Mmmmm….. Chai…..

I might be the only girl in the state of Washington that doesn’t like coffee. *GASP* … I know, I know-it’s pure blasphemy! That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy (need) a daily dose of caffeine, however. My caffeinated vice is just a bit sweeter in nature – chai. Oh how I love a nice cool glass of iced chai on a sunny summer morning. Add a peanut butter chocolate chunk Baker’s Breakfast Cookie to the equation and I can’t think of a better way to start the day. In fact it’s the anticipation of the duo that’s often responsible for prying me from under the covers : )

More than a year ago, I found a recipe for chai in a magazine and decided to try my hand at making my own. The first batch tasted alright, but did not have the flavor I was trying to achieve. I wasn’t quite sure which spice quantity needed adjustment, so an ongoing experiment ensued. Subsequent batches ranged from great to downright awful. It took me almost a year of weekly attempts to find the right combination and recreate it consistently. I hate wasting anything, *especially* food, so I made myself drink it regardless of the outcome- except for that “downright awful” batch – I just couldn’t choke it down so down the drain it went.

A lot of people have asked me for my recipe so I finally paid a little attention and wrote it down the last time I made it.  I needed some practice working with my flash, so I thought it would be fun to document the process in pictures and share it with everyone here!  The great thing about chai is you can’t really go wrong with the ingredients (except for ginger… I think too much ginger was the culprit in that awful batch!)  There are a lot of different spices that are commonly added to chai (fennel, anise, bay leaves) but these are the ones I’ve settled on for now. I’m still trying to figure out how to make it more peppery flavored without making it spicy. If you’ve got any tips, please do share!

1/2 Gallon + 2 cups water
1/2 - 2/3 cup raw sugar or honey
3/4 cup loose leaf black tea (Darjeeling or Assam)
1 tbsp cardamom seeds
3 tbsp white & black peppercorns
2 tbsp whole cloves
4 whole nutmeg
4 3" cinnamon sticks
2" fresh ginger root, peeled & diced into very small pieces

Add sugar  to water and bring to a boil. Crush all spices together using a mortar & pestle, a spice grinder or by putting them together in a plastic bag and smashing the heck out of them with a wooden spoon : )  The mixture needs to be coarse in texture, so don’t go too crazy! Place the spice mixture into a fine strainer with a handle. Place strainer into pot of sweetened water.  Bring to boil then allow to simmer for about 30 minutes. Add tea leaves and bring to boil again, then simmer for an hour. Stir the ingredients in the strainer a bit while simmering. The tea leaves will soak up water so you can add a bit to refill the pot, just allow it to simmer for awhile after you’ve done this.  Once done, compost the spice & tea mixture. There’s often a bit of spice residue in the bottom of the pot, so you may need to strain the liquid mixture to remove the finer particles. I store my chai in the refrigerator in a half gallon “growler.”

The ratio of chai to milk (or soy milk)  is 1:1. I prefer iced chai over warm, but move to warmed chai during the cold months.  Mmmm… I think I need to go make another glass!

In the past couple of years, I’ve become a bit of a chai connoisseur. I’m always seeking out new brands to try and know where to go around town to find the good stuff. My favorite is Orcas Island’s Harmony Chai which is served at Stuart’s At The Market and sold in concentrated form at Terra Organica. I was just in Seattle for a few days and stopped by Chai House in Ballard where they serve Morning Glory Chai – which is also available at Lettered Streets Coffee House in Bellingham! Morning Glory is a very different recipe from mine and on this visit I decided to buy a package of their dry mix to try at home. Their recipe includes orange peel, coriander, galangal & vanilla beans and you can see  just from the picture of the spices how different our recipes are!

     

If you decide to try your hand at making chai, feel free to ask me some questions and please do let me know how it turns out!

Crash’s Favorite Place …

is generally wherever *I* am. Currently that means lounging on top of my workspace.

A Little Ingenuity Goes A Long Way- Or Does It?

