Eerie

My computer has had a spontaneous revival, but I still don't trust it, so I am not going to download any new images to the drive until I replace it. So, once again at a lack for images, I have decided to use the the bastish way-back machine (the archive links on the left) to see what photos I posted this date a year ago. It's almost scary that I should have decided to do that tonight... Just a few hours ago I was at a dinner party where some of the conversation focused on my obsession with beans and birds, and where the birds pooped when they were out of there cage.

It was a rare day when I posted two posts on the same day, but below is what I was writing about exactly one year ago today...

Living with birds

Just one of the joys of living with Awii and Klee.

Homemade Natto

Recently I took a stab at making my own natto. The big-beaned natto you see above is my third attempt, and first success. The smaller-beaned natto is the store-bought variety.

It's actually quite easy to make, and though it tastes different than the store-bought, it aint half bad. It does have a little bit of a stronger smell. I guess they add something to the packaged natto to supress the oder.

If your interested to try making it yourself...

1. Soak your soy beans over-night.
2. Cook the beans. I use a pressure cooker to speed it up.
3. Use boiling water to sanitize anything that will come into contact with the pre-fermented natto.
4. In a shallow, sanitized dish, add a little packaged natto (I used a whole paper-cup serving) to some hot water, and melt the goo so that it is a thick liquid. This will add the bacteria you need to ferment your beans.
5. When the beans are done, add them to the melted goo, and stir well with a sanatized spoon.
6. Let the natto sit for 24 hours in a warm place. I placed mine on a plate heater for my birds, and wrapped it in a blanket for insulation. The first attempt, we put it in the rice cooker and kept the cooker on the "keep warm" setting, but that seems to have been a little too hot. The bird-heater plate is warm, but not hot, and combined with the blanket, it seemed to be perfect.