Shrubbing

I started making shrubs this past weekend. A shrub is a fruit syrup rested with vinegar and then used as an ingredient in cocktails or non-alcoholic drinks. The process starts by mixing sugar with chopped fruit and letting it sit for 24-48 hours so the juice gets extracted. Then you mix it with roughly an equal part vinegar, bottle it, and let it do its thing for a week or two. I love the combination of sweet and sour and wanted to make something I could splash into seltzer or mineral water. I’ve got three of them resting right now: The first one is made with strawberries, sugar, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar. The second one is apple and ginger with apple cider vinegar. The third is nectarine and black peppercorn, also with apple cider vinegar. The strawberry one already tastes great and will turn out awesome. The apple ginger one is tasty in this early stage, but I probably could have added more ginger. The nectarine and peppercorn is a toss-up… I think I need riper nectarines and more peppercorns. It doesn’t taste bad at all, but nondescript. Sweet. I’ve heard that the fruit flavor pops after resting, so maybe it’ll turn around. I’ll be taking these to a friend’s house to try on Easter, so I’ll report back on how they turned out that week.

I’ve enjoyed the Monster Hunter: Wilds update this week. Mizutsune is probably my favorite monster in the series, so I’m happy he’s found a home in the Scarlet Forest. The normal version is fairly easy, but the Tempered version offers a nice challenge. Zoh Shia is a great fight and was a good challenge on release as folks tried to learn how to avoid the strongest attacks. I like that we have a central hub now, but I wish it was a true one-stop location where we could also smelt. I enjoy barrel bowling and was overjoyed to hit 530 and get the Trophy Strap. Last I checked the game had sold over 10 million copies already. I hope this entry gets even more support than usual.

Yokoi Kids Volume 2 is shipping! If you’d like to support the project and LGBTQ+ youth in Austin, Texas, please consider picking up a copy! 110 pages covering 24 Game Boy games. $15 BUX, CHEEP! yokoikids.com

I also have begun uploading most of my DJ sets from my Thursday streams over at
mixcloud.com/pxlsicle. If you have any interest in house or electronic music, you may enjoy these! Live streams are Thursdays around 4PM PST at twitch.tv/pxlsicle

-Ian