The Practice of Readymades

Around about the same time the NGA showed an exhibition on Dada we bought a bottle dryer much like the one Marcel Duchamp showed as part of his ongoing experiments with what he called readymades. John had just finished a MFA in sculpture and we were all somewhat obsessed with this show and the thoughtful presentation of the effects of war and the critical stance of Dadaism.

We go to this place in Frederick Maryland that imports wonderful everyday objects from around the world that seem exotic to us here in the States. We have bought a beer house table from Germany that I work on. I plant in old English terra cotta pots–Also many Chinese boxes I use for flower arrangements. Currently we keep cooking-wood in an egg basket they imported from Eastern Europe. I find useful things there, as I am always looking to do flowers in unusual containers.

On one trip John became obsessed with the bottle dryer explaining the sculptural aspect, the Dada symbolism and the relationship of the 1990's to the period in between the two World Wars when Dadaism thrived. John will tell you, you can learn a whole lot more from Duchamp than you can from Plato … I have to say we were all pretty excited about this object in that we thought we had bought a meaningful piece of art for our house. Until recently this object languished in the basement.

The thing the readymades and what Dadaism did so well as a movement was to point to the visual beauty, the ridiculousness, the prosaic and the violence of everyday life. That is to say: it is what it is and isn’t that wonderful and horrible at the same time. The readymades have been described as "an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist."

In an absolute nostalgia for something that never existed for us we expose our post modern tendencies. For us to relate to a bottle dryer as an everyday object was silly. This was an everyday object of Duchamp's France. We were relating to the symbolism of a something that could never be everyday for us. We were relating to a (non)political art movement of the past. Marcel would be laughing at us. For us an everyday readymade object from our surburban Maryland upbringing, (as Jeff Koons exhibits) would probably be something like an upright vacum cleaner...

However as we started Home restauranting and making twice as much kombucha, we have discovered we need this bottle dryer. We reuse wine bottles and mason jars and NOW have a place for them to hang elegantly and dry. Unlike the Artist who peed in Duchamp's urinal a few years ago, our gesture is not symbolic but necessary. We may be getting that last laugh although for our 10 year old, Martin-Lane, this bottle dryer will be an everyday object…

12:32 AM

We are sitting at the kitchen table, the last plates are being washed–a few sheet trays being put away, we congratulate one another for not breaking any glasses—Martin Lane is sound asleep after receiving applause for her efforts… Our bodies are exhausted but there is an exhilarating feeling of a past that can never be present and a future that will never exist… Washington can be a very difficult city to live and work and quite frankly for many a relentlessly thankless place to be–this weekend the Washington we experienced was contrary to the cynical DC we sometimes know… Two Wonderful nights of guests who seemed to be where they wanted to be and were open to letting us take care of them… thank you!

Jackie Maisonneuve is a Corcoran Shool of Art student working on her Senior Thesis in Photo-Journalism. Jackie spent the weekend shooting us working in our home/studio. Here are her efforts:

Practical Application of Twitter

Twitter? I did not think anyone would be interested in what I am doing hourly or for that matter would take the time to read. However, after my third post of what I thought was a mundane picture of Sally Jackson’s goat cheese I received a tweet to keep them coming.

We started with the idea that diners could follow dinners we were specifically preparing for them. It also turns out that wedding parties can follow the production of their flowers. Hopefully we sprinkle in tips and information that others can use. I know I have made new connections that have led to an interview for an Indian publication.

Early this week someone I am cooking for emailed after a tweet of gorgeous eggplant: “Don’t kill me I am allergic to eggplant.” So I guess the practical application of Twitter, for us, is an interaction that rules out a lot of the guessing. When people who you are creating an aesthetic experience for get a glimpse of where you are going and what you are doing, both literally and figuratively, it is inevitable that you will receive feedback. However is it really feedback if the experience has not happened, maybe feedforward… I realize that we are not at the level of interest of Lance Armstrong or the importance of the Iranian situation but we do hope we encourage a few to eat healthy and maybe even plant a garden.

Composting Compost

We wanted to start composting but we had to take into consideration that there are a lot of rats in our neighborhood. Washington DC was built on a swamp and there are many underground creeks and small water ways. So much so that when the DC government began to build the convention center near our house it was suggested to us that we get flood insurance.

