I dance in my kitchen

      

I dance in my kitchen a lot.  After I put the kids to bed, I turn up my rockin' out tunes, and while I'm sweeping the never quite clean floor, and taking part in that circle of life that is dishwashing (they're never all clean, it's just a rotating circle of sink, to dishwasher, to cupboards, repeat!) I dance.  Not well, of course.  I'm no dancer.  I took 1 tap/ballet class for a month or so when I was 6, and then my DH took me to a ballroom dance class one time during the early stages of dating, when he wasn't yet sure if he should admit he hates dancing.  So I'm no good.  But I love it anyway.  I'm like Baloo the Bear, from Disney's The Jungle Book.  I hear the groove, and I have to move.  It slows down my kitchen cleanup a bit, but it's a nice stress reliever too.  I twist, I shake, I bounce, and I lose myself in the beat for a few minutes.

I realized the other day, that I don't do this all the time.  It's a deployment thing.  I don't know if it's because I'm too self-conscious to completely let loose like that in front of my husband, or maybe I'm worried he'll be annoyed with the loud music.  I've never given it enough thought to know why.  But it got me thinking.  Are there other things I'll miss when he comes home?  Am I even allowed to miss anything about this temporary husbandless existence of mine?

It's strange trying to think about that.  My inner-self splits into two personalities.  One is the loving wife, do-anything-for-your-marriage-and-life-is-miserable-without-him side, and the other is my feminist, you-don't-need-a-man-to-complete-you (add a snap and body roll to that) side.  The feminist tries to think of things I've enjoyed while he was gone, and the loving wife side jumps in and stops those thoughts saying, "It doesn't matter!!!" or "You just did that to pass the time while he was away!!"

It's an odd conflict, and I'm not sure either side ever wins.  Probably because they both are a part of me.  However, I think I will let the feminist have her day, and make my list.  But to pacify the loving wife, I'll add the disclosure that I'd trade the entire list right now for even just snuggling on the couch with my husband, watching football that I'm sort of paying attention to.  Wait- make that college basketball.  Football season is over.  I forgot.  Obviously he's been gone awhile.  ESPN.com and Cougarboard aren't even on our google chrome most visited pages list anymore!!!  They have been replaced with Pinterest, Facebook, Amazon, and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines page.  

1.  Online shopping.  I do, of course, still buy things when he's home, but when he's gone I have the "I'm lonely so I'm sending myself a package" excuse.  It's a fabulous excuse, even if half the wearable things get returned because it turns out I don't look as much like the model as I thought I did.

2.  Fast Food.  I cook well when I have a husband to eat it.  Otherwise, I'm not ashamed to admit fast food happens a lot.  Enough for my 4 year old to sigh with happiness and say, "I love drive-thru's!"  It's too frustrating cooking for myself and 3 minis.  Unless it's pancakes, waffles, one of the many forms of hot dogs (hot dogs, corn dogs, pigs in a blanket, chili dogs, hot dogs cut up with beans) or frozen chicken nuggets, someone wont eat it.  Healthy meals I either have to eat myself for a week (because I don't know how to cut my family recipes down) or end up throwing it out.  Both are not ideal.  So fast food and pizza have been our friends.  Don't judge 'till you've walked the 4 month mile.  Or the two month mile, times 7.  

3.  The sewing bug.  I've caught it a few times this deployment, and have made several satisfying projects that make me want to smile, snap a picture, post it somewhere and proclaim, "Yeah, I made that!".  It's not so satisfying however staying up late trying to finish something, while my husband is in bed wondering when sewing became more attractive than him.  When he's gone however, I can stay up 'till 2 am guilt free, finishing up something adorable.

4.  Chick Flicks.  They replace the 4 games of football/basketball/baseball going on simultaneously on the iPad, computer, TV, and phone.  I cry at the good parts, without making anyone concerned for my emotional stability, and don't have to tune out the teasing banter about the obvious lacking in masculinity of the male heroes in my beloved favorite films.  Edward, Mr. Darcy, Tad Hamilton, and the others are safe.

5.  Reading without stopping.  I don't have it in me to give up reading when my DH comes home, but I do try a little harder not to get so lost in my books, that I don't notice he went to bed 3 hours ago.  It's happened, I'm ashamed to say.  But when he's gone, I don't need to use any caution.  No reason to rush off to a cold, lonely bed.  It's not going anywhere, unlike the plot of my book!

