Another New Chapter

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog.  I was sick for a little while, but I’m fine now,  then I bagan working again after 11 years of being a stay at home mom, and I have a new grand daughter.

First before I begin about my new job, I need to post this recipe for making homemade yogurt.  My daughter was asking about it since it is cheaper to make yogurt than it is to buy especiallyt if you get the milk  on sale.

So, for any of you out there who are interested in making your own yogurt here we go…

You do not need a fancy yogurt maker, here is mine:  Canning jars, heating pad and the box the canning jars came in and a large towel or two.

The supplies you will  need to make the yogurt are a large stanless steal pot, a candy thermometer, milk and yogurt for the starter.  You will only need a small amout of the yogurt for a starter, so don’t buy a quart container, 8 oz. will do.

When you buy your yogurt make sure you buy one with “live active” cultures.  Dannon is the least expensive one I have found on the market.  Read the lable it will tell you if the cultures are live and active.

The first step is to heat the milk to 190-200 degrees F, in the stainless steel pan.

Once it reaches that temperature (take care not to let it boil), you want to cool the milk down to 120 degrees F. I do this by filling my sink with cold water and placing the pot in. The water helps reduce the temperature quite rapidly, so don’t walk away during this step.

Once it has cooled to 120 degrees F, whisk two tablespoons of yogurt into the milk. I’ve tried using different amounts of yogurt to start my yogurt and I’ve actually found that the smaller amounts work better than larger amounts. A tablespoon for every 3-4 cups of milk.

There was also a time during which I stirred some dry milk into each batch of yogurt I made.

After the yogurt starter has been stirred into the milk, pour this mixture into the canning jars, put the lids on.  Place the jars into the canning jar box with the heating pad placed in the bottom of the box and turned up to high.

Wrap the box of jars in a large beach towel or two bath towels just to hold the temperature steady. Do not move the jars around while incubating.  The yogurt will  not set.

After about 4 hours you have nice warm yogurt.  Label and date the jars of yogurt and place them in the refrigerator.

Think about it when you can get milk on sale, which here where I live milk is on sale somewhere at least twice a month for $1.67 a gallon.  This means you can have a gallon of yogurt for $1.67.

Not that this is plain yogurt. If you want flavored yogurt you just add your own flavorings, sweeteners and fruit when you are ready to eat it.  I use my yogurt in my baking, pancake batters, and muffin batter. Use it where ever you might use milk in your baking.

 

Homemade Blueberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

This Saturday we will be attending a function at the church, it is a picnic and concert in the park.  But since we live in Arizona and it is 108 degrees by 11:30 am the activity will be at the church in the gym.  We are to all bring a box dinner and some of us have been asked to bring homemade ice cream.

I began making this ice cream recipe about 15 years ago when I lived in Missouri and I took the children Blueberry picking.  We of course froze some and made muffins and syrup for pancakes.  But then I also thought about ice cream.  I make Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins so I thought Blueberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream would be good too.

So here we go….

Blueberry Ice Cream

• 2 Cups Half and Half
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cups whipping cream
• zest of half a lemon
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

A note here, you really want to use mini chocolate chips

because the larger ones are very hard when the ice cream is frozen.

Also only add the chocolate chips into the mix during the last few minutes of freezing just long enough to mix them all into the ice cream.  Adding them at this time keeps them from getting broken up during the freezing process.

 

Place the egg yolks in a bowl and beat just to break up then add the sugar, do not over mix, you just want to incorporate the sugar into the eggs.  Set aside.

 

 

Use a sharp knife to slit your vanilla bean lengthwise, pour the half and half into a heavy 1 to 2 quart sauce pan, add the vanilla bean.  Heat to just boiling, do not allow the milk to boil over.  When the half and half is heated to boiling remove the vanilla bean.  You will notice little flecks in the milk, these are the vanilla seeds you want them, pour the vanilla milk into the egg and sugar mixture stirring constantly.

 

Clean out the pan and dry the outside of the pan leaving the inside wet, this will help keep the custard from sticking to the side of the pan. Pour the custard mixture back into the pan and on a very low heat and constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, cook the custard about 7 minutes until the custard is thick and coats the back of a spoon.

Do not rush this process if you cook the custard too fast too hot the eggs will curdle and you will have scrambled egg ice cream.  So low and slow stirring constantly. After the custard is cooked if it has curdled a little pout it through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add the whipping cream, lemon zest and blueberries at this point and the vanilla extract if you did not use the vanilla beans in the half and half earlier.