Where there is water there are pests and where there is rotting or not rotting food you will find pests. It seems everyone who lives in DC for a long enough time has a 'Rat Story'. Here is ours: When our daughter was still breast feeding one night she was in bed with us and I woke up to slight clatter in the room. I shook John and said there is something in the room. He turned on all the lights and assured me that nothing was there... We have had some recent intruders (rodents) so we were a little on edge. He assured me so we turned off the lights and in about as long as it took for him to say "don't worry" a RAT jumped on his head! He sprung up and chased that rat down the hall throwing books from the night stand in the direction of the beast. When John returned we determined that there were no funds to spend the night at the Four Seasons and the morning was coming soon, our restaurant was going to need us. So we barred the door, put a towel between the threshold and the door and slept with the lights on. When we woke the next morning we were horrified to see where the rat had given birth in the TV room and after talking to the exterminator we found out that the Mama rat was hungry and was interested in the smell of breast milk. This was very creepy but made sense to us in that we had no food in the house for we had a restaurant full of food at that time and there was no need to stock the larder at home. The beast had chosen the wrong house. John and the exterminator convinced me that it was only a mouse but now I know otherwise. About four years ago we had the side of our yard dug up and sheet metal put in–never to see a rat indoors since.

So when we became more serious about our garden we wanted to start composting. Our concern was directed to the quality of life issue of getting pest free sleep. We discovered an incredibly fun solution in the worm farm. A worm farm is a multi layered housing unit about the size of a milk crate. Fill it with rich deep dark soil let your large juicy supple worms go and feed them the peelings or compostable waste from your kitchen. The worms eat the kitchen waste and create castings which are the richest compost available. There is a spigot on the worm farm so you can drain out the juice into a watering can and pour the concentrated nutrients onto your plants. Easy, fast, effective method if space is an issue.

More recently we took over the abandoned lot next door to grow tomatoes and greens for our neighborhood. Encouraged by this our neighbors asked us to think about the larger lot behind us on Marion St. (more about this in an upcoming blog post). SO more compost is necessary, we went to Greater Goods on U street near 17th street and bought a Sun–Mar 200 Garden Composter. The neat thing about this composter is that it is a barrel hooked up to an apparatus that allows the thing to spin on its side. This means that the usable compost accumulates in a center compartment giving you the option to use how ever much or little you need–you don't need to use the whole batch or wait for the whole batch to be ready. And yes it is sealed so it will not attract rats!

We are having fun stuffing this contraption with garden, kitchen and flower waste and spinning the barrel. Making compost is a lot like making bread, that is to say that the similarities lie in the marrying of raw ingredients in order to let them rise/ripe into a substance that cultivates a metamorphoses and that product is food.

By the way I am giving a talk that I will post later at Greater Goods titled: July is Not Too Late to Plant a Garden!

Pulling Corks

Our wine guy, Tom Kiszka, dropped by this afternoon with his selections for a private Home Restaurant and a Nomadic Restaurant (in a home in Great Falls) we are doing this weekend. We have people drop by all the time delivering flowers, wine, fish, beef–the great thing about our situation is most of the people we work with are experts in their field. Lucky for us we deal with small business so it is usually these experts who deliver the goods. Some days our home is like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where everyone from astronauts to bakers to shoemakers show up to share their knowledge–only at our place it's a marine biologist, a scientist, an Eco-farmer, an occasional Amish farmer with driver, and Tom–an oenologist.

Tom is wearing Merrell sandals, jeans and a polo shirt. There is no pretension with Tom and unless you engage him, he is in and out–He is busy! He walks in the kitchen and we immediately thank him for the wines he sends us–making us look so good! Our last dinner consisted of five selections, one for each course, where only one was red. We tell him how the guests were raving about the wine and how most would have never chosen a white if they were left on their own. He says that is great, that is what he hopes for, stretching others experience. Strangely enough he says he has to force people to try whites all the time. He uses phrases like 'Pull Corks' and 'they are really out there' when describing winemakers, retailers or restaurants who are pushing the envelope. "Indie Stores NO chains, if my clients find these wines in the usual places they are pissed!"

