2009 - the year in review

Well it's been a heck of a year both personally and for the world at large.  I thought it would be fun to do a review of this past year, I dug around on the internet to see what interesting tid-bits I could find and compiled a little list of the odds and ends that I thought were interesting (or at least too outrageous to leave out).

Top 10 films of the year, I am so out of the "loop" I didn't see even one of them!

10. "Adventureland"
9. "The Hurt Locker"
8. "The Girlfriend Experience"

7. "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
6. "(500) Days of Summer"
5. "Food, Inc."
4. "I Love You, Man"

3. "Precious"
2. "Inglourious Basterds"
1. "Up In The Air

Top 10 REALITY TV shows of 2009:
Ok I am feeling kind of relieved because I could not find an actual list of the top 10.  I did, however find a ton of sites that listed their personal top 10 favorite reality shows......sad I know......I am going to list my favs, but hopefully I will not have 10 (if so I need to make a resolution to get out more in 2010 ;)

Keeping Up with the Kardashians (smut TV at it's best)
Bridezillas (it's a sickness, I know)
Property Virgins
Iron Chef
Man VS. Food

*sigh* this is all I can think of, YAY!!!


Top 10 TV shows of 2009 - this list is actually the top 10 most pirated shows.  House is my favorite.

1	Heroes
2	Lost
3	Prison Break
4	Dexter
5	House
6	24
7	Desperate Housewives
8	Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles
9	Grey’s Anatomy
10	True Blood

Top 10 songs, at least I have heard some from this list......still you would think I live under a rock, I have not heard the majority of them.

1	1	Fireflies	Owl City
2	3	TiK ToK	Ke$ha
3	2	Bad Romance	Lady GaGa
4	4	I Gotta Feeling	Black Eyed Peas
5	5	Replay	Iyaz
6	6	Down	Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne
7	9	Party In The U.S.A.	Miley Cyrus
8	7	Whatcha Say	Jason Derulo
9	10	Empire State Of Mind	Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
10	--	All I Want For Christmas Is You	Mariah Carey

Top 10 news stories: (subjective from www.slate.com,  I had trouble finding something non-subjective?)

Earlier this week, Slate asked readers to help rank the 10 most important news events of the year. You responded in droves with your picks for the most compelling topics of 2009. Find out where your selections ranked below. (Sorry, Balloon Boy, you came up a little shy.)

1) The historic inauguration of the United States' first African-American commander in chief, Barack Obama, topped your list of the most important events of the year with 16 percent of the vote.
2) Health care reform was either a topic of consternation or a cause for jubilation, depending on whom you asked; it garnered 14 percent of the vote.
3) Some pundits declared the recession over, whether the populace agreed or not. Economic recovery efforts snagged 12 percent of the vote.
4) The president's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan in hopes of bringing most soldiers home in 2011 finished with 9 percent of the vote.
5) Alleged fraud and widespread protests marred the Iranian presidential elections in June, garnering 7 percent of the vote.
6) King of Pop Michael Jackson's death shocked millions and spurred worldwide mourning, coming in with 6 percent of the vote.
7) Panic over the lethal swine flu pandemic caused at least one nation to eradicate pigs and others to stockpile vaccines—you ranked the hysteria seventh on the list with 5 percent of the vote.
8) One of President Obama's first moves from the Oval Office was to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and she was subsequently confirmed, which earned 4 percent of the vote.
9) International and domestic efforts to draft climate change laws are gaining attention due to this week's Copenhagen conference. The subject drew 3 percent of the vote.
10) And finally, a topic we haven't seen the last of: The ever-increasing federal deficit finished with 3 percent of the vote.

I can say that 2009 has had it's up's and downs, and I would say that they have been fairly evenly distributed.  In my personal life, 2009 also had it's ups and downs.  
+ I got engaged (wedding in 2010!)
- I accepted a position at another company for more pay, but it turned out that the grass was not greener.

+ The job helped me to remember who I am and to take control of my life again, I have enrolled in school (once more) for 2010 and am looking to what the future may bring with this career changing decision. 
- I have to stick with the job for another year......haha, I will survive though.
+I started to make my own soap among other products and plan to launch my line in 2010 (check me out at http://www.myserendipityquest.com )
- I don't have enough time to make all the items I have ideas for currently

+ Aside form a few colds and aches, myself and everyone I love has been fairly healthy this year.
-  there's not counterbalancing minus to something like that.


