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.