 

Just because you’re home from school sick with a cold doesn’t mean you get a day off from using your brain. Yesterday Asher spent a little time recuperating in the warm sun & fresh air, devising a solution for harvesting Asian pears from our fully loaded tree. By taking apart the pieces of one of his recent works of art (a raft which never saw water),  he came up with this fabulous chute for rolling the pears out of the tree and into a basket waiting on the ground below.

Unfortunately, limited resources made his design incredibly heavy and it began to break apart when we tried to maneuver it into place under the tree. Sadly, no Asian pears ever rolled down that chute. Today the wood is being “repurposed” into a bobsled : )

Here’s a shot of  some of his bounty, harvested by old-fashioned means– shaking the tree : )

All Done!

The kitchen project is finally complete, including a fresh coat of lime green on the rest of the floor!  I solved the lighting problem by moving the paper lantern from the center of the living room to the corner by the window. Now it lights both the kitchen and the living room just right! And I’m really loving that counter space where the microwave used to be! It’s been about ten days of microwave-free living now and I don’t miss it at all anymore.

Here are a few process shots of what I did with the little table & stool. I actually almost scrapped the table and started over because pulling off the pinstriping tape removed a lot of the undercoat of white. This was totally my fault as I was a little too excited to get started and put the  tape on before the paint was fully dried. I had to do a fair bit of touch up by hand but it turned out fairly well despite a lot of mistakes and it does a nice job of adding more color to the place!

The finished product!

More Visitors… Of The Human Sort This Time!

This house has been standing on this property for many years and  ever since we moved in last year I have wondered about all of the other people who have called it home. Who were they and when did they live here? What experiences did they have in this house, what historic events did they learn about while living here? It’s one of the joys of living in an old house- wishing its walls could talk…

The original family still owns the house so I know a fair bit of its history from my landlord Gary, but there have been other renters along the way whose names have been forgotten. It occurred to me a few months ago that because it’s such a unique house, I should probably expect past inhabitants to show up on my doorstep seeking out their old home. 

Last evening I was buzzing around in the yard when I noticed a car driving slowly back & forth past the property. By the time the couple in the car stopped, I had already figured it was probably one of those past inhabitants. I was right! I was so excited to learn that Susan had lived here with her five year old son, for a couple of years beginning in 1972. In fact,  it was from this house that her now husband Matt picked her up for their very first date!! The two were spending the night in Bellingham on their way from Portland to Whistler for the weekend and after 37 years, decided to see if they could find this old house. They seemed pretty happy to find it still standing : )

Asher and I both enjoyed hearing Susan & Matt’s recollections about what the house was like back then, and it was great to hear Susan say how much she loved living here too. Apparently they have a couple of pictures taken in the back yard that they said they would send me. I can’t wait to see them!

Where We Are Now…

Last time I blogged I was still trying to figure out how the heck to paint a perfect circle on the wall behind the stove. This problem plagued me for three full days until I realized the top of one of those very cheap three legged tables was the exact size I needed- and I just happened to have an extra one on hand! So, I’d solved the first part of the problem, but still wanted a lime green circle in the middle of the bigger circle. Same problem, different color!

It really all comes down to using the right search terms in Google- “paint a circle on a wall” brought me lots of tips on how to draw a circle on a wall but not how to actually paint a perfect circle- which was the search term I really needed. It brought me to a blog entry by a company called Chroma Lab, which sells vintage furniture that’s been revitalized with fresh & funky paint patterns. Jackpot! ( Except for the part where I had to run all over town to auto parts stores trying to find the pinstriping tape required for the project!)

Here are some shots of the circle painting in progress…

 

Photo credit : Asher

The tape worked really well, but I still had to go back and make some fine corrections by hand. Still, I am very happy with the outcome! Problem solved!

I’m thinking I might put a glossy finish on it.

So here’s where we are now… almost done with repainting the checkerboard floor, and after looking at some of their projects, my mind was whirring with ideas for more projects of my own. I decided to have some fun with that table & stool- Chroma Lab style! I’ll be sure to share the photos when it’s done!