All in all 2009 was tolerable, I look to 2010 to bring new ups and downs as well as adventures and more stories to share here on my blog.


I am signing off now, I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!!!!  Look for me in 2010!!!!!


~City Mouse - last blog of the year!!!!!

Here are a couple of other year's in review that i found to be pretty cool, enjoy!

 http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/v-print/story/1397654.html

http://www.walkingoffthebigapple.com/2009/12/strolling-year-in-review-2009.html

What's Cooking Good Looking?

Greetings from my Brooklyn winter wonderland.  I made two batches of soap today and am very excited about them.  The one batch is made with avocado, olive and coconut oils, I also added french clay and the most delicious cucumber melon fragrance oil (my kitchen still smells wonderful!).  It is supposed to be a very moisturizing soap.  It has a mildly green tinge (from the clay) but it otherwise uncolored. 

The second soap I made was made using sunflower, coconut and palm oils.  I added a little bit of fuchsia coloring and one of my favorite scents of the moment, baby rose fragrance oil!

Keep warm and enjoy the winter wonderland if it's snowing near you.


Good night
~CM

Silver Bells

Well I had a productive weekend.  I managed to wrap all of the gifts that I have in preparation for Christmas, can you believe it's only a couple of weeks away!  All the delightful soaps from prior posts, yup, all ended up being gifts, I will have the cleanest friends and family around!  All in all I think they came out really cute and there are so many different scents and types that some can be shared with others or tossed into a guest bathroom, I mean, it's soap!  Who would not find this to be a useful gift?  Well I am just beat today, we spent the past few hours giving the house a good thorough cleaning and straightening so now I think I will go relax on the couch.


Happy Sunday All!


~CM

Tiny Bubbles!!!!

Well maybe big bubbles.  I was a very busy soaper this past weekend.  I was feeling very creative and started to play around with scents, colors and patterns.  Guess what I also made two batches completely from scratch!!!!  It's called cold process soap making.  I feel like a mad scientist when I do this method but oh - it is so worth it!  Please enjoy the pictures that I took of my soaps.  I think these will make great holiday gifts!


Cheers
~CM

These soaps are plumeria scented,
it is a soft floral scent that kind of just tickles your nose.

These little cuties are "celestial water" scented.......

i guess to describe this i would say if has a great fresh scent

that has a hint of cucumber at the end, it smells really clean.

Apple for the teacher? 

These soaps smell like cinnamon, yum!

Kaleido"soaps"  These are an inspiration of Mr. Mouse. 
The colored pieces are also soap, just colored then cut up,
I added them in layers to facilitate a fun 3-D look to this bar. 
This soap has the bright scents of Spanish Oranges.

Relaxing chamomile, this delightful soap is part of the 

nekked soap collection. 

With dried chamomile throughout this bar it also has hints of

white tea and ginger - go on, get "nekked."

 Almond delight is all I can say about this. 

This soap it made with goatsmilk and ground

up almonds along with a hint of almond fragrance,

it truly smells good enough to eat!

 

The gems of the day, these are the soaps I made from scratch!  I made two small batches, the soap on the right is lavender scented and has coconut and olive oils in it, the soap on the left is vanilla scented and has palm and olive oils in it.  They probably need a week or two to cure and dry out, once that is done, into the shower I go!!!!  I can hardly wait!

Is it Soap Yet????

So I have a new little endeavor, I have taken up soap making.  I must say, they are darn cute too.  I am taking a class which has been really fun and have made some really cute holiday soaps (Pictures below).  If you are out of ideas for what to get a certain someone maybe this will work.  They also make great housewarming gifts especially for those hosting the holiday get togethers.  The soaps are naturally made and very skin healthy (in spite of being so cute)  If you have any questions shoot me an email.

Xmas tree soap.  It has the wonderful aroma of hot cider, it reminds me of sitting near a warm fire with family and friends - besides check out that snow on the branches!  That was all done by hand!

