Make it Better Yourself- Bagels

Tonight, I made bagels for the first time. I started around 8 P.M., and we now have 40 (- a few) fresh bagels in the kitch. It was easy, it was cheap, and they are delicious!

I made them small for portion control, and I topped some with garlic, onion, and salt and others with sugar and cinnamon. If you'd like to give it a go, you can find the recipe and instructions I used here. I doubled the recipe and plan on freezing half of them....if I don't sit on the floor of the kitchen with a stick of butter and devour them all myself before the hubby and kid wake up. Ha ha! I kid! I think?!?!

Make it Better Yourself- Strawberry Frogurt

Well, the yogurt isn't from scratch, but it was on sale at my local grocery store, so I bought a few containers to try in the ice cream churn. It turned out great! Next batch, maybe I'll try some mix ins. Let's see, what's good with strawberries...Slivered almonds? Definitely chocolate chips. Any other ideas?

It was definitely a hit with Arabel. She thinks she's the luckiest kid on Earth for getting "ice cream" two days in a row, and I don't feel guilty about giving it to her a half hour before bed. In fact, I feel really good about teaching her how to make healthier food choices. Win/win! 

Finished Bra, Spring Purging, and Ice Cream

I finished the bra I was sewing as part of the Ooh La La Sew Along. My fit isn't perfection, to say the least. I made the band too tight, and am going to pick it apart and re-sew it tonight. But, in the tradition of not focusing on my flubs, I'm going to bask in the glory of my rather tidy elastic application.

I sewed in a small tag with my initials and the date. Though it looks rather utilitarian in these admittedly awful iPhone photos, I think the silk makes it pretty in person.

I have a reversible vintage style bikini in the works that uses this bra for the top. I hope to finish it up within the next few days, but the closure for the shorts has been a slight hiccup. Any suggestions on how to make them so the closure can be worked from both sides? I am leaning toward snaps.

Other goings on at the homestead involve a major purge. I got tired of the clutter, and I loaded up 3 full garbage bags of baby toys and clothes, my clothes, linens, etc. and took them to a local charity based thrift store for donation. I had to move fast, as I have been known to root around in the bags and pull stuff back out if they sit too long. Getting rid of this crap felt great, and though the house is still a cluttered mess, I lightened the load a little.

It was really neat to look into my closet and see that I had 9 dresses hanging that I sewed myself!

On a totally unrelated subject, does anyone make their own ice cream? I found a very nice ice cream maker at the thrift store recently, and tried my hand at a homemade frozen concoction. I made banana pudding with soy, and then I churned it in the ice cream maker. It was a big hit at my house- we ate it with chocolate chips on top.

What I really like though is salty sweet nutty ice cream flavors, like pecan praline and butter pecan. And I have an itch to try out this recipe for Guinness ice cream soon too. What can I say? I love Guinness. And ice cream. If I decide it's too much of a pain, we have a local creamery that makes fabulous ice cream using their own milk. Things are good here in rural America!

How about you? Any bathing suit sewing going on? Any advice on closures for reversible garments? Any tips on making ice cream? Recipes? Do tell!

A Million Ways to Eat Eggs

O.k., maybe I'll only come up with 50 or so. Who knows. One thing is for sure- with the chickens laying again (they quit for a bit when it got cold) we have more than enough eggs to cook with. I am so glad- these eggs really are the best, though I will say when the chickens weren't laying, I found Born Free brand Free Range eggs to be better than most.

I like to incorporate these healthy eggs into a lot of our meals, as I avoid eating and cooking meat for the most part, and we must include other types of protein in our family diet. I have posted before about pudding from fresh eggs, and I thought it would be fun to post recipes and ideas for using eggs that might not be in everyone's regular rotation.  

So, to start, here is a breakfast I made for the baby and I that is easy and sure to please- Eggs in a Basket.

1. Heat a frying pan with a pat of butter to medium heat. Don't get it too hot. 
2. Use a cup to cut a hole in a couple slices of bread.
3. Put the bread in the pan and crack an egg in the hole.
4. Cook until done on one side, and flip. Continue cooking on side two until your eggs are as you like them. If you like them scrambled, I imagine you could just beat them before pouring them in.
5. Put a pat of butter on top, and drizzle with a bit of maple syrup. Mmmmmmm.

I made ours with Pannetone, but of course, their are a million ways to switch this recipe up further- you could use a variety of breads, add cheese, add herbs and spices, garlic, onions, peppers, or sauces, such as hollandaise. Give it a crack! Oh, the terrible puns!  

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Wait, did I already say that about spring, summer, or even winter? Okay, I really love where I live. And I just love autumn in western NC. This is in no small part due to the amazing bounty available at our local farm stands.

If you ever find yourself in Rabun Gap, Georgia between May 1st and October 31st, you must go to Osage Farms. We did, today. We go a lot, especially in fall. Here is my post from around this time last year, and Osage is just as full of pumpkins, squash, apples, and tourists this year. And, yes, it is worth braving the crowd to get all of these goodies for such a sweet price.

Talk about Fall Palette!

 I went straight home and tossed apples and sweet potatoes in my apple baker. I just threw the squash whole into the oven over a piece of foil.

They may be ugly, but they taste soooo good!

By the time I got everything put away and cleaned up, I was starved, and so was everyone else. So, I acted on an impulse I had while driving home and made us veggie grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. I just skittled up ("skittled" is my husband's word, and it means to cook as one would in a skillet, with lots of hissing noises and sputtering) some garlic, onions, peppers, and kale, and put them inside the buttered bread with the cheese. You know, like so....

