Hot Burnt Gold

fennecdesign:

This is probably my most used home brewing recipe, and the simplest. It’s an easy soda, refreshing on it’s own or tasty mixed with gin or vodka. I love to make a large batch before parties, everyone loves it and it costs less than even the cheapest generic sodas. The major plus here is once you have the basic recipe down it’s not too hard to make tweaks and changes to suite your personal preferences. This ginger ale is entirely different from most American brands (i.e. Vernors, Canada Dry), in that it’s flavor comes directly from fresh ginger root which is spicy and refreshing. The carbonation comes from a minor act of fermentation by bakers yeast as it ‘eats’ the sugar in the drink, creating carbon dioxide (fizz!). This is the same reaction used to make alcoholic drinks, just on a shorter and smaller scale (in this case the amount of alcoholic content is negligible, around half a percent).

To make a 2 liter bottle of Ginger Ale you will need:

• A cleaned out 2 liter plastic soda bottle with screw-on cap.
• A fine grater or zester.
• A funnel.
• A 1 cup measuring cup.
• A 1/4 cup measuring cup.
• A 1 tbsp. measuring spoon.
• A 1/4 tsp. measuring spoon.
• 1 cup sugar (raw or cane is fine)
• A chunk of fresh ginger root.
• Bottled lemon juice or  1 medium lemon.
• Active baker’s yeast.
• Water.

To make the ale first combine the dry ingredients inside the 2 liter using the funnel; 1 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp. yeast. Next grate the ginger until you have at least 2 tbsp., depending on how flavorful and spicy you want your drink to be, you could use up to 4 tbsp. Pour the ginger and then the lemon juice (1/4 cup of the bottle stuff or the juice of 1 fresh lemon) into the bottle as well. Then fill the bottle the rest of the way up with lukewarm water within one inch of the top, using the water to rinse any remaining ingredients from the sides of the funnel into the bottle. Cap and shake gently until all of the sugar is dissolved. Find a warm place to stash the bottle, I think the top of  kitchen cabinet is a good place and let the bottle sit for 1-2 full days checking periodically to see how firm the bottle feels. Once the bottle no longer gives at all when you squeeze it’s ready! Move the bottle to the fridge (this will stop the fermentation process) and wait until the ale is chilled to serve. If you don’t like chunks of ginger in your drink wrap a piece of cheesecloth over the neck of your bottle when you pour. The chunks will mostly settle to the bottom of the drink anyways.

Further options:

I love adding extra flavoring to my ginger ale by making my soda with an herbal tea instead of water. My favorite flavors are hibiscus, lavender, or peppermint but there are many other options as well (pretty much any edible herb you’d like!) I make the tea ahead of time, using boiling water and dried herbs to taste making sure it’s cool to touch before add it to my other soda ingredients (if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast!) The hibiscus is especially nice because it gives the soda a striking magenta color. Consider making a number of smaller bottles of ginger ales with different flavorings, experiment with different colorful and medicinal herbs. 

kabukik:

You can find this awesome idea here.

artemis-gg:

I just made this and am really excited to see how it turns out!  I plan on using the same recipe again but with other flowers and herbs.

dandelion fizz recipe

6 cups dandelion flowers

5 quarts water

4 cups sugar, honey or other sweetener

2 lemons (less lemon or none if you use honey)

- clean dandelions if necessary, and trim stems

- bring water to a boil and pour over dandelions

- cover and leave for 12 hours

- strain through a cloth and add sweetener, lemon juice and rind

- heat and stir till dissolved but do not boil

- strain into jugs or jars and leave to cool

- pour into clean, dry bottles with tight screw caps

- brew is ready to drink in 3-4 weeks!

psuedofolio:

Got some spare time? Make a comic!

Download the sample printable comic right here!

Reasons for doing this?

1: My followers can finally have a printed comic by me.

2: It seemed like a fun activity to do, specially with young kids.

3: It might be cool if interweb folks shared tiny little mini comics with each other. And a whole bunch of people can print each other’s comics and maybe we could collect ones by other artists. So… ya know. Why not?

EDIT: AHH! Before I forget, I should mention that this mini comic format was created by the folks at http://www.pocketmod.com/ I came by their technique while listening to Fear the Boot, a roleplaying game podcast as they were interviewing Stuart Robertson an indie table top rpg designer.

If you’d like, support those folks cause they helped me discover this neat design.

EDIT2: Added tags. Dag nabbit.

scissorsandthread:

Confetti Eggs | Oh Happy Day

These confetti eggs are a traditional Easter party item, but I think they would be perfect for New Years Eve! You’re meant to smash them over each other’s heads, so if you decide to use these you might want to have a less fancy bash or at least warn anyone who has copious amounts of gel or hairspray in their hair, or anyone who spent the day at the salon getting their hair done. That’s for guys and girls! Or you could go for something else inside the eggs, like confetti (though that might be hard to get out of hair too!)

modcloth:

Once again, another fantastic nail tutorial! This time, it’s mad for plaid. I love the colors they used for this, but I can also see these easily transitioned for holiday with a quick & easy color change! (via The Beauty Department)

<3 Chelsey, ModStylist

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