Cover the custard and place in the refrigerator to cool.  when the mixture is cold follow the manufacturers directions on your ice cream machine.  If you like soft serve ice cream eat it as soon as the ice cream machine says the ice cream is ready.  if you like hard serve or hand dipped ice cream place the soft ice cream in a container and place it in the freezer for a few hours until it sets and is ready to scoop.

Finished blueberry custard just put into the ice cream freezer

 

Finished soft serve

Either way this is a great ice cream.  Just note that the actual custard recipe can be used to make really any fruit ice cream or just as it is for a vanilla ice cream.

 

Don’t you just love dolls?

I decided I wanted to begin to learn to make dolls, crocheted dolls.  I searched the internet during the past week and found some very cute doll patterns.

This is the one I decided to begin with.  She is called a Spirit doll, pattern made by Beth from Indiana.  Her blog is called By Hook, By Hand.  She these are her designs.  What drew me to these little dolls was that they have clothes that you can also make. INCLUDING UNDERWEAR!!!

This may sound a funny reason to be drawn to this pattern, but I remember when I would  be out with my mother and we would see a doll at a store or rummage sale or flea market, it did not matter where, If she saw a doll she liked, one of the first things she would do, is turn it upside down and look for the underwear.  It seems that all well dressed and well bred dolls as well as young ladies should always have underwear…..

mine turned out nicely I feel.  but of course a different hand doing the same work; mine did not come out exactly like Beth’s, you will  notice when you go to her website and see her’s.

I have not yet made the clothes for the doll but I do have the supplies already and when I get the chance I will begin making the little underwear.

When I finish I plan on making the tea-cup size dolls that Beth has on her website.  Do any of you do this as well?… I mean you haven’t finished one project and you already have in mind the next one you want to try?  When I catch myself doing this I have to make myself stop because if I don’t, I begin to feel like I am already behind and I go nuts.

I have to concentrate on the one project and try to not get too many ideas in my mind at once, so I can thourhoughly enjoy the current project.

I hope you will all go to see these cute little dolls on Beth’s blog, and will enjoy making them.

 

Patience, Patience…

I have been in need of a rocking chair for my front room. The one I have been using has finally given up the ghost. I happen to need to go to the Goodwill Thrift Store the other day to look for a dresser for another room.  While I was there, I took a look at the upholstered furniture, among it was this chair. It was the right size and color for my front room and it is a rocking chair, it needed some  minor work and cleaning.  I had looked at it earlier in the week when I was in the store but it was priced, $19.99.  But yesterday was “Yellow Tag” day. That meant everything in the store with a yellow tag was half off the original price.  So, this chair was now only $10.

I bought the chair and took care of the needed cleaning, vacuumed it and used upholstery cleaner and cleaned it.  I trimmed all of the threads that had begun to pop out and I repaired the hem in the front and the side pocket had become all saggy and lose.  So I opened up and inner seam and replaced the elastic and gave that pocket a face lift.

I was so excited about the chair and I also had the time, since I am down to just two low maintenance boys in the house for the summer. That I actually was able to finish this counted cross stitch pillow I started 3 years ago. The cross stitch panel has been finished for over two years waiting for me to have time from the teens to complete the pillow part.  The ruffle on the pillow is also actually the same fabric as my drapes.

 

Here it is! The nice newly refurbished chair, an afghan a family friend knitted for me when I got married and my newly completed cross stitch pillow.

So, patience, patience and the things we need will usually pop up.  Patience, patience, and the time will eventually present itself so we can complete a task.

 

Completed Wire Crochet Necklaces

I have finally been able to complete my wire crochet necklaces.  This first one I present to you are wire crochet rounds with a turquoise nugget wired onto the center of each round.  I simply joined the rounds with jump rings and then added the chain I found at the bead store.  I have discovered it is a little tricky to find nice copper chains.

The pattern for the rounds is the drop daisy pattern, remember, I posted on an earlier post when I began the experiment with the wire crochet, it is the link under resources Thread Bears Blogspot.

I chose to use the turquoise nuggets because I happen to have some but as you can see, you could use any type of bead that suits your taste.

