Best Yogurt Ever

Okay, there are a lot of ways to successfully make yogurt. In fact, its one of the most forgiving and, therefore easy, things to begin making at home. That said, 'best yogurt ever' depends a lot on what you want in a yogurt so I admit, its a pretty subjective thing. I like my yogurt thick and creamy so if that sounds good to you, then this might be the way to go.

Preheat oven to 200
On the stove, heat half a gallon of organic whole milk to 185.
Reduce heat to 110-115.
Stir in 1/4 c. plain organic, not fat free, yogurt. (Make sure your yogurt have live active cultures in it. Any of your organic brands should be good: Nancy's, Brown Cow, Wallaby, Stoneyfield Farm, etc.)
Stir in some probiotics (optional; I use Udo's Infant probiotics to help prevent ear infections in baby).
Turn off pre-heated oven. Cover stove-top mixture and put in oven.
Leave mixture covered undisturbed in oven 7-8 hours.
(I heated the oven to 200 a couple times during those 7-8 hours and turned it off as soon as the pre-heating was done.)
Remove from oven, stir, transfer into storage containers, and refrigerate.
Enjoy thick, creamy yogurt.

We've added local honey for immune boosters or berries for antioxidant sweetness. Here's an old family favorite that's good to have on hand for a quick breakfast that'll 'stick to yer ribs til lunch.'

Swiss Breakfast:
1c. yogurt
1c. rolled oats
1c. milk
Stir and let sit in fridge. Add more milk or yogurt if it gets too thick for you.
Add fruit or honey to your bowl in the morning.

Daily Bread: Multi-Grain Waffles

It's the weekend! Daddy's home all day, and we're all a little cheerier than usual. After the early service at St. John's tomorrow, we'll feast on these yummy waffles. Maybe I'll even try to rope another family into breakfast at our house if I get courageous.

Multi-Grain Waffles

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup multi-grain (7, 9, 12, whatever you've got) cereal
boiling water
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk (whole milk or evaporated milk are best, but skim works)
3/4 cups water (if you used skim above, just use 1 3/4 cups milk and no water)
2 eggs, separated
1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

Equipment
waffle iron

Method
Pour boiling water over cereal just to cover. Let stand 20 minutes.

While the cereal is hanging out, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. All at once add milk, water (or more milk) and egg yolks. Stir to combine and then beat in butter and multi-grain cereal.

Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. If you've never done this by hand, no electricity, not even one of those mechanical egg-beater things, you should give it a try. You'll work up enough of an appetite to have 2 waffles with real butter and syrup afterward.

Fold the egg whites into the batter. Be gentle and don't deflate the egg whites.

Bake in the waffle iron. They're usually ready when they stop steaming, sometimes just a little before that.

My Livestock

Have I told you about my herd of livestock? Man, are these guys little troopers. They eat much of my kitchen waste (peels, cores, any other veggies) and never complain. And they are multiplying at a prodigious rate! It's cold here, but they don't seem to mind that either. All they seem to care about is food to eat and a place to sleep.

What are they, you ask? Chickens? I wish! Ducks? Nope! Little urban city swine? No again!

They're redworms! And they are making me some mighty fine fertilizer.

Now, you ask, why in the world would I post about worms on this blog about nice warm cuddly things like Butternut Squash Soup and sharing veggies with neighbors and Granola?

I don't know, actually!

There just seems to be something great about having a way to 'recycle' my kitchen waste into something useful rather than filling up a landfill. And I got to share worms with a friend yesterday so she could start her own herd!

Daily Bread: No Knead Bread

Cooking is the one household chore I always enjoy. And now that my husband recognizes the dignity of doing dishes every evening while I get the baby into bed, I have no reason not to cook. So at the suggestion of a fellow QD writer, I'll endeavor to share a taste of our daily bread.

First up, No Knead Bread. So simple and good. If you begin the recipe in the evening, you'll have bread hot out of the oven in time for dinner the following day. It's the perfect thing with a comforting bowl of soup as the fall weather sets in.