You definitely get the feeling that Tom likes being apart of something underground, but something underground that has been going on for hundreds of years: "Small Artisan Wine is what we do". He uses terms like bio-dynamic, beyond organic, viticulture and we start to feel like we are talking to our farmer friends. The language is that of gardeners and farmers involved in a high stakes game with everything from government regulation to large corporations slowing them down–sound familiar.

Once we got Tom to sit down–he tells stories. One of a patch of chalk in the region of Champagne that grows Chardonnay for large producers, one day this grape grower figures that he is sitting on something special that's being wasted in some respect--this guy starts to produce his own domain by saving the best grapes for himself and sending all the rest to large Champagne makers--Jacques Lassaigne, Les Vignes De Montgueux is what we served with a cherry pie at our last dinner. Another story is of a winemaker who in the mid nineteen seventies adopted a Bio-dynamic approach after doctors told him pesticides were killing him. Most thought he was crazy, but thirty five years later, this winemaker is extremely healthy and his land has no rot or fungus and the wine is amazing.

Tom says you learn these stories by visiting the vineyards and then begin to understand why a wine is the way it is–when for example the maker explains the reasons why grass is grown in between the vines you are seeing and tasting–things start to make sense. When you experience these artisans in their habitat, when you can smell the soil, you realize that winemakers have always been Farmers. Tom brings the small farmer's work to us way before anyone knew who Michael Pollan was.

Tom is an importer and a distributor, his clients are retailers and restaurants, "my clients travel with me and the best wine stores pull corks--educate! French and Italian labels are difficult..." He says the first thing you should do if you want to get into wine, is find a good retailer. A good retailer pours wine and teaches varietals and regions. How comforting to hear a wine expert tell you that a label is difficult! "You need to taste!" he says and the only way to demystify is to let go of all the inhibition and taste–practice.

We asked: Do you think there is a disconnect between wine AND food within the way Americans practice wine drinking? "If you pop open a Cabernet with 16% Shiraz and you down it before dinner, I don't know how you taste anything. Look, I don't open wine just to drink and when you visit good wine makers and do tastings, there is always food." His basic point is that wine "shows" best with food and is best enjoyed incorporated into a practice of eating and drinking, not separated.

What Tom does for us is match our food with his wine. We asked him to walk us through this process "the first thing I do is look for an ingredient that point towards a varietal–mushrooms and Pinot Noir–greatest match–if no other ingredient cancels–difficult when ingredients are at odds" but Tom likes this challenge and seems to have an eye for singularities and the tensions that create complex flavors yet are simple enough to stand on their own. The absolute singular encounter of a wine maker AND a vineyard AND a year AND an ingredient AND another ingredient...Tom wants to demystify the practice of drinking wine, through education and an understanding of the process, that wine making is an organic process and most of all that wine and food are a practice that are learned...

We plan on having Tom join us this fall for a dinner or two at our Home Restaurant...We are sure it will be interesting.

Places you can find Tom's Potomac Selections:

Arrow Wine, Arlington, Va
Chesapeake Wine, Baltimore, Md
Cork Wine Bar, Washington, DC
Barrel Thief, Richmond, Va

Wood Burning Grill

Photo: Martin-Lane Cochran

About 15 years ago Johns father gave us this amazing wood burning grill from The Grillery. He had ordered it from the J. Peterman Catalog before the current online incarnation of the formerly well drawn catalog. We didn't know what we had, this quirky stainless steel box with the contraption mechanics of a gopher trap. You build a wood fire in the bottom grate, then you crank the grilling surface up away from the fire or down towards the heat. There is also a rotisserie attachment that is ideal for poultry. A primitive effective technology. The cranks look like something from an old submarine or something you would find on a firetruck and there are piano like wires that guide the grilling surface near and away from the fire. Really the perfect way to control heat while cooking on an open fire: proximity! More importantly as soon as you have fire you can start cooking--No waiting for coals to get just right.

This fourth we grilled kobucha squash, corn and small onions that cooked in tin foil. We used hickory wood that wasn't too strong for our veggie burgers made of shelling beans from our garden, kidney beans and bulgar wheat. I was very concerned that the burgers would stick but Not only did they not stick we got gorgeous grill marks as the burgers crisped up yet stayed moist inside.

