Simple Granola

I've written about our family's increased use of yogurt.  Along with yogurt, the kids are eating more granola.  They've always loved granola mixed with other cereals, yogurt, or ice cream.  I found that I just couldn't get to the grocery store enough to keep up with demand.

Solution:  make my own.  Again, like granola, this was something that I used to do about 20 years ago when the older kids were little.  I went to my faithful More-with-Less Cookbook and an old recipe I used to use.  It's one of the simplest recipes you'll ever find.



Basic Granola
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Ingredients
7 cups dry ingredients (at least 3 - 4 cups oatmeal)
1 cup liquid ingredients.

Mix the dry ingredients and spread them in a jelly roll pan or large roasting pan.  Mix the liquid ingredients and pour over the dry ingredients.  Mix with a spoon or a pastry blender.  The pastry blender will result with a finer granola, as opposed to a chunkier granola.

Bake for 60 minutes, stirring the the granola every 15 minutes with either a spoon or a pastry blender.  Let the granola cool before storing in a container.

About the ingredients:
Dry ingredients can include:  quick oats, old-fashioned oats, white flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, bran, wheat germ, dry milk, sugars, oat bran, sunflower seeds, coconut, chopped almonds, raisins, cranberries, mixed dry fruits, cinnamon

Liquid ingredients:  Milk, water, oil, melted butter, juice, honey, vanilla, maple syrup, peanut butter, (note:  I try to use at least 1/3 c. of oil/butter)

Making Yogurt

With my old yogurt makers out of storage and dusted off, I've rediscovered a simple love for making and eating fresh yogurt not doctored with sugars, gelatins, and other misc. ingredients.  With a yogurt maker, the process is really pretty simple.  I've found a few websites (here, here, and here) that were especially helpful. Some people have alternate ways to incubate the yogurt using a crockpot, the oven, or a cooler with a heating pad.  I'm glad I have my yogurt maker because it takes some of the guess-work out of the process.


Here's my process:
1.  Heat 1 quart of milk to at least 185 degrees.  (In the old days of unpasteurized milk, they suggested bringing the milk to a boil.  I did this once and had burned milk on the bottom of the pan.  If you want more information about the "whys" of milk temperature, follow this link.)

2.  Cool the milk to 110 degrees.  My yogurt maker has a scoop with a built-in thermometer that is marked with a range of 100 - 110 degrees.  At this point I add the starter with my scoop, which is about 2 tablespoons.

3.  Put the yogurt in the small 6 oz. cups and place in the yogurt maker.  When the yogurt maker is plugged in, it keeps the yogurt at a constant temperature.  I've never measured mine, but the pros say the temperature should stay between 85 and 100 degrees.

4.  Incubate for 10 hours, according to the directions for my 2 makers.

5.  Refrigerate for a couple hours before eating.  This further allows the yogurt to set.

6.  I strain about half of my batch to make a Greek-like yogurt.  Homemade yogurt is a little runnier than commercial yogurt because it doesn't have gelatin or pectin.  I use a paper coffee filter and a mesh colander to strain out the whey.  I like the result of this over using  multiple layers of cheese cloth or even a cotton tea towel.  The resulting whey has NO milk in it, which by the way makes it impossible to use for making ricotta cheese.  Sometimes I let the yogurt strain for 20 minutes and sometimes for 2 hours.  I like to scrape the sides and bottom of the filter; this seems to help the straining process.

Lots of websites give more detailed information and may answer specific technical questions.  I'm more of an experimental cook who likes to view directions/recipes as suggestions as opposed to commands.

Next up:  making ricotta cheese!

Loving Yogurt.

This summer, with kids eating breakfasts and lunches at all hours of the day, yogurt has become a hot item with my family.  (I say that figuratively since they had been reaching into fridge for their little cups of Yoplait, Gaymont, or Old Home yogurt.)

I started inspecting the ingredient lists on the packages at the grocery store.  So many of them had sugar and high fructose corn syrup high on the list.  In fact, in the Yoplait yogurt, 63% of its calories are from sugar.  Even the trendy Greek yogurts have a high sugar content.  I decided that it was time to crawl into the depths of my kitchen cupboard to find the yogurt makers that I used when the kids were little.

Years ago I'd gotten 2 yogurt makers at garage sales.  They were both Salton 5-cup yogurt makers with simple instructions, and I used them quite a bit at that stage of my life.  Thankfully, I saved the manual/ instruction booklet.  In simplest terms, you heat the milk, cool the milk, add the starter and incubate it.

The result is a most beautifully smooth and creamy yogurt.  I've been straining it using a mesh colander and a paper coffee filter. The whey drains out, leaving Greek-syle yogurt.  When I have pictures, I'll post them along with directions.

My Own Adventure

Some people travel the world over on a regular basis.  They hop on a plane with their carry-on’s and end up in other countries.  They do it all the time while so many of us stay pretty close to home. They’re travel-weary from airports, luggage, and diet cokes and pretzels.

