We were so enthralled by the hatchlings, we didn't get much video. I promise to think about you more next time!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Homemade Yogurt. Mmm, mmm good.
Plain, sugar free yogurt may not be a big deal for you. But it is for me. Because it is hard to get here! The "plain" yogurt available in our town has sugar added to it for sweetness. Genuine plain yogurt is only available at the big grocery store half an hour from our house (and I've heard they only recently started stocking it), but I don't go there often. So, I've gone back to making my own which is something I haven't done regularly in a long time.
Here's how I make it. Be forewarned: this is more of a guide than a recipe. You may have to try it a few times until you get the consistency and flavor you are looking for.
Ingredients:
1 scant half gallon of milk (Whole and 2% work better than skim. The idea behind the "scant" half gallon is that you want to have the right amount of milk to fill your containers when the milk becomes yogurt. I use two one-quart plastic yogurt containers but you could use one-quart jars or any other container that suits your fancy.)
1/2 cup plain yogurt with no sugar or fruit added to it (Use half of a small store-bought container to culture your milk. Choose a good quality one with lots of live and active cultures. You can use leftovers from this batch of yogurt to start your next batch, but the cultures will be weaker than in store-bought yogurt and after culturing from batch to batch a few times, the cultures won't work at all.)
1/3 to 1/2 cup dried milk powder
Method:
1. In a large covered pot on your stove, scald the milk (which means, bring it up to nearly boiling but don't let it come to a full boil because it like quadruples in volume and and turns into a monster that will end up all over your stove -- I have no idea how messy that would be, really, it's never happened to me).
2. Dissolve the dried milk powder in your hot milk.
3. Allow the milk to cool to about 115F. After 5-10 minutes of cooling, I speed the process along by filling my sink with room temperature water and putting the pot in the water. I keep the top on my pot so that the milk doesn't form a skin across the top.
4. Once your milk has cooled to about 115F, mix in your 1/2 cup of store-bought plain yogurt.
5. Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into your yogurt containers and keep them warm for 4-8 hours, depending on how firm and tart you want your yogurt to be. The longer you let it culture, the firmer and more tangy it will be. I let mine go for about six hours.
6. Once the yogurt is cultured and firm, put it in your fridge. It should stay fresh for about ten days.
Here are two ways I keep my yogurt warm while it cultures. At home, I used to wrap the yogurt containers in a heating pad on my countertop and keep the heating pad turned on during the culturing time. I don't have a heating pad here in Mexico (I sweat enough without one) so I discovered a new way that I think might be better:
Fill a few empty glass jars with boiling (or near-boiling) water and screw the tops onto the jars. Place them in a cooler along side your filled yogurt containers. With dry towels, fill in the extra spaces between and on top of your jars and close the cooler until you are happy with the firmness of your yogurt.
Once the yogurt is done, you can add to it whatever you want. Jam makes good fruity yogurt, maple syrup is tasty, plain yogurt is great for blending with frozen fruit and juice for a smoothie...but my favorite way to eat it is over cut up fruit and topped with something crunchy, usually nuts.
My yogurt-making skills came from my summer working at Rock-n-Water. Actually, I learned most of my cooking skills there. Amazing place, amazing people, incredible ministry.
Here's how I make it. Be forewarned: this is more of a guide than a recipe. You may have to try it a few times until you get the consistency and flavor you are looking for.
Ingredients:
1 scant half gallon of milk (Whole and 2% work better than skim. The idea behind the "scant" half gallon is that you want to have the right amount of milk to fill your containers when the milk becomes yogurt. I use two one-quart plastic yogurt containers but you could use one-quart jars or any other container that suits your fancy.)
1/2 cup plain yogurt with no sugar or fruit added to it (Use half of a small store-bought container to culture your milk. Choose a good quality one with lots of live and active cultures. You can use leftovers from this batch of yogurt to start your next batch, but the cultures will be weaker than in store-bought yogurt and after culturing from batch to batch a few times, the cultures won't work at all.)
1/3 to 1/2 cup dried milk powder
Method:
1. In a large covered pot on your stove, scald the milk (which means, bring it up to nearly boiling but don't let it come to a full boil because it like quadruples in volume and and turns into a monster that will end up all over your stove -- I have no idea how messy that would be, really, it's never happened to me).
2. Dissolve the dried milk powder in your hot milk.
3. Allow the milk to cool to about 115F. After 5-10 minutes of cooling, I speed the process along by filling my sink with room temperature water and putting the pot in the water. I keep the top on my pot so that the milk doesn't form a skin across the top.
