IT'S ALIVE!!!!

I feel like a real Frankenstein.  I have created a living thing! No, seriously: I made yogurt.  Greek yogurt, to be precise!

This morning I raced to the oven and was happy to see that it still felt warm in there (I still can't believe the light kept it toasty enough!).  When I took the lid off, voila: yogurt!  But I couldn't dig in yet, because it has to be strained to remove the whey (like as in curds and whey, Little Miss Muffet style).  I got home from work tonight a little too excited to check my creation, and it was perfect.  All the watery whey had strained out, and I was left with Greek yogurt!!!  I stirred in some vanilla extract, because I am not one to eat plain Greek yogurt.  Then it was time to work on my mix-ins!

I had frozen strawberries, so I decided to try making the sauce with those.  The recipe says to use peaches, raspberries, or blueberries, but it worked just fine with strawberries.  It is really easy and quick to make - probably takes less than 20 minutes.  I am now excitedly waiting for the sauce to cool so that I can stir some into my yogurt, and revolutionize my life.

Short post tonight...I barely slept last night... but I had to share my excitement.  More yogurt, and new mix-ins to attempt tomorrow :)

Recipe:
yogurt mix-ins

Breakfast Attempts

Good news: the bagels came out okay!  I was worried yesterday about them, since there was no time for the dough to rise.  Then today, they failed the proof test repeatedly (you're supposed to put them in a bowl of water, and see if they float... and in my other 3 batches that I've made, they float immediately... as for these guys, they sunk like a freaking stone!).  Finally I gave up on passing the test and just threw them into the pot of boiling water (without baking soda, mind you... another thing that made them different from my other recipe!)

I was near panicked, but I can gladly say they came out fine.  I still think the other recipe is better, because they were a bit puffier, but these have been devoured and we only have a few left!  Whew!  Still, I am sticking with my old recipe next time.  While it was nice to have an easier recipe with a million shortcuts, you get what you pay for.

Then tonight I was doing some brainstorming.  Saturday is our ALS 5K and walk, and we always invite the team to our house in the morning for pictures and to hand out our tee shirts.  I was thinking that it would be nice for us to have breakfast ready for the people who have volunteered their time for our favorite cause.  Kenzie pointed out that the runners won't want a big casserole or anything heavy, so I might still make something like that for the walkers, but the runners need good protein to keep them running without weighing them down... and thus we had the perfect opportunity for me to try out the idea that has been percolating in my head since I saw the recipe a couple weeks ago: Greek yogurt.  Yes, I am trying to make my own Greek yogurt. 

I know it sounds crazy, but you don't need any fancy ingredients or cooking supplies.  You need milk, and 2 teaspoons of yogurt (as the starter, so you can have the live cultures).  You boil the milk (to kill the dairy enzymes so they don't mess up aything), cool it down, incubate it for 12 hours, strain out the whey, and voila!  Yogurt!  It's incubating right now in the oven; that is the only tricky part, because you keep the oven off but you can't let the temperature go out of the 110-120 degree range, or it won't incubate.  Apparently if you preheat the oven for a couple minutes, shove the bowl in there wrapped with towels, and leave the light on, it will be okay.  Fingers crossed.  I will know tomorrow if it worked, and after school I can taste it.  I am pretty excited. 

Now, I am not one who loves Greek yogurt, but comments on this recipe said the yogurt was milder and less sour.  Also, the same blog (my beloved Annie's Eats) later posted recipes for 3 different fruit mix-ins, so if the yogurt works out, I will be trying those out later this week.  I also have an idea to try out my own granola.... but I should take this one step at a time! Fingers crossed that I actually have yogurt tomorrow morning!

Recipe:
Greek yogurt

Not So Relaxing

Today I had expected to have a lovely, leisurely day in the kitchen, but unfortunately it did not quite work out that way.  I made cinnamon raisin bagel dough (bagels to be baked tomorrow) and strawberry chocolate cupcakes, but nothing quite turned out the way I wanted them to.  I still do not handle mistakes well, but I'm trying to deal with failure a bit better than I used to!