When we had the restaurant we where so into the purity of everything and controlling variables that I think we may have resisted a few technologies that could have been helpful... Some even sitting in our backyard.

The Grillery will make it's first Professional appearance at a sold out home restaurant we are doing this Saturday July 11...

Capital Fringe '09

The Capital Fringe Festival begins on July ninth and although we live downtown, we have only gone to a couple of shows over the years. Besides the Shakespeare Theater, we really have never gotten into the Washington performance art scene. I don't know why the Indie art scene and the Indie food scene does not crossover as much as it should–many of the same issues are at play–like Not being over run by large machines churning out crap, be it Hollywood or McDonald's. Maybe its because performance seems more open to experimentation/creativity and food seems more concerned with authenticity/purity. Whatever the difference it seems a shame that we view experimentation as a negation of authenticity and not a continuation of a tension that is 'always already' in play. What's at stake is really an issue of consumption and whether we are OK with ingesting factory generated art or food. Hollywood understands the connection, in that product placement and happy meals are a part of the content of big budget production as much as anything. It is just a fact that many food people don't support local art the way they support local farms and it really is a question of nutrition, be it mental or physical.

One person I know of who has been active in both arenas and has tried to close the gap is Paul Ruppert of Warehouse Theater and Room 11. We asked Paul to give us ten things not to miss at this years fringe festival:

5 at the Warehouse

TITUS X

THE LOST ONES, by SAMUEL BECKETT

HERBIE: POET OF THE WILD WEST

THE TERRORISM OF EVERY DAY LIFE

THE COMIC ROACH

5 at other venues:

4:48 PSYCHOSIS

A TACTILE DINNER

CABARET COO COO

PEPE! The Mail Order Monkey Musical

VINCENT

We would like to also add we have one friend acting in a play another friend wrote: Cover Me In Humanness

Grassroots Eco-Friendly Foods

This morning we went to the Dupont Circle Farmers Market looking for Bev of Eco-Friendly Foods. We need some beef for two upcoming parties and Eco comes to Dupont every Sunday. It seems the amiable and intense Bev was looking to spread the word: "July 5th is Interdependence Day"--Interdependence is Bev's strategy to save family farms and advance best practices in raising food. He says that Michael Pollan told him, his model is perfect but in this corporate climate it will never succeed. "Too socialist" we quipped in a nod to everything opposing corporate climate tagged as socialist. Bev's response was socialism is exactly what you have in this subsidized farming culture. Defiant, Bev decided to stay in DC in order to remain in 'the belly of the beast' . His business acts as a marketing and distribution service as well as a processing center for local farms. Very simply put, Farmers need to farm and don’t have the time, space or money to keep or run processing plants, distribution services or market themselves. Bev has a state of the art USDA regulated processing plant as well as a completely non-subsidized private model for advancing the cause of the family farm. Bev bundles family farms together, processes their meats and markets and sells their food at farmers markets and wholesale to chefs. For Bev his work is a matter of national security, he says he fears what is happening to the food supply more than Al Qwaeda. He also makes the point that thinking about what we eat should be our first healthcare issue... from Agriculture to Treasury to Energy to the EPA there is no corner of Washington that this issue does not touch. We need to think in terms of food culture and not in terms of food regulation, is how Bev put it.

The last time we saw Michael Pollan he said that Obama intimated to him, 'Show me the Movement' as it pertains to changing our food supply. Pollan says that Obama needs a movement, a political force to point to in order to force congress, as well as his party, to go against corporate interest. Grassroots or Grassfed, Eco-Friendly farms is trying to get something started and if you want to be a part of it start by visiting him next Sunday at Dupont. Ask him what he thinks--he is looking for a posse!

As Bev writes on his website, “Together we can make a sound and sustainable difference in our world. You're not just a customer or a blog reader. You're a part of our story, too. Thanks for being here.”

Martin Lane Perspective

While we were in the throws of pulling off our last Home Restaurant.... ML grabbed John's camera and started shooting... The perspective of a ten year old watching her parents run around like crazy! Here is what she came up with... AMAZING!