Christmas cookies and holiday hearts.  These little cuties are small and smell delicious.  They are baby rose scented.  Great as a guest soap.

No two snowflakes are alike just like in nature.  But what is the scent of snow?  This was a toughie.  But nothing a couple glasses of wine and some highly scientific analyzing could not solve.  I think we nailed it, the scent i ended up going with is a mixture of something to remind you of cold but refreshing and sweet and pure.

 More delightful little snowflakes, same scent, different look.

Aren't these the cutest!!!!  Of course they smell just like gingerbread cookies too!

I will be making more so stay tuned, I am in the process of building a web site too, it started out as a little personal challenge and turned into this really cute and functional thing - your input would be welcome and greatly appreciated too :)  Just click on the title above to be transported.

TaTa

~A Very Christmas-y City Mouse

Our Arizona Trip - Please enjoy the photos

Sedona, AZ

 

Jerome, Az - a very cool mountain town which used to be a copper mining town and have the reputation of being the "baddest town in the west" it's now a sweet artist colony.  This um....building is actually a glass blower's studio - those views could inspire me any day.

 

Sunset (obviously)

 

We went to a wine tasting in Jerome.  The 4 horsemen was a nice blended red that we ended up purchasing to enjoy with dinner later that evening.  The label was designed for the owner by a tattoo artist.

 

I took myself on a scenic drive one fine day.

 

....and apparently I found god????

 

This is sunset about 30 seconds from our condo - the views and weather were just great.

 

We went to bell rock and took a little walk.  There are vortex's there which are supposed to have healing powers.  We read that juniper trees will become twisted and gnarly the closer they are to the vortex, there were definitely juniper trees there and some were definitely twisted, it was pretty cool. 

 

Cathedral Rock Church

 

The inside of the church.

 

Pretty cool huh?  

 

Views from the church.

 

Our big fishing day at the trout farm.  We caught 3 fishes (I caught the two big ones;) and they were cleaned and cooked up for dinner.

 

Ok- this beer was awesome!  It was a flavorful beer but not sweet like some fruit beers can be and it was also very light.  We got it in a sampler pack and this one came out the winner.

 

This was my trip down memory lane beer.  I had this beer once on a trip to Montana and thought it was just the bees knees (of course i was still drinking coor's light back then)  I was correct about one thing, the beer was and is very good.  It is a dark beer but not a heavy one and it does not have a real strong bite, almost a bitter chocolate finish.  It was a nice blast from the past.  The beer is called Moose Drool and it is made in Misoula, Montana.

 

Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home.  Taliesen West in Scottdale, AZ (for more info, read post below this one).

 

It had just rained so the sky was alive with colors.

 

Sunset in Scottdale, AZ.

 

Cool Cacti.

 

Good Morning NYC - us being driven home after our red eye flight, this is sunrise on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Talking About Honesty

We are on the last leg of our trip in Arizona, before hitting the airport and heading east we stopped at Taliesin West the winter home and architectural school of Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect.  It was really neat being there, the buildings and land surrounding are very beautiful and fit well together. 


We had a really nice tour guide who was um....very informative about certain aspects of FLW's life and had the beautiful ability to be able to glaze over other aspects in order to make the man look like a saint.  If you have never had the rare pleasure of knowing an architect personally let me clue you in on a few things.  First, architects are artists and as anyone can guess like all artists they are needy and can be extremely difficult.  This is not a negative personality trait, after all, without the ability to think outside (and live outside) of the proverbial box, there would be no art.  Living outside of the box regardless of whether it is a foot or a mile, is a challenge, you are automatically different and noted as such.  BUT once you become an icon, an American icon especially I have noticed your story is retold as if you have never even thought to set a pinkie toe outside the box and were still able to thrive and create and manipulate your surroundings in ways that no one else ever thought of.


A perfect example is that FLW was married 3 times, this was mentioned during the tour, however our lovely guide merely mentioned that his second marriage was "not good" and nothing more.  What she really meant to say was that the second wife was the wife of a client originally and they ran off to Europe together, later in his summer home located in Wisconsin and also called Taliesin, a fire was set (supposedly by a servant) and anyone who tried to escape the building was killed with an axe by same said servant.  Seven people died in that fire, FLW walked away clean as a whistle and lived to marry again. 


