We have various weights in our kitchen...but we used a quart mason jar filled with water to weigh down our kimchi.   We cover the container with butter muslin so nothing can 'get into' our kimchi while it is fermenting.  From now on, we will taste it every day to determine when it is ready.

Any questions?



       

Busy Summer Days

The weather has been cooperating and so I have been walking 2 miles a day (for those metal hips) and trying my best to work in the garden.  I do not love getting my hands dirty with soil while insects feast on my neck and ears.  There seems to be alot of pulling up and  killing of anything we did not plant, which makes our garden beautiful, but plays havoc with the shoulders.  I think I'm getting into it.  I do love to eat the vegetables that grow in it. 
To compensate for not having a cow, we have begun buying raw milk from a local farmer.  Tonight we are making a kind of cream cheese called marscapone.   We were making mozarella and ricotta but we still have some of each in the frig and two more gallons are due to arrive this evening.  We don't have enough room in our refrigerator for the projects we've been doing lately.  We are also growing oyster mushrooms.  We harvested 2 and half pounds yesterday and today, we picked about a half pound.
There are more coming, too.  We made 2 beds, each with a different strain of Oyster mushroom.  The second bed is beginning to fruit.  We will eat them fresh, pickle them and dry them.
All this is to say that I haven't been blogging.  I will try to get the promised pictures from previous posts into their places.  I do have mushroom pictures but I'm not even going to say anything about it until I catch up. 

JUNE 21st It's SUMMER 7:28 AM

HAPPY SUMMER!
Summer officially began  this morning and today will be the LONGEST DAY of the year.

the Soybean vs the Chopper

If you think, as I always have, that diamonds are the hardest materials on earth then, clearly you have never tried to grind soybeans.  The tempeh package instructions mention a hand grinder...omg!  I have noticed that soybeans are spoken of as dry, or soaked or cooked. There is a reason for this verbal deference.  You have to know what you are facing.
The dry soybean is impervious to the blade, mechanical or hand-wielded.  I DID prevail and we DO have tempeh, but what a struggle.  I thought it was challenging enough to master getting the hulls off the beans.
I was happy with the results of the first batch, particularly with the taste.  The only criticism I had was that all the beans were in 2 pieces instead of having some quarter pieces, which may affect texture.  The store bought kind has a visible variety of sizes.  Now I do too!

I did try uploading a picture of the second batch.  It took so long I cancelled it. 
I owe you another picture
                                          HERE (tempeh6/14/10.jpg)

It's a TEMPEH day

Today I will make our second batch of tempeh. 

This time I am using a grinder to gently crack the soy beans into 2 to 4 pieces.  Last time I soaked beans overnight, rubbed them together with my hands and picked out the hulls, only to find out later that the boiling action brings the hulls to the surface.  You just need to use a small strainer to scoop them up.

Other than that procedural change, I will boil the soy beans for about 1and a half hours, skimming the hulls.  I will drain, cool and dry the beans with a towel.  I have plastic bags with holes prepared from the last batch.  Then I will add the powdered tempeh starter along with a tablespoon of any kind of flour and a teaspoon of brewer's yeast ( I used a champagne yeast that I also use to make homemade ginger ale). Next I will mix the starter into the beans thoroughly.  Then I will pack the tempeh into the plastic bags and put them on a tray in my oven for the next 24 hours.

This time, when the tempeh is ready I will put some of it into the freezer.  There is one caution when storing tempeh which is:  Always place them so they DO NOT touch each other until well frozen or they will continue to grow and blacken.

Check back and I'll let you know how it all turns out!

Rainy Days and Gardening in Sandgate

What can you do on a rainy day in beautiful downtown Sandgate?

Surfing the Internet is OUT!

The men went to window shop for heavy equipment.

It's too warm to turn the oven on and bake.

I guess I'll take a walk and look at the garden.

Homemade TEMPEH in Sandgate Vermont

It's the first of June.  We have been at work outside.  The garden is in great shape.  #1 son has been getting logs to cut into firewood later in the season.  Our newest fruit trees are planted and leafing in the front orchard.  The bees did arrive, if somewhat late for dandelions and fruit tree blossoms.  And if the bears allow, we will have honey this year.

Our newest project has to do with growing mushrooms.  I'm beginning to think I should have called this blog Sandgate Serendipity.  This blog wants to be about more than just what we do with soy beans!  It's really about my family life in a great town in Vermont called             S A N D G A T E.

You read in my last post about the dangers of too much unfermented soy in the diet.  My disappointment turned into curiosity about how to make fermented soy products.  I picked tempeh as it is simple to make and most people have eaten it, unlike Japanese Natto, a fermented product that is an acquired taste.  

