That’s yogurt pronounced yog(as in jog)-urt.

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of whole milk

1/4 C of yogurt (you need this as a starter, so you can buy some and then just save a quarter cup of your yogurt for your next batch)

Optional powdered milk

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 the 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.

Do a dance!

It tastes delicious but comes out a little runny but I have read that you can add some powdered milk to the mixture to make it thicker.

Recipe from No Impact Man

This is the slightly longer version of the “10 small changes you can make for the benefit of creation” list I made for my church back in April for Creation Sunday. It has some good and interesting information in it so I thought that I would go ahead and share it with you guys.

1. Eat Local (Grow your own veggies, buy a share in Community Supported Agriculture, shop at farmers markets)
   Info: Supermarket food travels an average of 1,500 miles by the time it gets to your plate. Buying local strengthens the local economy. A dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. You get to celebrate the seasons by eating local in-season food.
2. Buy fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee and fair trade, organic tea.
   Info: Sun coffee (grown with no shade canopy) destroys natural habitats and cannot be sustained for many years without intensive management (additions of chemical fertilizers and a range of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides). The few studies that have been conducted have found that the diversity of migratory birds plummets when coffee is converted from shade to sun (studies in Colombia and Mexico found 94-97% fewer bird species in sun grown coffee than in shade grown coffee) ¹.
3. Buy organic food when possible, especially organic chocolate.
   Info: Non-organic cocoa is 2nd only to cotton in terms of the most pesticides used on the crop. Exposure to pesticides is being increasingly linked to various kinds of cancer. Industrialized agriculture produces food that is deficient in minerals and nutrition because it has over-cultivated the land. Crops get their nutrients and minerals from the soil that it is grown on. If the soil is not taken care of and becomes unhealthy then the food grown on it will also lack nutrition and health.
4. Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging or buy in bulk (like the bulk bins at Madison Market Co-op or Whole Foods) and use your own containers when shopping and bring your own shopping bags.
   Info: Around 33% of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
5. Start an indoor or outdoor compost bin.
   Info: “The landfill is not designed to help things biodegrade, which requires contact with air and water. Instead, landfills hermetically seal their contents away from the environment to protect it from the toxic things in the landfill that aren’t biodegradable. What this means, is that organic things like apple cores and yesterdays newspapers and cornstarch cups, when dumped in the landfill, either don’t break down at all and certainly don’t end up returning nutrients to the earth or they break down anaerobically, which means they produce methane, a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”²
6. Buy recycled paper toilet paper to help protect endangered forests.
   Info: Every day, the amount of toilet paper used equals about 270,000 trees.
7. Make your own household cleaners.
   Info: The EPA says indoor air pollution is often 2-5 times worse than outdoor air pollution, and harsh cleaning chemicals contribute.
8. Switch to compact florescent light bulbs (CFL)
   Info: CFLs are some of the most efficient lights available – they can replace incandescent bulbs that are roughly 3 to 4 times their wattage, saving up to 75% of your lighting energy.
9. Buy used products when possible (books, clothing, furniture) and make repairs when possible instead of buying new.
10. Print only when necessary and on recycled paper.
    Info: Offices use 1.5 lbs of paper per person per day.
11. Use a coffee mug or travel mug.
12. Reduce your carbon footprint caused by travel (buy a TerraPass, use flexcar, carpool, public transit, bike, or walk)
    Info: Every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 20 lbs of climate change-causing CO2.
13. Enjoy God’s creation by being part of a community garden (or start your own community garden in your own backyard), volunteering on a farm, or getting out and enjoying nature with loved ones.

¹Smithsonian, National Zoological Park, Migratory Bird Center; ² No Impact Man;

Here is a recipe for Honey Whole-Wheat Bread. This is a good basic bread recipe; especially if you have never baked bread before. I have not managed to keep a yeast starter alive as of yet, but once I figure out how to do that I will post a recipe using a self-made starter.