I asked Mom what kind of food I should make her while she went to visit my grandfather.  She said cinnamon raisin bread. Since I have made cinnamon raisin bread twice - and it's tricky - I decided to try a different form of cinnamon and raisins.  I noticed that my favorite blog had a recipe for them, but in the spirit of branching out  and trying new things today, I checked out another of my frequeently-visited blogs and found a different, quicker, easier recipe.  I went for that. Once the dough was made and resting in the refrigerator, I started to doubt my decision.  I have now made bagels 3 times, and they always require a lot of time to rise.  In fact, every yeast bread I have ever made needs time to rise, because that is the whole point of yeast.  And yet, this recipe calls for no rise time.  It calls for the dough to be made, formed into rolls, rolled into ropes, pressed into bagel shapes, and off they go into the fridge overnight.  Since the dough has to be warm to rise, the refrigerator time does not count as rising time.  And I like the other way to form bagels: make a roll, then press your thumbs through the middle and slowly widen the hole.  Making ropes and then cinching the end seems... not so bagel-like. So, I used the old way.  Still no time to rise though.  I guess we will see how it all goes tomorrow after I bake them, but I have my doubts. Unfortunately, this all went through my mind when it was too late.   I wish I had looked into the recipe a bit closer before I started! Next time, I stick to Annie's Eats.

As if I needed more stress, then I had a little cupcake catastrophe.  I wanted to surprise Mom with strawberry chocolate cupcakes; she had been craving a chocoalte cupcake with strawberry frosting and we had just talked about it earlier.  I found a recipe, made the cupcakes, put them in the oven, and then made the frosting.  While I was pureeing strawberries (yes, it was that involvled), I peeked into the oven... and gasped.  My cupcakes looked like tar.... bubbly and black and spreading out across the pan... and also very sunken.  And they stayed like that.  Sunken and horrible.  Kenzie tried it and said they tasted fine, but my strawberry puree buttercream frosting was just way too good to put on these crappy things.  So, I made the hard decision to throw out all 20 failures.  Normally I'd probably say that maybe the kitchen and I were not mixing well today and I could call it a day... but I had made the frosting.  I had to try again with the cupcakes.  So I did, and thank god they rose normally and turned out just fine.  Gram and Nick both loved them, even if Mom claimed that the frosting was "salty."  At this point, I was so sick of those damn cupcakes that the slightet criticism would ruin my day, so you can imagine that I took it really well.

Yikes...

So, what went wrong?  The only thing I can think of is that I used water from my Keurig during cupcake round 1.  The recipe called for boiling water... perhaps the water isn't hot enough?  I suppose they ask for boiling water for a reason... who knew it actually had to be actively boiling?  I don't know.  Rough resolution day, though. At least Neely Mouse lucked out and got to eat one of the weird, hardened cupcake tops from round 1!

Happy mouse!

Recipe:
cinnamon raisin bagels
strawberry chocolate cupcakes

Meatless Thursdays

Although I am still sick, I have been missing the kitchen, so tonight I dragged myself back in to make some dinner!  I knew it was only going to be me and Mom for dinner tonight, so I could make something small... meaning it was the night to experiment :)

Over vacation, Mark took me to Barnes and Noble and let me peruse the cookbook section.  I found one book that I fell in love with but am far too cheap to buy for myself ($40 for a cookbook!?).  It was called Meatless Mondays, by the McCartney family.  You know, like, Paul McCartney?  They created this idea that every Monday, people should not eat any meat, and they should eat healthy, veggie-filled meals and snacks all day long.  The book gave an entire year's worth of Monday recipes, from breakfast to lunch to dinner and side dishes and snacks!  It was amazing.  Anyway I was happy to see, once I got home, that Meatless Mondays has a website with lots of great recipes on it for my cheap ass.  I skimmed through it and found a vegetable lasagna.  Now I have said this before: I have always hated lasagna, and they depress me because it's always the meal of choice for people to bring us when Dad is in the hopsital.  However, my Mexican lasagna made me realize that maybe I just hate meat lasagna- since, after all,  I hate meat.  So I found a white vegetable lasagna - low fat, nonetheless - and I had to give it a try.  I ran to the grocery store quickly to pick up some rather bizarre ingredients for a lasagna (cottage cheese?  Spinach? Broccoli?) but I was ready to experiment with the Lotsa Green Lasagna!

