This week I successfully made yogurt at home. I’m really blown away that it worked!

Packing school lunches several times a week got me thinking about how much the kids love yogurt, but bemoaning how expensive it is. One solution was to use my strawberry jam mixed with plain yogurt scooped from the large containers into individual serving reusable plastic containers. A quick look online however gave me an even easier and cheaper solution though… make my own yogurt!

And so I found these easy and detailed instructions from a professor at a university in Ohio. They are step-by-step… with pictures even! He doesn’t use any special equipment, but items you probably already have at home. Best of all, the recipe makes 4 quarts at once and he says they will keep up to two months in the refrigerator. That’s a win-win situation to me!

I’ve only waited this long to try it because I didn’t have the proper size of an ice chest (maybe you call it a cooler?) in which to ferment the yogurt once it’s in the jars. He suggests a medium size one, but the most necessary requirement is that it fit 4 quart jars side by side. I’m using canning quart jars, and for months I was unable to find something with a wide enough base on the inside to accomodate them. Summer weather demands new products though and I finally found the Igloo Ice Cube 14. It is just perfect! And the price was – here in Canada – only $19.99.

His directions were easy to understand and follow. He recommends using Dannon brand yogurt for the starter, but I used Astro 3.2% that is readily available here in Canada. One minor detail that sent me off to the store for another tub of starter was to NOT open the tub at all until you are making the yogurt. Someone had wanted a snack for the first tub I bought, and I didn’t want to take chances on my first go at this.

Other minor notes… I used whole milk and added the 4T of powdered milk he recommends if desired for extra firmness and am pleased. On step 7 and 8, when the pot of scalded milk is cooling in a pan, I opened the cold water tap just a bit, so that there was a small stream of cold water entering the pan. See, the pot was so hot that the water in the pan got warmer and the milk didn’t seem to be cooling off. But adding in cold water slowly from the faucet continuously displaced the hot water, and everything was good.

The only hard part was watching the temperature at every stage. It is crucial, but the whole process didn’t take much more than an hour. After that, the yogurt sits in the ice chest for three hours to ferment. Overall, not much effort for the results you get. The ice chest will probably pay for itself after two batches, and the health benefits are incalculable. I think I’ll keep this up from now on. Especially since the truly hardest part was not peaking at it! lol

Makes me wonder now if I can make my own frozen yogurt at home or frozen yogurt popsicles. Hmm…

***Update***
Haven’t gotten around to those popsicles, but I have made my second batch of yogurt. I’m very happy to report that it was even better than the last. Before we ate any out of the the fourth and last jar of the first batch, I scooped and saved one cup to use as starter for the next go ’round. The result was even firmer yogurt with less water. Hurray!

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Mecandes stumbled upon a gem when he went looking for something to cool us off in this heat. He makes Cabernet Sauvignon wine from a kit every few months and was hoping to find a mixed drink we could make with it for this incredible summer. Here’s what he found…

2 bottles red wine
1 cup sugar
2 cans Fresca® grapefruit soda
sliced apples, oranges, limes and lemons

We substituted Mountain Dew for the Fresca and just sliced up one whole orange as that’s the only fruit we had. It all went into a pitcher and chilled in the fridge. Both of us thought that adding sugar to the already sweet Mountain Dew was over the top. We’ve had to water down each glass we pour with water and are planning to leave it out in the next batch. We think too that lots of different carbonated beverages would go well… any kind of lemon-lime soda or ginger ale. Now if you used club soda, you might need that added sugar.

Ha, have I confused you enough?! I think this is one recipe that you’ll have fun playing with and it’ll always come out nicely. Make it as simple or exotic as ya like. The oranges were so cute though, floating around the top of the pitcher. Mecandes gets an A+ for this one. The man does have good ideas!

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From Southern Living Annual Recipes 2000:

3 quarts water
1 tablespoon salt
1 – 2 & 1/2 pound fryer chicken, cut up
1 teaspoon salt
1 taspoon pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups vegetable oil
1/4 cup bacon drippings

Combine water and salt in a large bowl; add chicken. Cover and chill for 8 hours. Drain chicken and rinse with cold water; pat dry.

Combine salt and pepper; sprinkle half of mixture over chicken.

Combine remaining salt-and-pepper mixture with flour in a zip-top bag. Place 2 pieces of chicken in the bag, seal and shake to coat. Remove chicken to a plate and repeat until all pieces are coated.

Combine oil and bacon drippings in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet; heat to 360 degrees F. Add chicken, a few pieces at a time, skin side down. Cover and cook for 6 minutes. Uncover and cook for 9 minutes.

Turn chicken pieces, cover and cook for 6 minutes. Uncover and cook for 5 to 9 minutes, turning pieces during the last 3 minutes for even browning if necessary. Drain on paper towels and keep warm.

For best results, keep the oil temperature between 300 and 325 degreees F. Substitute 2 cups buttermilk for the saltwater solution, if desired. Serves 4.

Notes:
If this looks a little labor intensive to you, I’m not going to kid ya… it is. My advice – because these are WELL worth the effort – is to simply start cooking an hour ahead. Ours were cooking while we chatted and had yummy Saturday afternoon drinks. Then when Mecandes had to use the telephone, I employed the timer on the microwave to keep track of the minutes and got the kitchen and dishes all cleaned up before supper.

I’d never fried bone-in chicken pieces before. Always before I’d slice up some boneless chicken and fry them in what I now realize was probably way too much oil. This recipe doesn’t take near so much, so is nicer on the budget. Instead of a whole chicken, I opted for a value pack full of drumsticks to make them easier for little fingers to eat. Oh, and I didn’t have time for the saltwater solution, but the chicken was fresh so it didn’t suffer much in toughness.

We have these with yogurt scones and a green salad. Simple perfect food.

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