Days when it's worth it

Okay, some days I think I'm being an idiot and wondering what the hell I'm up to with this whole footprint pseudo-green-suburban-mama thing, feeling very self-consciously chi-chi and precious like I'm trying to be something I'm not.

And then today, when I had 2 or 3 minutes to make lunch before running in for a noon staff meeting (which doesn't actually start until 12:30, I now discover, which is why I have time to blog), I am able with incredible ease and efficiency to do the following:
1. get a piece of whole wheat naan, the stuff from Trader Joe's we subsist on instead of regular bread, since it takes much longer to mold and is palatable to our kids,
2. place on half of it a few slices of lunchmeat (okay, it was roast beef, which is the most EVIL un-green meat one can consume, requiring immense resources to produce, but that's a rant for another day and we haven't eliminated beef entirely from our diets yet because my husband is of the Beef It's What's For Dinner mindset despite the fact that we've had beef for dinner maybe a total of, oh, a dozen times in the past 7 years of marriage, not counting when he stops at Scatchell's and buys Italian Beef sandwiches on the way home from his folks...)
3. on the other half, spread some of the yogurt cheese I made a couple of weeks ago, still perfectly good and fresh. (I don't do mayo; too fatty and the jarred stuff is too processed.  Yogurt or yogurt cheese gives the creaminess and tang without the fat content.)
4. grab the kitchen shears and head out to the patio, where I snip off 4 small lettuce leaves and a sprig of fresh tarragon, all of which I give a quick rinse and dry-pat to
5. put the lettuce on the meat side, quickly use the shears to chop-trim the tarragon over the yogurt cheese.
6. put the halves together and start munching

And realized it was quicker to cut and rinse the herb and lettuce than it would have been to open the tarragon jar and/or get a thing of lettuce out of the fridge.  And this is just May, less than 2 weeks after everything's planted--it'll grow and grow, and there'll be more all spring and summer.  And if I can keep the tarragon from flowering, it'll just keep bushing out and I can dry the herb for the winter, since I use it all the time...

This was an AMAZING sandwich.  Truly yummy.  Could only have been better if I'd cut the tarragon into the yogurt cheese several days ago and let it sit and steep (which I might to tonight with some of it; need to eat that yogurt cheese before it goes off!).  And if I had veggies, I'd've skipped the meat all together and just done tomato and zuke slices, maybe the yogurt cheese on one side and hummus on the other or something.  But it was GOOD.

Good fresh food, quick and easy, cheap (aside from initial startup costs, which admittedly this first year in a new home are considerable), gourmet-ish even, that I made/grew myself, and from which I didn't generate any more stupid plastic containers. 

A good day.
--J

Yogurt in the crockpot!

Those who read my blog with any regularity are probably sick of hearing me sing the praises of Stephanie the Crockpot Lady ----I don't know if I've ranted much about her here on dreamwidth yet, but there ya go. (crockpot365.blogspot.com )

A month or two ago I became intrigued by her method of making yogurt in the crockpot: crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html 

The first time I tried it, it worked well, although it was very runny and didn't strain well. (That was the time I followed her directions pretty much to a T.)  The end result was better suited to "kefir" (that yogurt drink you pay an arm and a leg for at Whole Foods) than any more traditional yogurt.

The second time I tried it, I made a gallon instead of a half gallon and threw in some powdered milk as well--the basic method I used:

• heat a gallon (Stephanie did 1/2 gallon, so I'm adjusting) milk in crockpot on low for 2.5 hours
• unplug crockpot and let sit another 3 hours
• whisk a cup of plain yogurt in a bowl; whisk in a cup or three of the warm milk till it's nicely mixed, then pour back into the crock. (Here I added a cup of powdered nonfat milk.)
• Cover the crock, drape a couple of heavy towels over it for insulation, and let sit unplugged overnight.

This second time I let the yogurt incubate a lot longer--10-12 hours rather than the initially suggested 8. (Perhaps longer than safe...the greenmama is not responsible for your kids' stomach upsets if you follow any bad advice I give on this blog.  I tried it, I felt fine, it tasted perfectly good, my kids ate it, all was okay.) This time it strained like a dream.  Turns out (thank you, internet) that once the yogurt incubates past a certain point, the whey and curd naturally separate, so the gelatinous fragility of lots of store-bought yogurt actually intensifies, and it just starts to "leak".  (This happens with bigger containers of store-bought yogurt too, after you've cut into them with a spoon, you've probably noticed.)

This time I immediately strained it, putting a piece of natural muslin (from my fabric stash, prewashed of course and dampened before dumping the yogurt in) into a vegetable strainer over a big pyrex measuring container--I used a measuring container because I was curious about how much whey would actually drain out.  Also, every 10 minutes or so I scraped the muslin with a spoon, to clear away the already strained stuff and make room for more; not sure how big a difference this made.

The strainer held about a quart of unstrained yogurt and over about half an hour abandoned about a cup of clear whey, leaving a nice thick creamy yogurt in the muslin.  I did this three times, transferring the finished strained yogurt into old saved yogurt containers.  The kids took this to lunch and ate it for snacks, and we went through 2+ quarts in maybe a week.  I would put some of the yogurt into one of those little cup tupperware things and drizzle some honey or maple syrup or even chocolate sauce over it.  I bet apple butter would be yummy too. 

The last of the unstrained yogurt (1 gallon=4 quarts) I put in the muslin/strainer over the pyrex again, but this time since it was time to go to work I put it all into the fridge and let it drain for 6 hours or so.  By the time I got home it had given up just over 2 cups of whey, and  was honestly "yogurt cheese," a thick stuff about the consistency of cream cheese.  I've made dip with it, or used it as a mayonnaise substitute on sandwiches.  Good stuff.

Cost Analysis: Okay, a quart of organic yogurt at Trader Joe's costs about $3.  To make this, I needed a gallon of organic milk ($6--obviously WAY cheaper if you get conventional), a cup of regular plain yogurt ($1-ish, but once you've made it once you can keep using the starter for subsequent batches), and the powdered milk (hard to gauge, since I bought a giant box ages ago that I just keep around).  So, assuming I'd've gotten about 3 quarts of plain yogurt out of this, that comes to about $2 savings, which isn't much.  Again, using conventional milk and yogurt starter would drop the cost of making my own dramatically.  Plus...well, it's sort of fun.

I'm told that one can use instant gelatin in the milk to help it set a bit more, though I haven't tried it.  And apparently when the fruit-on-the-bottom yogurts get made, they actually put the fruit in first, then the infected milk, and let it incubate right there over the fruit, so that's how it keeps its nice still gelatin texture in the commercial brands.  That's also, I presume, why the "yogurt makers" you buy use all the little cups instead of doing one big Vat of yogurt like the crockpot does. 

So...bon appetit!  It's fun! And healthy! And reduces your footprint by not going through (as I do) 2 plastic quart containers every week!

peace,
J