All across New England, MLK weekend brings with it flocks of holiday weekend skiers. There is really nothing as fun as trying to out maneuver the "once a year skier" that decides he'd like to try out that black diamond trail, but our kids have team training all weekend anyway, so George and I take turns getting them to practice over holiday weekends. Since the holiday weekends fall in the middle of Jan and middle of Feb, this gives each of us one day off each month and today is my day. Now, I'm sorry to report that my frugal New England self will not be going to the spa today, unless you count my new rubber cleaning gloves as spa gloves, but a little knitting, sewing and some good old fashioned January organizing is all on the agenda today - and for those of you who know my "Martha" side this is quite an enjoyable day for me! I am reveling in the "quiet" this morning, but it may get old by the end of the day (fortunately they'll all be home around 4 p.m. :-)
On another note, after nearly a year hiatus, I started making my homemade yogurt again yesterday. It is so easy to make and soooo yummy, but with Stonyfield Farm right here in New Hampshire buying yummy organic yogurt is too easy; My lazy side took over and dropped quart after quart of yogurt in my grocery cart over the last year. However, Cole, who loves my homemade yogurt, kept asking, and asking, and asking and how can I say no to a growing 9 1/2 year old? And with the first batch, it's all coming back to me now - there's nothing quite like homemade yogurt, why ever did I wait so long?
My recipe is Alton Brown's Good Milk Gone Bad Fresh Yogurt Recipe from Good Eats, with just a few personal preference modifications
(because we prefer tangier, thick (greek style) yogurt:
*I use whole milk
*I occasionally substitute the powdered milk with powdered buttermilk (b/c I have tons of it)
*And I process overnight for 10-12 hours - this produces a thicker yogurt.
*I also have a Yogurt Maker with nifty little glass jars (which make individual serving a breeze), it also keeps the yogurt at a perfect 115 degrees for the processing time, (although I know plenty of people that use a heating pad and get perfect results).
Now if you have your own dairy cow or can get your hands on some raw milk (fairly easy to find 'round here), I assure you the yogurt will be superb, but I just can't seem to talk George into buying a cow yet -
I'm still working on getting him to build me a chicken coop this spring (not sure that'll ever happen either).
George loves my yogurt just as it is, but my kids like it served with a dollop of wildflower honey or our homemade maple syrup and "sprinkles" (which in our house is wheat germ - shhhh don't tell them what it really is they think it tastes like nuts), adding sliced fruit is equally delicious.
And now, off to my day... so much organizing awaits!
I hope you enjoyed your day alone to get some work done. I'm the same as you where I'd rather be crafting/organizing (not so much cleaning though...LOL) than spending a day at the spa or something else like that. I finally took my newish sewing machine in to get serviced because it was acting funny. I haven't felt right about sewing on it until I got it looked at. It kept turning off and then back on several times during stitching. I hope they figured out the problem.
ReplyDeleteI should maybe try that recipe some time because my girls love yogurt. Can it be frozen because I don't know if my girls would be able to eat that much yogurt in time before it started to go bad? How funny that your kids are unaware of the healthy benefits of the "yummies" you sprinkle on top for them.
I have frozen it into yogurt popsicles this way, first take the yogurt and put it in your blender and make a fruit smoothie, put into popsicle molds (I have some old plastic ones) and place in the freezer. This is the only way I've tried it. Let me know if you find a better way! Good luck :-)
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