I, on the other hand, am a mom of 7 who has homeschooled for twenty years.  When my children were little, it was enough of an adventure to go to the grocery store and the library on the same day.  My husband and I have gone on some big trips together, but I’ve only flown by myself once.

So here I am at 50 years old planning “Mom’s Great Adventure!”  I was so excited when I booked my flight that my hands were shaking!  I decided my itinerary and researched inns, guest houses, and train schedules.  I was going to travel to another country all by myself. 
 
Unfortunately, my trip fell on the heels of Christmas celebrations. Cooking, cleaning, decorating, buying and wrapping presents, and spending quality family time had almost worn me out.  Following Christmas Day, I had a day and a half to get myself and my family ready for my 12 day absence.  I must admit that I spent very little time on the house, children, and meals.  But, I was packed and ready to go on time, even if I was shaking a bit in my boots.

How to Get to England

All my life I’ve wanted to go to England.  As a little girl I’d put on a fake British accent.  In college, as an English major, I devoured British novels and poetry.  Once at a thrift store I found a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir which set me on a long path of reading everything about the Tudor dynasty that she’s written.

When my daughter left to work on her Master’s degree at Durham University in England, I would ache whenever I saw her pictures.  I knew that this was finally my opportunity.  Whenever I tell my husband that I want to do something out of the ordinary that will cost a lot of money, he tells me that I should pray the money in.  So, I did.
   
I teach at a homeschool tutoring academy.  Since I get paid per student, I started praying for more students.  I wanted enough for another daughter’s college tuition AND a trip to England.  I started with only 20 students.  That wasn’t enough.  I prayed some more; I also gave some money as “seed.”  Voila!  I got 16 more students.  Just looking at the numbers, I had enough for both needs.  However, I forgot to figure in the tithe, but that didn’t bother me.  I knew that if God could bring in more students, He could also provide what I needed for the trip any way He wanted.

 My sisters and I had gotten vouchers after a trip last winter for $600 with US Airways.  They agreed that I should use it on this trip.  I found a flight, applied the voucher, and bought a round-trip ticket to England for $284.  When I checked my receipt, they had only charged my American Express card $128.  A dear friend gave me a hundred dollar bill for the trip, making this a $28 trip to England!  Now, isn’t God good?

Easy as Polenta Pie

When my family asks, "What's for dinner," and I reply, "Mama's Soup Surprise," they get a little nervous.  Sometimes I fix something for dinner that doesn't go over too well.  My family politely says, "You don't have to fix this again." 

Last night, however, I came up with something that everyone at the table liked.

Following is our meal, that I "invented."
Layer on the plate:
     A slice of Polenta Pie
     Fried and Mashed Beans
     Sliced and fried Sausage
     Fresh Tomato Sauce
     Sour Cream
     Shredded Cheese

The recipes for the polenta, beans, and sauce are below.

Polenta Pie

3 cups water

1 cup cornmeal grits

½ t. salt

1 T. butter

Bring the water and salt to a boil.  Add the grits and turn the heat to Low.  Cook slowly for 40 minutes.  Spread in an oiled pie plate.  Let it cool and set.

Fried and Mashed Beans

1 onion, chopped

2 T. olive oil

1 can red beans, drained and rinsed

¼ cup water (or broth or cooking wine)

Saute the onions in the oil at medium heat.  Add the beans and mash with a potato masher.  Mix in the water and heat all the way through.

Fresh Tomato Salsa Sauce

8 – 10 cups of fresh tomatoes*

2 T. olive oil

1 green or yellow pepper, diced

3 small onions, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. chili powder

2 t. dried oregano

2 t. dried cilantro

*Note:  Depending on the size and type of tomato, they can either be peeled and diced, or they can be cooked down and put through a rotary food press.

Saute the onions and peppers in the oil.  Add the tomato pieces or cooked tomatoes along with the herbs and spices.    Cook slowly to reduce the sauce.

Prepositions at the End

Most adults remember few grammar rules.  One that I'm sure will pop up for most is the "never end a sentence with a preposition" rule that they were taught from grade school to high school.  This rule causes you to write stuffy, pedantic sentences that no one would ever say out loud.

I have news of great joy for most of you -- it's OK to plop the occasional preposition at the end of a sentence!  The Grammar Girl says so; the Phantom Linguist gives us the go-ahead; About.com gives an authoritative "OK."


For the sake of argument and vigilance, some still promote keeping those pesky prepositions from the end of sentences because they are a wimpy way to conclude.  Mellanie Spiller seems to be a purist with whom you would need to argue this point.  The good folks at Garden of Phrases equivocate a bit.  And the Answer people at Yahoo even show you how to rewrite a sentence to make it stronger and more effective while keeping that preposition tucked somewhere in the middle.

In my class, I will allow the occasional preposition to appear at the end.  But be advised that I'm gritting my teeth as I deny the teachings of my elders.

Don't get me started on passive voice ......