I will say that this took me a while - although I must admit that I am still a rather slow chef.  I can whip up baked goods like nothing, but give me a knife and I will slice in slow motion.  And this needed a lot of slicing: carrots, broccoli, scallions, garlic!  Plus cooking the lasagna noodles, mixing up the cheese mixture, and then making the cheesy sauce thing... it took me a while.  And I started to get nervous.  I wasn't doubling the recipe, since it was just the 2 of us eating, but it seemed like I was making about a cup each of the 3 fillings!  I started to be afraid that it was going to be dry.  Luckily, it was great! 

There are layers of noodles, and then layers of cheese :low fat cottage cheese, low fat mozarrella, and goat cheese.  Can there be a better, healthier cheese mix!?  I had been afraid that it would be dry, but the cheeses all melted and spread out perfectly.  On top of that was my sauteed vegetables, and then a spinach parmesan sauce, mostly made of milk and flour and only 1/4 cup of Parmesan.  I can promise you that it didn't taste low fat in the least.  Lots of great flavors.  I can proudly say that Mom and I practically ate the entire thing ourselves (and she gave it a 9 rating!).  I am already pretty pumped to eat it tomorrow at lunch.

The only things I changed about the recipe were a couple substitutions.  It called for frozen spinach - but everything else was so fresh, and I could not bear to put anyfrozen vegetables in there, so I grabbed fresh baby spinach (since I like it better).  Then it called for freshly grated Parmesan, but the store didn't have it, so the pre-grated stuff worked just fine.  If  you try this recipe, you'll definitely want to double it for a family; trust me, it will go :)



Mom being proud that we both ate a ridiculous amount of lasagna

P.S. Go to www.meatlessmonday.com and see if you can find a meatless meal for your family :)

Recipe:
Lotsa Green Lasagna

Strawberry Streak

I am on a real strawberry streak lately.  I think it is because they seem to be always on sale at every store I walk into.  Currently we have 3 containers of strawberries in the fridge (or at least we did before I baked with them tonight!)  I was searching on Pinterest for some way to use some berries, and I came across strawberry and Nutella muffins.  When I brought up the idea to my mom, she unsurprisingly acted like it sounded gross, but I was interested.  Kenzie was making dinner tonight, so I could just bake away the stress of the first day back to work!

These were pretty quick to mix together.  One good thing that happened is the buttermilk incident.  The recipe called for buttermilk.  I swear, 75% of the time that I need buttermilk, I don't have it.  My mom taught me that you can make your own with milk and vinegar, but I've always had to Google it just to be sure that I had the right measurements.  Tonight was the first time that I just did it.  I finally memorized it!  This is nothing huge, because it's just a cup of milk and a tablespoon of vingegar, but I take it as a sign of my confidence in the kitchen! I finally trusted myself and only got nervous after I poured it in.  Luckily, I was okay :)

Surprise! Nutella inside!

Strawberry and Nutella muffin

The good news is that everyone loves them!  The recipe only makes 9 muffins, which I was happy about because we always seem to throw out my baked goods, but I actually think there is a chance these will all go.  Mom, Kenzie, Mark and Rachael already had one.  Mom, who was a big doubter, was pleasantly surprised and rated it a 8.  Kenzie refuses to give numbers because she says she is against the "Richter scale," but she said she likes them better than any other muffin I've made.  Success!

Mark is excited to try his muffin

Recipe:
strawberry and Nutella muffins

6 More Mondays...

Well, the last week has been wonderful, but unfortunately, it went by way too fast!  Vacation is already over and it's back to work tomorrow.  This has me quite depressed.  The good news is that we only have 7 more weeks of school before summer vacation!!!  And, since we have Memorial Day, it's only 6 more Mondays.  This is going to be my mantra to get me through tomorrow.

The last couple days have flown by in a blur of graduation parties, going out to eat, and being sick :(  I've had a pretty nasty cold since Friday, but I'm trying to ignore the fact that it feels like it could turn into bronchitis; I wanted to squeeze every last enjoyable second out of my last days of vacation.  So I have been doing a little work in the kitchen and hoping I am washing my hands enough not to spread my germs!