I found powdered tempeh starter at one place only, GEM Cultures in Washington.  They have a website:  www.gemcultures.com    but you cannot use the site to order.  You must download the order form and mail it in.  You should also pick up some brewer's yeast (I used a champagne yeast) because the tempeh directions mention using a tablespoon of flour and a teaspoon of brewer's yeast (per pound of soy) when it is humid as the flour helps distribute the tempeh starter culture powder throughout the soybeans and the yeast gives it a nutrient boost.


Now, back to how we made TEMPEH in 10 EASY STEPS

     Step # 1     I soaked 5 cups of dried organic soy beans overnight.
     Step # 2     Removing hulls:  When cool enough, put your hands into the beans.  Rub beans together.  Use a small strainer to remove hulls as they float up.
     Step # 3     I cooked soy beans for 20 mins.  The rolling boil helped hulls float for removal.
     Step # 4     Cooled and towel dried soybeans.  Removed any hulls left.  (Beans must be DRY)


     Step # 5     Added 1 teaspoon Tempeh starter/per lb and 1/2 tblsp Flour and 1/2 tsp Brewer's yeast


     Step # 6     I mixed the beans thoroughly


     Step # 7     I packed beans into locking plastic bags that I punched a grid of holes for air circulation


     Step # 8     I incubated packed beans at 85 degrees F.  My oven's pilot light keeps the oven slightly higher than that so I kept the oven door slightly ajar, used a thermometer and found the temperature to be a balmy 87 degrees
     Step # 9     WAITED ALL NIGHT.  Found beautiful tempeh (took about 18 hours)


     Step #10     Planned to cook and eat tempeh at lunchtime!


Where there are spaces between the steps, please imagine pictures.  Living in rural Sandgate has its ups and downs with respect to the internet.  It is raining and therefore, I cannot upload the pictures. 

Will upload pics as soon as the weather changes....

FROM THE JOY TO THE PLOY OF SOY

                                                            MONDAY  MAY 10th 2010

I was briefly happy as the temperatures rose after that horrible snow last week, only to plummet once more last night as it hit 30 degrees.  Misfortune comes in twos this month as it may get down to 24 tonight.
So I decided to get happier by surfing the net and finding out more about soy!  This is where the rubber met the road HARD.

I should first fess up about my latest soy milk experiments.  I am not as fond as I thought I would be of the taste of homemade soymilk.  It is too too beany!  I used to buy Silk Soymilk and really enjoyed that nutty taste.  Imagine my delight when I found the secret ingredient to make my homemade taste like store bought Silk.  The secret?  Brown Rice Syrup.  I did the experiment.  The recommendation was 3 tablespoons of brown rice syrup to a batch.  BOY, is that a great sweetener!  But it certainly did not taste like the store bought brand.  While I was at the supermarket, I checked out the ingredients label on a container of Silk.  What do you know?  No brown rice syrup--they use cane syrup, you know, sugar! 

Then I came upon some information regarding fermented soy products and some other stuff that warned that soy is not the health food we think it is, unless it is fermented and eaten with other proteins.

SNOW

This is when it gets hard to love living in the great state of VERMONT.

It's April 28th!  It's been such an encouraging spring season so far...they say it will be back up to 70 in another day or so.

                                             Plum Tree Blossoming on April 22, 2010

 What a difference a couple of days make!  Here's that Plum Tree now:

I'll let you know how it all turns out in a couple of days when we can assess the damage this snow does to the blossoms and 'cold veggies'.  I'd better go and stoke the wood stove...

 

Soy Yogurt: An experiment within an experiment...

I thought I'd spread some Monday evening excitement!

I just made a batch of soy milk and when it cooled enough I stirred in 3 tablespoons of organic yogurt. I decanted the mixture into glass mason jars and then I popped them into the oven, as my pilot light makes it warm enough for the yogurt to culture.  

I must confess that I cultured the yogurt with a store bought whole milk kind.  I could have avoided the dairy product by using acidophilus powder from a health food store.  The Solgar brand I'm told is VEGAN.   But I just love that whole milk yogurt.  When I was younger and had a Jersey cow, I used to make yogurt from cream, talk about delicious!

What's so exciting?

Tomorrow morning my first Soy Yogurt will be ready to sample.  I've never tasted soy yogurt before, so I will sleep fast tonight and dream of tasting soy yogurt.

April 22nd 2010 40th Earth Day

It's Earth Day.

No wonder I'm back making soy milk and tofu.
I made a gallon (128 oz) of Soy Milk and with that made just over a pound of Tofu.
The warm spring weather is invigorating.
The Plum Trees are in blossom and in the garden, the peas are popping out and calling to the potatoes, (Irish Cobblers, Kennybanks, Yukon Gold, Red Pontiac, &  All Purpose), Boston, Red & Regular Lettuce, Radishes, Red Sails and Simpson Lettuce, Carrots, and Arugula.  In the big garden are garlic, fava beans, peas, escarole, cabbage, bok choi, and another large row of potatoes doing their best to grow delicious intentions.