6.  Girl Time.  It's much easier planning in girl time, because I can do it pretty much 24-7.  My schedule is wide open.  Virtually.  The kids do have a few things.  But for the most part, when a girlfriend wants to hang out, the answer is most emphatically, "yes!"

7.  Spaghetti, Shepherd's Pie, Chili, Taco Soup.  When I do get around to cooking, I make what I like, and don't need to compromise two sets of tastes.

Seven is a lucky number, so I'll stop there.  I can't think of anything else major at the moment anyway.

To my amazing husband when his internet works long enough to read this, I miss you like a dieter misses doughnuts, like pot roast misses salt, like a city night misses stars, like a Virginia girl living in the desert would miss trees.  Lots and lots.  But, I am a trained resilient girl, and am learning to look for the good things in any situation.  I've found a few, that keep me happy and busy when I'm missing you.  But sleep well knowing none of them come close to spending time with the most important person in my world.

Today, I'm Wonder Woman!

Why am I'm I giving myself this super-human title?  Because I made my own Greek Yogurt!  I can't even eat it, (I have a dairy allergy) and yet I managed to make that thick, creamy white stuff that has become so popular lately.  There are lots of blog entries about how to make your own Greek Yogurt from scratch.  I read a lot of them, and after a couple batches, found I don't agree with any of them completely.  I took bits and pieces from many, and came up with my own preferred method, which I now feel inclined to share.

Let me begin with a little motivation!  There are many impressive women out there, who make homemade everything in their kitchens.  Homemade bread, homemade butter, homegrown herbs, canned soup, vegetables, fruit . . . and the list goes on.  I even have a friend who makes her own honey!  While I am slowly learning a few new skills, I am not one of those extraordinary women.  I'd like to think I'm pretty average when it comes to my homemaking skills in the kitchen.  I make satisfactory cookies from scratch, I google for new recipes, I've made freezer jam.  However I also buy frozen dinner rolls, canned pie filling, cake and brownie mixes, and I've never grown my own vegetable garden.  I am not the type to make my own dairy products.  So if I can manage this, so you can you!

Another point of motivation- the price of Greek Yogurt.  Unless money ain't nothin' but a thang, you've noticed it's pricey.  Typically a 6 oz cup is just over a dollar.  With 3 kids eating 1 cup each a day with breakfast or lunch, that adds up quickly!  When I make my own, it breaks down to $0.32 for a 6oz cup.  My DH is actually quite proud of me for doing that math.  Not that he doubted my computation skills, more my interest in a budgeting detail like that.  Let's just say he's the "saver" in our family.  I got major brownie points for this new frugal discovery!!  

Have I convinced you to try?  Excellent.  Scroll on for my very first "how to" entry on my nerdy blog.  Please forgive the lack of "cuteness" in my pictures.  Unlike seemingly everyone on Pinterest, I'm not a food photographer.

How To Make Your Own Greek Yogurt

You can half this recipe easily if you want less yogurt, but we go through it so quickly, that I need to make the larger amount.  If you want your milk to incubate overnight, begin the process approximately 2 hours before you want to go to bed.  After giving it 10-12 hours to incubate (I do 12) you need about 20 minutes prep in the morning, and then can leave it for 6+ hours to strain in the fridge. 

Ingredients/Tools

1 gal of milk
6 oz of plain yogurt, with live cultures
crockpot
crockpot liner
2 thick bath towels
meat thermometer
large strainer
big bowl, large enough to fit under your strainer
thin cotton/linen dish towel
rubber band
toppings of choice

Step 1: Heat your Milk to 180 degrees

To break down the milk particles so it can become yogurt, you first need to heat the milk.  I first tried this in a crockpot.  What a waste of time!  I heated it on "low" for 3 hours, and then cooled it for 3 hours.  Silly.  The second time I heated it on the stove.  That only took 20 minutes.  Despite careful efforts and keeping the heat on medium, I still ended up scorching my milk a little.  It didn't seem to effect the process, but still next time I think I will try the microwave.  However you choose to heat your milk, make sure it just reaches 180 degrees.  While my milk was heating, I preheated my crockpot on low, and added the plastic liner.  
Update: I tried the  microwave, and it worked well.  It took approx. 17 min. for the milk to reach 180 deg.

