Just finished the Suits season 2 premiere. Not sure if any of you are watching the show or watched it last season, but I really enjoy it.
No pet drama today- everyone seems to be behaving themselves. No escapes, no vomiting, not shitting on the carpet. I’m gearing up for an active day tomorrow.
On a gardening note, what do you all use as bondage for your green beans? Mine are coming in fast and furious.
On another note, I made sausage at home today, but was really unhappy with my mustard of choice. I want a stone ground mustard that does not have a sweet finish. Have any of you ever made your own mustard? How complicated is it? Could I make big batches once I get the taste I like and can it?
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t plant beans. They are too much work and cheap as fuck to buy.
Corbin Dallas Multipass
HAY MISTER PUT A LITTLE MUSTARD ON THAT MUSTARD
Ben Franklin
Jeralyn Merrit has been skewing Right of late. She is now wingerz champion for Geo. Zimmerman because of love for the sanctity of the Law. Other countries laws, not so much.
So the U.S. is told it has to start the expensive cloning/copying process now, even though if it prevails in overturning the disclosure order, it won’t have to turn the material over.
Will this affect the stalemate in the Court in the U.S. over whose expense it is to obtain the material from the MegaUpload servers hosted by Carpathia? Or whether the funds seized from Kim DotCom and Megaupload can be used for that purpose?
The prosecution of MegaUpload and Kim Dot Com, et. al. just got a whole lot more expensive for the U.S. — and its taxpayers.
talkleft.com/story/2012/6/14/22359/5298
jl
I did not know mustard had ‘finish’.
I just thought there was just ‘yaller’ and ‘fancy pants’ mustards.
And,
What, no outrageous pet story today?
From now on I will demand an outrageous pet story to go with each pic. Are you sure nothing funny happened today? Maybe Fat Boy tried to roll over, or something.
And, speaking of which… Edit: pics. After the vile and treacherous Cole sprinkler ambush, we need evidence that Tunch is OK.
Yutsano
Mustard is not hard. Finding a recipe that is just moutarde is a bitch though.
RoonieRoo
We cook our green beans by sauteeing them with garlic and sundries tomatoes. When the larger than we can eat harvest comes in I blanch and freeze the extra.
LiberalTarian
I always use corn and squash plants …. beans fix nitrogen for the corn, squash plants provide shade for the roots, beans climb the corn. Three sisters, a nice companion planting.
A little late for you though. If they are pole beans, use a pole. :)
ruemara
mustard isn’t complicated, yes you can store it for later in a large batch. I’ve made it before, but I have no recipe handy, so here’s the google result I like. honest-food.net/2010/10/18/how-to-make-mustard/
I just grind a mix of brown mustard and yellow, sometimes toss some jalapeno in there and mix in acv, sometimes a touch of rice vinegar.
MonkeyBoy
Man On Internet Almost Falls Into World Of DIY Mustard Enthusiasts.
even so, it is easy to grind your own seeds to make mustard. Home ground seeds are a bit fibrous while bought mustard flour is not. I
mai naem
I don’t know much about mustard but I am pretty sure you would bottle it not can it.Also too, I doubt its hard to make mustard. Also too, did you try Penzey’s spices for mustard?
TaMara (BHF)
JohnCole@top – JeffreyW has lots of experience making mustard. A couple of recipes on the blog about it. I’m too tired to look it up, but remind me tomorrow and I will, or ask him next time he’s around.
Rita R.
Bondage, “coming in fast and furious” and sausage all in the same post? I thought this was a family blog.
YellowJournalism
“No escapes, no vomiting, not shitting on the carpet.”
Good to hear. Now how are Lily, Tunch, and Rosie?
MomSense
Raye’s mustard in Eastport, Maine is North America’s “last remaining traditional stone-ground mustard mill”. Family business–lots of choices and they are all great.
rayesmustard.com/index.php
FlyingToaster
For viny beans, we use some spiral rods and velcro ties. Warrior Girl likes that bean plant.
For bush beans, we use any old vegetable cage, bamboo stakes as needed, and velcro.. Because these days I have more money than time, I’ve been buying them from Gardeners.com, or the big Mahoney’s in Winchester, but you can get the makings at any home improvement store. Some 7′ angle uprights and 14-gauge wire is what I still use for tomatoes.
My big dilemna is a) how to support the eggplants and b) since round tomato cages REALLY don’t work, what am I to do about my tomatillos? I’m probably going to try those Ultimato grids (I own the compatible uprights already, no big deal to expand them a bit), since these vines seem to need more horizontal space and depth than the tomato vines.
Small Appliance +2
Arclite
Ever try Plochman’s?
Try the Stone Ground. It’s good.
freelancer (iPhone)
@MonkeyBoy:
That link MAKES this thread. So awesome.