No Knead Bread

Photo Album

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Harvest King bread flour
1 cup white wheat flour
1/2 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/2 cups warm water (plus 2 tablespoons for high altitude)
about 1/3 to 1/2 cup wheat or oat bran (for dusting)
small amount of cornmeal for sprinkling on the bottom of the pan

Equipment
A covered 5-6 quart Dutch oven or other covered pot or casserole that can go into a 500 degree oven. I use a 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven. (note to le creuset users: the plastic nob on the lid is usually only rated up to 400 or 450, so check your model before using.)
A banneton or large mesh sieve and cotton towel (not terry cloth).

Method

1. Mix dough: combine all ingredients except bran and cornmeal in a big bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. It will be shaggy and very sticky. Use a wet spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl so that all of the dough is mounded together in the bottom of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on the countertop. If you let your house get really cold at night like I do, put the dough in the oven or microwave over night to keep it from getting too cold. It should stay between 70 and 75 degrees for the first rise.

2. Shape: The dough should have doubled in size and have little bubbles all over the top. Using a wet or oiled spatula scrape the dough out onto a floured board. Make sure the board is not tilting toward the edge of the countertop. The first time I did this, the dough slipped right off the counter and onto the flour when I dumped it out! Using the spatula or wet hands, fold the edges of the dough into the middle 3 or 4 times. Nudge the dough into a ball and put it into your banneton, or put the strainer into a bowl, line it with a cotton towel and sprinkle bran all over it. Then drop the dough onto the towel and into the strainer. Dust the top of the dough with more bran and fold the towel over it or cover it with a second towel. Let the dough rest for about 2 hours in a warm (about 78 degrees) draft-free place.

3. Preheat: Turn your oven to 450 degrees, 475 for high altitude, after the dough has been rising for a little over an hour. When the dough has about 30 minutes left to rise, set your dutch oven into the hot oven.

4. Bake: The dough should have doubled in size. Remove the pot from the oven and take off the lid. Sprinkle cornmeal all over the bottom--the cornmeal may smoke a little. Remove the towel covering the dough and flip it upside down into the hot dutch oven. If it all falls to one side, shake the pot gently to even out the dough. Spritz the top with water and put on the lid. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover, check coloring, and bake 10 to 20 minutes more until the internal temperature of the loaf is 205 F, or 200 at high altitude. If the bread is browning too quickly, reduce temp to 400.

5. Cool on a wire rack before slicing. If making ahead, you can rewarm and crisp the crust in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes before serving.


Sources:
My first encounter with this bread was in the NY Times. When Mark Bittman posted a recipe from Sullivan Street Bakery bakers everywhere started playing around with the recipe. Notably Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Bread Bible, made about 12 loaves and blogged about it here. I've tried out a few different recipes and the one above is my favorite for the amount of whole grain flour and taste, texture, etc.

Minty Tooth Powder

So I've been using a fluoride-free toothpaste for a while now. But I didn't really know why. I did find some some interesting reasons here (about flouride) and here (about sodium lauryl sulfate). I got to thinking, if the paste I've been buying doesn't have any crud in it, what DOES it have in it? Turns out, not much. Therefore, I decided to make some tooth powder myself. Why pay some company to package baking soda and flavoring in a non-recyclable tube?

Actually, it doesn't taste bad at all. And somehow I like the salt in it. Now, if I can get the rest of the family to use it...

Tooth Powder Recipe

2 Tbsp baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
5 drops peppermint oil (I used more like 8 drops)

Here's what I like about this new quotidian ritual: The little spoon I use to pour a bit of powder on my toothbrush each morning. It's sweet.

I'm thinking about flavoring the next batch with a little fennel oil, too. Yum!

Breakfast Fodder

Nothing gives me more pleasure after my 5:30 am wake-up crawl than a big bowl of raw grains. It reminds me of my days as a kid munching sweet feed with my friend Tori while we bottle fed a little orphaned foal. This is my Muesli mix for those of you who don't have an hour to spend tending a hot oven.

2 cups rolled oats (quick oats are fine, and I think they're easier to digest since they're not really raw)
2 cups rolled barley flakes
2 cups rolled rye flakes
2 cups rolled wheat flakes (or semolina)
2 cups whole nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans)
1 cup seeds, hulled (such as sunflower or pumpkin)
2 cups dried fruit (such as cranberries, raisins, currants, or date pieces in oat flour)
1 cup wheat germ (I don't know why)

Mix it all together and store in an air-tight container or wooden feed bin.

