It's Alive!!!

Filling five ravenous children's bellies is a challenge. They have needs, favorites and requests, and being a stay at home mom I have the time to oblige. Yogurt makes the top 5 "I want" list. I used to buy the 10/$5 yogurt deal only to be completely yogurt free within 2 days. That is until one glorious day when Google search led me to a crock pot website with a homemade yogurt recipe....

The recipe:

Crock Pot Yogurt

• 8 cups (or a half gallon) of milk. I use 2%, whole will work fine, but I wouldn't go with skim
• 1/2 cup store bought yogurt with the living stuff...once you make your own, you can use a 1/2 cup of that as a starter for the next batch. 
• a crock pot
• heavy towel

I have done this both over night, and during the day. The results are the same either way. First, fill your crock pot with the milk and turn on high for 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

Next, unplug the crock pot and turn it off to let the milk cool for 3 hours. Once the time is up, your warm milk will be the perfect temperature to host the live cultures in your yogurt. 

Add the 1/2 cup of store bought or your previous homemade yogurt to the crock pot milk and stir thoroughly. I have used flavored yogurt, but I really didn't notice a difference in the final product. It's better to mix fruit in per serving once it's done. 

Wrap your heavy towel around the crock pot for insulation purposes and leave it alone for 8 hours or overnight. Yesterday, I started my yogurt around noon and left it completely overnight wrapped in it's towel until morning. It turned out delicious.

In the morning...this is what I found:

 And this is how I served it:

 Homemade yogurt with granola and honey

 Yogurt tips and tricks: stir fresh fruit or jelly or honey or syrup into each serving, freeze in ice cube trays to make a quick popsicle, use frozen cubes in the blender with fruit to make a smoothie, try it as a recipe substitution, strain it overnight through cheesecloth to make Greek style yogurt, add powdered milk for extra vitamin  D, add unflavored gelatin (2T) to the batch to make it a little thicker.

Dr. Mom tip: Our pediatrician recommends feeding Activia yogurt to the family when a housemate is barfing. We have since evolved to giving the frozen ice cube tray homemade yogurt as a popsicle to the barfer, and the healthy people eat a serving in the morning and again at night. The theory is that the live cultures nestled in the yogurt attack the viral culprits in the intestines. The result is a speedier recovery for the barfer, and no barfs at all for the healthy ones. I will swear by this suggestion until the day I die. Coming from a mom who has cleaned up more barf than I care to discuss, keep this tip in the back of your head next time you hear that horrible middle of the night call, "Mooooooooom....I barfed."

The best part about this project is telling your kids they are eating live organisms. I've never had it so quiet around my dinner table, with each child wondering suspiciously to themselves just what mommy was feeding them. Then one will look at the other and wonder how ridiculous they would sound if they told him he just felt the organisms move. It's great.

Tonight's menu: Spinach & Artichoke Ravioli, Garlic Oregano Bread, and Strawberry Turnovers

My previous attempts at homemade ravioli were disastrous. Imagine rock hard pasta coming apart at the seams, filling seeping out and water flooding in. Every fork pierce was like a mini levee breaking. Bummer dude...

Today I had the time and most importantly the desire to have a ravioli retry. They turned out AMAZING. I got 5 stars from Jake, two thumbs up from Toby, a mumbled "mmmmaaahk uuuu" from Alex, and a sloppy spaghetti kiss from the girl child.

The Recipes:

Dough Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons oil

Filling Ingredients

• Half a box of frozen spinach; thawed and squeezed out
• Half a can of artichoke hearts
• about a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• about a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese
• Saute 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• spoonful of sour cream
• spoonful of mayonaise
• (I froze the remaining halves of spinach and artichokes, but you could also double your dough and filling to freeze leftover raviolis...freeze them uncooked.)

Directions

To make the pasta dough: In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and salt. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to mix. Drizzle in 1 tablespoons of the oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until it forms a ball. Use mixer to continue to knead the dough for 10 minutes, stopping occasionally to gather the dough into a ball with your hands. Brush the surface with the remaining olive oil and wrap the dough in plastic wrap; let rest for about 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

After 30 minutes, separate the dough in half, reserving the remaining half in plastic wrap until use. Ideally, a pasta machine would be great here, but I greased up my elbows it did it the old fashioned way. You really need to roll these out as thinly as possible. 1/8inch is your target thickness, but do the best you can. Strive to see your hand through the dough, and it should be fine.

I used a 3 inch round cookie cutter to make the ravioli shape. Place the cutter on the dough and drop approximately 1 heaping T of filling into the center; however, DO NOT PRESS DOWN YET. Rather just move the cookie cutter over and continue to use it as a guide.

I was able to get about 18 raviolis off of one roll out. Roll out the second dough and prepare to lay it over the top. First, use fingertips dipped in water or an egg wash to moisten the dough around the filling to help seal (key reason I didn't have water logged raviolis). Lay the top dough over the bottom and press around the filling to remove air bubbles, seal tightly about a half inch out from the filling. Use your cookie cutter to finally cut out the raviolis. Pick them up and lovingly seal the edges once again, taking time to make sure the air bubbles are out and thin out the dough surrounding the filling. Re-roll any leftover scraps to make a full 24 raviolis.

