Yoghurt Making - Attempt 1
On Saturday I made my first batch of yoghurt with my new (second-hand from ebay) yoghurt maker. It was an outstanding success and astonishing easy to do.
First, you need the basic ingredients: milk, milk powder and some bacteria. You need the milk powder to increase the amount of protein in the milk as cow's milk will make a very runny yoghurt without it (apparently). I've used UHT milk to eliminate one step of the process. If you use normal pasteurised milk, you need to heat it to 110 degrees Celsius to kill any rogue bacteria.
The yoghurt bacteria can be sourced either from yoghurt with live cultures or from some pure yoghurt bacteria starter. I got some starter from Martin at work. The important bit about the bacteria no matter what kind you have, is adding it at the right point. According to the Internet, the right point is when your milk is at 43 degrees Celsius. This requires a thermometer.
Thermometer
After you've added your bacteria, you need to keep the whole mixture warm for at least four hours. Thanks to my yoghurt maker this was easy. Simply fill the jars, put the lids on, and switch the machine on.
Once they're done, they will be set and will probably have a little bit of liquid (it's the whey) sitting on top of the yoghurt. There are two options at this point, put the yoghurt in the fridge for enjoyment later. Or if you'd like thicker yoghurt, you can strain the yoghurt in some muslin in the fridge as this drains off the whey.
Glutaner - The Wonder Beer
Tomas and I headed over to Newmarket to check out the health food shop over there. Whilst looking for gluten-free goods, we found this new gluten-free beer.
Whilst not a perfect imitation of a Pilsner, it's pretty good. It costs about the same about a Silly Yaks. I think this beer is a bit nicer, less of the "zinginess" of Silly Yaks. It's made in the Netherlands from sorghum, teff and rice. Plus it had an important sounding name (which is why I took this photo from a low angle).
Stay tuned for a blog post on my first yoghurt making experience.
Whilst not a perfect imitation of a Pilsner, it's pretty good. It costs about the same about a Silly Yaks. I think this beer is a bit nicer, less of the "zinginess" of Silly Yaks. It's made in the Netherlands from sorghum, teff and rice. Plus it had an important sounding name (which is why I took this photo from a low angle).
Stay tuned for a blog post on my first yoghurt making experience.
Why am I awake at 5am on Saturday?
I'm really tired at the moment. I'd like to go back to sleep but I can't. I had a dream where I was really, really angry. The kind of angry where your whole body tenses up and steam comes out of your ears. And now I can't go back to sleep because my body is so worked up from the dream. At least the cat is enjoying it.
The Fruit and Vege Box
The company we are using is called Food Connect. They source all their vegetables from within 5 hours of Brisbane - this week our tomatoes are from Bundaberg. Each week you get a newsletter that tells you about the food in the box, the farmers and the City Cousins who distribute the food.
In the box last week that was new for us was Silverbeet. This week it's a mystery vegetable. We thought it was Kale but after eating we're not too sure. It tasted like bok choy. We've eaten it all so there are no pictures to identify it from.
Last week I made Apple Pie because we had lots of apples. It was delicious. This week, we had bananas left over from the week before (I know, this sounds impossible but they were lady fingers) so I made banana bread.
I am totally Internet famous
Check out my photo of our place on Apartment Therapy
I am available for weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs.
I am available for weddings, parties and bar mitzvahs.
The Cure - Beginning
The Apartment Therapy Fall Cure start's this week. One of the tasks to do before getting started was to document the before state of the unit. I've reverted back to my old Flickr account as the photo pool is hosted on Flickr.
These are the flowers I bought on Sunday. Apparently we are supposed to buy flowers every week - these are going to last a while though.
I got a head start on things around the house by tidying the entry.
Some of the things we're looking at completing as part of the The Cure are:
- Tidy and spruce up the guest bedroom - including getting an actual bed for the room (second-hand from Tom's sister)
- Making the couch less brown with some cushions of different colours
- Getting the Casala chairs restored to their former glory
- Getting the big chair restored to its former glory (if budget permits)
- Tidying the balcony and making it a little more useable
I think this is an achievable list. Ideally I'd like to get some more art on the walls, particularly in our bedroom but that's on the wish list.
Home Alone
Last night we signed up to participate in Apartment Therapy's Fall Cure. It's essentially a 8 week program to clean, declutter and improve your apartment. One of my tasks this week is to take some pictures of the place as "before" images so I can upload them to the Flickr Pool.
I did purchase a yoghurt maker on ebay tonight though. I'm pretty excited about it - one of my workmates make his own yoghurt which sparked my purchase. Looking forward to making my first batch. The second batch will probably be the one worth looking forward to though.
And to finish, here is a picture of Fenella, looking quizzically at me because my lap is not available for her to recline on for the rest of the evening.
And another of her looking displeased despite being on my lap
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