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Make it yourself Monday: Homemade yogurt

By on September 7, 2011 in Make it yourself Monday, Recipes

I have been away for a few days. I burned my right hand kind of badly.  Actually, I burned all the fingers of my right hand.  I can do very little with it and it is very frustrating!  Thankfully, I took pictures while making yogurt on thursday.

My yogurt story: The year 2000 was a big year for me.  I had my fourth baby, stopped working and had to let go of our nanny.  In an effort to save a few pennies where ever I could I started learning how to make lots of things for myself.  I found a book called The Tightwad Gazette at the library and checked out the 3 volumes dozens of times. I read them cover to cover learning lots of little tricks including how to make yogurt.  That is a great full proof recipe, but…

It uses powdered milk to thicken the yogurt.  Who wants to add powdered milk to beautiful raw milk?  That also raises the price and so I spent the last few years trying to find a recipe that did not use it.  Then one day I just decided not to use it and guess what… it worked fine.  So, here is my recipe, the trick is to watch the temperature very carefully and then let your yogurt set up for 6 to 8 hours without moving it in a nice warm place.

All you need to make yogurt is whole milk and starter (yogurt from another batch or store bought yogurt with live active enzymes)  I buy organic or Dannon.  You may not use all the yogurt before it goes bad so one thing you can do is freeze the yogurt 3 tablespoons at a time in ice cube trays, if your ice cube tray is small try one tablespoon at a time.  Then at yogurt making time, just remove exactly what you need and set it out to defrost.

If you have a candy thermometer it will come in handy. Bring a quart of milk to 180 degrees, if you do not have a thermometer that is until the milk is almost to a boil.

 While you are doing this, measure out three tablespoons of your yogurt starter. Put the starter in a bowl so that it gets to room temperature.

Next, take the milk off the stove and cool the milk to 100 degrees. You can get lots of other little things done while you wait for this to happen. I do this on baking day so in between I am mixing and kneading dough.
Remove any skin that has formed at the top. Now add a little of the cooled milk to the bowl of starter and whisk it together. Add this to the cooled milk in a big bowl and mix it well.  I leave my yogurt in this same bowl to set up.

Now its time to incubate your yogurt.  This is the only tricky part.  If your yogurt fails it will be runny but don’t dispair, as I learned from The Tightwad Gazette, you can use it in smoothies or popsicles or baking.  In order for the yogurt to set up correctly, it needs to incubate at between 85 to 100 degrees, any higher and your yogurt may curdle. 

What I do is cover my bowl with a lid (I don’t use plastic wrap) and wrap it in a blanket.  Then I put it in a cooler and check on it in a few hours.  I only let my yogurt incubate for about 6 hours and then it goes in the fridge.  You may want to leave it a bit longer…up to you.  It comes out sweet and not too tangy. Some people put it in their gas oven where the pilot light will keep it at the correct temp but alas, I have no gas hee hee.

It costs me about $4.00 to make a gallon of yogurt.  At that price, my kids can eat as much as they want, and they do.  We sweeten our yogurt with whatever jam or preserves we have around and it is wonderful topped off with some vanilla macaron granola.

one less thing to buy at the store and it will have all of 2 ingredients in it.

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Orange cleaner recipe

By on August 28, 2011 in crunchy, Recipes

I’m back, if anyone missed me.  As mentioned two posts ago (before I  dissapeared) we were planning on going camping in the Tennessee mountains.  I am back and promise to share some pictures once I get them all sorted out. I must say that I missed home (I am not big on going away too often) but I dearly miss the simplicity of living in a one room wood cabin with my family.  I guess maybe it would not be too romantic after a while but one week of living together and being outside all the time with almost no belongings has made me think how I need to simplify alot more.  It was so beautiful there and the super cold nights on the mountain top were amazing. But, I could not stay there because I live here so I am back and of course back means back to everything, farm chores, house cleaning, laundry, cooking… you get the picture.

I was in the process of making my favorite orange vinegar cleaner when I thought of sharing it with you. The van needed a good cleaning after a round trip from here to Tennessee total of 20 hours.  This spray cleans well and smells good.  Vinegar is a good cleaner but not too many people enjoy the scent (me included) so here is how I make my own orange cleaner for about $1.00.

Whenever we eat citrus here, the peels always have a second use. Organic produce is pricey so I try to not waste anything I can get another use from.  Lemons and limes get zested and I dry or freeze the zest for desserts, cooking and liquer making.  Oranges, tangerines and grapefruit are a favorite here in marmalade or candied peels but I have another use, orange vinegar cleaner.

When I am getting low on cleaner, I peel as much of the citrus pulp off leaving only the white under the orange peel and I add them to a big mason jar full of white vinegar.  I’m not talking about organic vinegar here (though you may use it if you like) I use the cheapo white viengar you can buy in a big jug.

 just plop the pieces of orange or citrus peel into your jar, put the lid back on the jar and shove it back into the back of your pantry until you have more to add, no waste : )

 when you have a bunch in there let them sit a few days and then strain out the peels

 to this you can add water for a simple and gentle cleaner but I use mine straight to clean all mirrors, windows and glass and it is nice in the bathrooms for my little cleaning helpers to use. Just like Dr Bronners, our cleaner for everything)  if they spray it on themselves there is nothing to worry about. 

 pour into your spray bottle (note to self, look for metal or glass spray bottles instead of yucky plastic).  Does that even exist?  If it does somebody let me know, its on my list of things to get rid of from our lives.

I promise this will smell like citrus and cleans well.  I may add cloves to my spray during the holidays…. or now.  I love the smell of orange and cloves.

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