DIY Everyday

Bex and Elissa are Brooklyn-based craftsters who live to make stuff, and want to make it easy for you to do the same. This blog follows them and their business, where from soap to pickles to cocktail bitters, they’ve taken the legwork out of DIY by providing everything you need to make sensual, edible, or imbibe-able delights.

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Brooklyn Born, Brooklyn Based

Big shout out to Brooklyn Made, who was featured in the New York Post last Sunday.  They let us know that our products were in the web and print version.  Check it out.  We love our borough.

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Not a how to- unless you count drinking: Barrel Aged Cocktails

I know it’s summer because I stop thinking about food I want to cook and start thinking about drinks I want to make.  Lately I’ve been thinking about barrel aging cocktails, a really hot trend right now.  The standard for bourbon making requires the producer to use at least 51% corn and to age the spirit in NEW charred oak barrels.  This means there are a lot of minimally used oak barrels out there!  People reuse these creatively—garbage cans, aging spirits that are not bourbon, selling the casks to Scotch makers who have no such rules etc.  But my favorite use at the moment is aging pre-mixed cocktails.

It seems like the most popular cocktail to age is the Negroni—I've been seeing it on tons of menus.  But During this year’s Manhattan Cocktail Classic, I had the opportunity to attend a Barrel Aged Cocktail Master Class at Astor Center.  Here we sampled barrel aged cocktails next to ones that we made that were fresh from the bottle. And ate lovely little snacks.

The consensus? While they’re great, they’re not for every palette.  Our two cocktails were the Manhattan and the Boulevardier.  I loved the thicker mouth-feel of the barrel aged Manhattan.  The barrel aging brought out more sweetness and accented the flavorful vermouth well.  But with the Boulevardier, while I loved the barrel aged drink, I would pick the “fresh” one. It was lighter, the flavors of the gin were better played up, and the lowered viscosity made for a more refreshing summer drink.

There you have it. And here is the aftermath of sitting in a room full of bartenders who will make you a second and third drink the second they see you have emptied your original glass.

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Bex's WTF Method of Caramelizing Onions

I learned two things in the past month:

Not everyone knows how to caramelize onions

My method for doing it shocks everyone.

Normally I wouldn’t think about writing a blog post about caramelizing onions, but if Ruhlman can dedicate a chapter to it in Ruhlman 20, and David Chang can whine about it in Momofuku Cookbook, I can write a blog post about it. 

Here is why not everyone knows how to caramelize onions: it takes a lot of time. As in, a minimum 40 minutes time.  Ten minutes is sautéing them. Twenty minutes is browning them. An hour is caramelizing them.

And here is why my method isn’t normal—I don’t use any oil, butter or fat of any kind.

Wait- what? how? why? Well, I have found that oil isn’t necessary because it halts the caramelization process and aids the cooking process.  You DO NOT want to hear your onions sizzle when you caramelize. And no matter how low the heat is, if I add oil, I hear sizzle.  Think about it- an onion is 95% water.  Oil and water don’t really mix (sizzle). You caramelize only after the water has released from the onions.  I should add that I’m using an enamel cast iron pot so the onions will not stick and heat is distributed evenly.

I’m not a chef or a food scientist, so I can’t explain why this works, but it does. Please feel free to tell me why I’m wrong about this method, but try it before you do.

My method

Cut three to six onions in half moons.  Add onions to the pan, piling them up high. Let them cook undisturbed on medium low heat for for 2-3 minutes. Toss the onions and season them with salt.  The salt is key in getting them to release their moisture. 

After seasoning, lower the heat to low and cover the pan. For the next 15 minutes, the onions at the bottom will slowly cook and the weight from the onions at the top will help this to happen—no need to press down on the onions.  Just turn the mess every few minutes so you’re redistributing the onions on the bottom. 

I set a timer every 10 minutes to stir the onions as to prevent sticking to the pan and burning. When they’re looking good and browned, I take the lid off so that some of the moisture can boil off.

After 50 minutes I have a tiny pile of brown goo that doesn’t resemble onions at all. The roasted onions can live happily in the fridge for up to 2 weeks so you can add to your grilled cheese, pizzas and whatever else you want. 

(There are not fully caramelized

)

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A pretty patch

The Guardian says that mending clothing is making a comeback. They credit the return to these old skills as due to the recession... but just like the rest of the DIY movement I think it has to do with more than that, there is comfort to well-loved clothes, joy in making an item unique, and challenge to solving the problem of time and wear, and how fast fashion mean if you find something you love, you may never be able to find it again. . . Plus fixing and personalizing store-bought things is a gateway to making from scratch. A great way to develop skills on items you'd otherwise throw away!

