I'm going to need another experiment after my successful yogurt making experience. I'm going to try this recipe soon since it doesn't require an ice cream maker! I wonder if fat free yogurt is ok to use...

1 pound ripe peaches
1 small or medium banana
1 1/2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
1/4 cup mild flavored honey, such as clover
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice and water. When the water comes to a boil, drop in the peaches and count to 30. Remove from the water and transfer directly to the ice water. Allow to cool for about a minute, then peel off the skin. Dice the peaches, and discard the pits. Place in a resealable plastic bag. Slice the banana, and place in the bag with the peaches. Freeze overnight.

2. Chill a one-quart container in the freezer. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, mix together the yogurt, honey and vanilla extract. Remove the frozen fruit from the freezer. Break up the peaches if they have frozen into a lump. Place the frozen fruit in the food processor, and pulse until it has broken up in the yogurt. Turn on the food processor, and process until the mixture is smooth, stopping the machine from time to time to make sure there are no big lumps. If there are, pulse to break up the lumps, and then continue to process the mixture until smooth. Scrape out of the food processor into the chilled container, and freeze for two hours for soft-serve frozen yogurt or four hours or longer for solid frozen yogurt. Allow to soften for 15 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator before scooping.

Posted by Maggie at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm going to attempt to make my own yogurt since I've decided to only consume organic dairy. I buy big containers of plain yogurt often, and the big stonyfield organic yogurt is quite expensive! I've read about several different ways to make yogurt, including crock pots, coolers with hot water, etc, but I'm going to use the proof feature on my oven for attempt #1. Everything I've read has a different time to let the yogurt grow, but I've decided to start with 7 hours. I guess I can alter the time based on our preferences of tanginess in our yogurt.

Update: Ok I let the yogurt incubate for 7 hours and left it in the fridge overnight. I read that it would firm up in the fridge but my yogurt isn't very firm. It's still quite tasty though. I'm thinking it won't be as firm as store bought since it has no added thickener or pectin. Also, I read that fat free will produce a thinner yogurt. Perhaps I will let it incubate more next time? We will see how it is over the next week.

Update: I've settled on a final recipe that works for me and suits our tastes. I'm using low fat milk since skim doesn't work well in this. Also I've upped the time to hold the milk at a high temperature from 2-3 mins to 10 and increased the incubation time from 7 hours to 11. I think the higher times made for a thicker yogurt. Oh, and I add 1/3 cup of powdered milk along with the starter.

Ingredients:
1/2 gallon organic milk
little container of stonyfield fat free plain yogurt - 3 tbsp as the starter (or some of the last homemade batch)

Method:
In a heavy bottom pot (I used my 4 qt cruiset), add milk and turn on the heat to medium.
Heat the milk to 170-180 degrees F, whisking often (I used a candy thermometer hooked to the side of my pot). Keep the milk between 170-180 for 10 mins.
Off the heat and let it cool to 105-110 degrees F (I put the pot in a bigger container filled with cool water and ice to speed the cooling).
Add 3 tbsp of starter yogurt and 1/3 cup of powdered milk to the liquid milk and whisk it to mix.
Place the milk/yogurt mix in the oven (without lid) and set it to proof at 110 degrees F.
Leave it to 'grow' for 11 hours.
Place in containers and move to fridge.

Posted by Maggie at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 pound ground turkey breast
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco (hot) sauce
4 whole-grain buns
4 slices tomato
4 slices red onion
2 bibb lettuce leaves, halved
4 tablespoons ketchup

Directions
Combine the ground turkey breast, bread crumbs, chopped onion, parsley, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce in a large bowl. Mix well. Divide turkey mixture into 4 equal portions and form into patties.

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler (grill). Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.

Grill burgers until nicely browned on both sides and heated through, about 7 minutes a side. Serve each burger on a bun topped with 1 tomato slice, 1 onion slice, 1/2 lettuce leaf and a dollop of ketchup.

Posted by Maggie at 06:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have quite a bit of frozen cherries in my freezer and was thinking about how to use some. I've heard of sour cherry soup but have never indulged. I made it yesterday and thought it was pretty easy and very refreshing on a hot summer day.

1 1/2 quarts of water
3 Tbs. flour
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 pound of fresh or frozen pitted sour cherries (Do not use canned) - about 3 cups
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Into a soup pot containing 1 1/2 quarts of boiling water add granulated sugar and whisk to dissolve, then add fresh or frozen sour cherries . Stir and cook.
In a separate bowl mix flour, sour cream, salt and beat until smooth.
Add to flour mix, 1 cup of hot cherry sugar mix. Stir vigorously.
Now add the flour, sour cream and hot cherry mix into the pot of hot soup, stir well and simmer for 5 or 6 minutes until it thickens.
Cover the soup and let cool. Keep cover on while it chills in refrigerator and it will not form a thick skin.
Serve very cold.

Posted by Maggie at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)