                                          Good Earth Day and Evening to all.

GOING BIONIC

As you may have noticed, Milking the Bean is an occasional blog.  Due to living in a rural area the internet goes out when it gets cloudy.  The electricity goes out when it gets too windy.  So the challenge of consistent daily blogging is real.  Overall, blogging is enjoyable.  So I will continue after a short break for a body mechanics repair job on my hip--a total joint replacement.  This is my 2nd hip joint to be replaced by a titanium/plastic joint so it should be as easy as...pie? falling off a log?, or making soy milk!

I do wonder about where and how those little expressions come into being.  What is easy about pie?
My busy mind is generating all kinds of wonder questions in an effort to block thoughts of tomorrow's operation.

I'll let you know how it all turns out

Sandgate Serendipity

Learning how to blog is becoming more fun.  Finding other blogs that are interesting is like foraging for fiddleheads.  I have found a few.   How to find them isn't easy to express.  It's serendipitous surfing.  And for the over sixty set, bookmarking your finds so you can return to them.
Turns out, there are some interesting blogs in Sandgate.
Turns out, there are more and more 'template-like' tools that help give your blog that professional look.
Learning how to get them onto this blog will take some time.  
Think of me surfing blogs like a Sandgate honey bee. 

Fleeting Snow

It snowed a little on Sandgate last night.  A dusting, you might say.  By this afternoon it will be gone.  The Green River was higher yesterday.  This little bit of snow won't make it flood.   My friend used to call it a poor man's car wash.  It could actually snow a whole lot more.  It snowed once in June in the late 70s.  Hope the robins are right and spring is really here.

The Tarot

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or flucuation, particularly when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

I have been exploring other blogs and enjoying the variety out there in the blogosphere.  Click on 'Take the Test to Find Out' above, take the test and find out what tarot card you are.

If you go to  http://buzz.blogger.com   you can find your own blogs to explore.

Sunday March 21st 2010

Spring arrived at 1:32 PM yesterday.  Did you even try to balance that egg? 

The day was a gorgeous end to a week of warm weather.  Everyone got yardwork done.  Now we are going back to 'seasonable' weather, not bad, but just underneath what you'd hoped for, crushing to those verdant green dreams that made you start germinating seeds when you know it's too early.

Ahhhhhh SPRING.

Today should also be an historic day for the promised health care vote is at hand.  Good luck to OBAMA and our nation!

It's a make soy milk sunday.
   

St. Joseph's Day March 19, 2010

It feels like spring has sprung.  It has been sunny and 60 for the past few days.  
Today is St. Joe's day and that can only mean one thing:  ZEPPOLES

They are a delicious deep-fried dough treat sprinkled with confectioner's sugar. 

                 Zeppoles are made for children who are the namesakes of St. Joseph  on this day.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

I have been making both soy milk and tofu.  The project has been hampered of late by inclement weather which knocks out the power and the satellite connection to the internet.  I am also taking some time off soon (3/31) to get a hip replacement.   I will continue to make the most of the marvelous soy bean whenever I can as I recuperate. 

I should really check out some other blogs too!  I will do my best to keep posting.

Here are two weather pictures.  One from the beginning of the storm and the other from a calm before the storm's last licks; a beautiful rainbow.   

Morphing the bean

The bean treats we had to today were wonderful.

We enjoyed a couple of glasses of Avocado Soy Milk with a little vanilla and maple syrup as the sweetener.  Quite Delicious! (one avocado, 3 c soy milk, vanilla, maple syrup, in a blender).

We got tired of saying how beautiful the weather was outside and went outside!
Pruning and cleaning and enjoying being out.  Joe decided to tap a sugar maple and use the sap to make soy milk.  Talk about just right.  The flavor of soy milk made with 6 cups of maple sap instead of water is delicately sweet.

Too bad you can't tap all year.

Perhaps we'll work on dessert tofus next.

Helge, Michaelangelo and Tofu

Big day today. Helge celebrates his 80th birthday and Michaelangelo his 535th. Happy Birthday!
It's a big day for TOFU. The soy beans arrived yesterday. I washed and soaked three and a half cups of soybeans so I can have enough soy milk to make my first batch of tofu. I will report on the results as soon as they occur.

The results are spectacular and delicious....

           INTRODUCING

                             Garlic and Herb Tofu

 

                                   

waiting

I've begun seeing spring skinny robins all around. The maple sap is running. I am hoping for an early spring. Waiting is a winter thing.

Thursday March 4th 2010

It is 28 degrees and sunny this morning. The south is still experiencing very cold temperatures. There was an earthquake in Taiwan this morning, a 6.4. Haiti, Chile, Taiwan, all within a few weeks. Seismic activity is up. The aftershocks continue in Chile and Taiwan.

