Yogurt Take Two

In an effort to understand nutrition, our food, our bodies and to re-create a healthy understanding of where our food comes from, and the effort and the routines it goes through to get to our table, I've tried things like making yogurt, breads, & butter.  I did not grow up understanding farm life, that someone out there grew my food or what processed or unprocessed foods are.
  I think we can agree... the less processed a food is, the better it is for you.  I love learning about food and nutrition. Mostly, I have been successful in this quest... mostly. I'm not one to follow a recipe to the tee.  I often veer off the path those directions give me.  I think that I know better.  I will think my yogurt is getting too cold and I'll turn up the heat (only to have it on too long and kill my yogurt)... I'll use the palm of my hand as a measuring spoon, only to learn I'm not putting in enough sugar, salt or baking soda.  I'll put a loaf of bread in the oven to rise in a plastic bowl... only to learn that the oven is just warm enough to melt that cheap plastic bowl and ruin all my dough (Ok, I forgot it was in there and I turned on the oven to pre-heat it for some other thing I was baking) And so, I suffer the kinds of losses that come with being a bit of a goof-up.

I've made yogurt before with lots of successes and failures scattered here and there.  We mostly only buy plain yogurt since most of the rest of the flavored stuff is chalked full of fillers like gelatin, sugar, fake sugar, and fake fruit, not to mention all the chemical additives that I both can't pronounce or spell. I usually stand in the yogurt isle at the grocery store looking at labels FOREVER.  What I look for is a full fat, not sweetened with sugar or fake sugar yogurt.  There are very few out there that I have found that are good.  Yogurt sweetened with natural fruit juices and honey, like Lil'Ones and Nature's Treat, both by Dairyland boast that they have:

• No added sugar or fructose
• Sweetened with fruit juice
• No artificial sweeteners
• No artificial flavours
• No artificial colours
• No gelatin
• Has lots of real fruit pieces

On the other hand,  those Yoplait tubes.... GARBAGE.... I mean get some plain yogurt, taste it and then taste what ever it is in those tubes.  You can't get any more yogurt-less than that. Blech.

  Yogurt and cheese made traditional ways are actually tolerable to people who are lactose intolerant. High fat contents, yogurt bacteria, and the cheese fermentation process, contain lactase enzymes that actually consume lactose in cheeses and yogurt that are traditionally made.  Modern brands on the store shelves however add lactose back into their yogurts by adding milk solids or don't even reduce the lactose since they are not even made with actual bacteria... let's call them 'yogurt-like substances'.  Gelatin is used as a thickener in those cases.  Many of the yogurt and cheeses on the shelves in our stores are very high in lactose. 

It IS actually quite easy to make.... my kids eat yogurt like it's ice-cream and it gets expensive. Since it's soooo easy to make (from what I remember) I'm going to use a different recipe and try it a second time with some raw milk. I'm going to follow the directions and RESIST THE URGE TO SECOND GUESS IT. I'm going to use the light in my oven instead of a crock pot this time.

Yogurt takes a little bit of time to make. Not actual working time but time for it to sit and culture.  
If the temperature of your yogurt gets to high or to low then it will kill the culture. DON'T I KNOW IT. So it is important that during the incubation period that the temperature stays between 90 and 110 degrees.

Homemade Yogurt (modified by Kristi... woops. I did. I messed with this recipe. I said I wouldn't and I did. We'll see how it turns out. Good Grief.)  See the original recipe post here

by Crystal Miller

- 8 cups milk
- 1/3 cup powdered milk (this is optional but will make a thicker yogurt)
- 1/2 cup starter yogurt
Before you begin wash 2 quart-sized canning jars.  Have the lids ready to cover the jars when you are done.
Pour your milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees.

Allow the milk to cool down to 110 degrees. The cooling can take a long time. If you want to speed the process up fill your sink with cold water and place the pot of hot milk in the water and stir and stir. The temperature drops fairly quickly this way, so make sure to have your thermometer handy to keep checking.

 Whisk your starter yogurt with a cup of warm milk to get the lumps out before you add it to the pot.

After you reach 110 degrees add the starter mixture and stir until everything is dissolved very well.

Pour this mixture into your ready and waiting jars. Put the lids on and put them into what ever place you are planning to incubate and culture them.

I put mine into the oven to incubate covered in a towel. I heated the oven to 150 degrees and then turned it off and let it cool a bit.  I wrapped up my jars in a towel and put them in the oven... and I am to leave them for 10 to 12 hours; trying not to disturb the jars to much.  OK... THIS IS MY PROBLEM... I just want to babysit them too much.  Is the temperature right.... how are they doing? Is it thickening?  I HAVE TO KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS.... grr.  I am 3 hours in to this process as I type and I have to RESIST my very 'curious, goof-up, what the Vegt?' nature and leave it well enough ALONE!  

Like... I so badly want to post the next picture in this series, but it's still HOURS away.... hours. Killing me. I need to leave the house!!!!

And, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking... "Given your track record, Kristi, it's probably a bad, BAD idea to put a towel in your oven.... you will have a fire for sure. Please, please do not make this a habit."

Duly noted.


Stay tuned for the results.  If I don't post them by this time tomorrow, would someone please phone the fire department. Please?

