I know I didn’t post last week, Lynn and I had gone to the pool workout room to finish out the weeks training, and when we got back home we had lost our satellite connection due to some heavy cloud cover. Not that uncommon, I didn’t feel like getting up a couple of hours early in the morning as we are already getting up at 4:45 a.m. so here we are. The weather has warmed up considerably. It was at or above 0F most of the week and even got up to above freezing today. Not necessarily a good thing as most of the snow on our roof slid off last night and I spent a good deal of the morning shoveling snow off the porches and stairs and digging a new path to our front door. I still had a run and some weight training to do today so I was pretty hungry by dinner time.
Cow moose comes to visit
I finally got the chance to get a few moose pictures, I came home for lunch as usual, so Snowball could go out. As I was pulling into the drive I spotted a cow standing right where we normally park. Her calf was standing in the brush on the south side of the house and neither seemed concerned that I was there and had no intention of moving off. I know enough not to crowd her and especially not to get between her and her calf. However, I did have to go back to work and Snowball was certainly ready to go out. Moose don’t play well with domestic dogs, so I ended up putting Snowball in her harness and taking her to the far side of the yard for her midday break. I managed to get a few pictures after putting the dog back in the house. After I took my pictures both the cow and her calf bedded down in the front yard. Moose in town are a normal occurrence, more than once I have had to stop a run and wait for a moose to decide to get out of the road.
More cold weather running
I’ve continued to do most of my running outside. I had some pictures in an earlier post of me in my winter running stuff. It was adequate until the temperatures got down below -25F or so but that is kind of warm for December through February here. Lynn had to make a trip into town and she went by the running store and got me a different outer shell jacket to replace the hooded jacket I was using, she also got me a face wrap and a couple of different gloves. So far I’ve run in it down to close to -30F and it seems to work ok. One thing that I’ve been using for the last couple of years are some winter running shoes called Ice Bugs. As you can see from the pictures below they look mostly like regular running shoes, but they don’t have the traditional mesh upper but instead they are water and snow proof. On the bottom you can see the carbide spikes that are built into the shoe which makes all the difference. Strangely enough you can run on pavement with these as well. Not sure how it works but they don’t slip like you think they would. I also have a pair of gaiters to wear over them when the snow gets deep so your feet and socks stay mostly dry.
Recipe
Last time I posted I mentioned that I might start including some of the recipes for things that Lynn and I make here. I figured I would start with one that I do every week. I make my own yogurt so here it is. Why yogurt? I don’t use it as a desert or snack like most people think of, mostly it is a source of protein, and calcium that I add to other foods. Of course, if you live on the road system you can go into the dairy section of nearly any grocery store and you find a large selection. We do occasionally get it here in our stores but there are a few problems with that. One is that because it isn’t always available we can’t plan on using it, and I normally do my meal prep on Sunday. Also, they tend to stock small containers of yogurt that may or may not have active cultures, (some don’t), and are generally flavored with anything from oreo crumbs to skittles, (not kidding). Getting good unflavored Greek yogurt is pretty hit and miss. Another thing is that when it is available it is very expensive. Most recipes for making it at home tell you that you have to use fresh whole milk, organic whole milk or some such. Don’t believe it. I wouldn’t be able to do it if I couldn’t use powdered milk. Again, because of the whole supply and cost thing so here goes.
Homemade Greek yogurt
Ingredients
3 cups powdered whole milk. Low fat powdered milk will work but results in a much thinner mixture. For my purposes the extra nutrition from the milk fat is desired anyway.
6 cups hot water.
¼ cup cultured yogurt from a previous batch or dry heirloom culture starter.
Note: you can use store bought yogurt to make a batch but this will usually only last for one batch. If you want to keep making yogurt from your own stock you need an “heirloom culture”, similar to the way most people make sourdough bread.
Equipment
Saucepan large enough to hold the liquid/powdered milk mixture.
Digital thermometer
Glass mixing bowl, one large and one small
Whisk
Yogurt maker, (this is basically an incubator).
Procedure
- Combine the 6 cups hot water and 3 cups powdered whole milk in the sauce pan and mix with the whisk till all the powder is dissolved. I use much more milk powder than you would normally use to reconstitute milk. My ratio is ½ cup dry milk powder to 1 cup water in case you want to adjust the size of the batch.
- Heat the resulting mixture on a low burner till it reaches 180F. Keep it at this temperature for 20-30 minutes. This is one of the keys to making a thick yogurt. The heat helps break the proteins down. You need to stir it occasionally with the whisk. Do not let it come to a boil. Some people do this step in an instant pot and it may work fine but my saucepan is Teflon coated and is much easier to clean up than the stainless steel of the instant pot. Whatever works for you.
- After heating for 20-30 minutes transfer all of the mixture to a large glass mixing bowl. Take your ¼ cup of yogurt from the previous batch out of the refrigerator and allow it to warm up a bit while the milk mixture cools. Do not add it at this time.
- When the milk mixture cools to 110F transfer one cup to the small mixing bowl and add in your yogurt starter or yogurt from the previous batch and mix with the whisk. Then transfer this mixture back to the rest of the batch and mix well.
- Add the mixture to whatever yogurt maker you have, and set the culture time to the appropriate time. I get good results at 6 hours, it may take longer if you are starting with a dry starter mix. I have had that take as long as 11 hours for the first batch. When the yogurt sets you can take it out. You can tell if the yogurt is set when you tilt the container and it appears to be thicker and doesn’t flow like the milk normally would. Basically when it looks like yogurt. Longer culture times will result in a stronger taste, too long and you run the risk of the bacteria eating all the lactose in the mixture and essentially dying. There is lots of information on this part on the internet if you want to do some research.
- Let the mixture cool a couple of hours and then place in a refrigerator overnight. After that it is ready to use.
Notes about yogurt makers
You can find these online in various sizes and also large price ranges. My current one will hold the whole batch in one container instead of several small ones. The biggest thing I like about it is that once the incubation time is up it switches to a cooling mode. This makes it unnecessary for me to get up in the middle of the night and deal with my yogurt. I usually set this up to culture overnight, put it in the refrigerator in the morning when I get up and then it is ready to use when I get home.
Upcoming events
Next Saturday the swim team is having a mock swim meet. They do this as a full dress rehearsal for an actual swim meet and allow the community members who don’t go to swim meets out of town to see what they are actually like. Should be able to have a few pictures from this on the next post. Well, the snow/rain mixture outside looks like it has turned to all snow so time for me to head out for my run. Until next week, stay warm!