This skirt is one I really like, but its got a hole near the hem. Sadly I didn't take a "before" picture. I didn't want it to look patched so I decided to make the patch look like an intentional design element by adding felt flowers over the patch. I went for black on black because I wanted it to be a very subtle touch. I admit I cheated on this one, it would have been easy to cut out some felt flowers but I found some I liked on etsy so I used those. 

First I cut a felt circle big enough to cover the holes

Sewing on the felt circle, using the applique stitch which really hides edges and works great on worn fabric, if you have a sewing machine with this stitch, it looks like this (stitch 29 on my machine):

No machine? It is an simple stitch to learn by hand. Here is a video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s574YcWRG2k

Once the felt patch was in place I sewed the flowers on using a few stitches in the middle of each. 

I wish I had a picture on hand in natural light with the full skirt in view but here is the close-up: 

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Summer Days DIY

We received an email from a Heating and Air Conditioning Company in Utah with this infographic on how to maintain your AC in preparation for the Summer.  Considering that just that morning a friend told me she replaced the compressor in her fridge and saved herself $400 to buy a new fridge, I figure that knowing how to take care of your appliances is a major part of the DIY life.

Good for S&S Mechanical in Utah for embracing the You Can Do It DIY ethos!

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FOOD SWAP

Exchange Home-grown or Foraged Food

Join Brooklyn DIY Supply and the Brooklyn ARTery

Sunday, June 8th, from 6:00-8:00 pm

Bring any comestible you make, grow or forage. Swap what you bring for delicious items from homemade bread to backyard chicken eggs to figs from your fig tree. The more you bring the more you'll swap!

  ONLY $5

Only 12 spaces, so don’t delay!

Register at www.brooklynartery.com

 Light drinks provided.

For further info or to reserve over the phone:  [phone] (no vm please)

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Wake up scrub

Some years ago I realized that how I wake up has so much affect on my mood for the day. Waking in a cold dark room versus waking up to warm lights and cheerful music, etc. So I put a program on my computer so it would wake up, load my favorite news websites and start up pandora, and I connected my lights to a timer so they would turn on just before I was supposed to wake. 

Recently I've been pushing myself back to earlier mornings and I'm determined to keep the early rising happy and productive instead of slogging. 

One item I've added to my mornings? A coffee scrub in the shower. Previously I've used sugar scrubs but I decided that the smell of coffee would be delightful. 

Making your own coffee or sugar scrub is so easy that to be honest, I just wing it. 

I bought this Counting Sheep coffee accidentally, it is a "bedtime blend" of decaf coffee with valerian. I'm sure it is great and I love coffee as an after-dinner dessert when I'm out at restaurants but I didn't want to develop that into a habit at home. Since the caffeine content in my scrub doesn't matter to me this made a good sacrifice. 

To the coffee grounds I add Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Honey and Cinnamon. 

I don't bother to measure I just add ingredients until it is the right texture. The coffee grounds will soak up some of the oil so you'll need to put in more than you'd expect, but it is OK to add more oil or coffee grounds later if you need. 

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MiLES MiniPop

Brooklyn DIY Supply is really excited to have been chosen to be a part of the MiLES (Made In Lower East Side), a progressive and innovative model of adaptive reuse project that adapts storefronts in transition into pop-up shops.  

Specifically, we are part of MiniPop, a 36 square foot cube that can allow any existing store or business to host retail.  Think a yoga studio, coffee shop or even a real estate office—anywhere that would like to support local artisans by featuring their products. We like the idea because it allows us to approach businesses in our neighborhood that don’t have the room, time or business model to support retail commerce, while still increasing our brand awareness, engaging with community and maybe even generating sales. 

OK enough of the Jane Jacobs, here are some details and photos.

4 Days, 2 Cities

 37E1ST ST

Storefront Transformer Spring 2014

New York | April 21-22

THE LIGHT BOX

Smart Cities Startup Conference

Miami | April 24-25

 We curated a box with three of our best sellers: Lip Balm, Mustard and Pickles.  

Our neighbors include S2 stationary, made by a paper designer who lines her envelopes with old calendars, maps and prints:

VoyVoy, a line of surf shirts with really great details.

Smith and Holland, a line of hats and (really nice- want) sunglasses named after a vintage line from Virginia Beach, where the founder is from.

