Queen B

Posts Tagged ‘Kombucha’

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In a nutshell

In Serious Fun, The little roomies, Who comes up with this stuff? on February 18, 2012 at 1:31 pm

Welp…. the mother yeast was transferred last night after we went to see HUGO in 3D (more on that later). Surprisingly, although it was thin, it was one solid culture all the way across the top of the container. Yes, I did a happy dance when I pulled it out and it didn’t fall apart. I’m unsure if I should be dancing so much, though, because it sank in the new tea rather than floating as I’d hoped. In my extensive reading this morning I have found that the batch will now form a new scoby on the top of the jar again. Oh the pain of waiting. I hope this takes less time now that there is a thin but more substantial starter scoby in this batch.

I did not even taste test the first batch to see how it tasted, because I was scared. It was only started with a dime sized blob from a commercial bottle of GT’s, for crying out loud.

Also, I’ve now scared myself in all my reading that I shouldn’t use the glass bottles I had planned for bottling, lest I blow off a hand or put my eye out. Great. I’m not sure how I am going to resolve that one, because there is no way I’m going to be reusing BPA loaded plastic soda bottles as suggested. Besides which, we don’t drink soda so I wouldn’t even have a source! Ugh. First world problems are the WORST!

So we went to see Hugo in 3D last night as a special treat for the family to celebrate that both my husband and I got paid this week. Personally I get more excited about the prospect of buying fruit at the grocery (because we were literally down to 1/2 of an orange on Friday and I was the lucky one chosen to take it to work for breakfast – since I get off at 11 I don’t eat lunch at work, yo), but whatever!! A movie it is! I drove. Swiftly, I might add. My kids make awesome DJs in the back seat with their iPod plugged into the AUX through the radio.

*have I mentioned how much I love my little zippy Volkswagen? I do, I do.*

Anyhow, I have beef with somebody. I’m not sure who, maybe it’s the movie theatre, maybe the industry itself, maybe the advertisers (probably the advertisers). In a clip prior to the film, there was a little something (like a cartoon-y ad of some sort) about having a good night being in the theatre with friends and a friend says the boy two seats down thinks she’s HOT which turns a good night into a great night. Really? Why o’ why do all girls now have to be HOT? It’s my newest obsessive pet peeve. That expression, to me, implies something sexual in nature (if I must be honest), rather than someone’s appearance. Am I wrong? I don’t like it, is what I’m saying. I want my girl to be beautiful, pretty, exotic looking, cute, adorable or lovely. But HOT? I swear I’ll tell her to kick that boy between the legs. Just sayin’. And yes, I’ve taught my son better than to say that about a gal.

So, that movie. Visually stunning. That boy playing Hugo had some of the bluest eyes if ever there were. Were they digitally enhanced? I don’t know, maybe. They certainly popped, though. For the record I have to say that 3D gives me a headache, but the 3D in this movie really worked to its advantage. I know it’s been out for quite a while now, but I recommend the movie to anyone who hasn’t yet seen it. My family liked it, even though I found it to be sad. I don’t want to give anything away, but I could relate to the boy in a way that my husband and children couldn’t and it did bring tears to my eyes during and after the movie. But I think too much, so there’s that.

Future weekend plans include watching the neighbor throw yard debris over the property line onto my property (can already check that one off the list ~ thank you asshole), laundry, doing my nails (because I paint them now and they are getting too long for fast typing at work… does anyone else have one hand that grows faster than the other?), cleaning, basement work including moving in a bunch of drywall, and a nephew birthday party this evening. More basement work to follow on Sunday.

Please tell me someone has more interesting plans than that?

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Kombucha again

In Healthy shmealthy, Stick a fork in it! on February 17, 2012 at 4:21 pm

Well, the Kombucha experiment is still underway. For those unaware, I started my first batch of Kombucha at home on January 15, 2012, when I realized how much cheaper it would be to brew my own. I used a recipe I found on tribe.net (which still won’t let me join any flipping tribes, btw…) and a store bought bottle of GT’s Enlightened unflavored Kombucha Raw Tea.

The instructions said to be patient, that it could take up to 6 weeks for a good usable scoby to form. Admittedly that is a struggle for me, so I concentrated on only checking it every other day. Most days I failed at that, even. Whatever, it’s my nature.

Since I live in the midwest, and my house FEELS cold, I was prepared to wait a long time for the development of a good scoby to use as a mother to brew my tea. The last week or so I was feeling really good about what I was seeing. It was starting to become solid across the entire surface, and thickening up nicely in some parts. I thought maybe this weekend I would have a solid scoby that I could handle well enough to transfer to another batch. When I checked it this afternoon, it looked as if it was getting there but could probably use another week to really firm up. Unfortunately, the tea is starting to smell more vinegar-y, which leads me to believe that I have no choice but to start my next batch this weekend as originally planned. I don’t want to end up growing a mother of vinegar by accident.

I have my next tea/sugar mixture cooling on the counter at this very moment for the next batch!

Even though it isn’t exactly where I want it to be before I try to transfer the scoby, I’m hoping this won’t mess it up too much. If necessary, I will treat this second batch of tea as another throw away culture, just to get that mother ready for brewing. (I hope you know I’m not using the word mother as you would expect outta me… as in mother f**er. Hee hee.)

Here’s what the scoby looks like today prior to being transferred to the new brew.