I ask myself, why was this part skipped?  There were many other parts that were conveniently skipped but I am not here to drag all of this man's skeleton's out of the closet I wanted merely to give an example so that I can once more post the question.  Why not embrace the fact that he was different?  It may actually make him more interesting and worth knowing about.  To keep repeating that he was "difficult" really does not cut it for me.  After all I am a Van Gogh fan so I get and appreciate extreme.


We got some phenomenal photos, saw some really cool places and met some interesting people too.  Once I get home and find my camera cord I will get some items posted for all to enjoy.


Till then.........
~CM
 

totally off the topic

The below is a post from me that i have posted on facebook and am now throwing on this site because it is important.  

 Based on information from a reliable resource- 

I am very rarely this serious but the below email sent to me totally pissed me off. As many of you know i am not in Pgh at the moment - but as someone that was born and raised there, it does not matter where i am at - Pittsburgh is still my home. The below information was sent out to CMU alumni, is deplorable and we ...need to take action. It is unacceptable that students are going to be charged a tax just to be students in the city limits. It is expensive enough to go to school - our young mayor (who should remember the expense clearly) can choose another group of people to charge.


Hey Luke - go pick on someone your own size! Or is it that you are just trying to drive every young person out of the city? if you are unclear about what it means to be a servant of the people feel free to contact me - i will help you to remember - jerk!


Please join me in eliminating this ridiculous tax and driving our young people away from such a great city!






Dear Fellow Alumni,


As some of you who still live here in the Pittsburgh region may already be aware, the mayor of Pittsburgh has proposed imposing a tuition tax on all college, university and trade school students in Pittsburgh in an effort to raise funds for the city, closing a deficit gap. Student Government leaders, as well as the administrations of Pittsburgh's education institutions, are organizing to oppose this effort.


Below is a message from President Cohon to the campus community explaining the university's position. In the message, he references a previous email from the Student Government leaders, a copy of which can be found online.


Please take a moment to review this information and, if you are willing, share your thoughts with city leaders through the links provided.


Jay E. Price (S'66)
Interim Associate Vice President for University Advancement,
Director of Alumni Relations


Dear Members of the University Community:


I'm sure most of you have read about recent efforts to impose a tuition tax on college, university and trade school students in Pittsburgh. The university is opposed to this tax, and we are working with other member institutions of the Pittsburgh Council of Higher Education to stop this from being implemented.


You received an email recently from our Student Government leaders opposing the tax, and I applaud and support their efforts. They have helped to create a website, www.stoptuitiontax.org, where their fellow Pittsburgh students can make their voices heard. I commend Student Body President Rotimi Abimbola, Undergraduate Student Senate Chair Aaron Gross and Graduate Student Assembly President Patrick Gage Kelley for their leadership.


Some in city government say non-profits consume services and give nothing back. That could not be further from the truth. Being tax-exempt does not mean that universities do not pay taxes. In fact, Carnegie Mellon pays more than $1.4 million in taxes, fees and services to the city annually. The university also has supported the city through voluntary participation in the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund (PPSF).


But taxes and the PPSF represent a small portion of what we contribute to Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon is an economic engine, spinning off more than 200 companies and creating more than 9,000 jobs in the past 15 years. Through the results of our research programs, we've attracted numerous Fortune 500 companies to the region, including Google, Intel, Apple, Disney, Microsoft and Caterpillar, creating hundreds of jobs in the city. Carnegie Mellon also is one of the region's largest employers with nearly 5,000 employees, many of whom reside in Pittsburgh and pay city taxes. We raise money for Pittsburgh community efforts and support the city through community outreach - last year students, faculty and staff contributed more than 117,000 hours of community service. Carnegie Mellon also positively impacts Pittsburgh's culture through many of our fine arts performances.


Non-profit tax exemption took years to legislate thoroughly and thoughtfully, providing an environment in which Pittsburgh's educational institutions have thrived, creating new ideas, jobs, industries, and a new generation of skilled, well-educated workers. It has fostered Pittsburgh's transformation and we must do everything to keep the city moving forward, not backward.


At a time when Pittsburgh is trying to attract and retain young people, it should not become known as the only city in the U.S. to impose what is being called a "privilege tax" on its students. If you wish to let your views on this proposal be known, you can write to the Mayor at askpgh@city.pittsburgh.pa.us or www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/main/html/feedback.html and the City Council.


Sincerely,


Jared L. Cohon, President
Carnegie Mellon University

Pumpkin Soap

Hello all you ghosties and ghouls.  I hope everyone has fun times planned for this devilish evening.  To kick off my Halloween celebration I reinvented one (my first and only so far) of my home made soaps into another soap.  This is a process called re-batching, literally remaking the batch.  I wanted to do this because the soap is made with all-natural oils, has a great lather and leaves my hands feeling "silky and smooth" but it was uglier than a goblin's big toe.  

To make a re-batch, I surfed around the net and came up with sort of a hybrid recipe which I will list below.


6.2 oz. ugly soap, I chopped it up in the food processor
2 oz frozen goats milk (yes i keep frozen goats milk in my freezer because, you never know when you will have a goating emergency)
1 oz avocado oil
.5 oz beeswax, I have seen that many experienced soapers like to add this to their recipes so I thought what the heck

Directions:
Place all the above ingredients in a double boiler and let it go slow and low for approximately 2 hours I used a 4C Pyrex measuring cup and a pot, I had to replenish the water twice, stir regurarly to help remove the lumps.  Because i have never done this before I was not sure what to expect and look for or wait for so once the consistency stopped developing (after about 2 hours in this case) I removed the Pyrex cup from the pot and added the below ingredients.


 12 drops of liquid orange (it is as bright as a hazmat suit I swear)
6 ml Pumpkin Spice essential oil
1 ml Cinnamon Sugar essential oil

I tried to use my hand blender but it was pretty ineffective so I went back to stirring by hand with a spatula.  The soap started to harden so I put it back into the pot and let it re-soften.  While that was going on I lightly sprayed my pumpkin molds with some olive oil, I thought it would help to get them out when they were ready.  With the Pyrex cup still in the pot and the flame still on low I started to scoop the soap out and into the pumpkin molds, I did this slowly and tried to push as much soap into the molds to help with getting the air bubbles out and to get the soap into the cracks and crevices of the little molds.  once that was all done, I scraped the top to remove any excess (which I formed into a little ball, no sense in wasting) and then popped them into the freezer. 


I left them in the freezer for about 45 minutes and just pulled them out, I may not have needed the olive oil I found that simply squeezing the sides worked great, they just popped out.  While they are not perfect little pumpkins, they are  my little pumpkins and totally usable, besides now my whole kitchen smells like pumpkin pie!

The finished product!  So they are a little deformed, they are pumpkins!

Have a SPOOKTACULAR evening!!!!

~CM

Halloween Happiness

I love fall, I can smell it in the air, the crispy dry leaves and the delightful chill that surrounds me as I walk to the bus in the morning.  Halloween is this weekend so I thought that it would be fun to post a little Halloween themed recipe, it is fun and, of course, delicious.  We made this when we were camping in Vermont so it was originally made over the fire, however I have also made this in the oven and it turned out wonderful.

The recipe is for baked pumpkin so you will need a small cooking pumpkin, the smaller they are the sweeter they seem to be.
Cut the pumpkin open at the top and remove the seeds (save them for a yummy snack that will come later).
Fill a small pan with water and turn the pumpkin upside down, place near the fire or into the oven (which will be 350 degrees) cook until it looks tender but before it starts to get lopsided and fall over.
Pull this adorable orange squash out and with oven mitts carefully turn it over.  Discard the water, dry the pan and spray bottom with a non-stick spray of your choice.  Also reduce the oven heat to approximately 250 degrees.
With a spoon carefully and slowly scrape around the inside of the pumpkin, peeling the soft squash away from the outer skin, try not to puncture the skin.  Mash up these parts as well as you can and add butter, your cut up apple, pumpkin pie spice (and other spices that you would like) and maple sugar, if you do not have maple sugar or just plain have never heard of it (don't worry I have only ever seen it in VT, but boy is it delicious) use a dash of maple syrup as a sweetening agent.
Place your pumpkin back into the oven, right side up, you can pop the lid on but it's not necessary.  Let it cook a little more slowly, your kitchen should start to have the distinct and delicious aroma of pumpkin pie.  My best guess is to give it at least 1/2 hour but keep an eye on it as, again, you do not want the walls to collapse.

VOILA! it's crust-less pumpkin pie!

Oh! and don't forget the seeds!  Clean the seeds and place on a baking tray, you know the flat kind, sprinkle liberally with maple sugar or brown sugar and let them bake low and slow at about 150 degrees until they have dried out and are crispy.  Generally I take my pumpkin seeds to the salty place, but I urge you to try them this way, it's a really pleasant surprise.

Enjoy - have a great holiday weekend!!!

~CM

Chocolate yogurt?!? Is that legal?

Yes, I am feeling quite naughty today.  We also purchased some fresh milk that came from a chocolate cow.......well not really, the milk was fresh and it is chocolate flavored but the cow was a plain ol' vanilla one.  HeHeHe.  I thought it would be fun to take a little of my left over whipping cream and the chocolate milk and try to make a fun yogurt with it.  I think it will taste GREAT with some fresh bananas.  Now I have it in the yogurt maker and will have to wait all night for it to properly "yo" before trying it :(  The recipe I used was simple, tomorrow after work I will strain it to make it the thick creamy consistency that I love and then I shall eat it up YUM!


Chocolate Yogurt:
Yields 1 quart
1 C Whipping cream
1C Chocolate milk (it is a whole milk)  The farm it comes from is: Ronny Brook Farms, sometimes they distribute outside of New York, check your local health food store
2C Skim Milk


Slowly bring heat up to 180 degrees stirring to avoid burning the milk on the bottom of the pot.  Turn off heat and let the milk cool to between 108-112 (or whatever your yogurt culture calls for)  I use Yogourmet live culture.  And now I wait........I am not good at this part.  


More on the success or failure of this little experiment tomorrow!


Ta-ta


~CM

That chocolate cow would be so proud ;)

Chowder Head!

Hello fellow food passionistas.  I am hoping that everyone is well on this delightfully chilly weekend.  We missed our weekly farmers market but were able to stop at our little local healthy grocery store to get some provisions.  Oddly enough there were ears of corn which looked to be pretty good so we got some and today I tried my hand at a nice fresh corn chowder.  Since it is a milk based soup I used my slow cooker to avoid having the milk burn at the bottom of the pot.  For starters I have never tried corn chowder so this was a complete shot in the dark but as always it was a fun little adventure and of course turned into a great meal.  I consulted a couple of web recipes and came up with a hybrid recipe based on the ingredients that were available at home today.  


1-1/2 C skim milk
1 C heavy cream (if you want a flavorful and filling soup do it right- use the cream)
2 cubes of chicken stock*

3-5 ears of corn (de-cobbed)
1 cup baby carrots chopped small

2 celery stalks chopped small
1-2 shallots chopped small

1 Medium potato chopped small

Thyme (sprinkle lightly on top)

Kosher salt (to taste)

black pepper (to taste)


It was simple, put the milk and cream into the pot and chop everything up very small and add to the base.  Let it cook low and slow for 6 or more hours, stirring and tasting as the day wears on.  Many times people (including myself at times) will try their hand at a great soup recipe that they experienced while eating out but will substitute "diet" type foods (i.e. all skim milk instead of the cream) and wonder what happened to the flavor and texture of the recipe.  Flavorful food needs the correct ingredients, using a substitute will not get you to where you want to go.  I have been there, I have tried it and can tell you first hand you will end up with a product that is only partly half what you were aiming for.  Of course all good things should be enjoyed in moderation which is the balance I strive for continually. 


*For the chicken stock I made a batch of it previously and froze some in and ice cube tray so i had them at my disposal for cooking.  (I also did this with pesto, now I can have a fresh pesto dish on a moments notice!)

Bon Appetite!
~CM

BEST COFFEE EVER!!!

I mean it, I truly had the best cup of coffee that I have had this side of the Atlantic.  As with all things in life when it comes to something I feel strongly about I don't simply like it, I LOVE it, and obsess over it and look for which place makes it better and then still find ways to improve upon that.  As an additional engagement gift we were sent a "Brikka" coffee maker.  It is a little stove top deal that makes espresso style coffee.  

First I should premise this story by stating that New York is afraid of good coffee even if you pay through the nose for it they are just not willing to grind it fresh or do any of the steps that would make it worthy of the price tag they deem appropriate.  Therefore I always look forward to the weekend mornings when I have the time to fire up my little grinder and make MY coffee MY way.  

I digress, the Brikka, is a percolator and it took about 3 minutes flat to produce the black gold that I had the pleasure of drinking this morning.  As an additional and ingenious treat I used coconut milk instead of almond milk or cows milk and it really made it sweet and creamy.   I think the only change I would make is to have steamed the milk so it was warm but I just did not think about it this morning pre-coffee.  I know for next time thought:)


To all the coffee lovers out there, I recommend one of these contraptions if you do not have one already. (by the way it's from Target!)



Signing off
~CM

Stew in 30 minutes?

It sounds crazy but it is true, well almost!  We recently got a pressure cooker as an engagement gift and last night we took it for a test drive.  I have never thought that owning a pressure cooker would change my life, but it has and it will continue to do so the more I use it in delicious fooding adventures.  Our pressure cooker is a three in one digital machine.  It can steam, slow cook and pressure cook, it can also just keep something warm which is a nice feature.  


But I digress!  Last night about 5pm I decided that it was the perfect crispy fall day for stew.  So I was feeling a little kitchen creative and decided to reconstitute a vegetable soup that I made over the weekend into the stew broth, it turned out great but was a little too peppery.  I stopped off at the store for a little 2 pound roast and ran home to share my ideas with Mr. Mouse.  Of course he loved it.  So we seared the beef and cubed it, in the meantime I cut up three potatoes and 8oz. of baby bella mushrooms and tossed them into the pot with the soup/veg liquid, I would tell you how much except that I don't know, there is a line inside the pressure pot that says "max" and has a 2 next to it, maybe that means 2 quarts?  So anyway, we had everything in the pot and set the pressure cooker up as the booklet directed (knobs turned, gaskets affixed, lid locked and loaded etc.) and set the timer for 30 minutes GO!  Our little machine started to huff and puff a bit so we respectfully moved away.......then it stopped.....and the timer was not counting down.  Darnit what went wrong?  It turns out nothing, the pressure will build up then the timer will count down, when I thought about it later it made complete sense.


During the time the stew was stewing the kitchen smelled wonderful, it smelled beefy and brothy and rich.  Oh were we excited!  Then we heart it, "BEEP"......."BEEP"........"BEEP".......it was done.  Now what to do?  There are knobs to be dealt with, a lid to be sweet talked and MY DINNER IS INSIDE THIS MONSTROSITY!!!!!  So me being the very patient person that I am run over and immediately disregard the safety instructions I have just read and throw the knob from pressure to steam.  Wow was that a totally bad idea!  There was literally delicious smelling but sort of greasy beefy steam blowing straight up to the ceiling for what seemed like forever, I finally got a towel thrown over it to help with the mess I created, good lord was it impressive.


When we finally felt it was safe to take the lid off we ladled some stew into 2 mugs and gave it a try.  OH IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!  The meat was tender, yet flavorful, they potatoes were soft and delicious, the broth was unbelievable (I had 2 cups it was so good!)  And all that in, well considering searing time and cutting of extra veg and oh, don't forget the pressure building time, I would say an hour tops!  This is something that I would normally slow cook and it would take hours.  I can't wait to see what other delicious delectables this will produce for us, so far it was great and we look forward to having a long and happy friendship with our pressure cooker.


Until next time
~A very pressurized CM

The great ice cream contest!