Ingredients:
5 teaspoons instant yeast or dry active yeast
2 C whole milk heated to warm (105 degrees-115 degrees F)
1/4 C honey
2 large eggs
6 C whole-wheat flour (I substitute some of the flour for more hearty grains, usually 2-3 cups) plus extra for kneading (only use whole wheat flour for kneading)
2 teaspoons sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temp (I also sometimes substitute part of the butter for olive oil, up to 3 tablespoons)

*I try to use as many local and organic ingredients as possible.

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the milk and let stand until foamy–about 5 minutes.

Put the yeast in first and then pour the milk on top of it–doing that will mix it enough without you having to do anything. Yeast is basically good bacteria that makes the dough rise. In this case the yeast is dry and the warm milk acts as an agent to activate it.  If the milk is too cold or too warm it will kill the active dry yeast. Heat the milk either over the stove or in the microwave and use a candy thermometer to gage what temperature it is. If you over heat the milk simply let it cool and pour it over the yeast when it reaches the right temperature. When the mixture begins to foam a bit (or produce gas bubbles) you will know that you have properly activated it.

Using a wire whisk stir in the honey and eggs. Add the flour, salt, and butter and stir with your hand or a wooden spoon until rough mass forms. Using a plastic pastry scraper. scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until it is smooth and elastic, dusting the work surface with only enough dough to keep it from sticking. Approximately 10 minutes.

Kneading is what gives the bread its consistency. If you don’t knead it enough it will be crumby and the more you knead it the better it will bind and hold onto itself (it will be structurally weak).  It is pretty hard to over knead it when doing it by hand, but it is possible.  If you kneed it too much the dough will be tough and therefore it will be difficult for the gas produced by the yeast to cause the dough to rise.  Kneading bread is basically taking the bread and folding it over into itself and punching it down, turning it, fold, punch, repeat. Use flour to keep it from sticking to your hands and the work surface.

Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft free spot until it doubles in bulk, 1.5-2 hours (you will need a fairly large bowl for this).

Grease two 9-by-5 inch loaf pans.

Punch down the dough and, using a pastry scraper, scrape it out onto a clean work surface. Cut it in half and with a sharp knife or a bench scraper. For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heal of your hand. Roll the bottom third up onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand. Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log. Place the log, seam side down, in the prepared loaf pans. Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans.

Punching down the dough is to even out the air bubbles. The goal is not to punch all of the air bubbles out, just to even them out and to get rid of any large air bubbles that will leave you with gaping air pockets in your baked bread. The more you punch the bread down in this process the denser you bread is going to be. You usually don’t want dense bread. Dense bread tends to be dry, tough, heavy, and brick-like.

Cover loosely with a kitchen towel and let the loaves rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size, 45-60 minutes.

Position rack in the middle of the oven, and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Dust the tops of the loaves with whole-wheat flour or grains. Bake until they are honey brown and sound hollow when tapped on the top, 35-40 minutes. Be careful not to over-bake this bread or it will be dry. Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.

Let the loaves of bread cool completely before cutting because they are still cooking at this point.

Store the bread in a reusable container either on the counter or in the fridge or freezer. I usually cut the loaves in half, wrap the halves in kitchen towels and leave one half loaf (or however much I will be using in the next few days) on the counter or freeze the rest. Remember that this bread will go moldy quicker than store bought bread because it is not chock-a-block full of preservatives.

**Here is little tip for reviving a stale loaf of bread. Give the loaf a good spritz of water with a spray bottle. The crustier the bread the more generous you will be with the water. Put the loaf in the oven anywhere between 250-300 degrees for about 5-7 minutes. This will get any moisture that has been lost back into the bread.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions! Have a great weekend.

Adapted from Essentials of Baking.

David Archer was walking one day when he was struck by the thought that he was sure the human body was more fuel efficient than a Prius.  Turns out he was right…

A gallon of gas contains roughly 132 megajoules of energy, 31,548,757 calories, and 31,548 kilocalories, or food calories, or calories, in common parlance (one food/kilocalorie, remember, actually contains 1,000 calories).
A 155 lb human walking at 3 mph will burn 246 kcal/hour, or 82 kcal/mile. Feed that human one gallon of gas in potential energy–31,548 kcal–and he’ll have enough energy to walk for 128 hours. At 3 mph, he’ll cover 384 miles; in other words, he’ll get 384 mpg at that weight and speed.*

This is a super easy recipe, but does take a bit of time, therefore perfect for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.