This is a secret tip from me to you: let your raviolis dry out. Leave them on the counter for an hour or two making them seem stale and displeasing; however, you will be rewarded with firm, moist, non-water filled raviolis. I promise!

Boil a pot of water and slide raviolis in about 5 at a time, cooking for 2-3 minutes or until they've been allowed to float for a bit. Drain onto a plate and then simmer in sauce.

We served with homemade garlic bread, and strawberry cream cheese turnovers.

PS. I make the best garlic bread in the world...I learned it from the man. He's a fabulous cook. To mimic his skillz like I did...take 1 stick of butter and allow to soften all afternoon. Mince 4-5 garlic cloves and sprinkle with kosher salt. The salt removes the moisture from the garlic, allowing you to scrape the flat side of your knife over the top of the minced garlic and create a paste. Patience is key here...keep going until you have no chunky garlic pieces left. Mix this paste in with the butter and add some oregano, basil if you have it. I use dried, but fresh works wonderfully as well. Cut your loaf of french bread in half length wise and spread half of the butter mixture onto each side. Bake it closed up for 15 minutes, open it up, add cheese if you like and bake another 10 minutes...keeping a close eye on it.

It's a very budget friendly meal as well. I had sour cream, mayonnaise, and Parmesan cheese on hand, but nothing else. It cost me $12 to buy everything I needed to make dinner, side, and my dessert.

Think of me while you're stuffing your face!

Jamie

Cleaning Au Natural

Thanks to a friend's suggestion, I googled a recipe for homemade powdered laundry detergent, and put it to the test on our dirtiest baseball pants, stinkiest socks, stained shirts, grease saturated work shirts, and my own delicate items. Here's the breakdown:

The Recipe:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Super Washing Soda (not to be confused with baking soda. I find the Borax and SWS near the usual laundry supplies, but typically on the bottom shelf)
1 bar Zote or Fels Naptha soap (These two were both found on the top shelves near the fabric softeners. They are great for pre-treating stains, so the theory is that with this included, I won't need to shout out those baseball stains! I hear rumor that Ivory or Dove can be used as well.)

The Directions:
Grate the bar of Zote or Fels Naptha and allow to dry out over night for easier crumbling. Once dry, measure in the remaining ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or your finger tips, which seemed to work just fine for me. I used Zote for this load, but I currently have 2 bars of Fels Naptha in my possession for the next batch.

I used 2 Tablespoons of my mixture per average size load. I operate my washing machine with only cold water to save on electrical expenses, and I've always had an okay turnout. For this sample load, I pretreated nothing and threw in an assortment of our everyday washing items.

The Results:
I'm both pleased and unimpressed. It worked, and I would say well; however, it didn't take out the baseball stains as well as the recipe had promised. With that small drawback, it was a great money saver for us because we do an unreasonable amount of laundry, and the clothes still came out clean. The smell is a little lemony from the Borax, which both Luke and I like. I washed the baseball pants with the shout sprayed on them, and they came out great the next time around. I have two sensitive skin men in the house, so another test was to see how they reacted over the week. No spots or itchies!

I spent $2.50 on a 4 pound box of Borax, $2.00 on a 3.5 pound box of SWS, and $0.99 on the bar of soap ($1.97 for a double bar of Zote). Considering I only use 2 Tablespoons of the mix, it seems safe to say this is budget friendly. 

Ultimately, if the cost of powdered detergents makes you groan and you can spare about 10 minute to make your own, it's worth it.



Next, I read an article about how the aroma and fumes from traditional household cleaning chemicals can put us in a bad mood more often than not. With that in mind, I found a quick recipe for a dusting/furniture polish.

The Recipe
 1/4 cup organic apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon of oil (I used jojoba just because it never goes rancid, and I have a bottle leftover from soap making. Olive oil would be a great second choice.)

The Directions  
Mix and store in a closed jar, such as an old spaghetti sauce or mayonnaise container.

The Results
Wow - what a fabulous cleaner! The apple cider vinegar, while stinky at first, left no aroma behind whatsoever. What it did do was dig deep down into the wood pores and pull up all the dirt left from grimy hands and fingers. The oil was just enough to leave a shine behind, but no greasy residue to speak of. Today is day 2 after using the homemade polish, and my wooden tables are still dust free and clean. I'm anticipating using this weekly, so if we can go a week without dusty shelves, it's a winner in my book.

Dinner tonight

Rich and Simple French Onion Soup

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups sliced onions
• 4 (10.5 ounce) cans beef broth
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry (optional)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices French bread
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 2 slices Swiss cheese, diced
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Melt butter with olive oil in an 8 quart stock pot on medium heat. Add onions and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
2. Add beef broth, sherry and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven broiler.
4. Ladle soup into oven safe serving bowls and place one slice of bread on top of each (bread may be broken into pieces if you prefer). Layer each slice of bread with a slice of provolone, 1/2 slice diced Swiss and 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese. Place bowls on cookie sheet and broil in the preheated oven until cheese bubbles and browns slightly.