Weekend snapshots (from my cell phone)

I took a vacation day on Friday and headed to Grand Rapids.  Grand Rapids holds a special place in my heart.  Yes, my family and closest friends are there, and visiting them is very important to me.  But there is something else.  Grand Rapids has a particular "vibe" to it.  It is creative and diverse.  It has the feeling of a big city but the people are friendlier.  

I took a few snapshots with my new cell phone while my mother and I were out and about. We went to Global Infusion to get tea for kombucha making (I brought my mother some mother to make kombucha herself).  The store carries fair trade treasures from around the world and also a huge selection of tea, coffee and chocolate. 

My favorite purse came from this store.  After my first one wore out from use, I got another one.  I saw the same purse in espresso brown and almost bought it for when my current purse wears out.  I was strong though and resisted the temptation.

Mom and I also went to the Grand Rapids Art Museum to see the "Diana - A Celebration" exhibit.  I wish I could have taken photos inside, because the exhibit was very interesting.  I was, however, able to take a photo of the entry way.  Because we were there in the evening, there was a pianist and wine available as well.

This is the view directly outside of the GRAM.  On the right there is an ice skating area with free skate rentals.  The downtown area of Grand Rapids is lively and beautiful.  

My family said some magazine had listed Grand Rapids as one of the top ten cities in the U.S. that are dying out.  I was shocked!  I have to disagree with their conclusion.  Grand Rapids is alive and well -- and getting better day by day.  New businesses are popping up, and old buildings are being renovated and revived.  That is impressive considering the horrible economy in Michigan right now.  

Anyway, I sound like an advertisement -- I know.  It is probably odd, considering how much I enjoy living out in the country.
I am back home now and spent a relaxing morning cleaning and sorting through last years seeds to see what I need to buy.  The sun is streaming in to the south side of our house -- keeping the house warm and saving on fuel oil.  Charlie and I are going to get motivated and get out of the house.  I think we are going to use a gift card from Christmas and eat out.

Kombucha

Kombucha is a healthful beverage made with the help of a creepy looking blob of yeast and bacteria also known as a "scoby".   Kombucha is said to have antioxidants and help with digestion.  It also tastes very good -- kind of sweet and tangy at the same time.  My first taste of kombucha came when my mom offered me a bottle on one of our sunny convertible rides to Lake Michigan.  It was refreshing and fizzy -- but expensive.  At around $4 for the bottle, I couldn't see myself buying it very often.

Well, it turns out that kombucha is not hard to make at home.  You do need some starter, which can be found online or from someone else that is already brewing kombucha.  I got some "mother" kombucha from my pals Jen and Rich last weekend when I visited.  This is what it looked like when Jen sent it home with me. 

I then boiled a gallon of water (do not use chlorinated water as this would kill the delicate cultures that cause the process to work) and added 1 cup of sugar.  I turned off the heat and stirred in the sugar until it was completely dissolved.  Then, add tea bags.  Jen said she uses 8 tea bags for one gallon.  Other recipes I see say 5-6.  This should be tea without additives if possible -- and it should have black, green or white tea as a base.  Jen has been experimenting with flavored teas (and I sampled several - yum!), but I started with white tea for mine.  After brewing, remove the tea bags, cover the pot and let it cool down to room temperature.

At this point, I put my tea in my brand new crock (Christmas gift from Mom) and gently added the "mother".  I let it do it's magic all week -- but was sad because I couldn't see what was happening inside the crock (it is one of those beautiful stoneware sauerkraut crocks - from the Yoder department store in Shipshewana, IN -- love it!).  I switched it over to a gallon glass jar yesterday.  This photo is deceiving though -- kombucha really should have some fabric over the mouth of the jar, secured with a rubber band.

The yeast and bacteria live off of the tea/sugar and the scary jelly-fish looking blob grows bigger.  Mine grew another layer on the top so I have two kind of separate pieces now (because I moved it to another jar - normally you wouldn't disturb it as much as I did).  When the new layer is about 1/8" it should be done.  I'm gonna let mine go a couple more days because it was still quite sweet when I tasted it.  As time passes, it gets more of a vinegar flavor.  I've got mason jars with plastic lids to store it in and hopefully retain some of the fizziness.  Before I jar it up, I'm gonna make another batch of tea and let it cool.  The scoby always needs tea and sugar to live in, so there is a little bit of a time investment here. I figure 20 minutes a week is not bad for such an inexpensive, healthful beverage.
Obviously, I am new to kombucha brewing, but there are a bunch of resources available online if you want to learn more.  I really found this site useful.

*It is important to note that when you first start drinking kombucha, you should start at about 2 oz. per day and work your way up to more.  Kombucha can make your tummy rumble (or worse) because of all the probiotics it contains.  Once your tummy is used to all the healthy stuff in it, you can drink a couple of cups a day if you want.

Limoncello

I finally had a chance to deliver some of my homemade Christmas gifts to my friends and now I can tell you about what I made.  I made Limoncello for the first time and gifted bottles of it to some of my friends.  You can find all sorts of recipes for limoncello on the internet, so I'm not going to post one -- just the basic idea.  

I used approximately 20 lemons and 2 - 750 ml bottles of everclear (grain alcohol).  You only use the zest of the lemons -- I used a very sharp paring knife to be sure I didn't get any of the white pith.  The pith will make your limoncello bitter.  You could also use a zester but then you have to use filters to get the particles of zest out of the alcohol.  Anyway, I let the lemon zest soak in the strong alcohol for one month to infuse the alcohol with the essence of the lemon.  

After one month, I made a simple syrup (about 4 cups of water and the same amount of sugar dissolve over heat) and blended the syrup with the alcohol.  Immediately the alcohol gets a nice cloudy quality to it.  I love the way limoncello looks!  I purchased bottles from specialtybottle.com and bottled the limoncello right away.  The limoncello mellows with age, so it is nice to let it rest for another month if you can resist drinking it right away.  The limoncello should be served ice-cold.  I'm tucking a bottle of it away for a hot weekend next summer -- I think it would be splendid in the heat of summer.

That's all you have to do to make an amazing liquor beverage that is great to give at Christmas time.  It is not cheap, but it is easy (besides the hours spent to peel all those lemons).  When I was done peeling, I wasn't sure what to do with all of the lemons.  I ended up juicing them and pouring the juice into ice cube trays to freeze.  After freezing, I put the cubes in a freezer bag and dated the bag.  I figured I could then thaw them as needed throughout the year for any recipe that calls for lemon juice (I'm suddenly hungry for tabouleh salad - yum!).  

As it turns out, a couple of weeks later I decided to start making wine.  Making limoncello is the reason I chose to make lemon wine in the first place -- to use the abundance of fruit juice that I already had on hand.  As an update on the wine -- today I syphoned the wine into a new glass jar to get rid of some of the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.  I also tested the specific gravity and it is almost done.
Today I am also starting to venture into fermented tea -- or "Kombucha".  My good friend, Jen, gave me a chunk of her "mother" (the mushroom culture that turns tea into kombucha) yesterday when I visited.  I gave my dear friends limoncello and walked away with some of her amazing apple butter and some fungus (and got to try their cranberry wine too).  Stay tuned for more info on kombucha.