Recipe for weaselchai
What do I know from chai? I’m a small furry mustelid from Tennessee. I went on YouTube and watched Indians make the stuff. Which is so simple, turns out, the easiest video to follow wasn’t even in English.
Per the instructions, take 2 parts water and 1 part whole milk. Bring it to a simmer, add chai, bubble for three minutes, add sugar and done. If you’ve bought a decent chai mix, that’ll make a very fine drink. There are some nice mixes to be had online.
But what’s the fun in that? What I actually do is boil the water by itself first, including any ‘hard’ ingredients like stick cinnamon or cardamom pods that could use a good boilin’. I let that chunder until I remember it’s on the stove. Then I add the milk and any ‘soft’ ingredients: things like tea that shouldn’t boil too long. Let it all come back to a simmer and then strain into a pre-warmed thermos flask with lots of sugar.
Things that really should be in chai: water, milk, tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger root, sugar.
Things lots of people put in chai: star anise, cloves, peppercorns, orange peel, nutmeg.
Things that can be put in chai: anything. AN-Y-THING. Any spice you like the taste of, any herbal remedy that wants boiling. I know a herbalist who puts turmeric in it. The only error I’ll admit to so far is hops (fine in an herbal tea, too bitter for a sweet chai).
I stole the image from this article on whether it’s okay to re-use tea. It’s an interesting article (and, from the looks of it, a good American tea supplier). Read it if you care.
March 5, 2019 — 8:28 pm
Comments: 6
My cup, let me show you it
I bought a few of these for cheaps on Ebay. They are hand-thrown terra cotta cups, glazed on the inside and unglazed on the outside. They look like what Judah ben Hur would drink his Ovaltine out of.
I’ve been making chai. Not out of chai mix, but out of bits. I am enjoying myself very much, as only a weasel with a chemistry set can. It seemed right to drink it out of one of these. I keep waiting to transmogriphy into Mrs Hyde, but so far it’s just a delicious beverage that makes me piss like a dray horse.
Of all the supposed benefits of multiculturalism, the only ones I appreciate are interesting food, textiles and ceramics.
March 4, 2019 — 10:09 pm
Comments: 8
I like this lady
Neat idea: a crowd-sourced database of historic watercolors. It’s a British charity and they’re just starting, so it isn’t very fleshed out yet, but click the link and you can do a word search of their db.
Before the camera, watercolors functioned just like snapshots. They were quick takes, often by amateurs, usually intended to capture data rather than pretend to great art. There are millions of them in collections high and low, in drawing rooms, museums and ladies’ diaries. This could be an important resource, if they don’t run out of money.
Go have a poke around. It’s fun.
This very skillful portrait miniature turned up on a search of “North Carolina.” She is Mrs John Willis Ellis, smilin’ at you from 1846 and I love her.
Good weekend, all!
March 1, 2019 — 8:27 pm
Comments: 14
Rejoice! It is National Chili Day!
According to the Bean Institute Bulletin, February 28 is National Chili Day. Rejoice!
Betty Crocker is hosting a chili cookoff.
I have now posted two things Uncle B cannot stand: Betty Crocker and fake national holidays dreamed up by marketing types to sell products. w00t!
While we’re at it, here is a bunch of chili recipes on Pinterest. No idea how Uncle B feels about Pinterest, but I hate it. It’s like some horrible maze that you get trapped in and can’t get out of. Or steal pictures from.
February 28, 2019 — 8:25 pm
Comments: 13
Okay, last one
Bette Davis. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. She was 54.
By way of context, for those not keeping track: me, I’ll be 59 in May. I’m not sure whether I’m pleased that I think I’m better preserved than famous movie stars of my age or horrified that I’m substantially older than the iconic old hags of the silver screen.
Also, this week I feel about how she looks. We suspect a virus going around Casa del Badger.
February 27, 2019 — 8:56 pm
Comments: 12
Warming to my theme…
Gloria Swanson was 51 when she played Norma Desmond.
My teenage impression of Norma Desmond, she was a thousand years old. But, thinking about it, it the story works better if she is way too old for a comeback, but not clownishly, ridiculously too old.
God, the makeup didn’t do them any favors, though, did it? Like the way your mom’s high school graduation picture made her look about 42.
Oh, speaking of clownish and ridiculous, I’ll close with Carol Burnett’s Norma Desmond. I don’t recommend looking up any of the skits — too broad, too long and totally belabor the joke — but holy shit the stills of her crack me up every time.
February 26, 2019 — 9:17 pm
Comments: 9
God, that’s so depressing
I am older than Madam Arcati.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Margaret Rutherford, a character actress famous for playing old ladies on account of she was one before she became an actress (she was originally a piano teacher).
Somehow, though, I’d managed to miss the film adaptation of Blithe Spirit. Madam Arcati wasn’t her first film role, but it was her first really successful one (reprising a character she played on stage).
Watched it this weekend and found myself deeply suspicious that the old lady I remembered just didn’t seem that much of an old lady.
She wasn’t yet. She was 53.
Happy Monday, everyone!
February 25, 2019 — 9:04 pm
Comments: 8
Hold me back, boys — I got the chicken jones. Bad.
Today, I talked to a chicken lady. She breeds these things (see arrows).
It’s a Poland bantam. Attentive readers will recall that I WANT ONE OF THESE IN THE WORST WAY. I stole the picture from Your Chickens magazine because I think that’s the color she described to me.
She has them in the incubator now. She’s candled them. They’re kicking. Though she says it takes a little longer to accurately guess the sex of Polands, so it’s going to be two months. At least.
Ordinarily, with Polands, I wouldn’t care if I got a rooster. They look even cooler than the hens. But I don’t think I could bear to have three of the screechy little effers in my garden.
She also does gold partridge pekins, my favorite flavor of pekin. So that’s my fallback.
Two months is perfect. That’s getting on for the beginning of May, when it’ll warm up a little and behbeh chicks can peck around in the grass when it’s sunny.
I AM SO EXCITED, Y’ALL. It’s going to be a long two months. Have a good weekend and dream of little pom pom chickens snoozing in their shells.
February 22, 2019 — 9:01 pm
Comments: 9
I moved the couch tonight
Its last night on earth. Couch is 20+ years old. Uncle B, who works from home, has been sitting at one end of it for that long. The cat threw up on my end a few years ago. That wasn’t the problem; the problem was when I panicked and grabbed a bottle of bleach thinking it was a mild detergent.
Under the couch, under the cushions…just what you might expect. My hands still feel grubby. My left eye will not stop itching.
On the upside, I made 73 pence and didn’t find any dead animals.
So the new sofa comes tomorrow lunch time. It is large and red. I brace myself for the howling when the first cat sharpens the first claw upon it.
February 21, 2019 — 8:46 pm
Comments: 13
Was there supposed to be a super wolf blood moon?
Because there was totally a super wolf blood moon. Or something.
I went to put the recycling out, and the moon was huge and close and a dark, dark red. Never seen anything like it. I ran in for Uncle B, but by the time he got there it was merely orange. Still cool, but not what it was.
The photo is a fake. I stole it and faked it up. Poor old B goes flying out with the camera every time the moon does something cool, but it’s hopeless without a tripod and astronomy rig and all that. It’s not like it would work in black and white anyway.
I tried to find if this thing was predicted. Apparently not, so it was just probably a local ‘particulates in the air’ kind of thing. I did discover that last series of blood moons was tied to a Biblical apocalyptic prophecy.
I guess four years since the last one is long enough to assume it ain’t going to happen after all. Pity. Now the only apocalypse I have to look forward to is Brexit.
February 20, 2019 — 8:46 pm
Comments: 7