keep moving

Confession: I use Elmhurst Dairies cashew milk in my coffee. Not because I have allergies or lactose intolerance; I'm fine with dairy products on that front. But I'm trying to cut down on saturated fats, and I want to be in control of the amount of sugar in my beverage, and the very specific reason I use cashew milk rather than something else* is that when I read a review of five or six different kinds of non-dairy milk, one of the reviewers said that the Elmhurst Milked Cashews 'tastes like something The Rock would put in his coffee'.

I have no idea what The Rock puts in his coffee but the concept alone was enough to send me to the alternative milks section of the local market to find a carton of the stuff, and I've been going after it ever since.



*I make oat milk periodically. Originally I made my own oat milk and had to find a use for the pulp; it wound up being incorporated into a whole wheat bread recipe and now I mostly make the pulp and feel bad if I don't make use of the milk somehow even though I no longer fancy the texture

NP wants me laying off dairy for two weeks or until we get whatever is going on with my innards sorted out. Fine. I got my oat milk recipe and my quart bottle* out last night. Ninety grams oats, quart of water, pinch of kosher salt, tablespoon or two of Mount Cabot maple syrup, 1/8 tsp xanthan gum** to keep it emulsified and thicken it up a bit. Oat pulp goes into another recipe afterwards.

NP wants me taking psyllium fiber- okay, she said metamucil but I'm not going to do the artificial orange version, and once you're not doing the artificial orange version metamucil is just psyllium fiber- to counter my various symptoms. Okay, that's fine. Bought capsules first, acquired a container of freefloating psyllium fiber later.

Did some searching. Hm. Psyllium fiber can be dissolved in coffee. Daily recommended dose of psyllium fiber is 6 grams. Let's try that. And add the chocolate syrup I made for sweetening my iced coffee, because I like it better than mere sugar, and use the oat milk I made last night with the xanthan gum in it.


This is not a good combination, it turns out. This is like drinking pudding. British pudding, which is food that can be eaten with a knife and fork, rather than American pudding, which is basically of the same texture as mayonnaise. seriously, standard-sized coffee mug of coffee + 6 g psyllium + xanthan-gummed oat milk = coffee with ENTIRELY TOO MUCH TEXTURE. and this is coming from someone who used to play What The Hell Is This in the drinks aisle of the Asian supermarket and regularly wound up with unknown beverages that had to be chewed.



*from a local dairy that charges a substantial amount in deposit but returns it if you bring them back the bottle; it's the last bottle of milk I bought before COVID-19 meant they stopped offering deposits and I have been reusing the living daylights out of it because hell, I paid for it, didn't I?

**Bought it when one of the instructors at my flight school was a guy with gluten allergy and I wanted to be able to bring in baked goods he could eat. I haven't gotten back to flight school yet post-plague but xanthan gum is shelf stable for a damn long time.

Well, I'm awake, that's something.

Got my early ballot in yesterday. It's the one I requested by mail. There's a dropbox at the town clerk's office; I left it there rather than interact with people or take chances on the postal service. I trust local postal workers but they're overwhelmed thanks to No Overtime, This Organization Will Be EFFICIENT!! rulings from on high, you know how it goes.

The town has opened a COVID-19 free testing facility. It's across the street from the town clerk's office. The line to get tested was huge. And properly spaced. But huge. And was still equally huge close to an hour later after a trip to the grocery store.

Didn't go for testing. Aside from brief store or bank visits I haven't interacted with people in meatspace at a distance closer than about ten feet since this began, and I've been masked up every time. Other people who've had a greater chance of exposure and who might be in high risk groups themselves need those tests more.

Spent some time yesterday texting to Michigan voters about getting their vote by mail ballots, as volunteer work for the National Resources Defense Council. Probably going to ask for more texting to do today, even though most of the responses I got were 'take me off the list' or 'this isn't so-and-so, but I already ordered my ballot'. It's something, at least.

Had to place a replacement order with Joann Fabrics today because I discovered yesterday that fusible interfacing and fusible web are two different things. One of them is a supplement to a fabric piece that allows it to be strengthened and stand up to more interaction and abuse, and is applied by placing it bumpy side down, covering the non-bumpy side with a thin piece of fabric, spraying the fabric with water and ironing at wool temperatures. The other is basically two-sided glue and will stick everything to everything else. You are free to guess which one I bought first but I have no excuse for my mis-purchase beyond 'it was in the interfacings category on joann.com and said fusible in the name'. So the cargo shorts are on hold because I got away with using the web on the bits of fabric I had to add to the pocket linings but am now at a stage that does not involve multiple layers.

on the bright side, I cut out my fabric pieces for those shorts based on the sizing on the outside of the pattern package, but the pattern measurements indicate the waistband is likely to be multiple inches larger than I really can wear, so it's not like I'm delayed on a project that will fit properly anyway. I'm just....going to consider this thing a substitute for making a muslin practice version. Also, at least I have so far learned how to overlock an edge and do bartack stitching, that's something.

Down to my last bag of coffee beans. Time to place a new order, I guess.

Turns out if you make oat milk starting with cold brew coffee instead of water, and you use natural (non-Dutch process) cocoa powder as an addition, you can get a reasonably decent mocha flavor out of it. If you're looking to use it as an additive rather than drinking it by the glass, anyway. The resultant beverage is the color of chocolate milk, but even with the amount of maple syrup/golden syrup/whatever I normally add for sweetening, nowhere near the sweetness of chocolate milk, and the disconnect between eyes and tongue is jarring.


I will happily relay my formula if anyone is interested.


yes, mocha flavored coffee additive made from coffee is probably overkill. I have not had the opportunity to order any Black Blood of the Earth since this whole stupid plague started. merely doubling up on ordinary coffee elements is going to have to do.

Did a second attempt at flax milk this weekend using a nut milk bag for better filtration and a longer soak/blend cycle to extract more from the flaxmeal.

Texture isn't bad and the milk dissipates into iced coffee with less of a blob monster effect, but the taste is... mleh. I don't know how to describe it, just that it completely misses the mark, especially when I use it in significant quantity with my morning coffee. This is just comparing it to 2% cow milk, not to store bought plant milk.

Will probably just make oat milk when this flax batch runs out. The doctor will be happier and the taste will be a smidge less mleh.

I'm awake and at work. I feel like I should get some kind of credit for that. Mostly for the 'awake' part.

On a related note it turns out the reason the espresso-based drinks I've been making for myself ever since getting a Moka pot for Christmas haven't been waking me up as much as I'd like is that espresso contains more caffeine per volume than drip coffee or French press coffee, but has a small serving size, so a double shot of espresso has basically the same amount of caffeine, around 120-130 mg, as eight ounces of Murrican coffee. Ordinary Murrican coffee. The kind brewed at home. As opposed to, say, Starbucks, where a grande iced coffee- my most common order- has 165 mg caffeine and a cold brew with milk has 200 mg... or as opposed to Dunkin Donuts, my next most common spot to stop, where it's 297 mg of caffeine in the medium iced coffee.

(source: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/complete-guide-to-dunkin-donuts-caffeine-content , https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-complete-guide-to-starbucks-caffeine)

I knew Sbux brewed their coffee strong but I didn't know it was that potent. Or that Dunkin Donuts was like that.

I believe my doctor would suggest I stick to my own coffee where possible.