4. Once your milk has cooled to about 115F, mix in your 1/2 cup of store-bought plain yogurt.
5. Pour the milk/yogurt mixture into your yogurt containers and keep them warm for 4-8 hours, depending on how firm and tart you want your yogurt to be. The longer you let it culture, the firmer and more tangy it will be. I let mine go for about six hours.
6. Once the yogurt is cultured and firm, put it in your fridge. It should stay fresh for about ten days.
Here are two ways I keep my yogurt warm while it cultures. At home, I used to wrap the yogurt containers in a heating pad on my countertop and keep the heating pad turned on during the culturing time. I don't have a heating pad here in Mexico (I sweat enough without one) so I discovered a new way that I think might be better:
Fill a few empty glass jars with boiling (or near-boiling) water and screw the tops onto the jars. Place them in a cooler along side your filled yogurt containers. With dry towels, fill in the extra spaces between and on top of your jars and close the cooler until you are happy with the firmness of your yogurt.
Once the yogurt is done, you can add to it whatever you want. Jam makes good fruity yogurt, maple syrup is tasty, plain yogurt is great for blending with frozen fruit and juice for a smoothie...but my favorite way to eat it is over cut up fruit and topped with something crunchy, usually nuts.
My yogurt-making skills came from my summer working at Rock-n-Water. Actually, I learned most of my cooking skills there. Amazing place, amazing people, incredible ministry.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
My lunch
Okay, okay. I know that one thing people loathe about blogs and Facebook and Twitter is that people post about things that are totally unimportant. But, I think my lunch might actually be relevant to life here in Mexico. And if not, well...think of it as art.
Isn't it beautiful? It's my lunch! Strawberries straight off of the produce truck in front of my house, no more than a day from the fields. Ripe. The same size and shape as the ones I grow in my garden in Colorado (strawberries are, by the way, my most successful crop. Sometimes, like this year, they are my ONLY successful crop). Strawberries atop fresh, homemade plain yogurt. And walnuts.
It just doesn't get better than this!
Isn't it beautiful? It's my lunch! Strawberries straight off of the produce truck in front of my house, no more than a day from the fields. Ripe. The same size and shape as the ones I grow in my garden in Colorado (strawberries are, by the way, my most successful crop. Sometimes, like this year, they are my ONLY successful crop). Strawberries atop fresh, homemade plain yogurt. And walnuts.
It just doesn't get better than this!
Healthy-ish oatmeal cookies?
Healthy-ish because the recipe is reasonably healthy (as far as cookies go) but if you're anything like Our Little Family, you'll eat them all within 24 hours and that, my friends, is not healthy. Everything in moderation, right? If we had any left, I'd snap a photo for you. But the fact that there aren't any left should be reason enough for you to run and make some right now!
The recipe I used was based on this one from Whole Foods. If you look at their recipe, ignore all the silly reader comments about using fake eggs and fake butter. Bleh. That is ridiculous. Real food, people. Not something made in a lab. Unless you're allergic, I guess...
Without further ado, here is your no-mixer-required healthy-ish oatmeal cookie recipe.
Healthy-ish Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses (if you don't have molasses, use brown sugar instead of regular sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter, softened (maybe use 1/3 cup if you skipped the molasses)
1 cup finely chopped pitted prunes
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, white flour, or regular whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or semi-sweet if you can't handle the bitter goodness)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or pan liners or, alternatively, grease with butter or spray.
Combine sugar, molasses, vanilla, baking soda, and butter. Add chopped prunes and walnuts, stir until combined. Stir in oats, flour, and salt. Once all ingredients are well-combined, fold in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonful onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until cooked through and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Makes 3 dozen cookies.
The recipe I used was based on this one from Whole Foods. If you look at their recipe, ignore all the silly reader comments about using fake eggs and fake butter. Bleh. That is ridiculous. Real food, people. Not something made in a lab. Unless you're allergic, I guess...
Without further ado, here is your no-mixer-required healthy-ish oatmeal cookie recipe.
Healthy-ish Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon molasses (if you don't have molasses, use brown sugar instead of regular sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup butter, softened (maybe use 1/3 cup if you skipped the molasses)
1 cup finely chopped pitted prunes
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, white flour, or regular whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (or semi-sweet if you can't handle the bitter goodness)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or pan liners or, alternatively, grease with butter or spray.
