Well! School is officially in session and the work has officially piled on, meaning posts to WCFT are going to be light. However, I have been quite productive since I last popped up. If you’re interested in seeing the progress I’ve made with the Seven Deadly Paintings series for my Painting II class, I’ve gathered all the pictures I’ve taken so far and dumped them into an album on the WCFT Facebook page. I’m also occasionally Twitpiccing (Twitpicking? Twitpic-ing?) photos as I work, so you can get as-exclusive-as-I-can-get photos by following me on Twitter. Just be warned; I tweet a lot during Project Runway.
And speaking of, to go on a tangent–poor Ping! Bad enough she had to put up with the high-strung, dickish Jesse and her eager-to-complain model, but eliminated this week? Okay, maybe the train (skirt?) should’ve been better done, but come on! Amanda Palmer would’ve blogged about loving that dress if she watched more TV! My heart is only consoled by the fact that Anthony is still around. But the judges, it seems, are hitting that crack pipe again for valuing that tacky disco interpretive dance tracksuit Mila’s team created for their signature piece. What the hell, guys? Seth Aaron and Anthony knocked it out of the park with their signature piece. Their “look for less” piece was “eh”, but that signature piece was gorgeous. End of story. And don’t even get me started on resting-on-laurels Jay…
Moving on!
A week ago I got together with Ruth of …And A Pinch of Salt to try our hand with making homemade Kahlua via the recipe offered over at Yum Sugar. She also brought over material to make peppered vodka, for which the list is much shorter (vodka, black pepper) and preparation much easier (crush peppers, place in vodka, shake, keep for a week) than the Kahlua. However, the Kahlua currently prepping in my pantry at school for the next three weeks smelled a lot better from the start because it uses lots of coffee. My room was absolutely heaven.
We’ve umbrella named our homemade concoctions “Our Lady of the Three Flowers”, in honor of our love for Dollhouse, which ended its two-year run last night. If you’re a fan, chances are you understand the reference, and for that you automatically win cool points.
(I feel I should also mention that you should not attempt to make either of these things if you live in America and are under 21, because these are alcoholic drinks. If you live in another country where the age is different, then follow those laws accordingly. Good? Good.)
Some pictures from last week, via my trusty Blackberry:
Several of the materials for the homemade Kahlua. The hands are Ruth’s. She pretty much thought to bring anything and everything we needed.
The rest of the supplies. I still actually have half a bag of coffee beans left–but alas, no grinder. DD: FYI: Italian Roast coffee is the best kind to use, since it plays well with cinnamon and sugar. (I think. Ruth, feel free to correct me on this.)
I had to preview post-click picture-zoom in to remember what this was of; this was taken after I’d gently crushed the peppers for my share of the peppered vodka. I tried originally to crush them under the wheel of my motorized chair, but it didn’t work so well. And by that I mean, didn’t work at all.
Vodka with the pepper in it. Self-explanatory.
Ruth gently crushing the coffee beans so that all of the ingredients will fit in the designated container.
Trying to make all of the ingredients fit. We have learned from this to use a bigger pot to make room for everything.
Because if I don’t make a note to myself, I’ll lose track of when it’s ready for straining and drinking.
I’m actually not much of an experienced drinker–I’ll have wine once in a while or sometimes I’ll get a beer–so I’m not entirely sure what you can drink Kahlua with. Like…I know you can make White Russians out of it, right? And you can use it to flavor coffee, like Bailey’s. But I think I’ll use Google-Fu to find out other ways it can be put to use, because you never know when information like that comes in handy.
I actually forgot the vodka on campus, so I haven’t been able to strain it yet. Ruth assures me that her batch came out well tasting–which I assume means it doesn’t burn as badly as it did when we attempted to drink it “fresh”. A tip: Don’t. It’s just asking for trouble all the way down to the pit of your stomach!
Will Craft for Tuition 