Vanilla Yogurt

4 cups milk (your choice whole-skim)
1/2 cup powdered dry milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 -6 tablespoons sugar (Splenda or honey) = 1/2 cup
1/2 cup yogurt starter (unflavored plain yogurt with active cultures)
Directions:

1
Set 1/2 yogurt starter out to warm to room temperature.
2
Heat the milk to almost a boil.(I like to microwave in a glass bowl for 5 minutes on high then 2 minutes on medium). About 180 degrees. Cool the milk-about 110 degrees- (to a “barely warm”/ babies bath temperature) (cool water bath works well). Add dry milk, vanilla and sweetener of your choice; stir well.
3
Stir in yogurt starter (do not whip but mix very well!).
4
“Cook” the yogurt using your preferred method and time (longer makes a firmer, more tart yogurt. I like to cook about 12 hours). Chill 4 hours before eating.

March 18, 2013 0

Update on Job Site

Hello everyone! I know it has been several days since I made a post. First off, my blog was down for a few days. Thanks to David, I am now back up and running. Second, we have been pretty busy here. I thought I would share a few pictures of how the progress is coming on Hubby’s job.

We tore up the flooring in the livingroom. It was in pretty bad shape.

The floor joists were sitting down on the ground. Of course, there is only one way to fix that.

This was our progress as of Monday evening. Tuesday the girls and I had to go to C-burg so I didn’t get to help (too bad, right!) Hubby did finish moving the dirt out of this section. Next we will tear up the other side of the floor and do the same thing again. It is hard work but exciting. The house is really starting to take shape. Today, I helped him hang sheetrock on another job. Thank the Good Lord, work seems to be picking up some for us. We are SO thankful!

The girls working on school work. Homeschool is so much fun. We can take it with us wherever we go.

I thought I would show you all what damage termites can do.

We will be replacing these pieces of wood with blocks. Tuesday when we went to C-burg we stopped by the Horn’s for a visit. They had a great surprise.

Baby Ducks!!! Their mama duck had just hatched 16 baby ducks. It was very exciting. We had a nice visit and Vicki helped me (actually she did all the work) list some school books on Ebay to sell. Thanks again, Vicki.

Today has been wet and chilly here in Floyd. When we came home from hanging the sheetrock, I built a fire to take the chill out of the house. Wet weather seems to make the house feel colder. Well, I think that about catching up all we have been doing. I hope you all have a good evening and God bless.

April 18, 2012 8

Pinwheel Candy

I got this recipe from a dear friend of mine, Vanessa Looney. She was my supervisor for many years. She took the time to love me and tell me about Jesus when I definitely wasn’t very lovable. She has been with the Lord for many years now. When we found out her time on this earth was short, she said to me “I’m not afraid of dying. I’ve lived my entire life to see my Lord!”

1 box powdered sugar (3 1/2 cups), 1/2 stick butter softened, 1 tsp. vanilla. Add evaporated milk-1 tbsp at a time. Could take as many as 3 tbsp. Mixture needs to be a little dry. Roll out on wax paper sprinkled with powdered sugar. Spread peanut butter. Roll up, chill, slice and enjoy.

December 5, 2011 3

Pumpkin Roll

Marie’s Pumpkin Roll
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
1 tsp lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts
powdered sugar

Beat eggs on high 3 min. Gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin, lemon juice. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Spread into a greased 15X10X1″ pan. Top with nuts. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 min. Turn out onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Starting at the narrow end roll towel and cake together, cool and unroll. Use wax paper to turn it out on.

Filling

1 cup powdered sugar
6 oz cream cheese
4 tbsp butter-softened
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth. Spread over cake roll. Roll up pumpkin roll and chill well.

November 25, 2011 0

Making Butter

When I was living in Grundy, we would buy our milk, butter and buttermilk from a friend of ours who had cows. She made absolutely the best butter I’ve ever tasted. When we moved up here to Floyd, the butter they made tasted completely different. They call it “sweet cream butter” here. Well, don’t get me wrong, it’s really good. But just not the taste I’ve been hankering for. So the other day I called Margie, our friend in Grundy that made the butter. The cows here on the farm are Holsteins and don’t produce much cream so it takes a long time to save up. We wanted to make butter for the weekend for Jessica, so I cheated and bought heavy whipping cream from the store. Here is the recipe she gave me.

1. Put equal amounts of cream and buttermilk in a jar. I used 1 pt cream and 1 pint buttermilk.

2. Let jar sit out on counter overnight or until it becomes very thick-I mean really, really thick.

3. Her instructions were then to churn it. As we do not have a churn, I poured the thickened cream into my mixer with the whisk attachment on-You know my beautiful mixer my wonderful hubby surprised me with at Christmas.

4. Llet this mix about 5 min. (I’m not really sure of the time, it could have been less or more.) This is what it will look like when the butter is ready.

6. Then you do what Margie called “gather” the butter. I put it into a container, added a little salt, took a spoon and worked it around and all the excess buttermilk came out. Drain off the buttermilk as you gather the butter.

The finished product. Chill and enjoy!! Of course, I had to sample it before this. I wanted to make sure it was good before serving it to my family. (lol) It tastes just like Margie’s. Yeah!!!! I am so happy. I am making fresh rolls today for the weekend. Won’t they be good with butter spread on them.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

July 1, 2011 6

Candy

We had so much fun yesterday making candy. When we got to Vicki’s, she had already made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. They loved it. After lunch, we made oreo truffles, then peanut butter balls and last we dipped oreo cookies in white chocolate. It was such a fun day. The recipe I use to make the peanut butter balls is:

1 stick butter-softened, 1 lb powdered sugar. Mix these together. Then add 2 cups creamy peanut butter. Mix everything together. You will need to add about 1/4 cup water to this. Just add a little at a time until it is a little creamy. Be careful not to add too much water. Form into balls. In a double boiler, put 2 cups chocolate chips and 1/4 block parafin wax. Heat until chocolate is creamy. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate. Place on wax papered cookie sheet. Refrigerate and enjoy. These are much better after they chill. I want to make Martha Washington balls next. I think they are my favorite.

Time for us to leave for piano practice. Enjoy your day and God bless.

December 9, 2010 3