This next necklace design is one that came to me because I was learning to make the wire butterfly then I wanted to make a dragon-fly, I already had the frog and the fish, I made them years ago and they were actually little pins.  I just took the pins off and made them into charms.  So with these little charms I figured these would make a themed necklace, a “Pond Theme”.

I call it “Pond Life”

Look closely you will see at the base of the necklace is a small fish swimming among some blue glass beads then working up both sides there are some brown beads representing the bank of the pond then on one side you see a green glass bead frog and on the other some wild flowers and a lady bug, then some white bead cloud topped off with the butterfly and the dragon-fly.

The Butterfly is made from the pattern on the link to the left, Nana Sue’s Blog spot. the dragon-fly was my own invention, the wings are made from a simple crochet leaf pattern then I left the wire long enough that I could tread the bead onto them to create the dragon-fly.

I haven’t decided which is the best way to create yet, getting beads I like then let them tell me what they want to be; or decide what I want to make then try to find the beads that will work.  The latter seems to be the most difficult for me.

I hope these designs will inspire others to experiment with these techniques who haven’t tried them yet. As I got into the work of making each component of the Pond Necklace and I could see the scene come together, it made me giggle, to realize, there is not another one of these on the planet.

And isn’t that the fun part of creating.  Making something that never existed before.  I hope you will view this link and feel even more  inspired by the words and the video that is presented to go forth and create beauty in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhLlnq5yY7k

 

I WIN!

It has been a while, three weeks I believe, life has been crazy.  My sisters are fussing at me for not blogging for so long.  So here it is I started this one on the 17th of May and life has calmed enough for me to finish it right now.

If I havent been sick I have been chasing crazy teenage girls around, and if I havent been doing that I have been sick AND chasing crazy teenage girls around.

What is it that happens to an otherwise perfectly good girl when she turns 15?  I suppose it isn’t just the 15 year olds I guess it depends on the make-up of each girl, they can tend to vary.  Where does their good sense go?  where is their desire to please mom?

I was in a clothing store the other day.  Behind me were three women. One about my age and one a bit younger maybe in her 40′s and a young mother toting a little 4-year-old boy, who was very done with being in a clothing store shopping with mom.

The 40 something mom commented on how well the little boy was behaving.  She went on to say that she had more troubles with her little girl than any of her boys.  They young mother commented back about how she understood that statement as she has an eight year old little girl who gives her fits already, that famous eye roll.  The 40 something mom replied, “Oh, yes!  I have a thirteen year old daughter who has attitude as big as can be.”

The older woman behind me entered the conversation stating the same ideas about her daughter at those ages and how she struggled when her daughter was 16 years old.

Listening to these very dear and loving moms, I had great compassion on them.  I turned to them and commented that I to understood the issue of raising teenage girls, they can be trying at best at times.  Then I announced, I WIN!  I have raised 10 daughters, I am on my last three and they are all 16!!! I WIN!

Everyone laughed, and said I should be in the funny farm by now, and I suppose counted themselves lucky!

Today things are a little more calm and I am glad. I have gotten to decorate this fun little cake for my two granddaughters that have turned four.  They are a week apart and we had a little celebration for both of them at my daughters home.  I chose this particular design because the girls are so into princesses.  And my oldest four year old likes to look at grandma’s cake books and she gravitates to the wedding cakes, so I combined the two ideas into this cake.

I used the Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix and a regular butter cream icing.  Since I was a bit short on time and didnt want to make alot of different colors I also decided to use the spray food coloring to add color and design, then i just used basic white for the trim and finished off with pink roses and silver crown on the top.  I found the dangly jewels at the craft store they are from the Duff Goldman Collection.

The girls loved the cake and I was Queen of the Grandmas for a little while.

The tricky part was that i delivered the cake to my daughters home early in the morning and by party time there were two small finger size dents in the side of the cake.  But Olivia did show some restraint, because in years past she has actually climbed up on the table where grandma had a cake waiting and actually took bites, lol!

So here I am at 51 juggling the crazy rebellious teen girls that seem to struggle with making sense of the world and little four year old princesses, quite the difference.  I just have to keep reminding myself once my teens were little princesses and I love them the same now as I did when they were Little Princesses.

 

 

Last night’s dinner menu

I thought I would share last night’s dinner with you.  I had the urge to make a nice Panko crusted Tilapia for dinner, but not all my children like fish so I decided to make some home-made chicken strips too, and for a treat I added some fried shrimp.