Declaration of Independence

Every fourth of July we go down to the mall to hear a reading of the Declaration of Independence. John has been studying that Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, often referred to himself as a follower of the ancient philosopher Epicurus.

Here is John on what that exactly means:

President Jefferson who was known to have eaten little in order to truly enjoy what he had, lived by a mantra of moderation and ate mostly vegetables with meat only as a side dish. Jefferson's home, Monticello , to this day is a fabulous garden flush with juicy peaches and a variety of eggplants. All three of these qualities point to a true Epicurean and not the Epicurean-ism of the food channel. Epicurus was known to eat mostly barley cakes and water–a little cheese was a huge indulgence. Like Jefferson, the philosopher known to have advanced a notion of 'what is needed is simple to procure' was an avid gardener and Epicurus even held school in the "Garden."

Epicurean-ism practices a hedonism that can be summarized by the idea that 'the greatest pleasure is to eat when hungry'. Epicureans vowed to limit their pleasures and by doing so opening themselves up to the greatest amount of pleasure. Pleasure for this ancient philosophy was what should lead one AND pleasure must be something determined by the individual in an active practice of discerning what would cause the least amount of anxiety. To eat when hungry seems simple enough but not so commonly understood in contemporary America. For Epicurus pleasure should be an active practice thereby the limiting of pain. The thing to keep in mind is that Epicurus is encouraging us not to let hunger or pain lead us for this would position desire as a lack and pleasure as a stop gap measure. From this limited perspective, pleasure is always in the immediate and never involved in a larger practice. The object of any practice should be pleasure.

The term Epicurean is probably the most misused tag in the history of western thought and has been abused by many competing schools, in a rush to disavow a school, for declaring any form of religious mythology the greatest evil (Jefferson as an act of Epicurean-ism also wrote a secular bible and viewed Jesus as a thinker not a prophet).

Epicurus stands within the series of thinkers that posits desire as productive, a positive notion that produces life–a precursor to Darwin. For anything necessary is easy to get and anything that is not easy to get causes anxiety. Anxiety is to be avoided at all cost and a practice that eliminates anxiety is the highest form of hedonism.

Above everything Epicurus held "Friendship" and believed that public life was a waste of time that would only lead to anxiety management–interesting to think that Jefferson declared his love for Epicurus after he left office... Something to think about as we celebrate our individual forms of patriotism.

Chuppah

When I became a full time florist in 2002 the last thing I thought I would have to figure out, would be constructing temporary mini-tents in which people could get married under. The chuppah is used traditionally in Jewish weddings and symbolizes the home a couple will make together. Chuppahs can be free standing constructions or can be held by symbolic/significant participants of the wedding party. John and I were married under a chuppah held by our brothers, Kenan and Alexander as well as two dear friends Derrick and Melvin. Although part of the Jewish tradition, I am seeing chuppahs used in many non-religious ceremonies. For example I am Jewish and John is not and since we were not religious we were free to appropriate the symbolism and content from wherever felt good–we used a chuppah, broke a glass and were married by a dear friend and long time family astrologer, Sandra ( also a minister recognized by the state of Maryland).
However in my floral practice the free standing chuppah has been a challenge for me. I am not very handy with power tools. I can put anything together using pins, string, tape or even the occasional staple gun but sawing, drilling and bolting always seemed daunting.

In June I had a wedding on top of the Newseum downtown, the couple wanted a sparse simple elegant chuppah to match the construction of this ultra contemporary building. After multiple trips to Home Depot to scout out material just to see if this was possible for me to build, I decided I needed to finally get professional help–put an end to the free standing chuppah angst.

I called my friend Darrell a former professional skateboarder turned carpenter. He was excited about the project although he had just had a co-worker put a nail through the bottom of his foot. Darrell explained that being a former skateboarder he had broken more bones in his body than he could count and that a nail through the foot was not much more than a good excuse to enjoy pain killers. Darrell started making drawings and within two days we had this structure of a cube, a cube without walls in our backyard. He had designed it with metal slats running from post to post to insure stability and piece of mind that our temp tent would not fly off the top of the Newseum and onto the intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues. He also created a system of easy take apart and put together bolts for multiple uses in various places. This was like magic to me, in that unless I can hold sticks together by sinking them in a vase with rocks it is not going to happen!