Yutsano
@YellowJournalism: Okay I LOLed.
Mnemosyne
I’m preparing myself for my Tour de Yarn in Santa Barbara tomorrow, but some jackass decided to do three loads of laundry in our building’s sole washer and dryer, so my clothes are still waiting in line. Grrr.
RoonieRoo
Ha! I just realized you weren’t talking about dealing with the harvest. I don’t use bondage on any bean that is 2′ or under. I plant awide enough bed that they self support. Only thing that needs bondage would be pole or long beans but those are planted at the outset around poles.
PurpleGirl
OT: I received the report from the acoustics expert. He wrote up his findings concisely and made comments about the motors needing to be checked for worn bearings and isolating material being worn. He also wrote a separate report for me of things I can do to dampen the noise/vibration coming from the ventilation system. Now I have to give copies of the main report to the building management and see what they say about doing the inspection and having the motors and fan blades worked on. And I’ll demand to be told when the work is being done. Elsewise, I’ll be putting my maintenance charges into escrow.
Yutsano
@PurpleGirl: You can put your rent there too. This is reaching ridiculous proportions now and management needs to know you’re serious.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: OOOOHHHHH, a yarn tour. Sounds super. Have fun. (Shared laundry rooms are a pain; although I can’t complain about my building’s room. It has 7 double-load machines and 2 triple-load machines and 8 dryers.)
PurpleGirl
@Yutsano: Yes, I agree. I paid the June charges early, so I’m up to date. And this being the middle of the month, I can go to my bank, arrange for the account and tell management that I’ve made the arrangements. It’s been ongoing for two months or so (have to check some logs I made) and they aren’t taking it seriously.
Anne Laurie
@FlyingToaster:
I was going to attest that the Gardener Suppy Tomato Ladders work very well, even for garden-slatterns like me who end up velcroing two or three plants to one support… standing in a gro-bag, on asphalt. So I went to their site and was not pleased to discover that “this product is no longer available”. If you’re workshop-handy, maybe you could build your own v-shaped heavy-duty supports?
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
I’m super excited. People keep asking if G is going with me, but as soon as he heard that the plan was a day at yarn stores, he was all, “That’s okay, honey — you go have a good time.”
:-)
I hope you get that vibrations thing settled sooner rather than later — it can literally drive you crazy.
meander
I haven’t (yet) tried any of the recipes in this article from the L.A. Times about making mustard at home, but the background information is good.
On my agenda for this weekend — if I can find any brown mustard seeds — is a “Spicy Guinness Mustard” from Saveur magazine.
blehmann
My husband makes an awesome gin infused mustard and it is really easy. We give it as Christmas gifts.. He’s asleep but I’ll get his recipe and e-mail it to you in the next few days.
dopealope
On Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode dealing with soft pretzels, he had a segment about making your own mustard. It was pretty informative.
JoyfulA
Does anyone know where I can buy (or how I can make) the Chinese mustard “that used to come in little cellophane packets” at Chinese restaurants (for occidentals)?
My husband has been mourning the absence of this stuff (which I vaguely remember, so it isn’t imaginary) for years. I think he has in mind something that will make his eyes water and clear his sinuses.
Madeline
For your Madison trip – there is a mustard museum in Middleton, near Madison.
c u n d gulag
Here’s a HOT-HOT mustard recipe:
Get some Coleman’s mustard powder, and pour into a small-to-medium sized oven-proof bowl.
Slowly add a bit of flavored broth, one teaspoon at a time, and mix it in by hand – veggie, chicken, or beef broth all work fine.
When the mustard’s a thick paste, add in some alcohol you like, drop by drop, and keep mixing by hand as you add – either white wine, beer, vodka, rye, bourbon, all work fine – and continue to blend that in. Or, a blend of two – but no more than that, or it’ll be more boozy than mustardy.
The alcohol gives the mustard flavor, and a great wallop!
You can also skip the alcohol, though you lose a lot of flavor, and some heat.
Keep mixing and adding either broth and/or alcohol until you reach the desired consistency. I like mine pretty thick – but that’s me.
Add just a little bit of sugar (or light molasses or brown sugar) and vinegar (or lemon juice – though it won’t keep as long as vinegar when you place it in the fridge):
-The MORE sugar – the sweeter, and hotter. Don’t make it too sweet, unless that’s what you like. Remember, the alcohol already added in sugar to make it hot.
-The more vinegar – the more tart, and weaker.
I normally don’t put in more than a few drops, so I add a bit of tart flavoring, but don’t knock the heat down too much.
Then, add a little vegetable oil (a couple of drops at a time – other oils are ok, like EVOO, but remember, other oils all have their own flavor), and blend in whatever dry spices you like – and add some dry parsley flakes and/or dry cilantro, and some red pepper flakes.
