Grasshopper head soup

Ok, we make some killer Lentil and Sausage Soup/stews. Honestly, it is restaurant quality. On that note, we like pretty much all the legumes. They are good in fiber, stretch your meat budget, and are low on the glycemic index.

However, you do need to check them for stones and other matter, as well as wash them before using (these are the dry legumes of course).

The funny thing is, and it is only with Lentils, every time I look through them or my wife does, we find a grasshopper head. It doesn't matter the brand or part of country I buy them in. Just the head mind you. It seems these insects craniums are the perfect size for the lentil shucking machine.

So... if you are eating lentils and get something crunchy, you will now wonder what it is.

:-)

~Jeffrey

Cold today in Cape Coral

Short post. Call me a wuss. Call me thin blooded. After 5 years of living in Southwest Florida, anything below 60, I feel the chill. Well, it was 44 today in Cape Coral. A record low. Brrrrrr

Why you cannot trust a bearded person

In response to ConchScooters essay about bearded dudes being untrustworthy, I have included my reasons why:

1.) It hides your identity
2.) If long enough birds could nest in it
3.) You can smuggle things in it if long enough
4.) It represents laziness due to lack of shaving
5.) You can get food in it (uncleanliness)
6.) Represents a sidebar industry that the capitalist war mongers want us to buy into (trimmers, dyes, scissors, etc).
7.) Just looks MEAN! (Exception, Santa Claus and Father Time)
8.) Represents Aging and mortality
9.) Jealousy from non-bearded folks in power
10.) All Communist's had a beards (or facial hair) Lenin, Stalin, Marx, Castro (and we know they are Godless enemies).

A little fun for a Friday (sorry no posts lately, been swamped in work and school). Hope to do two photo entries this weekend, maybe on the Beached Whale (of FMB), Bowditch park, and perhaps Cape Coral's OctoberFest (if I get to go).

Check out Conch Scooters blog. Excellent writing and photos!

~Jeffrey

Great book on making Root Beer, Soda, and Pop

I recently picked up a great book from Amazon titled "Homemade Root Beer, Soda & Pop".



Now I found this book to be very informative. Whether you want to go the route I did with an investment in equipment, or use keep it within your existing household items, you can. I probably have $80 in EQ that I have collected over the last six months, but I use it for beer making as well - note blog post after this weekend about how the beer turned out thus far, I am bottling Saturday hopefully.

It covers making soft drinks from scratch, from syrups, as well as making desserts and some alcoholic drinks. One of my favorite sayings in the book was now we have a fine line between alcoholic vs. non-alcoholic. When some of these recipes were written, this line was a little blurred. The recipes cover times when people did these type of activities, most from the 1800 to early 1900's (well I guess the hippies revitalized it too).

Along with the normal every day soda (including cola, ginger ale, root beer, cream soda, citrus sodas, and raspberry soda), there are such oddities as birch beer (more so a northeast drink), whizzers, and switchel. Also included are even stranger things as a coffee soda, pumpkin soda, and tomato beer.

The book itself was around $11. I look forward to adapting the recipes to low sugar or sugar free drinks.

~Jeffrey

Low Sugar Ginger Beer - Stevia Sweetened

Ok, I have been attempting to brew my own beer and soda recently.That said, I have been fed up with artificial sweeteners, like Aspartame (NutraSweet), Sucralose (Splenda) and Saccharine (Sweet and Low) for a long time now, and have turned to alternatives. Otherwise known as Blue, Yellow, and Pink packets. If in a pinch, I will use Saccharine, I feel it is the lesser of evil of the three (even if a rat got cancer from eating 50 metric tons of it). However, being a diabetic, and liking sweetened drinks, I have turned to Stevia, an all natural sweetener that does not raise blood sugars.

http://www.stevia.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia

Well, I love Ginger Beer (nothing like a Dark and Stormy), but you cannot find it without sugar unless you want to pay $6-8 a 6 pack for it in a health food store (come on, I can get decent sixer of beer of that price). Then it is generally made with carbonated water (I like to use sugar with yeast to ferment, and if done right, the yeast will consume all the sugar).

I did an experimentation that resulted in a low sugar (it did not raise my blood sugar, but actually lowered it. I need more empirical evidence, but it could be the cinnamon in it, known to lower blood sugars). The drink had mild carbonation and is still sweet (note, yeast and sugar do make alcohol, but it is so low in this stuff, you would have to drink a gallon to feel any effects).

The recipe is below in 2 parts. The first is the actual recipe; the other is the bottling technique. I would suggest preparing the bottles prior to boiling your brew.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 lbs of fresh ginger peeled and grated (this is the most labor intensive, intensive).
• 1 gallon of water
• zest of 2 key limes
• juice from 6 key limes
• 10 cloves
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 table spoon of ground cinnamon
• 3/8 cup of sugar (for priming - i.e. carbonation)
• 3/4s teaspoon of bakers yeast (you could use brewers yeast, but that is expensive)
• 4/40th of a teaspoon (the measuring spoon came with the Stevia)
  

Steps:

• Mix ingredients (EXCEPT YEAST) in a large stock pot and bring to a boil for about 25 minutes. This will result in a fragrant brew.
• Cool your brew touch on the side of the pan (I submerged in an ice bath in the sink to quicken the process).
• Now "pitch" your 3/4s of a teaspoon of yeast. It is important to not put anything not sanitized into the brew at this point, so I sort of shook it around. You could sanitize a spoon by boiling it with the brew for stirring later.
• Using a strainer and funnel (sanitized with the bottles), pour into your sanitized bottles. Note: Do this in the sink, b/c unless you can judge how much is in the funnel, and you will make a mess. Next time, I plan to use a siphon tube.

Sanitation of bottles might not be important, but I used San Star in the sink (I repurposed Red Stripe Jamaican Lager bottles, it seemed appropriate for Ginger Beer) just to be on the safe side. I had made a batch before with only washing the bottle with water, and I ended with what could only be called sweet "swamp water".

Note, you can use bleach, two table spoon to 1 gallon of water to sanitize, then rinse with clean water (note, don't use scented bleach). If you go the bleach route, let the bottles soak for 30 minutes (commercial sanitizers are like 30 seconds, but are expensive. I buy it for beer making, so it was on hand).

Cap up your bottles and go (I have a capper, but you could use plastic screw cap soda bottles, make sure you sanitize the caps!). Now they are capped, put them some where for about 10-12 hours so they can "ferment" (make it fizzy). I put mine in the bath tub, in case I got "poppers" (the mess is much easier to clean there).



Sooo... today I had a Ginger Beer and it was perfect, and tonight a Dark and Stormy is on the menu!

~Jeffrey