cooking

I've been working on trying to re-create a certain chai I buy, especially since it's 3 bucks per cup at the coffee shop. Here's my recipe in its current form.

2 cups water
2 2-inch sticks of cinnamon
5 cloves
1 teas cardamom powder (or 3-4 crushed pods)
Dash of black pepper (I do 3 turns of my pepper grinder)
4 or 5 slices of ginger
3 tea bags. I prefer Red Rose.

1/4 cup honey
1 cup milk (soy or dairy)

For extra flavor, soak the water, cinnamon sticks, and cloves prior to adding the other ingredients. Once the cinnamon sticks have opened up, I finish making the chai.

Throw everything but the sugar, honey and milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer/steep for 5 - 15 minutes. Add the milk and honey then reheat. Pour through a strainer and then slowly pour into individual glasses while keeping the sediment at the bottom. Makes 2 large cups of chai.

A couple years ago i tried to make a tofu turkey for thanksgiving. i spent a lot time molding drumsticks and shaping my behemoth mound of soy into something that loosely resembled the festive dead animal we associate with on this holiday. Of course my tofu turkey imploded while baking, causing it look more like roadkill rather than a finely prepared meal. But it tasted great!

This year i've been asked once again to tame the tofu and have decided i can't fake a bird from soy. instead i'm going to let tofu be tofu and prepare it devoid of aviary pretenses.

Update: Oh yeah, this year was a success! I cut the tofu into slices.