15 posts tagged “kombucha”

I did another batch of Kombucha yesterday, which is starting to be more routine since I have done it so many times now.  Funny that the first few times I made it I had to anxiously check the recipe every few minutes, and now I hardly think about it as I'm doing it.  Yesterday, however, I had to improvise a bit when I discovered that I was completely out of sugar (I'm sure I made a mental note to buy more the last time I brewed and used it all up, but apparently that note didn't make it out of my brain in time).  I decided instead of running to the store quickly (hey, I was still in my jammies) to use brown sugar, which was just sitting there in the cabinet wasting away.  I'm sure the recipe will still work, as I read on a KT website that any sweetened beverage can be used to brew Kombucha, but I'm a little nervous about the flavor in the end result.  Will just have to wait and see...

Although I haven't been online lately, I have been up to my usual pursuits.  That is, brewing kombucha tea and photographing my silly cat.  My latest KT venture was to add frozen cranberries before letting the bottles sit in the refrigerator, and the result was a gorgeous red.  They taste good, too, without being overwhelmingly fruity.  The first photo was taken on the day of bottling:

And then after five days of settling in the fridge:
Pretty. 
Gion pretty much hid from my family when they visited my apartment, but managed to show her sweet side when my mom came alone.  I don't think she hates my brother and sister, she just prefers a small group.  Like, two people or so. 
Her latest hobby has been to track the moths that get stuck in between the apartment windows and partial screens outside.  She waits patiently for a victim:
When a moth stumbles foolishly into her trap she pounces:
...only to be stymied by the fact that a pane of glass separates her from the moth:
Which all leads, inevitably, to embarrassment:
Poor thing.  If only I lived in one of those apartments with a view of the Telegraph Hill parrots!!!  I don't know if she could handle the excitement...

A couple of months ago I caught the beginning of Pee-wee's Big Adventure on TV, but didn't get to watch the whole thing (I was babysitting and the parents came home).  Anyway, I found it a lot funnier than I did when I saw it the first time, and I thought about buying it but eventually forgot all about it.  Then the other night I had the irresistible urge to watch it again, but the one copy at the book store was maddeningly nowhere to be found.  SO today I finally broke down and sought it out at another store.  Yay!!  While I was watching it I remembered that I used to own a talking Pee-Wee doll (gawd I wish I still had that thing!), and even managed to dig up an old photo:
(btw this looks a little weird because I don't own a scanner, so I had to take a digital photo)

While I was looking through old photos I happened upon one that my grandma took of Gion back before she had entered my life, when she was still a Chicago girl.  She had had a litter of kittens shortly before my grandma adopted her from an animal shelter (aged about one year old), and judging from her huge teats in this photo I think it must have been taken right around that time:
Also, the date on the photo is incorrect, I think it must have been taken around 2000 or '01.  And I don't know whatever happened to Gion's kittens, but it would be nice to think that they are out there somewhere. 
Oh, and I thought this was pretty, a bottle of Kombucha tea with blueberries and spirulina:
Of course, before I drank it I shook it a little to unsettle the spirulina, and it all turned blackish green.  Not so attractive, but supremely tasty!

I made good use of my spare time today, unlike most of my days off.  First I did two loads of laundry, then walked down to the wharf to buy a new glass jar at Cost Plus.  I took a touristy turn on the way there and walked down Lombard street, which was about as much of a non event as I expected.  I did see this cute little park on Hyde street, though:

Apparently the woman who owned the house that used to stand on this lot bequeathed her property to the city, with the stipulation that it be made into a park.  Cool. 
After Cost Plus I walked to Whole Foods (stopping briefly to give directions to some French tourists... usually I am grumpy about giving directions but they were super friendly and after all I was at Fisherman's Wharf).  Then I stopped at home for an hour or so to hang out with Gion and read my magazine:
I was due to meet Andrew and Katie at 6, so I had just enough time to get a coffee at Quetzal and walk down Polk street to check out this awesome little store.  They are a stationery/knickknack/clothing store.  I bought a new dress :)
Sadly, or maybe not, we ended up not going to the Bayview to watch a basketball game.  I guess Andrew's friend kind of flaked or something.  I wasn't too disappointed.  Instead we had dinner at a taqueria in the Castro and hung out at Andrew's.  Still fun.  Oh and I also brewed a new batch of Kombucha tea.  Very productive.

