Monday, August 29, 2011

Homemade Hard Cider Recipe


Homemade Hard Cider aka the easiest thing you've never made
by Domestic Sundays
 
[Editor's note: This recipe will be featured in our upcoming Hard Cider taste-testing on Sunday, September 4th and the event's Review to follow.]


You need:
  1. Cider: the fresher the better, pasteurized is fine but NO preservatives (they cramp your fermenting style). I found this (in its brew-ready glass jar) in the juice isle in Safeway. Turns out people don't stock up with organic cider when preparing for hurricanes.
  2. Yeast: I use champagne yeast, but you can go for lager or something else entirely (for those in Baltimore, you can find this at Maryland Homebrew in Columbia)
  3. Food for the yeast: I like molasses for its rich flavor, but any kind of sugar will do
  4. A good (one-way) seal: you can get airlocks for cheap at homebrew stores (and the cork to go with them - a piece I've obviously neglected, as evidenced by my saran wrap), but in a pinch, a balloon stretched over the mouth with a small hole will do. The basic goal is to prevent explosions by letting your carbon dioxide out while keeping bacteria from getting in.
If you're feeling fancy:
  • Spices: cinnamon sticks, cloves, fresh ginger root, allspice, lemon juice, cardamom…go crazy!
  • A hydrometer: also available at your favorite homebrew store; chemistry nerds especially love these because a quick dip in your brew before and after will let you know your alcohol composition
  • A funnel: makes life way easier
  • Bleach: people claim sterilizing everything is good for brewing. I'm ambivalent.


    What to do:

    1) On the stove, dissolve your sugar in about 2 cups of your cider. The sugar is mainly there so you can make it taste nice and ferment it a bit more. I added about 1 cup of molasses for my gallon of cider and the hydrometer told me it'll be about 9% alcohol if all goes as planned. Throw your spices in too!

    2) Read your yeast packet and follow its instructions. For mine, I had to add 1/5 of the packet (because I was only making 1 gallon) to some warmish cider and let it sit for 15 minutes.

    3) Dump it all in your big jug.

    4) Seal that bad boy.

    5) Let it sit in a closet for 5-15 days.

    6) Throw it in the fridge overnight.

    7) Put in bottles or just dig in! If you don't drink it all right away, you probably want to keep bottles in the fridge and drink them within a few weeks.

    Sunday, August 28, 2011

    We're now on Facebook!



    We *finally* have a Facebook page!  Click here to 'Like' us.  Once we get 25 fans, we can have our own URL.  Thanks in advance!

    Thursday, August 25, 2011

    The Cost of living GF

    During the week of September 19th, Maryland Hunger Solutions is holding its annual Food Stamp Challenge.  For 7 days, participants will use the average weekly food stamp benefit of $30 per person as their entire budget for food and drink*.

    The goal is to bring a new perspective and greater understanding of the nutritional needs of low-income people in our state. The organization states: "The [Food Supplement Program] is a safety net against hunger, putting healthy food within reach of low-income individuals and families."

    This got me thinking: What about people who require gluten-free food in order to be healthy? I cannot imagine adequately feeding myself for $30/week.  Sure, I could have as much rice and potatoes as I want, but I'd be missing a lot of important nutrients.

    Gluten-free foods are significantly more expensive than their gluten-ful counterparts. According to a study published from our neighbors up north (Stevens & Rashid, 2008):
    • The average unit cost of a GF product is $1.71, while that average for a gluten-containing product is $0.61
    • Gluten-free foods, on average, cost 242% more than regular, gluten containing foods! 
    [I wanted to put a price comparison of a specific product here, but it's surprisingly difficult to find the cost of non-bulk produts online.] 

    By those standards, persons who qualify for food sustenance programs and require a medically-necessary gf diet should be receiving an average of $72/week.  Instead, they are essentially forced to compromise their health--either by eating less in quantity or quality or by forgoing the gluten-free diet.

    One could argue that fruits, meats, and vegetables--which are naturally gf--cost the same for everyone. This is certainly true and part of an ideal healthy diet.  Ideal, however, is not reality, especially in the food deserts that plague Baltimore's lowest income neighborhoods.  A family struggling to put food on the table often won't have the resources to travel for grocercies; they must make do with what's around.  If that means compromising a strictly g-free diet, the potential of needing costly medical services greatly increases.  That $30/week will soon seem like pennies to the government when they're  paying thousands for doctors' visits and medications.

    With that being said, I don't know the solution.  Mobilizing communities to establish bulk-buying co-ops could be a great start to keeping costs down for everyone.  Free produce home- or church-delivery in low-SES communities may also be worth considering.  Do you have any ideas?  Leave it in the comments section!

    *If you would like more information about the Food Stamp Challenge or to sign up to participate, visit their website


    Sunday, August 7, 2011

    Quarter-life changes.

    Let me be the first to welcome my readers to the 2nd quarter-century of my life!  With this impressive milestone comes a new direction in this blog: from now on, I'll be writing in a more personal style.  Think first person, saracasm, biased reactions, and the occaisional interjection of non-gf related tidbits.  Great.

    Anyway, this being my birthday week, I've certainly had my share of gluten free goodies.  Some of the items include:
    •  Chocolate chip cake (a la Sweet Freedom bakery): gf, dairy-free, sugar-free; basically free of anything that might seem tasty.  Except it was tasty.  My friends loved it, my family loved it; I thought it was pretty good but not as good as...
    • Vanilla cake made [not by me] using the Betty Crocker mix:  I was ready to swear off Betty's gf stuff forever, re: the brownie fiasco, but I'm a changed woman.  The deliciousness of this cake even lasted til the next morning, when I ate it for breakfast.  Sorry, Sweet Freedom, but the lessened learned here is that dairy and sugar will always trump non-dairy and non-sugar.
    • Cupcakes, from Sweet Sin 
      • Chocolate peanut-butter
      • Chocolate cheesecake
      • Red Velvet --> Note: I only had a bite of this. And MAN am I glad I did...opens up a whole new world of cake-flavor options.  Frankly, I don't like my desserts to be red. It makes me think there's fruit in it, and fruit has no place in [most of] my dessert.  Turns out the coloring is just from totally unnatural food dye--such a relief.
    German Chocolate cupcake from Sweet Sin (Eaten by friends.)

    The bite of the Red Velvet cupcake was from my most recent trip to Sweet Sin Bakery & Cafe.  A group of us went after the health fair and grueling 3K in Druid Hill Park.  Right after ordering, I changed my mind and decided to veer from my usual--veggie tacos or pizza--and order a 'real entree'.  You see, I've been hesitant to do this, because once you rule out the dishes that taste like coconut (which I don't like), you're left with mains such as mango chicken, lemon sesame chicken, and the day's 'special' (let's call a spade a spade--it's always the special) orange chicken.

    I do not want fruit flavors mixed in with my proteins.

    Anyway, I decided to suck it up and get the orange chicken because it just looked so darn good.  I chose the cabbage mix and sweet potatoes for my 2 sides.  All I can say is, yummy yummy yum yum yum.  Fret not, friends, the orange flavor was very subtle!  Having no idea what the cabbage would be like, I was quite pleased when it turned out to be warm and yellow and spicy.  Overall, the meal was great, and just the right size [for someone with a big appetite, which I have].

    On Monday, I'm off to the gluten-free mecca of NYC!  I am super excited and will be sure to report back on the experience.  For real-time info about where I'm eating, be sure to check out bMoreGlutenFree's twitter!