How to eat it:

The easy way-
Mix with milk, soy milk, or yogurt and eat it. If you always eat it this way, you may want to add 2 cups crisp rice or corn flakes to the mix.

The squishy way-
Mix with milk or yogurt the night before. Cover. And enjoy the gloriously gloppy mess in the morning.

The Swiss way-
Put 1/2 cup Muesli and enough water to cover plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a bowl the night before you want to eat it. In the morning add milk or yogurt (or heavy cream) to desired consistency. Top with shredded apple, in the fall, or fresh berries, in the spring.

Cooked-
Bring 1 cup water to boil. Add 1 cup milk and return to simmer. Stir in 1 cup muesli and return to simmer. Let simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 2 or 3 minutes. Serves 2.

Granola Recipe

We've relocated downtown. Hooray! And I know I'm finally getting settled in because this morning we had homemade yogurt and granola for breakfast. Here's my favorite granola recipe:

4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla, maple or almond extract

1 cup raw nuts roughly chopped
1 cup dried fruit (chopped if using big pieces like apricots, mango slices, or dates)

Preheat oven to 300.
Combine oats and spices in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan heat next 4 ingredients just until it starts to simmer. (If you boil honey, the proteins solidify into a yucky brown scum, so don't let it boil.) Add the vanilla or other flavoring to the syrup.
Drizzle syrup over oats and stir well to coat. Stir in the nuts.

Bake on a greased large rimmed baking sheet for 15 minutes--do not use an enameled roasting pan, it holds heat too well and burns the edges. Turn and stir the mix with a spatula. Reduce oven temperature to 275 and continue baking for 25-30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with dried fruit.

If you like chunks in your granola, do not stir when you remove it from the oven the final time. Just press all over the top with your spatula. If you want all of the little oats separate from each other, stir it when it comes out of the oven and again after 10 minutes of cooling. When the granola is completely cool, store in an airtight container.

Optional ingredients:
Flaked coconut, wheat germ, wheat or oat bran, 1/2 cup, mix with oats at the beginning
Pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds (raw), 1/4 - 1 cup, add with or instead of the nuts
M&M's or chocolate chips, 1/2 - 1 cup with fruit (at which point I cease to consider this a breakfast cereal)

I like to vary the spices, extracts, nuts and fruits for different flavors of granola. Here are some of my favorites:

Oatmeal Cookie
cinnamon, oat bran, vanilla, walnuts, raisins

Maple Pecan
1/2 tsp. cinnamon, maple syrup, maple extract, pecans, no fruit

Tropical
ground ginger, coconut, vanilla, cashews, papaya, mango

Banana Nut Bread
cinnamon and nutmeg, wheat germ, vanilla, walnuts, dried banana (the chewy kind, not banana chips)

Dishwasher Cleaner

Finally, after several different recipes and modifications that failed my expectations, I found the cleaning formula for me. I'm in the middle of unloading the inaugural load and what made me pause to post was the completely clean plate that went in with several hours old egg yolk. Now you know that if that came out clean, its a good recipe! So here it is:

Heat 1/2 c. Castile Soap in 2 c. water. Don't boil but get it really hot.
Add 1/2 c. Borax, 1/2 c. Washing Soda, 1/4 c. Baking Soda and stir till its completely dissolved.
Add a few drops Essential Lemon or Orange Oil (optional).
Let it cool and use enough to fill your little detergent holder in the dishwasher.

I also fill my jet dry rinse aid with White Vinegar. If you have hard water or are concerned about a really good rinse getting all the Borax off and neutralized then this may be a good option for you!

Happy automatic dishwashing while you read a book or take a bath or watch your robotic vacuum cleaner terrorize the dog.

PS: Don't bottle the potion until its cooled as you may blow the top. Common sense. Anywho, you may need to give the bottle a good shake before it will pour. Two loads down and still happy! I used a Peppermint Castile Soap and Lemon Essential Oil so my kitchen smells clean and minty. Mmmm.

Gardening Mysteries

I don't know why some seeds that I plant and water grow while others die but that kind of mystery seems to go with life's territory.

This summer's shoulda-been pepper crop.

This fall's promising spinach sprouts.