Yogurt!

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I made some yogurt last night – while destroying the rest of my kitchen… It’s been a while since I’ve made yogurt, I made a few batches when I was in Moscow but I think the last one was before Sara and I went to Mexico. Anyways… it was long over due.

milk
yogurt starter or plain yogurt
a big pot
mason jars

Making yogurt is easy with or without a yogurt-maker. Simply heat your milk (I used a gallon of whole milk) to just before the boiling point – bubbles should be rising and there should be a lot of steam. At this point turn the stove off and let the milk cool down to between 108-112 degrees(F)(the milk is the right temperature if you can hold your finger in it for a slow count of ten). Cooling the yogurt down takes a long time. Once the milk reaches the right temperature – add the starter to the milk (use a packet of yogurt starter or a large spoonful of plain yogurt for each liter of milk, mix the starter into a small amount of warm milk before adding it to the rest of the milk). Fill clean mason jars with yogurt, put them in a prewarmed oven and cover with a clean dish towel. I warm my oven up a little bit and then shut it off right before I put my jars of yogurt in. I have a pizza stone in my oven to help hold on to some of the heat. Let your yogurt sit in the oven for 6-8 hours depending on how firm you want it to be. About half way through – or whenever you remember to – boil a small pan of water and set it in the oven to help keep everything warm. Once the yogurt has set – cover it and refrigerate for at least one hour before using.
Enjoy your homemade yogurt with granola, in smoothies, with fruit, in sauces, on rice, on it’s own, etc.

Tomato Sauce and Broken Sinks

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Today I spent a large portion of the morning and afternoon cutting bad spots out of tomatoes, dicing the good parts up, and cooking them down into a yummy tomato sauce. Well – at least that’s what I was doing until some tomatoes got stuck to the bottom of the pan and burnt. And then the pipes under my kitchen sink decided to start spewing water everywhere.
So right now I have a sink full of dishes, a pan that I can’t clean, a trashed kitchen for my landlord to enjoy and bowls full of half cooked tomato sauce sitting on both counters! Pretty soon though – I’ll have lots and lots of home made tomato sauce sitting up in my cupboard!

How to create a mess in your kitchen OR Preparing the harvest…

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Yesterday Ayla and I were given 7 boxes of fruit and vegetables that were on their way to being compost! Let me tell you – I have never been that excited to see rotting produce…
So last night, we went to town – sorting, peeling, cutting, freezing, cooking and canning. It’s a good feeling to know that your freezer is full of enough french fries to last the rest of the year, and that all those plums are going to make some great BBQ sauce – but boy does it take a toll on your kitchen!

Creamy Blueberry Smoothie

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I currently have a shortage of ingredients in my house to make anything cool and sweet with. And today was so hot that it really called for something cool and sweet. So I took the few ingredients that I do have and came up with a refreshing and creamy snack!

about 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1 container plain yogurt (personal size)
2 Tbsp whipping cream
a drizzle of maple syrup
1 tsp of white sugar (I would have used only maple syrup but I ran out)

Throw all ingredients into a blender or something similar and blend away! Serve immediately (although I suppose this could in the freezer for a while to keep it cold).

The whipping cream makes this smoothie wonderfully satisfying!

Plum BBQ Sauce

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I had a bunch of plums to use up and I didn’t really want to just make jam with them. My solution? BBQ Sauce! I made this recipe up as I went along and it needs a bit of tweaking – but here is the rough draft to start with.

In order to get the 12 cups of plum “juice” that I ended up using – I simply washed and de-stemmed the plums, piled them in a big pot with a couple of cups of water and then cooked and mashed them until I could strain the seeds, skins and the majority of the pulp out with a pasta strainer. I’m sure there is an easier, more sophisticated way to do this but it worked for me!

12 c. plum juice (very pulpy)
1 c. Worcestershire sauce
1 c. Apple Cider vinegar
3 c. white sugar
3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. plus 1/8 c. salt (even though it tasted fine when I pulled it off the stove, it got saltier as it sat so I would cut this amount back)
1 Tbsp black pepper
1 Tbsp ground dry mustard
2 Tbsp granulated garlic
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp celery seed
3 fresh garlic cloves – finely chopped

Put everything in a big pot and cook on a medium heat, stirring occasionally to reduce. Reduce to about 2/3 amount – or desired consistency. Taste as it is reducing and adjust flavoring accordingly. Bottle and refrigerate until needed.

Enjoy with chicken or pork or anything else you can come up with!

(The best) Piquant Prawn Salad

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I love this salad! It’s full of protein, fresh veggies and delicious Asian flavors. This is another recipe from the previously mentioned Thai cook book. I normally leave a few ingredients out but I’ve italicized the adjustments I made so you can see all of the options! (Update: If you are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan, Shirataki noodles would be the perfect replacement for the rice noodles!)

