I only have one final exam separating me from complete freedom. The two classes I took over the past few months have been overwhelmingly stressful, but I’m so thankful I pushed through and can now look back relieved and satisfied that I’m one step closer to a degree. You would think I’d be frantically studying right now, but instead I’m coming up with every excuse under the sun to NOT pick up anything having to do with Milton, including cooking everything that comes to mind and sharing it on the blog.
I’m not really a cooking blogger, but I do immensely enjoy the art of making food, (and eating it) especially anything homemade.
Here are two recipes I tried over the weekend. They are about the easiest, most cost efficient things in the world to make. The first was homemade yogurt. I eat organic yogurt with honey every morning. I am very much a creature of habit. I eat extremely clean and healthy for breakfast and lunch and splurge on whatever I make the family for dinner. I saw this recipe in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, by Mireille Guiliano, (a fantastic book) and I thought, that sounds way too simple. It was really easy, and it worked. I figured the yogurt I purchase is about $3.59 for 32 ounces. The same amount homemade is about $2.00. Here’s the recipe.
Homemade Yogurt
1 saucepan
1 large bowl
1 small bowl
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
1 quart regular or 2% milk
Yield: 8 Servings (4 ounces each)
Warm up the milk on medium-low until steam rises to the top and bubbles form around the edges.
Pour into large bowl to cool until temperature hits 110-115º on thermometer or if you don’t have one, do what the locals do: the temperature is correct when your index can stay in the warm milk for ten seconds.
Put starter in small bowl, add some of the heated milk and stir until well-blended. Pour small bowl mixture into large bowl a third at a time, making sure to stir and blend well before each addition. End with a final stir, making sure all is well-blended. Cover with a thick towel and keep in a warm place 4-6 hours until set. ( I let mine sit in the oven, turned off, for 24 hours)
Refrigerate for 8 hours before serving.
(Sorry, not a Pioneer Woman quality pic, but you get the point)
Next, we ran out of sour cream which is never a good thing in our home. After some research on my good friend Google, I discovered a simple technique for making the homemade version. I tested it out last night by putting some of the homemade in a store bought sour cream container and some of it in a glass jar. Mya, our nine year old, has the pickiest taste pallet by far. She took what she believed to be the store bought container of sour cream, and I never heard a peep about the weird taste or “yuck what is this”, she just ate it. All of my kids did without having a clue about the difference. Now, Ryan knew that it was homemade, and he thought it tasted different, but that could be a mind over matter issue.
Homemade Sour Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Buttermilk
Instructions
In a jar with a lid, combine the heavy cream and buttermilk. Shake the ingredients to thoroughly mix and let stand, covered, at room temperature for about 24 hours or until it becomes very thick. You can store your sour cream in the refrigerator for up to one week. Make sure that your sour cream is well chilled before using.
Let me know your thoughts!
Just keep livin!!