Making a better world with crafts, food, thoughtfulness, multipotentialism, spirituality without religion, bettering myself, helping others, seasonality, cats, tea, geekery, happiness and style.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
today's tea... sunday, february 27, 2011
Anyway.
Today we have: Kwai Blossom Oolong.
I got it from one of the coffee shops in town, and I don't think they sell it anymore, which makes me sad because it's a nice one. Oolongs are never bitter in my experience, and this one has a nice golden-brown shade. The blossoms are very subtle-- just a little floralness in the background. When it was new, a teeny-tiny bit of fruitiness, but that seems to have passed The Way Of All Things.
The leaves have the characteristic look of oolong: super-crinkly when dry, big and not-quite-black when steeped. I usually use about a palmful of leaves for my favorite teapot, and these leaves open up a lot more than, say, the average black tea I have. Not as much as Panfired Green or Dragonwell, though.
It's a lovely, mellow oolong, good for frequent drinking. I think it makes me have to visit the bathroom more than the average tea, though, so maybe not for frequent drinking on road trips.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
link: og_news: Doctor Who Experience opens
today's tea... tuesdsay, february 22, 2011
It totally lacks that old-shoe / musty head smell that most Pu-Erhs I've sniffed have. Doesn't even really smell like tea. When the water first hits it, it smells almost chemically, sort of acrid, but after it brews some, it makes a nice dark tea that smells like traditional black tea and good warm earth ready for planting. Up close, it smells... a little sweet, and warmer, like wool blankets.
The taste is... different from usual tea. It's mellow and dark, but not bitter, a little musty-- but that might be because it's old; since I don't remember where I got this, I don't remember what it tasted like when it was new. But not unpleasant, and the leaves showed no signs of being bad in any way, so I'm going to assume this is what it's supposed to taste like.
Monday, February 21, 2011
link: MoveOn.org Political Action: Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women
2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims."
3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that couldmake it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)
4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.
5) In Congress, Republicans have a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.
6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said.Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.
7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.
8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.
9) Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.
10) And if that wasn't enough, Republicans are pushing toeliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can't make this stuff up)."
spring has probably sprung
I think the rose is dead. I'm going out at some point this week to lop off the branches that are definitely not alive anymore, and to see if I can find any livingness in the main stem and roots. If it is alive, I'll feed it tea and powdered milk and see if I can get it to flower this year. If not... well. I don't know. I'll be sad. And I guess I'll get a new rose bush and start over. The green rose I got to go with it last year never even sprouted, so I guess they're together in the Way of All Things.
I need to get to the Seed Vault (see: the huge collection of jars in my closet) and pick up the tomatoes and peppers and herbs I want to grow this year. Several of them won't be viable much longer, so I may as well plant a bunch of them.
I need to get new dirt, since the rains this winter washed away most of my bucket of reserved dirt, and it's probably mostly not good anymore, anyway.
I need to go through the seed catalogues and see what's neat and new that I can afford.
But later. I don't have time today.
today's tea... monday, february 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
and just like that, it's spring
Thursday, February 17, 2011
link: Letterboxing North America - Getting Started
Monday, February 14, 2011
link: Machination: A Game of Evil Genius by Signal Flare Games — Kickstarter
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
I made soup today
3 sandwich-sized bags of frozen turkey broth from the Thanksgiving turkey
1 can of Italian-style chopped tomatoes
1 can of red beans and their sauce / juice
1 can of baby potatoes, chopped
about a cup each of frozen peas and frozen corn
2 big scoops of Sofrito
a palmfull of fried garlic (the kind in the jar from the asian market)
maybe two palmfulls of fried onions (also from the asian market)
some thyme, red pepper, oregano, salt, pepper
2 bay leaves
a teaspoon or so of sugar
Cook all this until it's boiling
Throw in enough chicken for everyone who's eating-- I just dropped the chicken breasts in whole and let the poach
Throw in a third cup or two of rice
Let the whole thing simmer until the rice gets that split look that rice in soup is supposed to have
Nom nom.
I'd like to add more veggies next time, and probably some fat of some sort-- cream or butter in at the end of the cooking. Maybe some cheese. But it was good like this, and a keeper as far as half-thought-out recipes go. Not bad for a house with basically no food in it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
link: Why Letting Yourself Make Mistakes Means Making Fewer of Them | Psychology Today
How can we learn to see things differently? How can we shift our thinking, and approach new responsibilities and challenges with more confidence and energy?"
Friday, February 4, 2011
hinky
So I'll cut some of the sugar, I'll back off on the tea. I can take some suppliments in the morning when I eat breakfast. I'll try to sleep better. We're going to the rennfaire tomorrow, so maybe a little downtime will make things better.
today's tea...
Anyway.
Today we have Republic of Tea Pineapple Guava White Tea.
It's got the perk that white tea never gets bitter because it has hardly any tannins*, so it's a good one to brew and leave, which is my favorite way to have tea. No muss... after the original ritual of getting it made.
I always want this one to be really fruity, maybe sort of tropical-floral, but it's not. At least my jar isn't. It smells good in the tin, but not really like pineapple or guava, both of which are very complex and specific scents, and the smell doesn't really translate to the tea. I don't remember if it did when this was new, but I'm sure I'd remember if it was really good, so probably not.
My two favorite fruit flavors are lychee and guava, and so far, guava-flavored things other than guava juice or paste have all let me down, so I think I'll stick with lychee for tea. But overall, this is a pleasant tea, just not anything amazing.
* Why are tannins in tea bracing, while tannins in wine are the cause of horrible morning-after headaches?
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
today's tea...
Goes well with a breakfast of an old toasted crumpet with butter and raspberry-redcurrant jam, too. The crumpet, however, needed some clotted cream. If I remember when I go shopping, I'll pick up some whipping cream and make some.
* A pound of tea is literally the size of my head. It filled up two of the spagetti-sauce-size mason jars and I still had a whole ziploc-bag full. Most of that went into things like my henna mix and this tea-infused cake I tried once (it wasn't very good; needed work). Tea is very light and a pound is a LOT.
** They're a great website, but they have a 35$ minimum order, and each thing is usually about four dollars, so I have to need several things to make an order.