2 cups of strawberries
3-4 tbsp of sugar
1-2 tsp lime juice

Chop the strawberries fine.

Mix them with the sugar in a pan and cook over low heat. (Start with a small amount of sugar and add more to taste.)

Stir the mixture often while mashing the strawberries with the back of the ladle. If you prefer your jam smooth instead of chunky (like me) after the strawberries have started to soften and break down pour the mixture into a blender. Blend to desired consistency and then pour back into pan and continue cooking over low heat.

Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn and stir frequently (and don’t get impatient and turn the heat up, IT WILL BURN). At this point it is best to put the kettle or coffee pot on, grab a book, and cozy up in the kitchen. It takes a while for it to thicken and needs to be kept an eye on and stirred. Because there is no pectin in this recipe it will never become jelly-like.

Once the mixture is to its desired thickness take it of the heat and let cool.

Add some lime juice to taste.

Put the jam in a sterilized bottle. To sterilize a glass bottle and lid put it in boiling water for a few minutes and then fill it with the jam right away.

Store your lovely jam in the fridge and enjoy frequently!

Compost piles are relatively easy, but when they are not properly maintained and cared for you can definitely have a nasty situation on your hands. If you are having any problems with your compost here is some helpful information for you (I hope). Some of this is information that I have just gathered while reading and talking to people about composting but quite a bit of it is from the city of Seattle’s website.

Any sort of overpowering foul odor is a sign that something is not quite right with your indoor or outdoor composts.

First of all NO animal products except for rinsed out egg shells should be composted. That means no dairy, meat, fish, etc. Smelly composts are caused by too much water, no air, or the addition of meat or other animal products.
Smelly compost solutions:

• Mixing fresh grass clippings with stalks or brown leaves to help air get in.
• Keeping the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge, but not soggy.
• Turning wet or soggy piles to let air in.
• Keeping animal products out of worm bins.
• Add some sawdust, dry leaves, wood shavings, or newspaper if it is too wet.
• It could also be that there are not enough worms for the amount of food scraps that are being composted and therefore the food is rotting before it can be composted by the worms. If that is the case, you should add additional red worms to your outdoor compost pile or start a second bin if you are indoor composting.

If you are having problems with bugs (fruit flies and fungus gnats):

• Add sawdust or wood shavings to your compost and then continue adding a layer after each addition of food scraps to your bin/pile.
• Keep food scraps in a container in the fridge until you are ready to add them to your compost.
• If fruit flies or fungus gnats get in your house (they multiply really quickly) a great remedy for this is to put a low bowl out with a apple cider vinegar, water, and dish soap. Within 24 hours this usually clears up any fruit fly/gnat problem I have.

Basic compost information:

• It is important that you use red worms for your composting.
• The lifespan of a red worm is 2-5 years, they breed quickly, and compost large amounts of food.
• It takes 2000 red worms to eat one pound of garbage per week (red worms multiply quickly so you don’t have to start with 2000).
• If your compost is indoors it needs to be in a covered worm bin for composting and if it is outside it can be in a pile. The pile outside works because the sun, oxygen, and worms work together to compost the food scraps and yard waste. The indoor bin works because there are enough worms to eat through the food scraps and it being enclosed keeps out any animals.
• Both indoor and outdoor composts need to be turned and when there starts to be a good collection of soil it can be removed. You will know that your scraps are done being composted because it will have an earthy smell.
• It’s OK to compost vegetables and fruits, bread, grains, spoiled food, coffee filters and tea bags, eggshells, fruit from yard, and food soiled paper or cardboard (It is possible to compost more than just this, but it takes more a little more investment than these simple composts).
• DON’T compost meat, fish, dairy (these attract rats) or pet waste.

City of Seattle’s Guide to Composting at Home.

I hope this is helpful to those of you who need it. Don’t give up on your compost pile. Composting your food makes such a positive impact and creates really healthy and fertile soil.