New Recipes

I am now cultivating a new habit in the kitchen! Due to the alarming rate at which my family consumes yogurt, I am now making our own yogurt! I can make 4 quarts + 1 pint for $3. Nothing wrong with that, especially when it is so easy to do!! I am so thankful that I can do this, in order to bless my family and be wise with what God has given us. I have habitually spent around $1.50 per day on yogurt, and while that meant it came in handy little serving-sized-packages where we had access to as many as six flavors in the fridge at a time, that just really adds up quickly and somehow when I figured out it doesn’t have to be that expensive, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t tried this before! We like to just stir a little spoonful of homemade jam into our fresh yogurt; right now I only have strawberry and peach jams (just didn’t get around to making any other kinds this last summer), but I’ve found that applesauce or honey also make good yogurt flavoring additions.

P1160518 P1160529

The other thing I recently tried (for Steven’s birthday, which happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year) was a layered sweet potato cheesecake. Completely delicious, and worth adding to the books to do again sometime. The only alteration I made (if I remember correctly) was that instead of a completely graham cracker crust, I did half pretzels and half graham crackers. Oh wait, one more addition: I added some cinnamon and nutmeg to the sour cream topping to spice it up. 🙂

P1160536 P1160532 P1160520 P1160525

4 Replies to “New Recipes”

  1. Hi, Melissa.

    Isn’t yogurt making wonderful? I’ve been doing it for a long time, too. I use pretty much the same ingredients and method, except for a couple small differences: the heat source and the time for culturing. I have this electric glass-top warming tray that was my grandmother’s…don’t even know if you can get them anymore…it has a temperature dial, which I set to low. Then I put a baking rack on top of that so my jars are not directly touching the warm surface, place the jars on the rack, then cover the whole thing in a towel or something to keep the heat in, and let it do its thing overnight. I have found that extra hours with the heat does not make a difference, so I do not stress if I cannot move them to the fridge after three hours. I know one person who successfully cultures her yogurt by placing it near the fireplace or woodstove. And another preheats her oven to low, places the jars in, turns off the heat, and leaves them in there overnight. There are many convenient heating methods. Anyway, I’m glad you’ve discovered how easy, healthful, and delicious homemade yogurt is. I almost can’t eat store-bought flavored yogurts any more because they seem so sweet since my palate has adjusted to the plain (which is not nearly as sweet even after I add jam, honey, etc.). Blessings to you! ~Sara

  2. Yum!! Homemade yogurt is great. I would love to get back into making it. We don’t have goats anymore but I could do it with cows’ milk.

    Also, the sweet potato cheesecake is an interesting idea; looks good enough to try!
    I didn’t realize that Steven and Asher’s birthdays were so close together. Happy birthday to both of them!

  3. I love homemade yogurt! I make it every now and then, since we don’t eat it regularly. The way I do it is on my crock pot….what recipe did you use to do yours? I like how it looks nice and thick.

    And Sara is right, once you taste the homemade stuff you can’t go back to store-bought. 🙂

    Yummy things coming out of your kitchen, Melissa!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *