Mulberry Pie

I'd forgotten how GREAT fresh berries can taste! ...Or what strange looks you can get by picking mulberry trees in a public park.

Here is my mulberry pie recipe that I copied from somewhere on the net and adapted (sorry, person, for not giving you proper credit). I also inherited a lot of baking books from my grandmother, which is cool, but a lot of the old school cookbooks don't give ingredient amounts! They just expect you to know!

Regardless, here's PIE!

Fresh mulberries:
1. Verify what a ripe mulberry looks like (if you're not already sure)
2. Pick desired amount of mulberries - prepare to get your hands juicy
3. Freeze for a few hours to kill off all the tiny insects
4. Wash thoroughly
5. (Optional) De-stem mulberries (I don't bother with this step, you'll never know in the pie)

Pie:
Ingredient List
3 cups mulberries
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8-/14 teaspoon nutmeg
Pie crust package from store (2 crusts)
1/2 tablespoon butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven 400F
2. Combine mulberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Mix well.
3. Roll out pie crust in pie tin.
4. Add mulberry mixture. Dot with butter.
5. Add other pie crust on top. Squeeze edges of crusts together and tuck inside pie tin.
6. Bake 15 min.
7. Lower temp to 350F and bake 30 min.
8. Cool.

Serve a la mode with ice cream if you wish.

It's really that easy! And fresh berries = NOM NOM NOM.           

Making Mead

I will be continually updating this post for the near future from start until bottling.

This recipe is actually based on a mistake that was turned into a triumph by my friend and fellow mead-maker, John.

As of the moment, I'm calling this Baby Hellhound: Wayfarer Mead. Why? Because all my drinks will be under the label Baby Hellhound (after my dog), and Wayfarer...um...because that was what was first in my head.

It starts with making a dry mead and then straining through a sweetening tea at the end. Totally unorthodox, but it worked out fantastically for him. Let's see if I can duplicate it!

I'm writing down exactly what I did. Feel free to deviate from anything I added or did. Also, let me know how it turns out!

Baby Hellhound: Wayfarer, Attempt #1

5 gallon batch

Ingredients 
5 gallons of room temp spring water
11.5 lbs Ambrosia Honey, Colorado Western Slope (via amazon.com)
1 teaspoons yeast nutrient
2 teaspoons yeast energizer
campden tablets
1 package Red Star Pasteur Champagne Dry Yeast
5 1 oz packets Herbal Alchemy's Vampire's Kiss tea (1 per gallon)

List of Tools
Fermenting bucket (or carboy)
Carboy (for racking)
Paint mixer drill extension (that has been dedicated to only making mead/wine/beer)
Electric drill (make SURE your battery is powered!)
No-rinse sanitizer
Airlock
Mortar & pestle
Teaspoon
Tablespoon
Spatula
Coffee filters (not needed for months)
Bowl (or beaker) for yeast rehydration
Cleaning washcloth
Hydrometer

Day 1 (Friday, April 13, 2012)
Part 1 - Sanitize Everything.

Okay, back up. Start by CLEANING your fermenting area. Yes, that means the dishes from lunch and whatever that crusty stuff is. And those long dead flowers your spouse gave you. Give yourself plenty of room to work.

Follow the instructions on your particular sanitizer about how to use it. Follow those instructions on everything you'll be using today. Or boil items to kill off all the germs. List for me as follows:
Fermenting bucket (or carboy)
Paint mixer drill extension
Airlock
Mortar & pestle
Teaspoon
Tablespoon
Spatula
Bowl (or beaker) for yeast rehydration
Cleaning washcloth
Hydrometer

Part 2 - Dumping Everything in the Bucket

I went with the no boil method. If you choose to boil or otherwise heat your must (unfermented honey mixture), go for it. There are plenty of forums out there on how to do that.

At this time and only if you want to, crush some campden tablets (1 per gallon) in your mortar & pestle (or under a spoon) and stir into the must to kill all wild yeasts and bacteria. You'll have to wait 24 hours to pitch your yeast then, so that the sulphites don't attack your yeast too.

I'm taking my chances with Mother Nature. No boil & no campden tablets for me.

Rehydrate your yeast according to instructions. Place your honey in some warm water to make pouring smoother (but don't mix the honey IN the water).

Take a break while your yeast rehydrates.

Pour in 2 gallons of water. Add all the honey. This will take time and patience to get almost every last drop. Add yeast nutrients & energizer. Fill with water up to the 5 gallon mark on your bucket. If you're bucket or carboy doesn't have nifty markers, I used a little under 4 and 1/2 gallons of water to make a total 5 gallon batch.

Attach your sanitized drill bit to the drill and go mad scientist on it. Maniacal laughter encouraged. Mix the honey until it's dissolved into the water. This takes awhile. I mixed for a good 5 minutes and then some. The must also needs lots of oxygen in it in order for the yeast to work its magic.

If your yeast is ready and your must is uniform at room temperature, pitch the yeast!

Lock down your fermenting bucket's lid -- or put the bung in your carboy -- and slide on the airlock. Crush a campden tablet and add that into water and fill up to your airlock's fill line. We don't want bacterial growth in our airlocks!

Pitching temp 79 degrees

OG 1.0803

Store in darkness and wait.

Day 3 (Sunday, April 15, 2012)

Sweet smelling carbon dioxide bubbles!

Updates to follow.