The painter Francis Bacon created geometrical cube-like structures in his paintings. This gesture created a psychological space and framed his abstract portraits. The chuppah does just this as a symbolism of the home a couple will create and a temporary structure. The Jews were originally a nomadic people, malleable in that they could pick up and put down almost anywhere. This symbolism implies an open ended concrete union, abstract in a very real manifestation of home and that home implies nothing more than a shared perspective–a psychological space.

We love this structure in our backyard in the between weddings.

foie gras

Shaun Hill is one of John's chefs and mentors, a master chef and a Irish man who spoke beautiful French and listened to Gregorian chants as he drove his car, literally, over the moors of Dartmoor looking for short cuts home after a long night of cooking. Southwest England was where they met and where Gidleigh Park Country House Hotel was located. A mock Tudor mansion that stood at the end of a winding hedged lane, Gidleigh was a magical place in the late 1980's where you could run into Andrew Loyd Weber or Pete Townsend. Sylvia Plath's Ted Hughes lived down the road and in the local village of Chagford the population was under a hundred yet there where four pubs.

Gidleigh Park was where Shaun Hill made the most beautiful Foie Gras terrines. Marinating well cleaned livers overnight in Armagnac and Port, this almost curing process left you with a product that needed almost no cooking at all. Foie gras is mostly fat so it is crucial to cook slow and low when making a terrine (quite the opposite when sauteing: cook hot and fast). Placed in a bain marie and barely cooked at 200 degrees until the fat just started to melt, Shaun would pull out of the oven and then sit weights on top as the terrine would cool in the water it was cooked in while the pieces of liver melded together.

At Rupperts we made quite a few Foie Gras terrines. I guess the question is given our shift toward more health and ecocentric practices is: If Rupperts were open today would we serve Foie Gras? The city of Chicago has banned it. PETA constantly protests its production. I can only guess that Shaun would find this question ridiculous. A chef in Europe at the level of a Shaun Hill has many times over earned enough, lets call them, "sustainable" credits to be granted the pleasure of working with a completely non-factory farmed product such as the Foie Gras that a Shaun Hill would be working with. Chefs in Europe at this level have been practicing so called slow food, so called locavorism, so called non-factory farming not for any reason other than that they are best practices and produce Superior meals.

Today we started a terrine for a Rupperts guest. They asked us to make them a Terrine to go with a 'glorious' Sauternes they are drinking this weekend. And even though we really enjoyed making this and the livers are excellent from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, I don’t think we would serve Foie Gras if Rupperts were open today. The reason I think more than anything is that eating Foie Gras just doesn't fit with what we are doing now, maybe just a bit too complicated... although I do think we need to find away to get more pleasure into our politics, especially our food politics.

The French have a saying that "eating is learned" and that pleasure is a practice.

Sno-Cone

In July of 2008 we referenced snow cones from Austin. In January we posted about vanilla snow ... Recently we traveled out to Annandale, Virginia to taste a delicious Korean shaved ice at Sheilas Bakery. Well, inspired by these interactions we decided we needed to find a way to make it snow during our nasty DC summers. We found this machine that shaves the most amazing ice. The fact of the matter is that I never thought we would use this thing for anything other than snow-cone parties in the middle of a Washington August heatwave... Well while setting up prep list and menus for 1508 #2 John suggested that instead of making a lavender sorbet why not make lavender infused ice and then shave with our fancy machine. This worked with amazing effect as the delicate texture of the shaved ice connected with subtleness of the lavender. To finish the dish I used local strawberries and cashew cream.... At 1508 #3 we shaved frozen chocolate made with melted bittersweet chocolate that had water and cocoa powder wisked in and was then frozen. To finish this ice we served a slice of early ripening fig that we found in our garden... We seem to have found our greatest successes in our be open to adapting almost anything all the way up to the last minute prior to being served...

