Salad in a Jar

Homemade Greek Yogurt: A Cheat Sheet and a Cookies and Cream Treat

May 12, 2012

Cookies and Cream Greek Yogurt--it'll make you forget about ice cream.

You can buy Cookies and Cream Yogurt in the grocery store but I wanted to make it myself with my own homemade yogurt. My first attempts weren’t so good. The tanginess of yogurt didn’t seem to dance well with the sweetness and crunchiness of Oreo Cookies. I finally figured it out; more on that in a minute. But first, I have a promise to keep.

Susie is my daughter-in-law, and she recently learned how to make Greek yogurt from the instructions on this blog. She requested a cheat sheet, and several of you agreed you could use the same.

Susie shows off her first successful batch of Greek yogurt.

Here is a quick summary. If you have any questions, need more pictures, or want to read the details, see the original post and be sure to watch my video.

9 EASY STEPS FOR MAKING NONFAT HOMEMADE GREEK YOGURT

1. Fill a 2-quart heatproof glass bowl with nonfat milk.

2. Heat to 170 degrees F. in the microwave. (This takes 17 minutes in my microwave. Yours may be different.)

3. Allow to cool down below 120 degrees F. 105-110 is ideal.

4. Whisk in 2-3 teaspoons fresh yogurt as a starter. Cover loosely.

5. Incubate at a steady 100 degrees F. for 4-8 hours.

6. When yogurt has thickened, pour into an extremely-fine mesh strainer to drain off whey. If you don’t have one, use a cheesecloth, a tea towel, or a old-but-clean t-shirt to line your strainer. Time for this will depend on the thickness of your yogurt and your straining method. Set aside or discard the whey.

7. Dump drained yogurt back into the original bowl and WHISK FURIOUSLY until yogurt is smooth and shiny.

8. Add flavorings and/or sweeteners, if desired. You may also whisk in additional milk if yogurt is too thick for your tastes.

9. Chill.

Now back to the Cookies and Cream Yogurt: I discovered the best way to make it is to stir about a tablespoon, and ONLY a tablespoon, of cookies and cream frosting into 6 ounces of sweetened (to your taste) and vanilla-flavored Greek yogurt. The frosting recipe comes from my Cookies and Cream Brownies. (Incidentally, this frosting will also turn a store-bought chocolate graham cracker into a gourmet dessert.)

This method seems to work better than just crumbling a cookie into the yogurt. Maybe it’s the additional sugar and butter in the frosting, or maybe it’s because the crumbled cookies become slightly soft after marinating in all that butter and sugar. Either way, yogurt done this way is positively addicting. It fully satisfies the ice cream cravings that so often taunt me.

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Eating Our Way Across Italy

May 6, 2012

Our tour guide on the Amalfi Coast demonstrates the size of lemons used to make Limoncello. They've got Texas beat on this one!

Saturday 7:00 PM on the airplane coming home from Italy:
Because this day started at 4:00 in the morning, Venice time, it has stretched far longer than the God-appointed 24 hours. I’ve had 4 meals, 1/2 bag of pistachios, 1/4 bag of peanuts, 1/4 bag of a huge container of popcorn, and I’m currently nursing a mix of Diet Sierra Mist and orange juice as offered by an American flight attendant. My weary and jet-lagged stomach is starting to complain and ask, “Where’s the salad in a jar?”

3:00 AM Sunday morning back at home:
Can’t sleep. My body thinks it should be awake. Decide to reminisce and finish blogging about our trip before the memories slip through the cracks of my everyday-life routine.

Many months ago:
When our friends Jerry and Debbie mentioned a trip to Italy together, we marked our calendars. Debbie made most of the plans because she has been there multiple times and organizing is her gift. It doesn’t hurt that her maiden name is Guardalabene. (Hope I spelled it right, Debbie.) Her grandparents immigrated from Italy. She speaks Italian fluently enough to make sure we got what we ordered for dinner. In her absence one day, our husbands asked for “two bills” (as in two separate checks). They were surprised when the waiter brought two beers.

Our friends Debbie and Jerry

I have lost count of how many people told me, upon finding out where we were going, that Italy was their favorite vacation destination. Now I see why.

Ruins in Rome

But I’m not a huge art or history buff, so while others took pictures of ruins, I was taking pictures of our guide. Isn’t her hair adorable? She’s cute anyway. I always have trouble separating cute girls from their cute haircuts in the magazines.

Note to my hairdresser Diane: Would this hairstyle look good on me? Love the color too.

In addition to the fun of hanging with people I love, the highlight of most of my vacations is the food. Italy was no exception.

Really?