Play around with the spices each time you make it, to see which ones you like best. Add in some chili powder, or other hot pepper spice, like cayenne, to really kick it up a few notches. There are some Indian ones that will peel your tongue, they’re SOOOOO hot!
Be careful with the spices, or any one spice – too much, and they’ll overwhelm what’s supposed to be the star – the mustard. You want a blend of them for flavor. And sometimes, “less, is more.”
Continue to mix it in by hand. I suppose you could add a few shakes of pepper sauce if you like – though I never tried it – I think it will take away from the mustard flavor. But, what the hell, it’s all about what you like.
By now, the mustard should be ready.
Taste it, and see what you may want to add.
Let it sip for an hour or more at room temperature.
Here’s an added step I do, but you don’t have to – it concentrates the flavors, and adds a bit of a “roasted” flavor, and makes the mustard hotter:
Turn your oven, or toaster oven, on “Broil.”
Place the mustard, uncovered, under the broiler – but not too close. And NOT for too long.
Open and mix frequently the moment a little crust starts to form.
A couple of minutes, total, should do it.
At this point, mix it all together, add, if desired, add a little water, since the broiling cooked some of it, and the alcohol, out.
The mustard will be a fairly dark brown color at this point.
Let the mustard cool.
Then, transfer it into a clean, dry jar(s).
Properly sealed, this will keep for many weeks, if not months.
Mine is so hot, it makes the Hot Chinese mustard seem like yellow hot-dog mustard, and wasabi seem like pesto paste.
That’s the way I like mine – remember, you control the heat via the alcohol, sugar, and vinegar. And adjust the heat/sweetness/tartness, accordingly, next time you make it.
Put a little bit (a little goes a long way – believe me!) on whatever you normally put mustard on – AND ENJOY!
But, if you make it as hot as mine, warn your friends ahead of time!
I forgot to warn my Mom one time, and I thought she was having a heart attack or seizure!
I know this looks long and complicated, but it’s really not!
I make this all the time.
It really shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to mix everything by hand.
The rest is letting it sit.
And if you broil it, that only take a few minutes.
And then there’s transferring to jar(s) – and how long does THAT take?
lahke
I can highly recommend old nylon stockings as material for tying up beans and berry bushes. They’re flexible enough to stretch a little as the plant grows thicker, and what else is there to do with old stockings?
MonkeyBoy
@JoyfulA:
Of the commercial brands I’ve tried, I like KA-Me the best. The ingredients (WATER, MUSTARD, VINEGAR, SALT, SPICES, TURMERIC) are fairly simple and don’t contain the chemicals found in other lists I’ve seen in stores.
gelfling545
I make mustard all the time
to make about a cup
1/4 C mustard seed
5T dry mustard
1.2 hot tap water
1 C cider vinegar
1/4 C cold water
2T dark brown sugar
2 small garlic cloves peeled & inced
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t dill seeds
large pinch of ground cloves
3T light corn syrup
Soak mustard seeds & dry mustard in hot water & 1/2 C of the vinegar 3 hours or more
After 3 hours combine remaining ingredients EXCEPT corn syrup in saucepan. Bring to a boil. boil 1 min. & cover & let stand for 1 hour.
After 1 hour scrape soaked mustard into food processor, strain saucepan contents & add liquid to processor and process to desired consistency.
Put mixture in a double boiler & cook 10 min. over simmering water until thickened (10 min approx – will thicken more when removed from heat)
Add corn syrup & pour into storage jar. May be refrigerated or kept at room temp.
This is a sweet German mustard. Skip corn syrup or use less if you prefer less sweet. Honey may be used instead if you prefer. The basic recipe can be played around with changing vinegar types & spices as you wish.
JoyfulA
@MonkeyBoy: Thanks! We’ll try some KA-Me and let you know how it goes.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Who knew beans were into S&M. I by no means want to discourage DIY mustard making, but Grey Poupon makes a stone ground dijon, which probably doesn’t have a hint of sweetness in the finish. Their regular dijon sure doesn’t. I know that mustard is made by a large evil food corporation, but it’s pretty tasty and is widely available.
Jose Padilla
What’s funny about that show is how poorly tailored the main character’s suit is.
donnah
I love Suits, and have been eagerly awaiting the return of that show and several others, including Dexter, White Collar, and Burn Notice. My son and I are finishing up The Killing, which was also good, but rather overwrought and filled with too many red herrings.
Loved the two seasons of Sherlock from BBC America and will be glad when that show comes back, along with Luther.
tones
honestly Trader Joe’s deli mustard is not sweet at all and 99 c for a bottle.
I have been working on making it , but it is so cheap I always have it on hand.