And Maker's Toolbox, a DIY kit that combines science and engineering with FUN for kids. 

Although we won't be in Miami next week, our products will.  So stop by if you can!  

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Food and Booze Tasting Part II: Tasting

The Principles of Tasting

In the last post I talked about how to taste for pairing.  Here I want to talk about some things to keep in mind when you’re pairing.  This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a sampling of what you should think about.

1. BALANCE

Pay attention to balance -- try to avoid a situation where one taste overpowers the other.  As stated in the last post, you want them to enhance the other. 

2. TEXTURE

Texture is another key area to watch your balance. Rich food pairs best with light or effervescent drinks (beer, champagne, lambrusco).  Meanwhile beverages that are heavy and rich (some ciders, porters, lambics) might not be the best pair for creamy heavy foods.

4. COMPLEMENTING

It seems like common sense that similar-tasting foods go well together; but guess what? Complementary tastes (buttery food, buttery wine) really have the potential to blow your mind.

3. CONTRAST

Alternatively, you can’t find harmony in contrast.  Take for example, the sweet/salty combination.  A strong blue cheese may clash with a tannic, big bodied red or a hoppy, bitter beer, but it will pair well with a sweet dessert wine or rich ale.

5. TERROIR

I’m sure you’ve heard people mention terroir.  It’s not foolproof, but you can generally trust that “what goes together grows together.” That’s how most sommelier’s put together wine and cheese combinations.  The soil does a lot to influence taste in a region, and Mother Nature has a way of putting together winning combinations.  Think Chianti with Southern Italian food or a Chardonnay with a rich buttery fish. 

It may give you comfort or it may scare the crap out of you, but there aren’t rules.  I’ll repeat- it’s art, not science.   All I can do is give you some guidelines and introduce you to the language.  Every pairing will have its individual ups and downs. You have to experiment and to taste. The goal is that together, the pairing adds up to a whole much greater than the sum of its parts when the two are combined.

So…buy more wine and cheese?

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Oysters and wine pairing. Watch out, I know how to shuck!

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A couple weeks ago we shared the simple secret of making glitter lip balm with you, now for the other streak on my hand: Tinted Lip Balm.

This tinted lip balm is just as easy as the glitter lip balm. In this case I had a cheap red lipstick that I didn't like, the color was lovely but the texture was unpleasantly waxy-sticky and it had one of those annoying "floral" scents lipstick often has. I tend to be reluctant to toss things like this having made the mistake of buying it, so while there are great natural ways to make tinted lip balm, which we'll address down the line, this is a great approach for the beginner, and it makes use of things that you may already have on hand as you transition to DIY and natural cosmetics and skin care. Especially if you already have something with a color you love.

For this tinted lip balm all you have to do is chop off a small piece of the lipstick and plop it into your lip balm before you pour it into the containers and stir until it melts. Just keep adding small pieces until you reach a color you like. 

In this case I used our strawberry cheese-cake kit simply because it seemed like a fitting choice with this color but peppermint works just as well. It didn't take much lipstick to get a lovely sheer red lip balm and it came out with the soft silky texture of lip balm and the sweet scent of strawberry cheesecake with no sign of the sticky-waxy texture or cloying smell of the lipstick I'd used.  

Our lip balm kits are all made with coconut oil and a rich chocolatey cocoa butter                                                                      

Peppermint Lip Balm Kit

Kahlua Lip Balm Kit - available while supplies last

Strawberry Cheesecake Lip Balm Kit - available while supplies last

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How to create a perfect pairing

As much as I love food and booze, as a taster I have a terribly unrefined palate.  I suspect I am the opposite of a supertaster- food needs to be big and bold to appeal to my taste-buds- and I rarely taste components, just final product. 

Despite this, I’ve trained myself to be fairly good at pairing food and booze.  Wine is a world I’m just beginning to open up, but cocktails, beer and ciders are really fun and accessible for pairing.  For this post, I’m not talking about whiskey and spirits.  Tasting and pairing them slightly different due to higher alcohol content and smaller amount consumed.  The same principles apply.

In this post I am going to outline how to taste.  In the next post I will outline how to pair.  Tasting informs pairing, as the notes you get from the taste will inform how you pair. 

Incidentally, there are no wrong answers.  It’s far more of an art than a science.

