The Art of Eating Yogurt

yogurt in a crock pot

  Since finding this instruction on Ruth Soukup's blog Living

Well Spending Less, I have been making my own yogurt.

If you love plain yogurt that you can add your own good stuff to, you must try this.

It is so easy, I will never buy yogurt again.

I'm in the routine of it now and make it every two weeks usually on Monday....which my in-the-house wash day.

straining yogurt

Yum!

my setup to separate the whey from the yogurt

 You don't have to strain it.

Remember:

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey;

Along came a spider

Who sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

my curds and whey

 The small tub stacked on top will be my starter for the next batch.

homegrown peaches with homemade yogurt

Sometimes, I just drizzle a little honey over the yogurt.

Sometimes, squeeze lemon in too. 

Sometimes I add small amount of grapenuts.

Sometimes I add fruit spread, any flavor. 

Try adding dried bananas.

 ♥

In all its splendor.....

 This is my very most favorite picture of The Garden Palace. 

It goes without saying why.

Doesn't it make you want to go inside. 

 I don't know why but these are the only pictures I have showing 

The Garden Palace

in all its splendor.

Have I told you The Garden Palace is all of 18 by 22 feet?

396 square feet.

I could live in it.

One thing I could count on dear husband to do for me was use his pickup to haul equipment and material that was more than I could handle.

When it came time for me to paint the outside, he hooked up to his trailer and we went to the big city to rent scaffolding with humongous wheels so I could just roll it around.

I so wish I had a picture of me on the scaffolding scrapping the first and only coat of paint my little daydream ever had. 

I used bleach on the grayed wood, before applying one coat of Kiltz and two coats of paint. I remember I had the scaffolding for the month of September and I think I renewed the rental for October. 

The peek of the gable is at least 26 feet off the ground and my scaffolding didn't quiet put me high enough.

I have a vivid memory of taping my brush to a broom handle and turning a five gallon bucket upside down to stand on to reach the peak. 

 The above and below picture is of the same front corner taken at different times and most likely different years.

 As you can see, I did run a water line, but not to the inside. We dropped a pvc line across the tank and ran it to this corner. 

It is not functional at the moment. 

And I've just added that to my 2014 list.  

 The other front corner.

Monarda genus

aka horsemint, bee balm, bergamot

It grows wild on my place. 

It is thought to be a weed by some. 

Not me. 

Any Garden Palace should have bee balm.

♥

When you come for the tea party, we will have

Bee Balm Tea

1 tablespoon of the fresh edible bee balm flower.

(leaves can be used too)

1 cup of water

honey or sugar to taste

Place bee balm in a tea ball and then in the prettiest tea cup you have.

Pour 1 cup of boiling water over it. 

Not your Grannies biscuits

...but YUM nevertheless!

I gave this Yogurt Biscuit recipe a trial run the other day but did not have the self-rising flour that it called for. So today, I tried again. The recipe was published in a supplement, Relish, that is included weekly in our newspaper. 

3 ingredients:

self-rising flour

salt

plain Greek yogurt

I adapted the recipe to accommodate the 7oz size of Fage all natural low fat (2% milk fat) Greek strained Yogurt:

1 cup self-rising flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tub (7oz) plain Greek yogurt

Whisk flour and salt in large bowl. Pour yogurt into center and mix with fork to form dough. Turn out on floured surface and sprinkle dough with flour. Fold in half and pat to 1/2 inch thickness. Flour again, fold in half and pat dough to 1/2 inch thickness. My dough yielded 10 biscuits using a 2 ¼" cutter.  Bake at 450°F about 10 minutes.

Of course, there was a method to my madness.  I bought these cute little jars of jam in Orvieto; I really meant to gift them ......sorry my friends. We sampled in Orvieto and I knew they were wonderful but I could not resist. They are from Agriturismo Valle del Tione in the valley just out of Orvieto. 

Wish you were here for breakfast friends.

♥

Serving Acorns Today

The first of the acorn squash are in the house!

I think this is my favorite squash.

For lunch today here at my desk, I'm serving this.
Cut the squash in half and slice off a tiny bit of the end.
That is so it will sit up straight.
Scoop out the seeds.
Add a spoon of margarine and season to taste.
Use press and seal wrap (love that stuff) to seal.
Microwave on high 4 minutes.
And then maybe a little more.
Unwrap and fork around in the meat so the margarine will soak in.
ummm ....so good!

♥Sharon

PS....on the way out the door, I fed the seeds to my flock.

Faces in Technicolor

starting tomorrow