Making Yogurt

I keep getting on my soap box about health, but I am pretty fickle when it comes to passing up certain little yum yum's in life. While pondering a healthy alternative to rich desserts, I decided to get back to making yogurt; something I did for years and years, while raising my three sons.  They loved it, but usually because of all the fruit, honey, syrup, jam, or any other crap I'd put in.  Seems at the time it was a good way to get them to eat it by taking away that certain tangy flavor, which they hated.  Nowadays, we all know better than to load in all that toxic sugar and are constantly coming up with new ways to sweeten it up.  I personally, love it plain and slathered on a baked potato with chives and pepper.  However, if you need a sweet and yummy treat, make a ginger peach conserve to scoop over the top (recipe follows).

I came up with a fairly easy way to make yogurt "Greek" style and with a method which allows some flexibility in thickness and flavor.  It is made in the oven, and I use whole milk....you can ponder that and decide what you will use.  This recipe makes a little over one quart of the creamiest and most delicious yogurt you could ask for.

1 cup of plain Greek style yogurt (with live cultures and at room temp.)
4 cups milk.

Fill a saucepan with 1 1/2 inches of water and bring to a boil.  Set a large stainless bowl over the saucepan and fill it with the milk; do not let the bowl touch the water.  Turn the heat to low and gradually heat the milk to 180 degrees--whisk once in a while.  Keep the temp at 180 for 30 minutes, remove the bowl and let the milk cool to 106 degrees while stirring often.  Heat the oven to 110 degrees.  Whisk the yogurt with 1 cup of the warm milk until smooth, then add the mix back into the rest of the warm milk.  Whisk the warm milk mixture for 3 minutes and pour into clean jars within one inch of the rim.  I used two quart size mason jars.  Place the jars into the oven and  keep the oven temp between 105-110.  Begin checking the yogurt after 4 1/2 hours; it's ready when it is thick, tangy and surrounded by a small amount of whey.  Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled or overnight.

Line a large mesh colander with several layers of cheesecloth-or a moistened cotton cloth and set over a large bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 6 hours or until desired thickness.  Anyone know what can be done with the whey????  Bake bread????

Ginger Peach Conserve
In a saucepan, combine 2 T granulated sugar, (or truvia, etc.) 1/4 c orange juice and 6 T brown sugar (or not) with a pinch of salt and simmer for 5 minutes stirring.  Add 2 T finely grated ginger and 1/8 tsp cinnamon. Thicken with 1/2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/2 tsp water and simmer until thickened.  Use a blender if you want a chunky sauce.  YUM!

Leaving England

Well, the project in England got as far as we had anticipated, and our last few days with Geoffrey were spent site seeing in Bath, Wales, and Devonshire, where we saw some pretty amazing scenery and museums.  During our drives getting around from here to there, daffodils flanking hedgerows were in full bloom everywhere.

Geoffrey's new hut as we left it

The Roman bath's with all of their history were amazing, and as we toured the ruins, it was most humorous to think that such famous people as Marc Antony, Caesar, and others had actually washed their dirty feet right there!  In Wales, it was especially nice to see so many small and quaint independent book stores--all loaded to the brim with beautiful books.  Apparently, England's economy is not as bad as ours, or there likely wouldn't be so many of them.  One of the shops added a fabulous little cafe inside where we had lunch (the best beef/chorizo burger  ever made)!  And let me not forget to mention the many, many, many, pub stops where we enjoyed local ales and fish n chips----YUM!

Roman Bath

Roman Bath

Wales

We arrived back in the USA in the early evening and thanks to Ken's daughter, we spent the night at her home in Seattle where we were treated to a wonderful homemade dinner.  What a nice homecoming.  Our drive from Seattle to Portland was during an extreme down pour of rain all the way, but we were hell bent to get there and see our newest granddaughter, Fiona; born just two days before we left.  What a darling little bundle of sweetness---and a nice visit with parents, Kurt and Rebecca.