Wednesday is always my longest day of the week, 9 1/2 hours today.  BUT it is sometimes the most enjoyable work day of the week, as it's the day of the baby's music class with the cutie music teacher (who today told me I have a pretty singing voice!  Hot!)  After class the kids' mom dropped big sister off with me and the baby at the park, and we spent about two hours there eating a packed lunch and generally basking in the sun.  I was talking to another nanny, and we agreed that, on a sunny day, nannying is the most awesome job ever.  The day wasn't totally flawless, mostly because big sister is dealing with an upset stomach and had a bit of a diaper explosion during her nap, if you know what I mean.  Honestly, though, I am almost immune to being grossed out by poop at this point.  I was actually so thrilled about her napping for a change that I was willing to deal with the mess. 
On Monday my coworker from the book store lent me the MGMT cd I so desperately wanted, and today I played it for the kids... they seemed to like it.  It was a departure from the classic rock radio that we usually listen to, but luckily their musical tastes are pliable.  Since, you know, they're babies.  This was our favorite song of the day:

Given that it was such as fantastically sunny day today (and also that I miraculously managed to get out of my house by noon) I walked back to George Sterling Park, which Andrew and I discovered a couple of weeks ago on the top of Russian Hill.  I sat on a bench in the sun, drank a bottle of homemade Kombucha tea, listened to The Magic Position and read my book Good Germs, Bad Germs.  In other words, I was in heaven.  Later on I walked down to Polk street to browse all of my favorite little shops, then it was on to the local cafe.  How is it that my quality of life is so dramatically different only because the sun is out?  Anyway, I am so loving this little park, from which there are typical but still awesome views in every direction.

Usually I have my Nalgene bottle of green smoothie with me whenever I'm out, but I was all out of greens this morning so I brought one of my little KT bottles.  And let me tell you, on a sunny day in the park it was the perfect beverage...

First of all, I slept a lot.  When I did manage to roll out of bed I made a new batch of kombucha:

I made three ginger and three super greens.  It's not a huge yield, so I'm going to eventually go buy another jar to replace the one I broke, so I can do two batches at a time.  Anyway, after that I alphabetized my picture book collection:
Then I met Andrew at my local cafe, and later on we went over to his new place of residence to make cookies and watch his favorite movie:
I really can't believe it took me so long to see this movie!  I also can't believe I ate cookies for dinner... urghhh.  Still, not a bad way to spend a day...

So, I was preparing a new batch of Kombucha tea over the weekend and made the fatal mistake of pouring boiling water into my newest KT jar.  And, well, guess what happened?

Luckily Gionna wasn't nearby, because boiling water spilled everywhere.  I was feeling pretty sick over the weekend and had just dragged myself out of bed to prepare the new KT brew, and I was in no mood to deal with a flood.  What could I do, though... I guess I was asking for trouble by not waiting for the water to cool down.  I definitely won't make that mistake again, as I don't have an endless supply of glass jars at my disposal.

Well, not in the way that is usually meant these days.  Today I walked over to Rainbow Grocery with the sole purpose of buying a new toothbrush (I'm particular about my brand of toothbrush, what can I say?) but of course I couldn't walk all the way there and only get one thing.  So I was wandering around looking for some kind of snacky thing and I happened upon the aisle with all of the "superfood" supplements.  I remembered that I wanted something green to add to my Kombucha tea, and I ended up with two jars of freeze dried algae; one Hawaiian spirulina and one Klamath Lake blue-green algae.  This is pretty much the stuff that's in the "Multi Green" GT's Kombucha, which is my favorite flavor.  I had already drunk several bottles from my latest batch, but I had four left to experiment on.  I used 1/4 teaspoon of each powder in every bottle, and luckily with this stuff a little goes a long way since it is F-ING EXPENSIVE.  Oh well.  I think what I bought today should last me a while if I'm careful.  Of course, now that I know how much this stuff costs I feel guilty for abandoning the Klamath Lake algae that my mom bought for me after I went to Gabriel Cousens' Tree of Life center in Arizona several years ago.  I was very depressed and not enthusiastic about my health back then, so it seemed pointless to be taking supplements.  But anyway, we'll leave all that in the past...

 

Phew, what a relief!  Today I bottled my first batch of Kombucha tea!  I had added some extra sugar a few days ago to help it along, and it really made a huge difference in the appearance of the scoby.  I mean, you should have seen the fizzing and frothing that went on when those two spoons of sugar went into the jar!  Here's a taste:

Anyway, the scoby thickened up considerably in a few days, and I think it turned out excellent considering the frigid climate inside my apartment.
So I was ready to bottle, except that I still needed a funnel.  I tried to find a metal one (still feeling guilty about plastic after reading the article "Plastic Ocean" in the Best American Science & Nature Writing 2007) but failed, so I gave in and bought a goddamn plastic one.  Anyway, my first batch yielded four bottles of KT, with a little bit left over to help start the next batch:
I still have to let them sit in the refrigerator for about five days until the yeast fully digests the sugar (I did taste it and it's still pretty sweet, not quite the vinegary taste I've come to love and cherish), and that digestion process will produce the carbonation, if I'm not mistaken.  Good old yeast!  On a slightly related note, I made another Kombucha friend the other day, when one of the new cashiers at work saw me drinking it on my lunch break and started telling me that his mom used to know someone who made a bacterial drink using "some kind of dough that you leave in milk" (??).  Doesn't really sound like something I'd like to try, but I find it so funny that I continue to run into people everywhere who are also into Kombucha.  I even managed to steer my conversation with the new cashier to my new favorite topic, bacteria, and I really don't think he was humoring me when he acted interested in all of the facts about microorganisms that I was rattling off.  What else can I say, but THANK YOU KOMBUCHA!