Teamwork

The May 24 weekend is for camping.  Kaelyn and Wesley want to camp.... so, like any good outdoors people,  I told them they had to carry their tent themselves. Took them a bit to figure it out....

 But they got it.

 They hauled that tent all the way across the yard.

 Up into our own little "Narnia".

 UP UP UP

 We searched for the perfect spot.

 And found it.

 Wes got busy getting the tent out & we started setting it up.

  Ugh! A pole broke.

 So, we learned the importance of duct tape on a camping trip.

 We re-enforced it with a stick Wesley found...

 But the stick was not strong enough.

 Kaelyn got another.  It was very strong,

 and held perfectly.  I'm going to have to try to find a "textile outfitters" store around here.  I miss that old Calgary store... I looked it up online the other day.  I think it went out of business?  It sold fleece, gortex, canvas, nylon, poles, buckles... performance type fabrics & notions for the outdoors...  and for repairing and sewing your own gear.

 We ran into another problem.... this tent is in great shape, but it's old, so the bungee type cord in the poles isn't so bungee-ish anymore.... yet another reason to find a "textile outfitters" in our area.

 We pulled it through to one end.... and unscrewed the end tip.

 Pulled the cord through some more and re-knotted it so that it would pull tight again and keep the poles together.

 And THEN! We set up the tent finally!

 Good Sierra Designs promo shot...

 And the rest of the afternoon was playtime in the tent...

 Perfect Spot huh?!

 AND Camping tonight.... why must there always be a "What the Vegt?!" moment to our adventures?!!! Just. Wondering. 

Millie the Wonder Dog

Our Bernese Mountain Dog Millie!
So, I'm not a crazy dog person. I'm not. I didn't even think I was a dog person... until Millie.  Dave and I spent quite a bit of time researching the right breed for us... and wow... it was worth it.  We now have the space for a dog and Millie is so gentle, loving, calm and quiet.  Most of the time.    We went to Langley about a month after we moved into our new house to get her.  SUCH A GREAT DECISION.  Our yard is mostly fenced and she mostly just stays put.... other than her daily trips to our neighbour Leslie's house, she is so content to lay around with us, watch the kids and tell us when someone shows up.

She is soooo awesome.

Even as a puppy, she just let the kids maul her.  It's amazing how she follows the kids around... herds them even.... keeps an eye on them.  Bernese Mountain Dogs are shepherding dogs and it's no surprise.... it's why we got her.  She is doing her job well.

Love from Nova.

She is lying on my legs here...

Obediently waiting outside the chicken run for me to come out and be with her.

Gentle even with the pig we had.... mostly.  Because I gave her pigs ears to chew sometimes, she had a taste for pig.  She would knaw at his ears and feet....

On her perch at the front of the house where she can keep an eye on everything that comes and goes around here. Am I a dog person?   I am now... Millie is gorgeous, protective, gentle, watching, calm & easily obedient. I am a Millie person. 

How did we get such a gooood pup?  I don't know, but I'm sooo excited to see how her personality mellows out even more with age.  She's only a year old now and we just love her to bits!!!  In about a year from now I think I mentioned we'll be breeding her... sooooo excited to have little Bernese Mountain Dog pups around!!!! You are going to want one!!!

A letter to a friend who makes different choices than me... because I love you.

We do the best with what we can... and it means that you and I make different choices.  My sanity suffers b/c I don't work outside my home. It's true. I have time to do this and that and become obsessed about what we put in our mouths and on our bodies.  My job is to save money, to find the deal, to... make it from scratch... these are the luxuries that I have and you do not. You have luxuries that I do not....  our personalities are so different that we have made different choices.... but they are BOTH valuable. TRULY.  I think we struggle with the other side of what we choose because we DO value what the other chooses.  I VALUE what you choose in and for your own life.  I"m jealous that you can go back to school.... it's something I would like to do too, and there will be a time for me. It's just not yet.
There is no right way and wrong way to do this life.... we do the best we can with what we have.  I don't want to make you feel guilty for choosing something different than me.  Dave and I want our lives to be shared with those around us.... to make things easier on our friends, not put more pressure on them to be more like us or to choose the things we value over the things they value.... it's not right or wrong, it's just different.... I also want to share in what you are.  You are so smart, beautiful, caring, gentle (it's true).  And if I can make life easier for you, I want to do that.  I'm investing in different things than most anyone else I know, and it's because I ENJOY making those choices. Just as you ENJOY choosing to work. I'd never want to take that away from you... to make you feel like it's not valuable.  I want my kids to see the value in the choices that working moms make too...  The fall out of both our choices is that we suffer the consequences of putting enormous pressure on ourselves, we feel guilty for not choosing different.... and then we make friends with those who more than likely choose the same path as us, and so we talk about that path and without knowing we're making someone feel less than loved.... less than valued.
We can't have it all.
I don't.
You don't.
Be sure of this. I don't want to be friends with another ME.  (ew.)  I want to live through you, share with you and support you and be supported by you. If we put our lives together wouldn't it be just about perfect?

You are one of the loveliest women I have ever met. I love your fire, your spunk and your heart, your choices and your values.  I wish I could be you sometimes (minus the bruises).

Your love for your family and your friends are more important than any organic-homemade-non-toxic-homegrown-raw-phthalate free life. Amen? Because, who am I kidding? If my kids didn't slather every morsel they put in their mouths with Ketchup they would probably never eat.