For Seth's graduation party yesterday, I made my taquitos, per Tracy's request!  I've posted about them two times before, and they are quite a hit.  In fact, they all went at the party!  Considering the insane amount of food at this party, I think it is safe to say that these are fool-proof party appetizers!  You should make them the next time you have to bring something to a party :)  The good part is that you can do most of the work before the party.  I actually mixed up the filling Friday night.  I was worried they'd get mushy sitting in the fridge overnight, so I stuffed them Saturday morning, and then baked them once I got to the party.  We served them with sour cream and salsa on the side.  Mmmm!

Saturday after the party, I attempted to pretend I wasn't feeling sick, and my favorite food blog had recently posted a recipe for blueberry bagels!  I love making bagels, and blueberry bagels are among my top flavors, so I had to make it.  Mark and I bought dried blueberries for them earlier in the week, and since I was home alone and had nothing else to do, I thought it was a good time to get the dough started.

Despite my love for bagel-making, blueberry bagels are a bit more stressful.  You don't add the berries until the dough is already made, and bagel dough is tough.  Literally.  It's very stiff,  and so it is no easy task to shove 2 cups of dried blueberries into it!  That part took a while, and I was getting frustrated, and some of my berries squashed a bit and made for some messy-looking bagels, but I can say it's worth it.  If you try the recipe, don't give up at this point!  One more note: the recipe says it makes 12-14 bagels, but I think they are too large.  I made smaller bagels, and made 20.  They aren't tiny, but a perfect size for a breakfast!

I boiled and baked them this morning, and Mom said they were the best bagels she ever had!  Kenzie claimed it was the best thing she ever put in her mouth.  They both rated them a 10!  They are a huge hit.  Somehow my berries seem as though they haven't been dried a day in their lives.... soooo juicy and flavorful!  As much as I hated these bagels when I was trying to incorporate the berries, I have to admit that I love them now.

Time for bed now... 6 more Mondays...

Recipes:
creamy chicken taquitos
blueberry bagels

Beastly Yeast

Today Mark and I went to lunch in Providence and met up with my mom and sisters at the Wrentham Outlets.  I had no interest in this place whatsoever because I hate shopping, but that was before I noticed all the cooking and baking stores!  In a whirlwind of shopping, I ended up witha lot of great deals on some fabulous things, including a spoon spatula, a cupcake corer, a frosting decorator, an avocado knife - and, my favorite purchase: a Le Creuset Dutch oven set!  I've wanted a Dutch oven for a while, but they can be pricey.  This one was on sale, and it even came with 4 little individual-sized Dutch ovens!  Not sure what I will do with them, but they are very cute.  They're all blue and beautiful and very exciting.

When we got home, I immediately set about looking up the recipe I've been wanting to try out once I got a Dutch oven: Dutch oven bread.  It actually bakes in the pot!  The real name is blooming herb bread, because you slice the top with a big X, and it "blooms" while it cooks and kind of looks like a flower.  Also, you can choose any herb you want to flavor it.  We had chives leftover from my potato casserole, so I tossed those in.  The only thing that was a bit weird about the recipe was that everything was in ounces... including butter... but I found out that 4 ounces is one stick, so that was okay.  Then the butter was supposed to be mixed with the herbs, but it never says how much herbs!  I just winged it and put in what looked like an acceptable amount.  I whipped up the dough quickly, and then waited for it to rise... and waited... and waited.  It's been an hour and a half now.  The recipe says to let it rise for 1-4 hours, which is quite a range, but by this time, it should look at least a little bigger!  I have made enough bread by now to know this.  I have a hunch that my yeast went bad; it was in a foil packet that I poured into a jar and kept in the fridge for a couple weeks.  I Googled non-rising bread dough, and cool temperatures or bad yeast are the culprits. To rule out cool temperatures, I am snuggling up with my bowl of dough for now.  If it rises, perfect, and if not, I blame the yeast and try again tomorrow!

Recipe:
blooming herb bread