Combine sugar, molasses, vanilla, baking soda, and butter. Add chopped prunes and walnuts, stir until combined. Stir in oats, flour, and salt. Once all ingredients are well-combined, fold in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonful onto prepared baking sheets. Bake until cooked through and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Overnight Oatmeal
I found a recipe for overnight oatmeal on the Whole Foods blog not long ago. When I saw the title, I was intrigued. I thought it would have to go in the crock pot overnight which would make it the first crock pot recipe I've ever seen on the Whole Foods blog. Curious, I checked out the recipe and found that, tah-DAH! It's a no-cook oatmeal recipe! It comes out like muesli. Just combine oats and milk and a few other tasty nuggets and leave it in the fridge, covered, overnight. I am in love!The proportions are easy -- one part oatmeal to one part milk (I use a half cup of each). Top it with whatever sounds good to you. I put a little drizzle of maple syrup, some walnuts, raisins, and whatever fruit we happen to have in the house, if it is convenient. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight and in the morning, it's ready to eat! Couldn't be simpler.
Today my oatmeal was topped with these mangoes:
Last week a guy was walking up our street selling two big bags of softball-sized mangoes for only 20 pesos per bag, which is about $1.50 US. How could I say no? The bag weighed at least ten pounds, I'm certain...although I am really bad at estimating weight. Perhaps that has evolved in me as a form of self-preservation...
Ahem. Anyway, I was a little perturbed when I saw the same guy walking back down the street with the other bag of mangoes still in his hand. I'm the only person on the street who bought a bag? I alternated between thinking I should yell for him to come back and sell me the other bag while at the same time getting a little nervous, thinking maybe there was something wrong with the mangoes or I was getting ripped off...who knows why nobody else wanted them?
Never the less, I set the mangoes out to ripen and when I eventually cut into one, it was quite possibly the best mango I'd ever tasted! And so big that one mango was plenty of food for Callie, Brynn, and me. Unfortunately the next day, two of the mangoes were way beyond ripe and I had to toss them. But, that left me with like six more to play with. I diced four of them into a bowl and then ran out of room, so I stuck the other two in the fridge where I hope they'll be good for a few more days. Now the girls and I are eating everything with mangoes. Cereal, yogurt, dessert, and this fabulous overnight oatmeal.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Litterbugs!
You already know that I get angry (very angry) when people toss cigarette butts out their car windows. And if you live in my neighborhood you've probably seen the girls and me out walking the streets with a trash bag in hand, picking up litter. If you've been around Brynn much, you might know that her favorite day of the year is Earth Day, although she doesn't know that it is (officially) only one day in April. Therefore, we can get her to pick up trash any time of year by telling her, "Hey, Brynn, it's Earth Day today. Let's go pick up garbage."
For litter detesters like us, living in a developing country is a bit of a challenge. In every developing country I've ever visited, trash is a problem. I cringe when I walk down our road, down our main street, and down the beach in our town and see litter lying everywhere. Literally, everywhere you look, it's possible to see litter in some form or another. And, unfortunately, the people who live here don't seem to care. And, really, I can't blame them for it. It's just not a priority.
The cleanest place I've ever been is Singapore. There's no litter anywhere, probably because if you litter you get caned. The second cleanest place I've ever been is Disneyland. Have you ever noticed that in Disneyland there are garbage cans within about ten feet of every square inch of the park? I love it. It's like...paradise.
The dirtiest place I've ever been is India, closely followed by Nepal. Whether or not any kind of trash removal system exists in those countries is a mystery to me. Mexico is much cleaner than India (and much less smelly), but when you come here from squeaky clean America, living in the muck takes some getting used to.
This weekend we had our first visitors. Scott's cousin Jeff and Jeff's wife, Cindy, were on vacation for a few days in Puerto Vallarta and, like the good sports that they are, they hopped on a local bus and came to see us. Before they arrived, I looked out my kitchen window with eyes anew, wondering if there was anything that needed to be tidied up before their arrival. And sure enough...there were empty plastic shopping bags, plastic soda bottles, candy wrappers, styrofoam trays, junk food bags, aluminum cans...you name it.
Armed with a plastic bag to cover her hand and another for holding the trash, Brynn headed out to pick up the litter. Within seconds, Callie was requesting bags of her own. And then their friend Cinthya and her little cousin, Alex, were here asking for bags so that they, too, could pick up litter. We were hoping that all of this litter-picking-up would make an impact on our little neighborhood, that maybe we would infect our neighbors with the same anti-litter bug that consumes us. I thought that maybe, just maybe, we were sharing our culture in a GOOD way, a way that doesn't involve obesity and cancer-causing junk food, expensive cars, or morally-questionable media. We were so encouraged that Scott even took photos. The neighbors looked at him (and the kids) like he had a screw loose.
The kids finished picking up the last of the litter, we dumped it all in our garbage can, and then I heard Callie scream, "DON'T LITTER!" And, sure enough, her friend Cinthya had just grabbed a packaged snack from her kitchen and tossed the wrapper on the ground.
