Yogurt

I have been on a yogurt making kick. L orders from a local dairy and I have started making a weekly batch of yogurt to go along with my granola (recipe coming eventually). Yogurt is suprisingly easy. This recipe comes from Nourishing Traditions. I like a couple of the recipes in the cookbook but her research methodology is a little shady and a lot of the ingredients are bizarre. I think there are better cookbooks out there, but the yogurt is good...

Yogurt

1/2 cup good yogurt with live cultures
1 quart milk

Gently heat the milk to 180 degrees (I found that going just below this at 175 degrees or so). Let it cool to 11o degrees. Stir in yogurt and place in shallow glass or stainless steal container. Cover and place in a warm oven with the pilot light on or pre-heated to warm. If you live somewhere, where it does not get cold at night (DC in the summer for example), I would just leave it out at night. In the morning, transfer to the refridgerator. If there is extra whey, just spoon it out.

Problems you might encounter are explained here. My yogurt curdled slightly last time and was still good. I think it was because I heated it a bit too high, the milk was not as fresh as usual, and it was over 100 degrees in the kitchen for an extended period.

Fried Eggs

I recently read a Cook's Illustrated article about fried eggs. It said you were supposed to heat the skillet on low for five minutes. Add butter. Wait a minute. If butter is browned, then skillet is too hot. Add egg. Flip when appropriate. I tried it sort of but it didn't really work.

I feel like my fried eggs have been getting more disastrous. I am on a 75 percent success to 25 percent failure rate. Usually, I heat the skillet on medium heat. Add butter and then the egg. The lower the heat I cook it at the more likely it is the yolk breaks when I flip it. If it is too hot, the egg gets that weird brown crust. I have to think about how to fix this problem...

Weird and crazy uses of blue cheese

Did I ever mention I love blue cheese? I do. I really really do. I found Rogue Creamery blue cheese at the local Whole Foods. Was very excited. Then I read the label and realized it was the smoked kind. I don't understand why they smoke the blue cheese. It just tastes like smoked cheese and you miss all of the subtle undertones of mold. So here in the heart of hell (as my Guate friend recently labeled DC and maybe a tad dramatic), I stick to my Maytag blue cheese or sometimes get a little more adventurous. Here is a recent invention:

Raspberry Blue Cheese Tortillas

1 yellow corn tortilla
Some crumbled blue cheese
Good raspberry jam

Run tortilla under water and shake off excess. This helps to soften the tortilla and make it seem fresher. Put blue cheese on the tortilla. Place tortilla in toaster oven and melt the blue cheese. Take it out and let cool a tad. Smear with jam. Eat.

Variations: Put rasberry jam and blue cheese on toast or bavarian bread.

If you know where to get Bavarian bread in the heart of hell, let me know