I got trolled

Now I wonder whom I ticked off. Or is this a random trolling? Then again, I have had some ugly fallings out with internet savvy friends. *sigh*

I was checking on what sites link to my ati site and I was very surprised to see a link to a gay porn story site with my little jpg of the dawn sword from this blog and some praise for the story. WTF?

Those are not my words. I don't care or judge what people do or write in their own time (as long as it's informed consent among adults anyway), but those are not my words. I'm most upset that someone lied in my name. That's dishonorable, and it's dishonoring me.

And the worst part of this is that there is nothing I can do. If I complain, more trolls will act and I don't want a "Santorum Google Problem" on my hands.

Once again, it goes to show that while humans have evolved over time, humanity has not.

Update - I should mention that the "suspect" had access to the computer I used. *headdesk* I should really, really stop giving some a-holes second (third, fourth) chances because they play nicely to my face.

In other news, wiping my hands and moving on. Life is but a learning experience, often painful.

Mead

This has always been one of my favorite drinks, ever since I was- Hey, age isn't important! Maybe it's because I like honey. (Who doesn't like honey?)

I am now trying to brew my own. I started with the amazingly easy recipe found in the Gotmead.com's NewBee Guide. Instead of using a glass carboy (I just added a new word to my vocabulary), I just stuck it back in the 1 gallon jug; and instead of an airlock, I used a balloon (as suggested by stormthecastle.com)

At least I didn't use the archaeologically traditional version and pee in the jug.

...Why do I know that?

Next step, making an acerglyn (honey-maple syrup mead), and then rocketing into space on a sugar rush.

A friend of mine also gave me an e-z-cap, so I can brew test batches in a 2-liter bottle. Hang on, I just got a great idea for a prank! What my unsuspecting spouse thinks is Mountain Dew...

I have NO IDEA what Kansas alcohol laws are, but I do know that Carrie Nation is buried in Medicine Lodge. However, I am not going to worry because none of this will ever be for sale. I also think I've got Christmas figured out for the next ten years. Score!

Severe Weather in Review

I drove through the 2011 Joplin Tornado storm. Funny thing is, I was on my way home from Oklahoma to examine my house for damage from baseball sized hail because of an entirely different storm. 

I guess it's a good thing I enjoy thunderstorms, and keep digital backups of important information. When I was in Nevada, I remember hearing, "I wouldn't want to live in Kansas. Too many tornadoes." My reply, "As if you don't have enough earthquakes?"

I challenge you, dear reader, to find a parcel of land on this wonderful planet that is not vulnerable to any form of natural disaster. I haven't found one. (And no, doomsday bunkers do not count! Stay in there long enough, and they're prone to famine. Also flooding if you don't inspect the plumbing.)

I never saw the funnel that struck Joplin itself. I was stuck in the creation of the monster.

A 30-40mph tailwind! I was absolutely thrilled to be leaving Oklahoma. Some clouds on the northern horizon, but no worry. I was going to get the best gas mileage ever! ...Until I crossed the Kansas border and ran into a 40-50mph headwind.

To make this tale stereotypical, I was driving by the original locale of "Little House on the Prairie". No joke. It's right off US 75 Highway.

I saw the clouds overhead growing darker and tumbling around like angry snakes in a bag. I know what this means.

I didn't know whether to stop and find a ditch or keep driving and try to escape.

The whole situation reminded me of another time had stopped a hotel in Nebraska during Tornado Season. My mother and I walked across the highway to local fast food joint. There was a thunderstorm. Big deal. When we came out, the massive American flag on the west side of the highway was blowing north. The equally big flag on the east side was blowing due south.

So, what did we do? Ducked our heads in the wind, walked back to the hotel and passed out. I have no idea if there was a tornado warning that night not.

I also had the flag thing happen to me again in the panhandle of Texas. My roommate and I had pulled into a rest stop because the wind was just too crazy and we wanted some information on this storm (this was before the proliferation of smartphones). Same thing, flag on the other side of the highway was going a totally different direction.

And then it hailed. Well, it looked like hail, but it was spreading out into little white shrapnel when it hit the ground. It was snow! It was snowing in huge chunks that splattered when they landed. I walked out in it.

And then there was that time on I-35 when I was driving 90 mph to escape the oncoming tornadic weather, and I was passed by a cop! I guess we both knew how badly we needed to be somewhere else at the moment. Plus, everyone else was driving that quickly too. My poor car still has scratches from pebbles and other little natural projectiles that day.

That car and I left the "Little House on the Prairie" sign to the mercy of the wind as we whizzed by.

But, Deb, I screamed at myself. This is no time to think of other stories! What are you going to do this time?! I was too busy trying to wrestle the car in a straight line to try to pull up radar on my phone.

There was no rain or hail, or even thunder unless I couldn't hear that over the roaring winds. There was just wind strong enough to shove my 3,000 lb car around with relative ease. I'd be off the road if a gust hit me just right.

I didn't know if I'd outrun a funnel by driving or race straight into one. Or maybe both because these storms often drop several twisters.

What did I do? I kept on trucking. After a white-knuckled twenty minutes, I was able to breathe easier. The storm had lumbered off to the east. Black and purple and bloated. I remember thinking, 'Someone is going to get creamed.' And I was right.

As I review 2011 from this NWS report, I wonder what 2012 willl hold.

I drove over 140 miles that day, and I could still see the clouds from that storm when I arrived home.

Confusing the Neighbors

There I went, confusing the neighbors. But it was gone in a matter of hours.

UPDATE 1/8: Made Art of Trolling Homepage