How to Make Chai

Economists cannot survive on models and working papers alone, so here is a simple recipe that will help our studies because it is caffeinated.  Chai is a beverage that originated on the Indian subcontinent.  It is a hot spiced tea that is enjoyed as a delicious break any time of the day.  It is simple to make, if a bit more complicated than coffee.  One important thing to note is that there is some variety in spices for making chai, but this is one, somewhat standard way of making it.

This recipe is for two cups.  First grab a pot for boiling the water, tea and spices in.  Then add:

1.5 cups of water

8 cloves (optional)

1/2 stick of cinnamon (optional)

8 crushed cardamom pods

6 thin slices of ginger

Once it has boiled for a minute, turn the burner down and allow it to stop boiling for a moment while you add the tea.

3 heaping spoons of black tea (3 or 4 bags may substitute)

2-3 spoons of sugar (as sweet as you would like it)

Let it boil for about three minutes to allow the flavors to soak into the chai.  One good way to tell when they are done is that the tea will fall to the bottom of the pot.  Then add a cup of milk and allow it to boil for thirty seconds or a minute more to allow the flavors to fully mix with the milk.  Then place a strainer over a tea cup or mug, pour the chai into the cup and enjoy the chai!

As you probably noticed the cardamom, ginger, tea, sugar, and milk are the only truly universal ingredients.  Other spices such as cloves, cinnamon, anise, and others can be used.  Different sweeteners such as honey are also often substituted for the sugar.



Chai is probably the most popular beverage in India.  Many Indians drink it all day and all night.  The picture above is at a village in rural India, where I purchased a cup of chai.  Here is a video showing you how to do it, if my directions weren't clear enough.



Vacation



Prize Winning Corn at the Minnesota State Fair



 I'll be on vacation in Minnesota for the next week, so I'm taking a break from this until I return.

5.8 Magnitude Earthquake in Virginia!

I just felt my first Earthquake!  It was very exciting, and according to the USGS, it was 5.8 magnitude!  It was centered between Charlottesville and Richmond.  I was in an older building on the eighth floor, so I wasn't at all sure if this building was designed or prepared for something like this.  Some things got shaken off the shelf, but no damage whatsoever.  It was pretty fun once I realised it wasn't the building beginning to fail, but rather an earthquake.  I quickly got into a doorway and rode it out.  My poor cats had no idea what was happening.  The Washington D.C. area has no major recorded earthquakes.  According to my friends on Facebook, it was felt (at least) as far away as upstate New York!  Pretty exciting, but one's enough for me!

I have to catch a flight today to Minneapolis, so I am very excited to also report that flights are taking off from DCA!  Hopefully this concludes my breaking news on this site!  Eventually they should have news at the Washington Post.

The End of Class, Finals, Grades, and Another Summer Break!

Summer school moves so fast.  Last Wednesday, I had my final essay to hand in and my final exam to take.  I'm not sure what I got on either, but I know that I got an "A" on the class!  I was really worried about my essay because I didn't have as much time as I'd like to finish something good for it.  I posted it in the post previous to this, Modern Monetary Policies... and the Rules that Govern Them.  That essay was about 23 pages, my extra credit assignment about The Holocaust Museum and the Archives (did I post that one?) was maybe 10 pages, and my first one, "Your Money or Your Life?"  What's the Difference? was about 10 pages too... so that means that I (maybe) wrote 43 pages in one month for this class and took two major exams that were worth half of my grade.  Crazy.

As usual, I'm looking forward to getting my exam and paper back from Dr. Rustici.  I imagine I got something knocked down for my last essay, because even though it had some good ideas, it was a little sloppy.  I cleaned it up a bit for the blog.  I didn't add anymore ideas, but it just got a full series of edits.

I took the weekend off!  Margit and I went kayaking up and down the Potomac with some friends and we went to this awesome restaurant in Georgetown called Serendipity.  It was like an ice cream parlor, so it was really fun.  Our friends told us about this interesting movie called The Devil's Double.  We managed to hit the timing perfectly and saw it at the Georgetown theaters.  It was about Uday Hussein and his body double.  I highly recommend it.  The movie was interesting in both an action movie and real life drama sense.  Good movie, didn't pull any punches about Uday being crazy, and seemed true to form as far as what I've read about the man.  We also got to go swimming in our pool all weekend, which was awesome!