kombucha

Kombucha has been used as an alternative medicine for the treatment of cancer... Something we fed my mother among other things during her struggle with the disease...It is funny that at the time I made fun of kombucha and now John and I drink this daily…although Martin-Lane now makes fun of us… Kombucha is a tea made with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast sometimes referred to as a SCOBY or a mushroom... What happens is you brew a tea--I prefer a green tea-- add sugar "to taste" (you need some sugar for the fermentation to occur) let cool and float a SCOBY in it for about two weeks (cover with a towel so the mixture can breathe)... after two weeks you have a fermented tea and a baby SCOBY in addition to the Mother you originally floated...separate the baby from the mother and set the SCOBYs aside... Now you bottle your tea in air tight jars, I use old wine bottles with air tight stoppers. Then let bottles sit in a dry airy cool place for two more weeks... Refrigerate and drink when cool... What you have is a carbonated tea that is full of good bacteria, pro-biotic similar, to yogurt...

Kombucha has been brewed for hundreds of years and is believed to have originated somewhere around the Russian and Chinese border. Only in that last five or six years have we seen it being sold commercially. In the seventies I can remember going to more than one friends house and seeing these creatures growing in large jars on kitchen counters.

John gave me my SCOBYs when I was visiting him in Brooklyn. Evidently there is a lot of kombucha brewing in BK and at 6 bucks a bottle retail I can see why... The secret to success is finding the right spot as the SCOBY collects and grows not only from the bacteria of the tea but also from it's/your surrounding environment. Feeding back into an ecosystem in a micro-form of permaculture...

More buttercream plus the recipe!

After the buttercream, post a few days ago. I received the comment, “Where's the butter cream frosting recipe!!!! vegan or not!” So here is the rest of the story…and the recipe.

So after I decided that I WAS going to make a non-vegan Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with White Butter Cream-–I needed to consult with an active cake maker. ALL of the desserts I made at Rupperts and the ones I make for dinners and home restaurants are assembled at the last minute and never needed to sit all day or be presented prior to eating. Because of this I never really needed to venture in to the world of butter creams and quite frankly I have never come across any I liked. At Rupperts if I needed a frosting like substance nothing could beat fresh whipped cream or a white chocolate mousse. But, alas this cake was going to sit on a pedestal and be presented at a Birthday celebration and I needed it to hold up.

I wrote to my friend Kendall at Kendall’s Cakes. Kendall said that she never likes the way a butter cream feels in the mouth unless is made of all butter and no shortening and this can result in a yellowish butter cream. To get a white butter cream with a delicious taste she suggested a Swiss meringue butter cream. This was a super suggestion from someone who practices caking everyday. I thanked her and promised vegan cupcake and frosting recipes anytime!

A Swiss meringue is the process of carefully cooking sugar and egg whites to dissolve the sugar before beating, cooking them just enough to create a smooth texture. This is a process that I am familiar with that I have used to make many desserts. When receiving an unfamiliar recipe my immediate instinct is to find some way to think in terms of a process I am already familiar with and Kendall’s suggestion opened up my thinking process—I realized I knew this but was very grateful to be part of a network that can spark my memory as well as my imagination in the revealing of what is already in front of me with the confrontation of what is in front of me.

Kendall sent a recipe AND after comparing with some of my recipes AND taking into account the clients request for a “white butter cream” I came up with a recipe I am very satisfied with… as well as an amazing practice exchange–Thank You Kendall!

White Swiss Meringue Buttercream- makes about 12 cups

2 c egg whites (from about 12 large eggs)
3 c sugar
pinch of salt
2 lb 8 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 t vanilla extract
squeeze of lemon juice

1.Combine the egg whites, sugar and pinch of salt in a large metal bowl (do this right in standing mixer bowl). Put the bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler-style), and whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved. The mixture will feel hot to the touch.

2.Transfer the hot mixture to your stand mixer and whip on high speed until it turns white and about doubles in size. This will take about six minutes. Beat in the vanilla and the lemon juice.

3.Add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, on medium speed, mixing after each addition. Raise the speed and beat until smooth; this may take up to ten minutes. The mixture may appear curdled along the way; no worries. Just keep beating and the mixture will become smooth again.

4.Buttercream will keep, covered air-tight and refrigerated, for at least one week. Bring to room temperature, then beat on low speed before using.