Yogurt

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/cut-plastic-out-with-homemade-yogurt

I couldn't get around yogurt containers though. One of my favorite meals is yogurt mixed up with fruit, granola, and maybe the odd cube of cheese. I bought it in the larger containers in an effort to be less wasteful, but it seemed I was doomed to a long life of putting my plastic pints to the curb every week.

Well, those days are behind me, thanks to No Impact Man, Colin Beavan. Mr. Beavan is well-known in the green world for having spent a year living in Manhattan under a set of austere rules meant to limit his impact on the world. He (and his amazing wife and daughter) didn't use electricity, didn't drive, buy anything new, or eat food that wasn't grown local to the city for a year.

Yesterday Colin wrote something on his blog rehashing a post from 2007- "Do a dance for yogurt that isn't in plastic tubs" that has a stupidly simple recipe for yogurt that basically breaks down to "boil milk, let it cool and mix in a bit of yogurt". I fired up the stove last night, boiled half a gallon of milk, added in some Brown Cow yogurt once it had cooled enough, and let it sit overnight. I woke up to a big jar of yummy yogurt. I added in some maple syrup and found it to be just as good if not better as anything bought in a store.

And it's WAY cheaper. For about a dollar a quart and literally five minutes of effort, you can make your own yummy homemade yogurt. I had no idea it was so easy.

Swing over to No Impact Man for the full recipe. If you're a fan of yogurt, do yourself a favor and try it out.

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/do-a-dance-for-yogurt-that-isnt-in-plastic-tubs.html
So Effie emailed me her Mom's recipe, I made it last night, and it's the best. Mix with honey. Yum. Just to have--at last!--some sort of food that I don't have to cook. I mean, I making my own bread every day, for crying out loud. So having yogurt in the fridge is crazy good. Anyway, in case you're interested, here is Effie's Mom's incredibly easy recipe for homemade yogurt:

1) Boil whole milk (for some reason it doesn't come out right with less than whole milk) in a large pot until it boils and foams at the top. Shut if off before it spills over.

2) Let the milk cool off until you can keep your pinky finger in the milk for 10 seconds without burning it (a temperature reading would have been great for this step but I don't think they had these back in Greece 70 years ago), so this will be the most difficult step.

3) In a small bowl (that holds about 2 cups) add one tablespoon of live yogurt and beat it until smooth. Slowly add to this starter one cup of the milk from the pot stirring slowly until combined.

4) Transfer this mixture (in #3 above) to the pot of boiled milk slowly pouring it in the pot while mixing the pot of milk the whole time to combine thoroughly (with a spatula or long spoon).

5) Pour into glass or plastic containers and seal them.

6) Arrange the containers together and cover with 2 to 3 towels keeping them in a warm place of the house (and no, you don't need some sort of a yogurt maker gadget to keep them warm). Let them sit overnight.

7) In the morning place them in the refrigerator and they will get cold. Yogurt is done.