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Ha ha ha, I know… I’m a riot.  I made it a little blanket to protect it from the brightness in my dining room.  Sorry, I just had to put that one in here.  Here is a top view of the scoby, for reals this time…

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So the big dark area in the middle is an air bubble.  You can see around that where the scoby is starting to turn white as it thickens up. Eventually it should be solid white across the entire top as the white spots come together.  I guess we don’t have time to wait for that right now.  Insert sad face.

My son just thinks it looks gross.  Maybe you do, too.  I think it looks like progress.

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Well then

In Healthy shmealthy on January 30, 2012 at 6:42 pm

So we haven’t eaten the ox tail yet. That is tonight’s dinner after running the kids hither and dither.

It still smells divine, but let me say this now; Ox tail is by far the most disgusting meat I have ever prepared. I think I would rather clean raw chicken with my teeth than have to separate ox tail meat from ox tail bone and fat again in my entire lifetime.

Dis.Gus.Ting.

That being said, I’m sure it will probably be the most delicious meal ever to pass my lips or something. You know, on account that I want to hate it to justify never making it again.

We shall see.

And since we’re on the subject of disgusting, I wanted to update on my Kombucha scoby. The update is that there is no update. It has totally stalled out. My little jellyfish got all white and there were new little jellyfish starting and it was getting foamy bubbles across the top…. and then nothing. I mean everything is still there: the white scoby start, the jelly fish things, the foamy bubbles. But the bubbles don’t seem to be increasing or spreading or connecting, the scoby isn’t getting bigger, and the new little jellies aren’t pulling their weight.

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Proof positive that nothing is happening.  Sorry for the very glare-y and grainy iPhone photo, but you get the gist, don’t you? Adding insult to injury, Tribe.net won’t let me on the Kombucha thread (the last time I checked) to try to get some answers from people who might know something.  It’s obvious that I know nothing, and I am at a loss as to what has gone wrong, or more importantly, what hasn’t gone right.

Curses!

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Kombucha

In Healthy shmealthy, Nothing to it but to do it on January 21, 2012 at 1:07 pm

Well, there hasn’t been much posting lately, mostly because we’re up to our eyeballs.

It’s high time we started again on the basement, and I wasn’t exactly taking no for an answer. To date, DH has built a new laundry room wall. He decided that it was wasted space having an extra wide walkway/hall. He was so right. It only adds a foot or less, but it will make a huge difference in the laundry room setup. The industrial laundry bin will turn sideways and the ironing board will gain its own space. Laundry is so exciting, I’m not going to waste your time by mapping it out any further.  Also, the laundry room is still ugly with a capital U.G.L.Y., so no pictures.

The biggest part is the door. We opted for a 36 inch white six-panel door to the laundry that will open out into the hall rather than into the room as it was previously set up. No more hitting hubby in the back with the door as he irons in the morning. No need to turn the laundry basket sideways to squeeze through the doorway!! That’s going to be the best. Even better than that?  This will mean the removal of the last black door in the basement.  White doors will reign supreme in the basement!  Woot!!

**For the record, there are still two black stained doors in the house – the door leading to the basement and the door leading to the garage.  All other interior doors upstairs are dark brown… for now.**

We also purchased cabinets from our local ReStore that we will be painting and repurposing as the base for our office space. The idea is to have a counter that wraps the entire room using cabinets above and below for storage and support and supplementing with open shelving as well. Between the major purging we’re doing to gear up for this portion of the remodel, and the increased amount of organized storage this should create, I’m hoping everything will finally have a place when we’re done.

Aside from all of that, I’ve also got my own personal side project going on.  I’m attempting to brew some of my own Kombucha for the first time!  If you follow me on Facebook you already know that of which I speak, because of the gross-to-you photos I post regularly showing the progress.  I don’t know why, but some people don’t have the same level of enthusiasm for slimy scoby as I do.  You know I love a good science project.

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If you really study the above photo you can see that in addition to the fact that what was once just a clear jelly fish looking blob has started to become a solid white colored mass (which is good, I swear), there are small clear (for now) blobs beginning to form on other parts of the surface of the tea.  Right now is one of those moments where I wish I could work photoshop well enough to very quickly and easily add arrows to the photo to point out the beginnings of scoby in that photo.  But I know it would be neither quick, nor easy, so you’ll just have to really look and figure it out.  There are white spots on the glass from dried drips (which I would totally scrub off, but this needs to be left undisturbed and not jostled, so it’s a no-go.  ie. deal with the damned drip marks in the photo), and then there are white-ish tan-ish looking blobs in the liquid.  THOSE are the new growths.  You should be able to find three in the photo.  And YES… it IS exciting stuff to me.  Just tea and sugar and some yeast create sunshine in a bottle?  Why not?!  And yes, I know I’m a complete dork.  Some people have normal hobbies.  I grow various types of edible yeast every winter.  Sue me.

Finally, I just wanted to let you know that I do use other types of the internets for those interested (as well as YOU, stupid loser stalker who thinks I don’t know you’re watching… news flash, I KNOW and I don’t give a shit what secrets you think you’ve unearthed by reading my blog because it’s PUBLIC, dummy).  Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.  Yep, I’m there.  Find and/or follow me at thetinytyrant.  That is all.

Love you (non-stupid loser stalkers)!

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