(no subject)
This has been spring cleaning week. When I was gone in early May, Dirk managed to keep things roughly under control, and when he was gone in early April and late May I did a couple of projects and reined in the disaster after… but we haven’t both been home and paid attention to the necessities of home maintenance and upkeep much at all. Although the Roomba has been out on an every-other-day program in the kitchen, and sent on a few missions around other parts of the house, we haven’t actually had the big vacuum cleaner out of the closet since December. Now is the time for those niceties like vacuuming the stairs and wiping the tufts of cat fur off the edges of the ceiling fan blades, and throwing away the business cards of people I either will never talk to or talk to all the time.
Also the time for making vodka infusions!
Not much garden news - everything’s in the ground and I’m just waiting for it to get moving! It’ll be a while before things get interesting. The bok choy, alas, has decided that a 2-month lifespan is enough for this world. Seeded indoors in March, set out in April, and they’re going to flower now with just a few leaves. Sigh time to cut them loose and bring them in, I guess. They're so small!! The sage is flowering, too, but at least it's pretty.
In better news, I have sighted about 6-10 proto-apples on the healthier of my columnar trees. Too bad they’re only in 2 clusters and I’m told one should thin those down… I’m definitely keeping more than 2 fruits, though, even if I get written up for plant abuse.
Also the time for making vodka infusions!
- Raspberry, made with red and gold berries from my neighbor’s bushes, frozen last fall.
- Lemongrass, because I bought a packet of frozen sliced lemongrass at H-Mart a while back, and had realized I never used it because it was all one big brick. So I thawed it out and refroze as ice cubes, but there was a lot left over.
- Chai spice tea, which I’ve been wanting to try, but this is kind of a gamble. I’ve never made tea-infused vodkas and I know it’s easy to leave them too long and let everything get bitter. I’ve made cinnamon vodka, and I know I overdid that but I don’t remember what I did exactly (2-3 sticks, half-pint jelly jar, 1 week?). I’ve never made a chai spice blend for brewing tea with, but I know recipes tend to include black tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and various spices but not with enough consistent agreement between recipes that I knew exactly how much of what I should be using - black pepper, cloves, anise/fennel, vanilla, and nutmeg all turn up with some frequency. Then the question is, do all those spices infuse the same? So, I’m kind of flying blind. I put the tea and cloves in a bag and infused for almost a day (20 hrs) before pulling it out, but left the whole spices in to soak. It’s now been 5 days, and I should probably check on it.
- Ginger, because I love it so, and we were all out (i.e. I drank it). Last time I think I used about half rum, but this is all vodka.
Not much garden news - everything’s in the ground and I’m just waiting for it to get moving! It’ll be a while before things get interesting. The bok choy, alas, has decided that a 2-month lifespan is enough for this world. Seeded indoors in March, set out in April, and they’re going to flower now with just a few leaves. Sigh time to cut them loose and bring them in, I guess. They're so small!! The sage is flowering, too, but at least it's pretty.
In better news, I have sighted about 6-10 proto-apples on the healthier of my columnar trees. Too bad they’re only in 2 clusters and I’m told one should thin those down… I’m definitely keeping more than 2 fruits, though, even if I get written up for plant abuse.