Yes, we did, we bought yet another kitchen toy.  Thank goodness that the biggest room in our apartment is the kitchen or I think we may be in a bit of trouble.  I am very adamant about multi-use appliances and do my best to purchase them whenever possible, our kitchen-aid mixer has the ability to add attachments to it, I wanted an ice cream machine.  It arrived and I popped the bowl into the freezer before I left for work.  Yesterday we had a free evening to begin our madness.  I decided to go with a frozen yogurt, made from home made yogurt I made over the weekend with fresh whole milk and cream.  Mr. Mouse went with a good old fashioned ice cream recipe using the same farm fresh milk but in 2%.  He also (sneaky guy) shredded fresh coconut and used a little bit of Nutella for flavoring.  He got the first spin in our new toy, it's a neat thing that ice cream maker and I must say his ice cream came out really delicious.


For my recipe I did a peach vanilla frozen yogurt.  Once the yogurt was strained I popped it into the freezer, I used 3 farm fresh peaches which were just perfectly ripe, 2 tsp of vanilla flavoring and about 1/8c of raw sugar.  I boiled it and pureed it with the hand blender to get everything to a consistent texture.  I then popped that into the freezer to cool down.  Once the ice cream bowl was sufficiently re-frozen I pulled all my frosty cold ingredients together and popped them into the mixer then just let it go slow and low for about 20 minutes.  I think thoroughly chilling everything really helped with keeping the bowl frozen and making my yogurt creamy.  It was delicious.  The next day we re-tasted recipes, Mr. Mouse graciously said that my recipe won, I think he as just being nice, they were both really good and easy to make.  The only thing I did not like about both of them was that they pretty much froze solid once in the freezer, instead of staying creamy, I need to do a little research on why that happened, all in all, I look forward to making all different flavors of home made ice cream, yogurt and sorbets!


Until then
~CM


p.s. Below is the recipe I started off with, then I altered it according to my preferences, I got it from the following web site: 
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/a-frozen-yogurt-recipe-to-rival-pinkberrys-recipe.html


Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe
Heidi notes: First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. The version in David's book is Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.

3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Mix together the yogurt, sugar, and vanilla (if using). Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
To make 1 cup (240g) of strained yogurt, line a mesh strainer with a few layers of cheese cloth. then scrape 16 ounces or 2 cups (480g) of plain whole-milk yogurt into the cheesecloth. Gather the ends and fold them over the yogurt, then refrigerate for at least 6 hours. So, for the above recipe start with and strain 6 cups of yogurt.
Makes about 1 quart.

Goatgurt?

I got a new yogurt machine this week.  It's a yolife machine which is great because I can make large batches of yogurt in mason jars or smaller ones in the little glass jars provided, there is one drawback, it does not have a timer so it will not shut off automatically.   As you may know I have recently become obsessed with Greek strained yogurt and I wanted to take it to the next level of making the yogurt with a goat milk and heavy cream mixture.  Goats milk has really great nutritional qualities, is naturally homogenized and is the closest milk to a mother's human milk that we can get.  
 My "goatgurt" failed - dare I say it was baaaaad,  but I have a couple of things working here and I am not sure which one of them it was that did not work.  First it's a new yogurt machine, I may have misjudged how long it would take to "yo" in a larger container (I used two 24oz mason jars each filled to the 2 cup mark) and I also did not bring the milk to a full boil and then back down to the temp the culture needs. I simply took it up to the temp the culture requires.  Well the end of the story is that the mixture never solidified after 14 hours and it did not have the yogurty smell that I am used to.  I took a little sip, it actually tasted really good so it was a little depressing that I had to dump it.


Today at the market we bought 2 pints of whole milk, it's not raw the great state of New York will not let us choose to purchase raw mile.  This milk is also not ultra pasteurized so the cream still rises to the top.  We tasted it and um it is really great and dare I say milky tasting, if you have had fresh milk form a happy cow lately you know exactly what I mean.  We are still on our search for raw milk but we will most likely have to go black market to get it, or buy a cow.......I somehow think our landlord will not be real happy with the second option.  With this milk I am going to take a second stab at a really good healthy yogurt on the new machine, if it's successful I will be trying the goat yogurt again and see if it's the actual milk or my new machine that is causing the difference.


As an aside, I recently had a fresh batch of yogurt which I strained.  I put fresh blue berries and maple syrup over......oh good god it was just delicious!  Move over honey - maple syrup may take over from here!!!!!


I will make the yogurt tonight and let it do it's thing.  More tomorrow on this little experiment.


Later
~CM