Hi!

How is 2021 going for everyone? Does it still feel like it’s the 14th month of 2020, or does it feel like a fresh new year for you? We received our first and second dose of the COVID-19 a few weeks back, and I start rotating being back in the office this week so things are starting to feel more “normal” around here.

Something I wanted to invest in more this year is creating again - I miss art so much and yet I never make an effort to create. I always seem to find an excuse to not dedicate time to it. Whether it’s work, school, exhaustion, feeling guilty for creating, etc, I always talk myself out of it. But I’m trying to get better.

I decided to do the #The100DayProject and the guidelines for myself is to dedicate at least 10 minutes each day to something that inspires me - this can be photography, sketching, reading, singing, going for a long walk… anything really, but as long as the sole focus is to motivate me to be creative. Some days I’ve really only had the time or energy to dedicate to listening in on a podcast, but at least it’s something.

As I was thinking of the different ways (and why’s) I wanted to spend more time making art, I thought about how I can be more intentional and investing of my energy. Something I really enjoy doing is photographing Jake cooking. It is always so beautiful watching him prepare everything, and I love that we get to spend time together while making a meal. On Saturday I decided to photograph him making homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, along with our first batch of homemade hard cider using Brewsy. Below are the images, as well as the recipe by Jake and his review of Brewsy!

We hope you enjoy this, and expect more recipes + food imagery in the near future.

j + b

Tomato Soup

..and classic grilled cheese

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

6 tomatoes, quartered
½ yellow onion, chopped
6 gloves, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon oregano
3 cups chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh basil
Kosher salt
Freshly cracked pepper

Instructions:

Heat large pot on medium-low heat.
Add olive oil and let heat until it becomes shimmery.
Add onion, add salt, saute and stir until onions are translucent.
Add garlic until fragrant.
Add oregano.
Add tomatoes, simmer on medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, add salt and pepper while stirring occasionally.
Add chicken stock, simmer 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.
Return to medium-low heat.
Stir in heavy cream and basil. Simmer 20 minutes.
Top with fresh grated parmesan and basil for garnish.

From Jake:

For Valentine's Day, I ordered Brit a home wine-making kit called Brewsy. The kit arrived quickly and seemed pretty simple. We looked up a recipe on the Brewsy website for a cran-apple cider. I bought a glass 3 liter jug of organic apple cider. We followed the recipe which included a "sweetness calculator" which allows you to determine the level of sweetness you want. We went with "sweet" for our first attempt. We transferred the apple cider to a 1 gallon plastic jug. We removed 2 ¼ cups of juice and added 1 ½ cups of sugar per the sweetness calculator instructions. This seemed like an insane amount of sugar, but the website explains that wine grapes are extremely sweet so adding additional sugar to the juice is necessary for both the fermentation process and for taste. After adding the sugar, we shook up the concoction to dissolve the sugar.

We crushed a couple of cups of cranberries and added them to the juice. The last step was to add the Brewsy yeast packet. The kit came with three packets and three airlocks so you can have multiple creations going simultaneously. After adding the Brewsy pack, you add the provided stopper and airlock after placing a little water in the airlock. Brewsy recommends storing your "wine" in a dark, warm (75-78 degrees) location. I found this setting a little unrealistic. We don't set our thermostat above 68 degrees...so, yeah. I put the container on the counter in our kitchen near the range in hopes it would get a little additional heat when I cooked. I wrapped the container in a towel to give it a "dark" environment. Within 24 hours, we had fermentation! The cider created bubbles which you could see rising in the airlock. At peak fermentation, we were getting a bubble about every 7 seconds. After three days, we removed the cranberries by "racking" the cider. I used cheesecloth to filter out the fruit and poured the cider back into the original glass jug. I put the original lid back on the jug and put the cider in the fridge for 48 hours.

After 48 hours, you are supposed to pour the cider off the top of the sediment that settles at the bottom. This seemed simple enough, but this step turned out to be the most difficult (aka, a sticky mess). There is a section on the Brewsy website that talks about how to add carbonation to your cider or wine. I was intrigued by this and planned on experimenting with this option in the future. However, as soon as I opened the jug, I quickly found out the carbonation process had already taken place. As soon as I opened the jug, the cider started bubbling. I attempted to pour the cider off the sediment, but the carbonation quickly wreaked havoc sending the sediment to the top. I tried to use cheesecloth again as a filter and it kind of worked, but not quite. And it was a pain in the ass. It quickly clogged with the sediment, leaving me holding a heavy, full glass jug over another container while the cider slowly poured out. I gave up trying and the sediment settled back to the bottom after a minute or two. I then poured the cider off the top a little more successfully, although some of the sediment came with the cider. I put it back in the fridge to let things settle down.

Then came tasting time. I will admit, it had a little bit of a funky odor, and I was slightly afraid that it would be disgusting...or poisonous. But it was actually really, really good! Brit and I both liked it quite a bit. It was a little fizzy, but not overly carbonated. It was sweet but the cranberry flavor balanced it out nicely. So in 5 days, we had made our own cider! It was pretty easy and I think with each batch we will learn something to make the process go even smoother, but we are excited to make our next round!