Step 2: Cool Milk

Allow your milk to cool to somewhere between 110-120 degrees.  I set my pot on a cooling rack, and it took just under an hour to cool.  If the milk is too hot, it will kill the cultures in the yogurt, so I do recommend you use a thermometer to check.  While milk is cooling, unplug your crockpot, but wrap it in your two thick bath towels to keep it warm.  At this point, I also measured out 6 oz of yogurt, and put it in a medium sized bowl.  I let it sit at room temperature while the milk was cooling.  This allows the cultures to warm a bit.  

Step 3: Pour Milk into Crockpot, and Check Temp. 

Remove the towels, and pour the milk into the warm crockpot.  After a couple minutes, check the temperature again, making sure it hasn't risen above 120.  If it has, let it cool a bit until it's in that 110-120 range again.

Step 4: Add the Yogurt

Take 2 cups of your milk, and add it to your bowl of yogurt.  Stir together, and then pour mixture into crockpot.  Stir to spread the cultures.  Replace lid on crockpot, and wrap with bath towels.  Allow to incubate for 10-12 hours.  During this time, that healthy, live bacteria from the yogurt you added is turning the rest of your milk into yogurt.  You don't need to check on it.  Removing the towels will also remove heat, and you want to keep the milk warm so those cultures can spread and do their thing.

Step 5: Wow, I made Yogurt!

Some blogs claim 8 hours is enough to wake up to thick, smooth, yogurt, but I always need the full 12.  After just 8 my mixture is still kind of runny.  Anyway, you should find your milk is now thick and smooth, the consistency of regular, all American yogurt.  It may have a clear, runny fluid on top, that's ok.  That's whey, we'll talk about that in the next step.  All you have left is changing your yogurt's ethnicity from American to Greek!

Step 6: Pour Yogurt into your Strainer

This is where you'll thank me for using a crockpot liner!  Line your strainer with your towel, and set it in the sink.  Gently lift the bag out of your crockpot, and hold it over the strainer.  Cut a hole in your bag with kitchen sheers, and the yogurt will pour into the strainer, virtually mess free.  You wont even have to wash your crockpot, which is awesome, because I hate washing my crockpot.

Step 7: Straining

The towel, before I added the yogurt

This step gave me the most difficulty the first time I gave this a try.  This is what makes the yogurt "Greek", and is why it's so expensive.  Greek Yogurt is just regular yogurt, strained of the "whey".  The whey is a cloudy-clear liquid, that gives yogurt it's tangy flavor.  Without it you have a more mild tasting, thicker, creamier product.  The straining makes the yogurt condense to half it's original volume, so what you're buying has twice the calories, protein, and nutrients of regular yogurt.  It took me some time to decide my favorite method of straining.  Some use a few layers of cheese cloth in a strainer, others prefer to line it with paper towels.  One lady recommended a fancy $70 industrial fine mesh strainer.  I'm sure it's a very cool strainer, but my goal is to save $.  I found one blog where someone used a thin cotton towel.  I actually have one very similar to hers, it was from a sweet friend who decorated it with fabric markers, and presented it to me as my very first "dishwasher".  I think of her every time I see it.  If you don't have a thin linen or cotton towel like this, you can use cotton fabric, or even a pillowcase or cut sheet with a low thread count should work.  Just make sure it's been washed, and isn't so old/used that it's fuzzy, and will get lint in your yogurt!

I gather the ends of my towel, and make a sort of yogurt "pouch".  I twist them at the top, and try to squeeze out some of the whey. 

Then I fasten off the ends with a rubber band, place my "pouch" back in the strainer, put the strainer over a big bowl, and place the whole thing in the fridge.  I like my yogurt very thick, because adding toppings thins it out again just a bit.  I let it strain for up to 6 hours.  You wont hurt it letting it sit longer than that, so feel free to leave it while you're at work, out doing errands, etc.  If you are at home though, I would recommend periodically emptying the bowl of the collected whey.

whey that has collected in my bowl during straining

Step 8: Pat Yourself on the Back, and add tasty toppings!