Step one: Creating the blank slate

When you taste, you want the beverage to be the only thing your mouth and stomach are working with.  Have an empty stomach, a palate unencumbered by flavors of breakfast, coffee or gum, and an open mind with senses on full alert. There is a big difference between tasting and eating: Tasting is actually a meditation—an exercise based on focus and concentration--that you build over time. The more your mind is up for it, the more you will be attuned to nuances in flavor.

Step 2: Tasting the beverage

First, smell.  Open your mouth when you do this- it makes a huge difference.  Hold your nose over the edge of beverage and take a whiff (again- not for spirits!).  What do you smell? Start easy- fruit? Earthy? Aftershave? Good or bad?  These are the aromatics.  Now sip. Even sipping has a “way.” You take a small amount as though you’re sucking through a straw.  You’re allowed to make noise.  You then swirl the beverage in your mouth a bit, making sure to hit all the flavor receptors in your mouth.  Hold for a few seconds—then swallow.

There are two points you’re looking for- attack and finish.  A wine that starts sweet can end with a bitter finish.  The words used to describe palate include acidity, body, sweetness, and tannin. 

Step 3: Tasting the Food

Similarly to tasting beverages, starting with the food's aromatics and then tasting for its texture, acidity, dominant flavors, things it reminds you of, and how it finishes.

Step 4: Pair

Take a real bite of the food this time, and follow almost immediately with another sip of the beverage. There! You’ve paired! What do you think? Does the flavor of one dominate the other? Is there something you like about one that disappears when the two are combined? Or do they blend nicely? Does the food help you pick up on flavors you had not noticed in the wine and vice versa?

That’s the whole reason we pair. Because food and wine should do more than compliment—they should enhance.  

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The photo of my hand there shows the same lip balm made with two different additions. Glittery lip balm on the left, tinted lip balm on the right. I promise I'll tell you about tinted lip balm in another post!

The lip balm kit includes two tins, and makes enough lip balm to refill the tins again. You can easily make a plain lip balm and a glitter lip balm from one kit. 

To make the glitter lip balm just follow the instructions in your lip balm kit until it comes to pouring the lip balm into your tins. Instead stir in fine glitter as the lip balm cools. You'll want to keep stirring until the lip balm is mostly cooled or the glitter will sink to the bottom, then scoop the glittery lip balm into your tins. 

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Homemade Tortilla Chips

Earlier this year, my boyfriend surprised me on a really bad day by making me nachos.  But the real surprise was that he didn’t just melt cheese on tortilla chips—he MADE the tortilla chips. 

Making tortillas is hard work- but making chips from premade tortillas is really easy and rewarding.  Granted, it’s a little more expensive than just buying them…and they are basically not edible the next day…but homemade chips, people!

We live in a Mexican neighborhood, where we’re lucky enough to by 100 small tortillas for $2.  Using a pizza cutter, we cut the tortillas into quarters. 

Pour vegetable oil into a deep pan and set heat to medium high. You want your oil VERY hot so the chips remain crispy and not soggy—somewhere between 375 to 400 degrees.

Once the oil has heated, you can start dropping the tortillas into the oil. You’ll want to be pretty diligent with this task because no one likes to be splattered with hot oil.  Use a high rimmed pot, drop a few at a time, stand back after dropping and if you have a splatter guard, use it. 

The tortilla doesn’t need very long in the oil before it starts to bubble and harden- three to five seconds- then flip to the other side for a second or two (using a spatula or tongs).  Have a plate with a paper towel or cookie rack for cooked tortillas. 

Coat with salt. Eat after just a minute or two of cooling.  

Next stop? DIY Doritos.

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Photos from The Batchery pop-up Artisan/Small-Batch Food Market at the Bat Haus co-working space in Brooklyn. Keep an eye open they may have another (not announced only rumored). 

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From UncommonGoods Valentine's Day catalog.  Look familiar?

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I received a charming Valentine’s Day gift in the mail this morning, a great DIY from my 99 year old Great-Aunt Ann!

Packed in red tissue paper with a card I received homemade cinnamon fortune cookies with hand-written fortunes and a picture of my Great-Aunt Ann wearing an apron. 

See how cute?! The bit of red on the cookies are touches of frosting. 

It may be a little late for the rest of us (thoughtless masses that we are!) to ship out our well wishes for this Valentine's Day, but there is always next year, or the joy of random giving, and you could still make some to slip into your family’s lunches on Friday or have a little baking party. 

I’ll have to write and ask for the recipe but in the meantime here are some good looking recipes you could try: http://www.justataste.com/2012/01/homemade-fortune-cookies/

http://www.marthastewart.com/872169/fortune-cookies