I had four food-related goals, none of which included verifying the claims of the picture above.

First, I wanted to try Italian pizza–lots of it. I was warned ahead of time not to expect Pizza Hut, thank goodness.
Second, I wanted to find an authentic cannoli pastry with chocolate chips in the filling. Ground pistachios garnishing the ends? Optional.
Third, I wanted to try as many flavors of gelato as possible.
And finally, I wanted to gain a new appreciation for pasta beyond one of my favorite recipes on this blog, Scooter’s Spaghetti.

Click here for more fun and pictures..

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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pinwheels

April 28, 2012

Peanut butter and chocolate combine to make these fun cookies.

See the Scrabble board in the picture above? It’s the same board seen in the picture below. That’s me on the left, playing against my younger sister Bonnie. I think I was around 10 yrs-old, so she would have been about 8. We spent many winter evenings on the farm playing Scrabble since we had no TV. Nowadays? We still play, every day, on Words with Friends. Competition is friendly, but we still take satisfaction in the occasional B-I-N-G-O and high score. Bonnie is way too gentle to keep a running tally of who has won the most games overall, but I’m pretty sure I’m in the lead. (I can hear her laughing about that one all the way from Denver!)

Training for Words with Friends -- circa 1964

I’m not sure what was going on with my bangs, but don’t blame my mom. I wouldn’t let her style my hair from first grade on. You can imagine the weird hairstyles I came up with. I still like strange hairstyles. :-)

I found the recipe for these cookies printed on an old calendar. They’re fun and tasty when I want something just a bit different. Taste-wise, they remind me of a chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter in it. They speak directly to my frequent craving for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Get started by mixing the dough per the recipe below. Turn it out onto waxed paper and follow the pictures.

Storyboard for Chocolate-Peanut Butter Pinwheels

Roll out dough between waxed paper and spread melted chocolate on top. Chill for 30-45 minutes.

Slice chilled cookie dough 1/4-inch thick and place on prepared cookie sheet.

Click here to see the recipe.

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One-Pot Beef Goulash

April 21, 2012

Is catsup a must?

It’s not my mother-in-law’s goulash, rest her soul.

I could be wrong about this, and I can no longer verify it with her, but I think her recipe went something like this. Boil macaroni and drain. Add browned ground beef and maybe some onions? Drown the whole mess with a bottle of catsup. Add a lot of cheddar cheese and stir it up good. My husband loved it. But that’s a lot of sugar, so I resist.

When I recently saw a recipe for “American Chop Suey” in Cook’s Illustrated, I was mystified. I’ve never heard a mixture of beef, tomatoes, sauce, and macaroni called such a thing. Then again, maybe you’ve never heard it called “goulash,” which is only a distant relative to “Hungarian Goulash.” But I recognized the food in the picture as a first cousin of my husband’s beloved goulash, so I immediately began to gather the ingredients.

I followed the recipe fairly closely with these exceptions:

I used cheap ground beef and drained the grease, which means I ended up with a little less beef but more flavor. I’m OK with that.
I used red bell pepper instead of green–a standard substitution in this house.
I substituted pasta sauce for the tomato sauce.
I used some Parmesan cheese, but I also added some cheddar.

When I tasted the end product, something was missing. You guessed it. It needed some catsup, but not the whole bottle. Just a couple of glugs brought back all kinds of memories, added some sauciness, and a touch of sweetness I crave way too often.

I didn’t add it this time, but next time I’m going to throw in a squirt of Rooster Sauce (Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce) just to make things more interesting.

Click here to see the recipe.

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Is a Plastic Knife a Substitute for Vacuum-Packing Lettuce?

April 14, 2012

Hearts of Romaine chopped with a plastic knife.

I love commenters! They make blogging fun and educational. They also give me ideas for future experiments and posts.

In regard to “Salad in a Jar,” several people have left comments suggesting the use of a plastic knife to cut lettuce. They claim it deters brown cut edges, thus avoiding the need to vacuum-pack lettuce for those who desire to store cut lettuce long term. When I say long-term, I’m talking about at least a week or even longer.

Is it true? Could a plastic knife make vacuum-packing lettuce unnecessary? I decided to test it for myself, so I chopped some hearts of Romaine with a plastic knife and some with a metal knife.

Hearts of Romaine chopped with a metal knife

I prepared three jars. The first was filled with lettuce cut with a plastic knife, stored in a securely-covered glass jar, but not vacuum-packed. The second contained lettuce sliced with a plastic knife, then vacuum-packed. The third jar was prepared the usual way I always do it–hearts of Romaine lettuce, swiftly chopped with a metal knife and then vacuum-packed.