Black and Rasp Berry Dandelion Wine

Last year was the first time I made dandelion wine (the above picture is of two bottles still left from last year's batch). It was super easy for the most part and an udder success (though I would be curious to know the actual alcohol content, since it definitely smelt alcoholic upon bottling, but tastes more like soda?). Since last year was so successful, I decided to make an even bigger batch this year :) I freeze the dandelions I pick until I'm ready to brew, so that I can pick them on separate occasions. In reality the amount of dandelions I have is probably only enough to make half of what I'm making, if that, but I know since I'm adding berries to the mix it'll be alright. (BTW - trim the stems off the dandelions, and if you have a lot of time and patience you can also use only the petals. I personally make mine with berries for the added flavor since I talked to someone once who had made it both as straight up dandelion wine and some with berries and they preferred it with berries. One year I do want to make plain dandelion wine, but that involves more dandelions, which I actually find a bit of a nuisance to pick).

Pour boiling water onto the dandelions. And let steep a little while, I filled it about a quarter of the way with boiling water and then filled it the rest of the way with room temperature water. Let this steep for a day or two, covered. You're essentially making dandelion tea to start with. 

 After it's done steeping remove the dandelions (I compost mine). 

Last year I used fresh berries, this year I figured I'd try frozen. I put a bag each of black and raspberries into each bucket, and I put half of the 5lb bag of sugar into each bucket. I then mixed in the juice and zest of one lemon and one orange into each bucket, and topped it off with the same amount of yeast as I'd use in a loaf of bread. 

 Now this part is a little weird. I float half of a stale bagel on top of it all. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but in reading a bunch of different recipes for dandelion wine there was one that said to float a piece of stale bread on top, and I figured why not? But happened to have a stale bagel on hand, and said, ehh, just as well. It seemed to come out fine last year, so why fix what ain't broke? Once all this is mixed together it should be loosely covered and allowed to ferment for about two weeks. You should stir it around once a day. 

Once it's done fermenting bottle it up! Be sure to strain it before putting it in the bottles, I use cheese cloth in a stainer to do this. For bottles I used empty wine bottles I had saved (the ones with screw tops are a blessing in this scenario) and bought some glass flask bottles at the Christmas Tree shop when I realized I didn't have enough bottles. UNFORTUNATELY all but one of the flask bottles I got last year exploded in my parents basement (let me tell you, THAT was a joy to clean up :/ ) This year instead of capping/corking them when I bottle them I'm going to put ballons on top, so that if they do have some fermenting left to do they'll blow up the balloon instead of exploding the bottle. Ahh the learning process. 

Let them sit for at least three months before opening them up to enjoy. This is by far the hardest step of all. Trust me. See you next Tuesday!

My New Signature Sandwich

I have become obsessed with how good this sandwich is. Lilly has yet to be home when I've made it, but seems less than excited at the prospect of potentially trying it, but it is so, so good! And honestly it was born out of needing to make a lunch to bring to work, not having left overs, and having an apple and avocado that were about to go bad. It was a really happy accident that it turned out so good!

Step 1.) Put some cheddar on one of the two slices of bread and put them in the toaster oven.

Step 2.) Caramelize some onion (cut up some onion and put it in a frying pan with butter until they're clear and a little brown).

Step 3.) Mix some mayo with some creamy balsamic vinegarette salad dreassing.

Step 4.) Cut some slices out of an apple and some out of an avocado.

Step 5.) Assembly. Put the apple slices on top of the cheese, the avocado slices on top of that, sprinkle the onion on, and then top it with the other slice of bread with the balsamic mayo spread.

Step 6.) Enjoy. Duh.

See you next Tuesday!

Microwaved Baked Potatoes

Sometimes you just want the warm starchy goodness of a baked potato. But have you ever tried baking potatoes? It takes foreverrrrrrrrrrr, not to mention that in this warm weather we're starting to have, heating up the oven is not an ideal situation. Which is why I'm here to inform you that you can make baked potatoes in the microwave, and it's way faster, won't heat up your kitchen, and you can't even tell they weren't really baked. All you have to do is wrap your potato(es) in a wet paper towel, and pop it(/them) in to either a potato baking bag or an oven mitt (we have a potato baking bag, because, well my mom got us one, and also Lilly doesn't like it when I use an oven mitt for this). 

Microwave until they are soft like a baked potato should be. Mine took about 7 minutes. I usually will put them in for 5 or 6 minutes and then check on them and add a minute or two on from there until they're done. Also make sure the paper towel is moist enough and there isn't a ton of empty dry space in the bag (I may or may not have burned a corner of the lining inside my bag :/)

Then top your potato however you like. I put veggie bacon (which isn't as bad as i expected it to be, i find I actually like it a lot in instances where I'm putting bacon in something, such as a sandwich or eggs, but would never eat it plain by itself like I do normal bacon), ranch dressing, beans salsa, and cheese on this one. 

Yum, yum, yum. Good, cheap, easy, quick, what's not to like? See you next Tuesday!

Growing Mushrooms?

I'm attempting to grow mushrooms. No, not the psychedelic kind, the normal edible, button mushroom kind. Why you ask? For the past two summers I had a vegetable garden at my parents house, and seeing as I'm not longer there enough to upkeep a garden, and I can't really grow vegetables (I only really enjoy growing things I can eat, like vegetables or berries or sunflowers, ect) in our apartment. Lilly does however really enjoy mushrooms, and we tend to eat a fair amount of them. Mushrooms are something, in theory, that we could successfully grow in our apartment, so I figured why not? 

I'm attempting to grow them in this plastic storage container. In it is some dirt, under some compost (which consists of a lot of ash), under some coffee grounds. Below is the mushroom spawn I got online (I got it from eBay, for about $8 including shipping). 

After spreading the spawn over the top, I put wet paper towels over it. Fingers crossed this works, cause it'd be sweet to have our own personal supply of mushrooms over the summer. And if it does work I'll be sure to update with a post all about it. Until then, I'll see you next Tuesday!