We are home now, recovering from jet-lag and coping with the change in time......talk about confused sleeping patterns!  Naps are nice.  Traveling is fun, but home is where the heart is.

Life is good......

Merry Old England

Every now and again, unexpected life opportunities arise. Instead of passing them by and repeating over and over, "woulda, shoulda, coulda" one must take advantage and make it so!  As mentioned in my last post, my companion Ken is an artistic genius and was recently asked to build a hobo hut for a friend in England.  Luckily, I was asked to accompany him and help with other things and see the sights.  So, I am here living the life of a Princess, for a while.

We left for England with Ken's head going crazy with design and have now been here and at it, for two weeks. We are staying in the original 400 year old Kingscote Park House that Ken remodeled 18 years ago, and I can tell you it is a most unusual and fabulous place.  Our friend, who owns this place called Matara, has added a beautiful wedding event and wellness center to the property.  Anyone aspiring to a very memorable and tranquil experience would find this to be the place!  Check out their website at www.matara.co.uk

Over the past weekend, we had the pleasure of watching a very young and eccentric English wedding take place on this property.  I couldn't take my eyes off the hat maker bride who designed her own outfit and hand beaded shoes, along with all of the colorful decorations that they substituted for the more formal decor that the center offers.  Very enlightening to see the humor and frivolity this couple had at their celebration......made me go look in the mirror to check my age.

But, back to my original reason for blogging...."The Hobo Hut".  Here are a couple of pictures of the progress being made.  Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Ken has two very ambitious and excellent workers with him, who don't speak a word of English.  Somehow language is no barrier, body and sign language work better than the real thing!

More pictures to come later in the week.....time now for us to have some fun.

Tally ho, pip pip, and carry on!  LIFE IS GOOD

Grinding Grain

Nowadays, people love their purchased grinders, blenders, coffee makers, and every other new contraption known to mankind that makes life easy.  However, we still love and use our "old" grain grinder every week.  Our beautiful collection of chickens, pheasants, dove, and quail, have voracious appetites, so feeding them can be somewhat spendy.  The good news is that we have about 10 acres currently under cultivation growing hay and wheat which we harvest and use as supplemental feed for the birds.  Lately, every wild bird in the area has found "The Farm" and we have taken to grinding and feeding many other hungry little birds.  We are definitely not considered to be "Empty Nester's".

 LIFE IS GOOD!

Fusion---As In Glass, Not Food

Happy New Year everyone.  I couldn't tell you where time has gone this past year, much less what I've been doing as it passed, but now it is time to post an update.  At some point during my career years ago, I decided to get back in touch with my artsy side and enrolled in a series of classes on warm glass, better known as fused glass.  I had a wonderfully talented teacher who was very influential in sparking the fire inside me because after the first class, I was hooked.  I made a pact with myself to "get into it" as soon as it would be practical (it is a slightly expensive hobby).  Well, 15+ years later and after retiring from the workforce, it is my time.

I took those classes during a year which was particularly stressful with hopes of finding a little relief and escape from the normal grating grind of life.  Funny thing, after each class session I would  emerge from the lab so elated I could hardly stand myself.  For the longest time I couldn't figure out what that feeling of euphoria was when I left class, but at some point the light bulb went off and "voila", I realized it was the effect of the vibrant colors of glass salving my fretfulness.  Reds, blues, and greens were colors I kept migrating to, but my imagination would not cooperate and all I came up with were abstract designs made from odd glass scraps that our teacher so generously shared with us.  Now in my own studio, I fully understand "scraps"--mine defined as mistakes; happy ones at that!  My imagination runs wild with weird designs that are far beyond my capabilities--given the tools and equipment on hand, but I continue to get around that fact--hence the scraps.  Hmmm.....more equipment, bigger equipment!

Pictured are some fun wine bottle coasters and sushi sets made during Christmas season this year. I am toying with the idea of joining other entrepreneurial hopefuls with my own cyberspace studio some time soon.  I'll keep you posted.  LIFE IS GOOD!

Wine Bottle Coasters

Sushi Sets