Once your yogurt has reached a thick consistency you're happy with, you're done!  Just scrape it into a bowl or jar.  My yogurt tends to be thick enough, that most of it just rolls right out of the towel and into my bowl.  I scrape off the little bit that is left behind with a spatula, and then toss my towel into the washing machine.  The yogurt should be good for 7-10 days in your refrigerator.  Some recommend stirring it a bit to make it smooth.  I've never felt like it needed that, but go for it if you want to.  As for flavorings, you're limited only by your imagination.  We like honey, strawberry syrup, caramel, and cream of coconut.  My husband has requested a little homemade granola with his when he comes home and gives my new concoction a try!

 For your next batch, if you remember to save 6 oz, then you do not need to keep buying regular yogurt from the store.  You can continue to use 6 oz from each previous batch for the new one.  I would recommend saving this separately from the start, because too often all the yogurt disappears before I remember to set some aside!

Anny and Merrylee enjoying my latest batch, with cream of coconut!   

Please let me know if you have any frustrations or questions.  It's been a learning process for me, and it's possible I might be able to help you figure out what didn't work if you're having trouble.  Good luck!  If you try it and it works well, please leave a comment and tell me about it!    

menu, shopping list, plus some tips and tricks I've gathered in the last 7 years

My first semester in college and away from home, my mom emailed me her Thanksgiving menu and shopping list.  I thought that was so cool.  I have an exceptional mother.  I copy her a lot - hence this post.

Thanksgiving is my DH's very favorite holiday.  He spent last years' big day overseas with a bunch of dudes, not ideal, to say the least.  So the pressure is on to get it right for him this year!  He's gettin' the boys from church ready for some flag football, and then later no doubt he'll watch some games with Ben on TV, while I'm prepping up for some serious kitchen time.  I'm making my list, checking it twice, and the kiddos and I are making the trip to walmart after music lessons today!!  Wish me luck!  

The Florida Andrews Family 

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Oven Roasted Turkey with Stuffing

Mushroom Gravy

Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes

Candied Yams with Marshmallows

Baked Asparagus

Relish Tray

Oranged Cranberry Sauce

Crescent Rolls

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

Sparkling Cider

The Shopping List

I read a few years ago a great tip for making your shopping lists.  The tip was to divide your list into four categories (I quarter my handwritten list by making a line down the middle top to bottom, and then one left to right).  The categories are Produce, Cold Items, Dry/Canned or Bottled Items, and Non-Food Items.  I simplify with Pro, Cold, Dry, and Non.  This has saved me so much time while shopping.  I don't have to do a lot of back and forth around the store while going through my list!  

So, thus categorized, here it is:

Pro

Oranges

2 lbs Cranberries 

baby carrots

celery

mushrooms

1 bag apples

2-3 lemons

asparagus

cherry tomatoes

Cold

orange juice

turkey

unsalted butter

Pillsbury crescent rolls

cream cheese

1 pre-made pie crust

heavy cream

whipped cream

egg nog

Dry

Sparkling Cider

Artichokes

baby dill pickles

baby sweet pickles

smoked oysters

hearts of palm

canned yams

graham cracker crumb pie crust

16 oz can pumpkin puree

dark brown sugar

turkey gravy packet

Stovetop stuffing mix

marshmallows

Non

candlesticks

dishwasher soap

Last year I discovered this recipe for Oranged Cranberry Sauce.  It's amazingly tasty.  It's a Jamaican recipe, and includes cinnamon.  It's my latest change to my evolving menu.  I'd also like to note that my dairy free mashed potatoes are my own recipe, and they're fabulous.  I bet if you did a blind test with mine and the dairy version, you wouldn't know which is which!

I still don't feel like I've mastered turkey roasting.  If you have tips to share, please pass them on!!  

I'll save a gratitude post for another time, but at the top of my list is having a husband home to cook for.  His favorite holiday just isn't as fun without him.  

My Guitar Hero

Coming home from a deployment seems to suppress my husband's usual very frugal attitude. After the last deployment he decided we needed smart phones, and the accompanying data plans. He's not the type of guy to say I'm a stay at home mom and therefore have no need for such up to date technology. He's a true gentleman, and said if he's going to have a cool phone, then so am I.

Just before coming home this time, he decided it's time he bought a guitar. What's the only thing sexier than a good lookin' guy with an acoustic guitar? A good lookin' guy with an acoustic guitar, showing it off to his two baby girls. My guitar hero. Welcome home babe, we missed you like crazy, and everything is better with you here!