Sigh.
Now, don't get me wrong here...I know that the way we handle waste in America is not perfect. Far from it, in fact. We clearly could use less packaging, more reusing, more recycling, and more public garbage cans (how frustrating is it to pick up your dog's doo doo in a bag and then have to carry it two miles before you get to a public garbage can?). But I think that we are, at least, on the right track. There is a public consciousness about litter. We know better than to litter. We prefer not to see garbage on the street and some of us (more every day, I think) pick up the trash that others leave behind, whether it's because they didn't care to throw it out or because their garbage can got knocked over in the night by a bear and trash blew halfway to Kansas.
As Americans, we know about the huge trash dump in the Pacific. We try to keep our land and our beaches clean so that we don't contribute to the problem. There seems to be no such awareness here in Mexico. I don't have a solution. Sometimes I think that there is no solution. Because, really, they just have bigger problems. There are gringos here who have started recycling programs. And we do have trash pickup three times per week. But the awareness is just not there.
We'll continue to do our part, to pick up what we can, to recycle what we can, and to share our efforts with the neighborhood kids. And we'll keep hoping that we can affect our neighborhood for good!
For litter detesters like us, living in a developing country is a bit of a challenge. In every developing country I've ever visited, trash is a problem. I cringe when I walk down our road, down our main street, and down the beach in our town and see litter lying everywhere. Literally, everywhere you look, it's possible to see litter in some form or another. And, unfortunately, the people who live here don't seem to care. And, really, I can't blame them for it. It's just not a priority.
The cleanest place I've ever been is Singapore. There's no litter anywhere, probably because if you litter you get caned. The second cleanest place I've ever been is Disneyland. Have you ever noticed that in Disneyland there are garbage cans within about ten feet of every square inch of the park? I love it. It's like...paradise.
The dirtiest place I've ever been is India, closely followed by Nepal. Whether or not any kind of trash removal system exists in those countries is a mystery to me. Mexico is much cleaner than India (and much less smelly), but when you come here from squeaky clean America, living in the muck takes some getting used to.
This weekend we had our first visitors. Scott's cousin Jeff and Jeff's wife, Cindy, were on vacation for a few days in Puerto Vallarta and, like the good sports that they are, they hopped on a local bus and came to see us. Before they arrived, I looked out my kitchen window with eyes anew, wondering if there was anything that needed to be tidied up before their arrival. And sure enough...there were empty plastic shopping bags, plastic soda bottles, candy wrappers, styrofoam trays, junk food bags, aluminum cans...you name it.
Armed with a plastic bag to cover her hand and another for holding the trash, Brynn headed out to pick up the litter. Within seconds, Callie was requesting bags of her own. And then their friend Cinthya and her little cousin, Alex, were here asking for bags so that they, too, could pick up litter. We were hoping that all of this litter-picking-up would make an impact on our little neighborhood, that maybe we would infect our neighbors with the same anti-litter bug that consumes us. I thought that maybe, just maybe, we were sharing our culture in a GOOD way, a way that doesn't involve obesity and cancer-causing junk food, expensive cars, or morally-questionable media. We were so encouraged that Scott even took photos. The neighbors looked at him (and the kids) like he had a screw loose.
The kids finished picking up the last of the litter, we dumped it all in our garbage can, and then I heard Callie scream, "DON'T LITTER!" And, sure enough, her friend Cinthya had just grabbed a packaged snack from her kitchen and tossed the wrapper on the ground.
Sigh.
Now, don't get me wrong here...I know that the way we handle waste in America is not perfect. Far from it, in fact. We clearly could use less packaging, more reusing, more recycling, and more public garbage cans (how frustrating is it to pick up your dog's doo doo in a bag and then have to carry it two miles before you get to a public garbage can?). But I think that we are, at least, on the right track. There is a public consciousness about litter. We know better than to litter. We prefer not to see garbage on the street and some of us (more every day, I think) pick up the trash that others leave behind, whether it's because they didn't care to throw it out or because their garbage can got knocked over in the night by a bear and trash blew halfway to Kansas.
As Americans, we know about the huge trash dump in the Pacific. We try to keep our land and our beaches clean so that we don't contribute to the problem. There seems to be no such awareness here in Mexico. I don't have a solution. Sometimes I think that there is no solution. Because, really, they just have bigger problems. There are gringos here who have started recycling programs. And we do have trash pickup three times per week. But the awareness is just not there.
We'll continue to do our part, to pick up what we can, to recycle what we can, and to share our efforts with the neighborhood kids. And we'll keep hoping that we can affect our neighborhood for good!
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