Friday, July 15, 2011

Home Made Yogurt

This is what we made growing up since there were no other options. My mom ordered a 50 pound bag of whole milk powder ever 6 months or so. I'd gotten used to buying yogurt at the store, but lately I've been revisiting some of my childhood roots through eating and was excited when my brother of all people told me he was making it. I had him pick me up 2 cans of Nido milk powder at the local Latino grocery store (where they also sell Tamarind, yum.)

So here is the recipe if any of you are interested. Mine turned out fabulous. So thick and creamy.

Yogurt-
3 cups warm milk
3 cups milk powder
3 cups warm water

Take 2 or 3 large spoonfuls of your local grocers yogurt and just drop it in and stir. (After you make your initial batch you can continue to save and use 3-4 tablespoons of yogurt to start any batch after.)

I placed my covered container on my back porch in the sun, but ended up putting my container in a larger container and pouring very hot water in around it to finish the process. Every time the water cooled down I replaced the water with more hot water. And Voila I had a fresh batch of yogurt for breakfast. Put a little honey in it, maybe a few nuts or fresh fruit and you are all set.

Hope you enjoy. Try it. It will be fun, even if it doesn't work out, but I'm tell you it's a fail proof recipe even for those who hate to cook.

Cherry Cake Pudding

Brought home a pound of cherries today and thought I'd try my hand at cooking with them so here we go. I'll let you know how it turns out.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/01/cherry-cake-pudding/

This recipe turned out really great. I wouldn't have added so much sugar to the syrup poured over top, maybe half of what's called for. It was a little more work to use fresh cherries, and boil them down, but it sure was worth the effort!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Caprese Salad

Summer is to be celebrated, specially beautiful blue sky days like yesterday with cool evenings, and chilly nights. So to toast the day and celebrate life I served up a Caprese Salad with balsamic reduction, grilled lemon garlic chicken, with a side of garlic couscous. Savored with a glass of pinot noir and fudge brownies. The Caprese Salad could be eaten alone because of how beautiful and savory it is. I can't get enough of fresh basil.

We ate under the great blue sky as the sun set in the backyard under our favorite tree in the yard. Holli, my beautiful tender souled, artistic and just plain beautiful sister shared the evening with us. I'm so blessed, so so blessed to be able to celebrate life with the people I love.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/?s=balsamic+reduction