Yesterday I made Almond Brown Rice Milk as well as Soy. The texture of the rice milk is too viscous for me. I will try to use much less rice in that recipe and see how it tastes.

First Glass of Soy Milk

It is an excellent and exciting morning.

Got my soy milk maker yesterday. Thoughtfully they put 4 0z of Laura Soybeans in the pack. They knew I would tear the wrappings off and want to start playing. I found a container, put my little pearls in warm water and now for the hard part, waiting til morning.

The beans have been soaking for the past 16 hours and I can't wait any longer.

SUCCESS!

I'm about to drink my first glass of Joey's Soey Juice and figure out what I want to do with the 16 ounces of OKARA I now have. Okara is the co-product of soymilk making and is used in many recipes as an enrichment.

Blog Mechanics

It's a beautiful morning.

This blog is boggin' me down. I started this thing for fun but a blog is much more than just writing. This blog is boggin' me down.

It's a work in progress. I considered a few titles, The Armchair Farmer, Armchair Farming, Cows to Beans. Nothing was at all catchy or sticky. The inspiration to begin this was a conversation in which my friend said, call it milking the bean...so I made this my working title. The first batch of dark beer I made to impress my future husband, I called "Euphoria Hums Wild Duck". It was a successful beer, but Joe doesn't like beer very much either. I did like the name.

I wonder about references bloggers make as they write that seem perfectly understandable to them but are not accessible to all readers. (and you have to HAVE readers) And then, how long? (how self-absorbing?)

I'm thinking too much

I should start reading other blogs.

03.01.2010

It's snowing lightly. I made a dough for five loaves of whole wheat bread. I am amazed at dough. It is different every time you make it.

My projects have encompassed making everything you can possibly make with milk including soft & hard cheeses, to making beers, wines, liquors, kambucha (that led to investigating carbonated drinks) making ginger ale/ginger beer and the elusive Creme Soda. The Keefer experiment came to me in the mail, starter in a jar, from Alabama! We tried making all kinds of keefer, whole milk, soy milk, grape, and maple syrup keefers.

My soy beans will arrive on Friday. I got 50 pounds shipped from Fairview Farms in Tennessee.

Blogging Business

I wonder how much blog readers are affected by the settings the blogger chooses.

This morning I almost forgot to write my blog as I was playing with the colors. There are so many; background colors, different levels of texts to color, borders. They all interact. I am trying to find the colors that are easiest on my eyes.

I expect I will be playing with the settings a bit. Let me know what you think, particularly if my choices have some effect on you.

What's your favorite beverage?

I have a passion for coffee.

I love milk and cream (*don't ask, don't tell) vanilla milkshakes and malteds, hot chocolates. Sodas, wines and liquors, which I like a great deal seem a separate class of drinks as they can be habit forming. I learned to LOVE water as an adult.
And I must confess, I have never been able to like beers!

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO DRINK?






* (Remember I did have a cow, so drinking cream MIGHT not seem as odd in that context, I hope)

Navigating a Blog

There is so much to learn about how to blog. To make the page come out the way it is seen in draft.

This is an adventure in every way. Chime in if you have any particular knowledge regarding any facet of BLOG. I'm sure to learn after a while so laugh with me as I bumble along...

The windy storms have managed to knock out what was left of both hives. Luckily, before we went south, I ordered 2 Nucks from the Better Bee in Greenwich. The weatherman says we are stuck in a scattered snow holding-pattern for the next four days.

The people of Chile are suffering. They must live on top of a fault line. This earthquake was said to be 8.8.

Finding Good Things to Drink

My quest to find healthful beverages has led me to investigate making beer and wine, cow's milk, soda, and now soy milk. That picture of a package of frozen soy beans is a bit misleading as my research tells me that you cannot make soy milk from fresh (or fresh frozen) soy beans.

"Fresh green soybeans are not mature enough to have enough protein to make milk. Mature soybeans are yellow and hard even on vines."

That's what the folks at Sanlinx, Inc. in Tennessee said. They sell items for making soy milk. They helped me find a source for bulk soybeans and a specific type of soybean to buy, Laura soybeans. The order will probably be here by next Friday.

Here's the knot. Is soy milk a milk or a juice? What makes a milk, a milk?

til tomorrow....

Birth of MILKING THE BEAN

Yes, Jayne


I hear the call to adventure.





I try to keep thoughts of transformational energy in my sight. Turning sadness and loss into positive energy as with my new project...

MAKING SOY MILK


From the ashes of my dreams of having a Jersey Cow again and making the 'farm' ever more self sufficient to researching the beautiful soy bean.

So here it is: MILKING THE BEAN