No posts for over a year. Going to see if I can create some time to resurrect.
2:28am, 6/4/14 (Mike's birthday was 6/2, he would've been 72...happy belated Mike!)
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Making Yogurt
"Nourishing Traditions" author Sally Fallon sparked Americans to renew their goals for eating healthy, as "Guava Jam" innovator Peter Moon rekindled the appreciation of Hawaiian music. Following clips are from Nourishing Traditions.
A healthy adult human harbours some 100 trillion bacteria in his gut alone. ...They (diseases) are, rather, the chronic illnesses that are now, at least in the rich world, the main focus of medical attention. For, from obesity and diabetes, via heart disease, asthma and multiple sclerosis, to neurological conditions such as autism, the microbiome seems to play a crucial role. ....Besides heart disease and type-2 diabetes, Dr. Nicholson also thinks several auto-immune diseases, in which the body's immune system attacks healthy cells, involve the microbiome. - Economist Aug 18, 2012.
So, we make our own yoghurt, kefir, fermented drinks and vegetables like traditional cultures did and still do.
Hawaii Fresh whole milk is the best I could find (do not use ultra-pasturized) which makes the tastiest plain yoghurt for my pallet. Voskos is the Greek yoghurt brand I use to start the first batch of homemade yoghurt—save a tablespoon or two of your best homemade to add as starter to the next batch.
Steps:
Heat milk, quantity is determined by your own consumption, to 180° to destroy any pathogens. Stir to keep from burning to pan bottom, humming while you work.
Remove from heat and allow to cool down to ~110°. I put pan in the sink and run cold water next to it so it cools down in about 5 minutes.
Transfer milk to a glass container that gives good surface area and can be covered (anaerobic bacteria are at work). Add in around a couple of tablespoons or so of good, plain yoghurt to the warm milk. Stir in.
The bacteria needs warmth to proliferate and make fermentation happen. Sally Fallon's book instructs maker to put covered container in an oven with a pilot light going or somewhere else where heat can get up to 150°. I put my container on top of my toaster oven, covered, and set the temp on constant low. It doesn't get up to 150°, but it gels. Bacteria are good little guys; they can handle variation. During the summer, it takes an overnight to get liquid to a loose jello state. Once you chill it in the refrigerator, it gets to the firmer jello state close to the store-bought consistency. Because store-bought yoghurt has age and shipping conditions against it, as a home maker, you are far more likely to get many more healthy and viable bacteria.
Keep practicing and you will find methods that bring the taste that appeals to you. Next: kefir, which has many more friendly bacteria and requires milk kefir grains to get your milk fermenting to your taste. Another clip from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
U.H. Fall Semester 2010, Relief Printmaking
"Relief" ink is on high surfaces.
"Intaglio" ink is in low surfaces.
"Stencil" ink goes thru gaps in stencil.
"Lithograph" metal with charged/uncharged areas.
6-700A.D. paper is in Europe where printing became modernized/industrialized.
"Singular Matrix"
"Multi-matrix" / color
"Expanded pratice Monoprint"
Demo - Litho ink out of can, "skim" top with knife, transfer to slab and work with knife. Miracle Jell is reducing agent if ink is "stiff," to make "loose" depending on use: large prints usually will have stiffer inks for detail. "Viscosity"
"Brayer" = roller has a resting position; use to keep roller round.
"Slab" is surface ink is rolled on, glass, plastic, etc.
"Skin" pieces of dried ink; need to be picked out of ink.
"Manage ink supply" roll out a very little at a time and freewheel roller to even the ink on surface.
Roller Press needs to be adjusted no more than one turn per side so roller won't torque. Note the Horizontal/vertical numbers which read like a fraction. 3/4
"Blanket" evens press pressure on block. Paper where image will transfer is on press platform, (may be "packing" one or two other pieces of paper under it, if more cushion needed for a desired effect). There should be a newsprint paper above the block to protect ink from getting on blanket.
Press roller adjustments should be "hand tight."
When turning project into roller, start roller going by hand so it doesn't make a hard bump that might shift work. "Bearers" are leading/trailing pieces of wood to help press roller go smoothly over inked wood.
Smooth or textured papers. Rives BFK 22x30 (3 sheets), 100% cotton archival, and Rives lightweight for class.
After printing - Keep notes on print set-up to duplicate (sharpie on block).
"Ghost print" - print on newsprint to get ink off bloc, the strip with paint thinner and rags that need to go into red can after use. Carve after dry.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
3-D Composition, Spring 2010
Bdelloid Rotifer's innards are taking shape, as in 3-D, during this home class time. Taking some license with colors in keeping with using recycled. So far bag colors come from Great Harvest, Fanatis pita bread, Alvarado St. Bakery flax bread, and Plaskolite plexiglass sheet protector. The "eyes" and stomach are Xmas tissue. Her seltzer water bottle "foot" is in place.
3-D Composition, Spring 2010
Bdelloid Rotifer innards have a design flaw: in attempts to use recycled materials as much as possible, the lateral intellarium canals cut and pasted from a bread bag, fell out of place when weights were removed. Elmer's School Paste—a bottle on hand for years—would not hold the rolled plastic pieces in place. In the photo, the "spine" of the rotifer has gut organs layout painted in acrylic, from small containers of colors purchased from Wal-Mart, originally used to paint drawer pulls during my apartment renovation.
The roitfer is looking....spare, at this point. It has to have rolls and folds like the Pillsbury doughboy, only clear, not fleshy.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
3-D Composition, Spring 2010
Bdelloid Rotifer construction. How to do? It's a segmented, clear skinned, water-dweller. Some bdelloids have yellowish-orange organs, 2 red eyes and dark spots in their upper chest and foot regions. How to make their skin? How to support? How to make colored organs? A rotifer stand?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100128142130.htm
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/bdelloid_rotifers_-_80_million_years_without_sex.php
Draw a likeness on paper. Assembled used newspaper box window plexi, used for inner core support. Clear saran wrap for innards; 2L seltzer bottle for outer segments. Drag out acrylics and some brushes. Will paint adhere to clear wrap? Does it come in colors?
3-D Composition, Spring 2010
Dbdelloid Rotifers - tiny, leach-like creatures found in mud and water pools, have survived for ~80 million years without sex. Now, here's a creature worth exploring! Watching a NPR, Science Friday video of their asexual evolution—made for non-scientific consumption—got me hooked on making a mock-up of same.
Compiled a small sheaf of printable information on rotifers that leaves one admiring these females who have existed fine-thank-you-very-much for a very long time without a man around. Various posts by readers, including musing whether or not these asexuals tend propagate in water features around Catholic churches, makes learning even more enjoyable by adding to the scientific data, asking pertinent questions or just being silly.
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