Make sure you use plenty of buttah 

And I threw some extra crispy skittle veggies on top of my soup. Can I get a "hell yes?" 

Baby approved, if this evidence of the destruction of her sandwich will hold up in court

I'm thinking squash risotto tomorrow. I am looking to bust out of my cooking rut with some wild recipes that incorporate these yummy fall foods without being too much work. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! 

The Garden Knows What to do!

We have been grossly inattentive to our garden this summer. As I wrote in the last post, we have been preoccupied with our camper. Well, it appears that the plants know what to do, even without our help.

All this, and we didn't even make it all the way down the row! Now if we can come up with a dish that will incorporate the beans and some of our six dozen eggs.....

Make it Better Yourself- Fresh Yogurt

Several months ago I was in a thrift store I commonly haunt, when I spotted a Salton yogurt maker. It consisted of an oblong main unit with 5 cups in which lidded containers rested. It plugged in and presumably, as I had never seen or used one before, kept milk at the proper temperature to produce yogurt. It looked simple enough, but it was $8 dollars and I am wary of plastic, especially old plastic, so I passed it by.

Well I had wanted to make yogurt for a long time, but it seemed like such a tedious process as you have to incubate the bacteria in your milk at a constant 110 degrees for something like 10 hours. The idea of having a gizmo that could do that for me still sounded good after a few days, and the next time I visited that shop, the yogurt maker was still there. I peeled off the tape that held the lid down to get a better look at the plastic containers inside, and they weren’t plastic at all, but a pretty milk glass! The price sticker on the gizmo said that it had been tested and worked, so I paid for it and headed to the health food store for some culture.  I made the first batch with organic milk, and I am now positively hooked.

Why would I bother to make yogurt at home when it is so easy to buy? I have a few reasons. Homemade yogurt is light years beyond store bought in flavor, consistency, and healthiness. I make it plain, and I flavor each cup as I eat it with homemade or high end jam of simple ingredients, like Bonne Maman. 

Sometimes I use honey. Homemade yogurt is not as thick as store bought, because there are no thickeners added to the mix, although if you prefer it thick I have read that you can add powdered milk or arrowroot on the stove. I love it exactly as it is. Also, because my yogurt has not been hanging around plants, trucks, and stores for weeks, it is much higher in the gut friendly bacteria that are so good for your system. Another plus is that it is versatile- we use our plain yogurt anywhere one might use sour cream—on Mexican food and baked potatoes. We sometimes make delicious dips and sauces with it. Finally, it is cost effective. I can make a cup of organic yogurt for about 35 cents.

So, how do you make yogurt at home? Believe it or not, it is really, really freaking easy. In fact, it is so easy that you might forget you are doing it and scald the milk on the bottom of the pan a time or two. Your sweet husband might clean it out for you, which is really nice because it is a major pain in the caboose. You might scald it again on accident, and your husband might make threats that he is not going to wash your pan if you do it again. After that, you will be careful and set a timer to check the milk regularly during the prep process. Or, you could skip all of that hoopla and just start out with the kitchen timer. Yeah. So this is how you do it with a yogurt maker.

1. Get a large pot, a liquid/candy thermometer (optional, but handy), milk, your culture, and a whisk out.

2. I do a quart at a time- pour a quart milk in the pot, stick the thermo on the side, and set the burner at medium.  Watch the pot and stir it frequently. If you are easily distracted by an adorable and small tyrant, set a kitchen timer for 3 minutes as a reminder to check the milk. It needs to get to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. If it forms a skin, skim it off and toss it. Reset the timer and check again in a couple min. Stir regularly

3. When the milk reaches 180, shut it off and move it off of the hot burner to cool to about 108 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. When it does, stir in your culture well with the whisk, ladle it into the yogurt maker cups, put the lids on, and plug the yogurt maker in. Set the little reminder on the top for ten hours. Then stare at it and will it to turn to yogurt faster. Just kidding.

If you make it shortly before bed, it will be ready in the morning. When the ten hours are up you just refrigerate the cups. Voila. And Yum.

Yogurt and honey = breakfast of champions :)

Just for the record, my yogurt has been better since I broke my thermometer. I just heat the milk until it almost starts to boil (without scalding!) and then cool it until it feels just over 100 degrees to me. I can test this by hand because I have now filled a lot of baths for little Miss Mouskewitz. It is the same process, but a little more lax, and the yogurt is still great.

ALSO, you do not have to use new culture for each batch. I use Yogourmet

It is four something for a box, but a box makes many batches. I save a heaping tablespoon of yogurt from each batch, and I use that as my starter culture for the next batch, stirring it in with the whisk in place of the powder. You can use yogurt for five batches or so before you need a fresh culture again. 

ALSO ALSO you do not need a Salton yogurt maker. Yogurt has been around a long time, whereas Salton yogurt thing-a-ma-jigs have only been around for a few decades. I'm guessing you can find other methods via the all knowing Google search. That said, I love my yogurt maker, and I know they are available on eBay. If you are going to make it a lot, as I do, you may want to go ahead and buy one. And then you might want to buy one of these

It's a pint sized hand ice cream churn!

Because then you will be able to make this.

Blueberry Frogurt!

 So there you have it! As my parents used to say, “Delicious and nutritious!”