Out of curiosity, how many of you moms out there when planning dinner decide to actually make 3 different entres?  I told my children they are very lucky children to  have a mom who not only wants to please them at dinner time but has the ability to make 3 different entres at one time so every one is happy.  When I was a child we ate the one thing that was prepared and we were happy.  But I knew in a family of 20 children I would need to be a little more accommodating so, many nights for dinner I make not just one soup but three, and not just one pasta sauce but three, pizza night 6 different pizzas, and so on and so on.  It can be like cooking for a restaurant every night. I just learned how to time everything so it all comes out at the right time.

Last night’s Menu

• panko fried tilapia, chicken strips, shrimp
• home-made mac and cheese
• steamed broccoli

I decided I would blog today about how to make home-made chicken strips.  This is the same process you will use if you wish to bread and deep fry any ingredient, meats or veggies. It takes some prep time but the outcome is delicious and can save you money.  I got the chicken breasts on sale this week for 88 cents a pound, panko bread crumbs at the 99 cent store is only 99,  two eggs 20 cents, So my cost was less than $3.00.  To buy these at the store already breaded and ready to re-heat, my cost would have been about $6. 98, and they would not have been fresh and yummy like mine.  So just something to think about when looking in the frozen food aisle.  Remember anything manufactured you can make fresh at home.

Ingredients

• one chicken breast per person
• one box of Panko bread Crumbs
• one cup flour
• 3 eggs beaten
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder

Prepare your chicken, trim the fat and any sinew on the breasts then slice the chicken into 4 to five strips depending on the size of the breast. I place all of the chicken strips on a clean kitchen towel ans dry them thoroughly.  Season the meat with the salt pepper and garlic, a nice sprinkling of cayenne pepper is good here too if you want hot spicy strips.  I usually make a mixture of my seasonings in a bowl because I will use it three times in this process.  have fun and develop your own season salt that  your family will enjoy!

After the  meat is all dry and seasoned, place all the pieces in a bowl of seasoned flour.  Season the flour with the same seasonings  you seasoned the chicken with.

Now time for the egg wash.  One piece at a time dip in the egg wash then into the Panko bread crumbs and then place the strip on a wire rack place over paper towels on a baking sheet.  If you do not  have a wire rack just place the strips directly on the paper towel that has been sprinkled with more panko. 

Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  You could do this process early in the day as I did or even over night.  When you are preparing to make your dinner and heat your oil for frying take the meat from the fridge to let it warm up a bit before you fry.  The experts say let it come back to room temperature, for the meat to cook more evenly.  but you don’t always have that time so just take the meat out as soon as you can before you need to begin cooking.

Prepare a large skillet with about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil, let it get hot but not smoking, and place your chicken strips in the oil gently.  Leave them alone until you see a nice golden crust forming around the edge, now turn them over to get the same color on the other side.  Remove and place on a wire rack or on paper towels, season with your beginning seasonings again. You have now developed layers of your seasoning on your strips very tasty. These tender little strips are never oily just crispy and tender.

Since the meat is in strips it only takes about 4 to 5 minutes to cook. and I can put about 8 strips in my skillet, so I can actually have all my strips cooked in less than 30 minutes.

You see my menu has tilapia and shrimp also.  I prepared my fish and shrimp in the same manner as I did the chicken. I had all the meats on trays in the fridge all afternoon.  I cooked the tilapia after the chicken in the same pan as I did the chicken.  Tilapia takes less time than the chicken and I only had to cook for filets so it only took about 5 minutes for the fish to cook and as I was cooking the fish in the skillet I was deep-frying my shrimp in my small cast iron pot.  I began heating the oil in the pot the same time I began cooking my chicken. I used a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature so I could adjust the heat as I needed to so the oil would be at temperature when I was ready to fry my shrimp.  the correct temperature is 350 degrees. Just barely two  minutes are needed for each batch of shrimp.

If you plan ahead for left overs, everything can be used again the next day, either in a chicken snadwich wrap, or fish and shrimp tacos.  It is nice to work a little extra one day and have left overs you can turn into something completely different the next day, with very little effort.

I hope you will try this process and enjoy fresh home-made fried foods instead of the store bought frozen processed foods that are more expensive.

I play this little game with myself.  I love to know that I can give my family yummy meals for a fraction of the cost of eating out or frozen foods and it is so much better tasting.