Yogurt!

Another product of visiting our local dairy Maple View Farms this past weekend was fresh fresh milk. There's nothing like buying milk when you can see the cows the milk came from playing in the field next to where you are.

I didn't manage to capture any cows in this photo but here's a picture of the farm.

I've seen a variety of homemade yogurt posts around the web and decided I would give them a try with this milk. I am amazed at how easy yogurt making is! I used a variety of sites as guides but went with this basic premise - heat the milk up (180degrees), cool it down (110 degrees), mix in some plain yogurt to start the culture and then keep the whole thing at 110 degrees for ~6 hours, put in the fridge and enjoy! The way you achieve these results can vary, you can use a cooler, a crockpot, a yogurt maker and I'm sure there are lots of other ways. Here is how I did it

I heated a half gallon of whole milk up on the stove until my cooking thermometer read 180 degrees

Then I pulled the pan off the stove and let it sit and cool until it was 110 degrees. Once it was cooled I stirred in 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt - a starter for the yogurt culture.

I poured the mix into a variety of jars I had and submerged them in the crock pot full of warm water which was on the 'keep warm' setting. I was concerned that this wouldn't keep everything at the right temperature but it was perfect.

The crockpot did a wonderful job! Me on the other hand, I could have done a much better job. I timed it so that I had to set my alarm and get up at 3am to put everything in the fridge. Oh well, it worked! I made yogurt!

Stay tuned for a breakfast post tomorrow

Homemade Butter

I have seen lots of bloggers showing how they make butter by shaking heavy cream in a jar or even some that put it inside a ball and play kick until it's ready. It sounds like a fun thing to do with a lot of people but not something you'd do very frequently and honestly I still think of butter being a long process that people do in a churn. But last week I came across an even easier method than jar shaking - make butter in the kitchen-aid! I knew I had to try it!

All you need is heavy cream, the fresher the better (and not ultra-pasteurized). This past weekend we went to local dairy Maple View Farms and got wonderfully fresh heavy cream (and milk and ice cream, mmmmmmm).

Heavy cream into the kitchen-aid, kitchen-aid on medium/high speed and first we make whipped cream.

It was very tempting to just add a little maple syrup at this point and put this lovely whipped cream on everything in site, or just a spoon and gobble it up. But we kept on with the medium high... and it got weird. It separated into butter and buttermilk.


I let it go on for a minute or two to expel as much buttermilk as possible and then scraped it all into a bowl that was in the sink.


Running cold water over it, kneading the butter so the rest of the buttermilk could come out and I poured it all off into another container to be used elsewhere.

I decided to get creative and add some herbs to my butter, sage, oregano, garlic powder, some kosher salt and thyme.


I'm sure I'll never get that combo the same again but it was a major win. Major win, and so so easy. I highly recommend giving it a try

Spices

I have a number of things I've been wanting to blog about lately and I thought I'd start with a little series.. that I have no name for. But these next few days of posts will have a common theme. You'll see.

In my quest to simplify my life and my home in particular I've been paying close attention to the things I use a lot of or buy a lot of and rethink them - starting in the kitchen. I believe that buying in bulk and making things yourself usually saves you money and/or is more healthy. Also, ever since the little one was born my cooking has become much more simplified. Dinners are usually thrown together and my flavor combos are pretty regular - I noticed I was using a lot of the 2 spice mixes - mexican and italian. While I like those two flavors a lot I was/am sick of buying them. So I bought some spices in bulk at our health food store and made my own!

Supplies: mixing bowl, bulk spices, spoon, empty jars

obviously both mixes are highly customizable. For my italian seasoning I chose equal parts sage, rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram

I threw a little crushed red pepper in on a whim. we like our pasta sauce with a little kick to it and that's where a lot of our italian seasoning goes.

for the mexican or taco seasoning I was a little more creative. I used this as a general guide and made ours with equal parts chili powder, cumin and paprika (~8Tbsp each) and equal parts of onion flakes (or powder) and garlic powder (~2Tbsp each) and a pinch or two of cayenne at the end

Now I have what for us is easily a 6 month supply of both seasonings and I can't wait to try them out!

How To Make Vanilla Extract

I brought back a lot of vanilla beans from the UAE with the intention of making vanilla extract for christmas gifts - LAST christmas. Oh, well. No time like the present.

I did lots of reading online and I know there are tons of tutorials for making vanilla extract out there in the blogosphere, but I thought I'd add mine anyhow.

Supplies:
Vanilla Beans
Vodka or Dark Rum
Jars (any shape and size although the taller the better)
paring knife

Very simple really, but what stumped me was the ratio of bean to alcohol. In my reading of other peoples experiences I found that the ratios varied from 1 bean per 1 cup of alcohol to 3-4 beans per cup. I decided that stronger was better since I wanted this extract to be the type where as it ran low you could top it off with more vodka or rum and it would last forever. Vanilla extract is definitely one of those 'gets better with time' types of products so I wanted mine to have some staying power. and be strong. I also read quite a bit about the benefits of vodka over rum or the other way around so I decided to make some of each. I'll have to let you know how it turns out but I don't think it's going to make a huge difference. My husband suggested using vanilla vodka to enhance everything, but I followed the advice to use the CHEAPEST vodka available ($11 for a half gallon), since it really does not matter.

OK, enough talk. here are some pictures of the process



supplies gathered


slice them up

scrape the insides

and put both the bean and the flecks of vanilla (the good stuff) in the jars

then pour on the vodka! (or rum)

I'll post more pictures as it gets darker and darker and better and better. ~6 weeks until it's "done" enough to use. Just got to make sure to store it in a cool dark place, like uhh - your baking cabinet.