another end of week pack-up for another weekend trip. don’t get me wrong, i am excited as all get out… my brother is meeting me in fort wayne tomorrow night, and we’re road tripping out to st. louis for the national journalism convention – where my mom is getting a lifetime achievement award!! woot woot go mama, go mama, it’s your bigday, it’s your bigday!

her awards are too numerous to list, but i know that, as a teacher, it’s not the “a”wards that mean the most to her, it’s the “re”wards. she has expressed many times what it means to her to have influenced a student to pursue the difficult angle in a story, to climb the tree to get the best photo, to keep on tweaking until the page is balanced and eye-catching. she takes pride in empowering young journalists – writers, photographers and designers alike. 

and she is so good, that no matter how uncool it was in high school to do what your mom told you, she still has a daughter going on 12 years in the graphic design field, and a son making a name for himself designing the front page of the detroit news. not to mention her 400 friends on facebook, most former students, and many of them also pursuing a career that she had a hand in guiding them toward. word! you rock, mom!

 

and while we’re on the subject of mothers… haha, you had to know i was going to go there! time for a vinegar update!

might be hard to tell, but that spotty, wine-colored mess is my first successful mother of vinegar! it’s finally transformed into a slimy blob covering the top of the wine. folks, it looks perfect! i mean, exactly what i imagined it would be – i just did not know if it would work, and it did! here’s another pic:

i am hoping i did not harm it, but i took a spoon and moved it aside so that i could “feed” it with a little more wine. i’m pretty sure it’s ok. it’ll rise back to the top. this one, i started with a mother that i found in a brewery supply store. it was a blob floating in a jar in a watered-down cider-looking (vinegar-smelling) liquid. i simply dumped it in my crock with about 2 cups of sweet red wine, covered it with a cheese cloth. it needs to breathe, so the cheese cloth helps keep out other contaminates such as bugs and cat paws. it’s been going for about 6 weeks now, and i have been feeding it about a cup every 2 weeks. i think it looks pretty good – and it definitely smells like vinegar!

i haven’t gotten up the nerve to taste it yet. but, they say you can just siphon it off (like with a turkey baster) as you like, and it will just keep going and going forever. you have to maintain it as it ages, and it is good to break up the mother and pass it along to friends. so, if you want some, tell me! i don’t think we’re there yet, but soon…

i also have another crock going with a dry red wine vinegar started, but i am a little worried.

see how there is darkness in all the crackles? well, i can wipe that off with my finger, and it smells like wine. hmmm. i am just not sure about this one. it’s been going for 4 weeks, and does not show any sign of having a mother on the top. but – i have read that it can take up to 3 months – and the mother i started with was a little different. for this one, i used 2 cups cabernet savignon and 1 cup bragg’s apple cider vinegar, which is a raw, unfiltered vinegar with the mother. you can find this in most health food stores. the difference though, is, the “mother” in this one is just kind of a settlement of chunks at the bottom of the bottle, and not a big blob like my other mother. 

so, it might take longer to form. but, i also might have a problem with my crock. now i don’t know if the crock is contaminating my whole sample, or if i would be ok maybe just switching it out. i don’t know. i am going to give it more time and then probably dump it if it doesn’t work. if any readers have any insight, i’d love to hear it. 

another exciting tidbit – i found a “malt” vinegar mother a few weekends ago at the michigan brewing company. i do believe i start this one with beer. how exciting is that! haven’t done it yet, but maybe next week!

sorry, i don’t have a recipe to share today. we’ve been feeding off the goulash all week. next week, i’m planning on trying out some turkey mignons and some edamame that have been in my freezer for awhile, so stay tuned! have a great weekend!