Piquant Prawn Salad

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: intermediate
  • Print
Ingredients

  • 7 oz rice vermicelli noddles or Shirataki noodles (follow the first 5 instructions in this recipe if using Shirataki noodles)
  • 8 baby corn cobs – halved
  • 5 oz snow peas
  • 1 T coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 2 garlic cloves – minced
  • 1 inch piece of fresh ginger – peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 fresh red or green chili – seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 lb raw peeled jumbo shrimp
  • 4 green onions – thinly sliced
  • 1 T toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 lemon grass stalk – thinly shredded

For the dressing

  • 1 T fresh chives – chopped
  • 1 T Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tsp soy sauce or Braggs Aminos
  • 3 T peanut oil (or if you love sesame oil as much as I do, use it instead of peanut oil!)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 T rice vinegar

Instructions

  1. Put the rice noodles in a heat proof bowl, cover with boiling water and let sit for 10 minutes.
  2. Drain rice noodles, refresh with cold water, drain again and set aside.
  3. The dressing can be made ahead of time by combining ingredients and either shaking or whisking all of the dressing ingredients together and then setting aside.
  4. Saute, or steam, the snow peas and baby corn and set aside.
  5. Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan (or wok). Add the garlic, ginger and chili and cook for one minute.
  6. Add the shrimp and cook until just pink.
  7. Stir in the green onions, snow peas, baby corn and sesame seeds. Toss lightly to mix.
  8. Add the contents of the pan to the rice noodles.
  9. Pour the dressing on top and toss well.
  10. Sprinkle with lemon grass and chill for one hour before serving.

Enjoy this light flavorful salad!

 

Super Easy Hot-and-Sour Soup

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In the mood for a delicious way to warm up this winter? Try this spicy warming Hot-and-Sour Soup that can easily be made with just a few special ingredients!

The original recipe for this soup calls for prawns – I made it with chicken… I’m sure either would taste wonderful.

I believe this recipe is a fuel pull if you are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and use lean chicken or shrimp and a reduced fat stock.

Original recipe from “Thai – the essence of Asian cooking” from Hermes House

Easy Hot-and-Sour Soup

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print
Ingredients

  • 1 lb raw chicken (or jumbo prawns)
  • 4 c chicken or fish stock
  • 3 stalks lemon grass
  • 10 kaffir lime leaves – torn in half
  • 8 oz can straw mushrooms – drained
  • 3 T fish sauce
  • 4 T lime juice
  • 2 T green onions – thinly sliced
  • 1 T fresh cilantro leaves
  • 4 fresh red chilies – seeded and thinly sliced
  • salt – to taste
  • ground black pepper – to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces (or if using prawns – peel and save the shells, then devein and set the prawns aside).
  2. In a large soup pot bring the stock to a boil (if using prawns, rinse the shells and add to the stock).
  3. Slightly crush the lemon grass stalks and add them to the stock along with half of the lime leaves.
  4. Simmer gently for 5-6 minutes, until the stock is fragrant.
  5. Strain the stock, return it to the clean pot and reheat.
  6. Add the drained mushrooms and the chicken (or prawns), then cook until the chicken is cooked through (or the prawns turn pink).
  7. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, chilies, and remaining lime leaves into the soup. Stir to combine.
  8. Add salt and pepper to taste. The soup should be sour, savory, spicy and hot.

This is a great soup to make ahead of time and keep hot in a crock pot or on the back of the stove until time to serve.

Enjoy!

Perfect summer dessert!

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Ayla and I were graciously invited to the Tyler’s home for lunch yesterday! Linda Tyler made a wonderful tasty meal and a fabulous dessert. I pressed her for as many details as she could give me so that I can attempt to duplicate it 🙂 Her instructions are as follows:

Make and bake and cool a buttery Graham Cracker Crust. For the filling take part of a block of cream cheese (for a 9×13 she used not quite a full thing), mix together with some whipped cream until well incorporated. Add whatever flavoring you want (she used a little almond, but says she has done lemon, orange, chocolate, etc. in the past) and add some powdered sugar to lightly sweeten. Fill crust with filling. Top with fresh blueberries and slightly press them into the filling to help them stay there. Maybe sprinkle some almond flakes. Cook and cool some more blueberries and poor over everything to kind of hold it in pace. Sprinkle a few more almond flakes. Serve and enjoy!

I realize these instructions are not specific at all – but I’m sure you can figure it out! The filling was a very light fluffy cheese cake type filling (although even Ayla liked it ’cause you couldn’t taste the cream cheese). This desert was perfect for summer because it was cool, slightly rich, and the blueberries were allowed to shine!

Thank you Linda for your hospitality and wonderful dessert!

New House…

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I’m in! Sort of…not really very much. But – I can begin moving in and unpacking! And if I ever find my camera in all this mess – I’ll put pictures up 🙂 And some day I will feel clean again – the previous renter didn’t clean very well before she left so I’ve been wiping out kitchen cabinets – and mice got into my storage unit and pooped all over everything – and it’s hot and dusty. So a shower is definitely in order sometime soon!
On another note – my dad says he is going to buy me a gun 🙂 haha! woohoo! I guess there are benefits to my dad thinking we all need to be able to fight to the end and hole up in a bunker (I’m paraphrasing – a lot).

Moving Frustrations…and cookies!

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I was going to write a post about how frustrated I am with the way our new land lords have been handling this whole moving situation… or about the fact that our move in date keeps getting pushed back because they are still painting… and then I decided that it isn’t great to dwell on the negative…

Instead I am going to expound upon the virtues of these – Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies – created by the Gluten-Free Girl.

After having my mom and roommate continually forget that I wasn’t eating wheat or dairy during the last two weeks – it was a joy to discover one of my favorite cookies in a wheat and dairy free form! Plus – anything from Gluten-Free Girl is bound to be wonderful, including her writing and photography. I highly recommend her blog and book to anyone who enjoys food – whether or not you are trying to go gluten-free. They are both a joy and an inspiration to read! Check out her blog here.