Plastic Wrap Helpful Hint..

I got sick and tired of my roll of plastic wrap coming out of the box while unrolling it, so I decided to tie it into place with some yarn, using a long knitting needle to thread it through the center. There are those little trap door flaps they suggest you poke into the ends.. so the holes are already there.

Out of Gas..

I ran out of gas/propane for my stove about 6 months ago and have lived without my stove and oven.. was it hard? No.. I have a large toaster/convection oven and I make baked chicken nuggets, baked salmon cakes, mini meatloaves, garlic roasted potatoes, roasted cubed sweet potatoes, and small 8" X 8" coffee cakes in it.
I use mom and dad's oven to bake bread and I often bake 4 loaves of oatmeal bread at a time and give my parents 2 loaves since I use their oven. Why do I bake 4 loaves at a time? Whether I bake one loaf or 4 loaves it takes the same amount of gas, that's why.. why waste the fuel that way? I also have an electric single burner I use and I must admit I crock pot all the time.. at least twice a week. I make a lot of soup, chili, roasts, General Tso's Chicken, yogurt.. I've discovered all kinds of food I can make in a crock that I never dreamed of making in the past!

Yogurt Update

Here's a photo of the thickened yogurt.. see all the bubbles on top?

I made yogurt last night/this morning. I wanted to make organic yogurt using organic whole milk, but it costs twice as much as store brand so I didn't since I'm on a rather tight budget. I poured the milk in to the 4.5 qt crock pot and left it alone for 2 hours before measuring the temperature. It was only 150 degrees with the candy thermometer, so I replaced the lid went to watch the repeat Ancient Aliens since a new show was coming on in an hour later. Unfortunately I kept dozing off and when I woke up another 2 hours had passed. The milk had a thick skin on top and a ring around the pot, so I turned it off and removed the skin, hoping the milk didn't actually boil around the edges., and let it cool down for a half hour. It was still too hot to add the one cup of yogurt I set aside from the last batch. So I decided to pour the scalded milk into a glass bowl and promptly cleaned the crock out! It needed lots of scrubbing! Then I dried it and poured the hot milk back in, by then it was a nice warm temperature so I whisked in the yogurt. I wasn't sure it would work since I'm quite sure the milk was much hotter than the last time made some. I draped two thick towels over the pot and went to bed, then I woke up this morning to a nice crock pot of thickened yogurt. It's nice and tangy too! 

Mom gave me a few cups of Blueberry Sauce she made from thawed frozen blueberries for the pancake supper at the church last Tuesday to put in my servings of yogurt, but the blueberries weren't as tender as the wild huckleberry sauce she made before, so I chopped up the sauce in my food chopper. The yogurt is so sour I admit to adding a rounded spoonful of sugar to each 6 OZ serving along with the cornstarch and sugar thickened blueberry sauce.

Crock Pot Yogurt

1/2 Gallon Milk

8 OZ  Plain Yogurt with live cultures

1/2 Cup Powdered Milk (Optional for thicker yogurt.)

Scald the milk in the crock pot on high setting. This took 1 and 1/2 hours in my 4.5 quart crock pot.

Allow the milk to cool to 115 degrees. Use a candy thermometer to measure the temperature. Now stir in the yogurt with a whisk and replace the lid on the pot and place a towel on the top. If your house is cold wrap the whole crock pot in a few bath or beach towels to insulate the pot.

Now let the mixture ferment for at least 12 hours. You will notice it's much thicker on the bottom layer and tiny bubbles are on the top layer. Now stir well and refrigerate. Save 8 OZ of yogurt for your next batch.  It seems very thin until refridgerated, when it thickened up to heavy cream consistancy.

I added Huckleberry pancake sauce to my yogurt serving because I didn't have any jam. I admit I had to add extra sugar, maybe I can wean myself off of that.. LOL!

NOTE: I use Chobani brand yogurt because it has 3 live cultures in it.

  

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Crust:
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
2/3 cup butter, melted

Filling:
4 eggs
2 cans (15 oz each) solid pack pumpkin
2 cans (14 oz each) sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all of the crust ingredients in a
large bowl.  Mix until completely combined.
Press into the bottom of a 10inch x 15 inch rimmed baking sheet. Bake for
15 minutes or until crust turns a light golden color.

Meanwhile, mix all of the filling ingredients together in a large bowl.
Pour onto baked crust.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester
inserted into the center of filling comes out clean.  Allow to cool and
serve with whipped cream.

NOTE: I'm omitting the chopped pecans and using oatmeal instead.

Lorraine's Bake Beans

I've posted this recipe before. I usually use FURMAN'S brand in the 7 LB can, but mom bought me BUSH'S BEAN POT in the 7 LB 5 OZ can recently. I prefer FURMAN'S since I make my own bean sauce.

CROCK POT BAKE BEANS

7 Pound can Pork and Beans

1/2 Pound bacon

1 Large Onion chopped

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Ketchup

2 Tb Mustard wet

2 Tb Worcestershire Sauce

Marjoram

Cut a pound of bacon down the center of the package and then cut one half into 1/2 inch slices. Now cook in a skillet until brown and crispy. Remove most of the bacon grease but leave about 2 TB. Now add the chopped onion and let it cook until soft and golden. Now pour into a small bowl and add the other sauce ingredients and stir well to dissolve the sugar. Make sure you taste this delicious sauce before you refrigerate it. I just LOVE this sauce! It's delicious! I should sell it!
When ready to make the sauce just mix it with the pork and beans (drain 3/4 of the sauce that the beans come in) in the crock pot set on HIGH and forget about for a while.

Bush's Baked Beans- Where's the Beans?

A 7 LB 5 OZ can of BUSH'S Best Bean Pot Baked Beans is not full of beans... I drew off 13 ounces of bean sauce from the can until I reached the level of the beans, before pouring the beans into the crock pot. There was more sauce with the beans, how much I'm not sure. I added my own baked bean sauce consisting of bacon/onion/brown sugar/ketchup/worcestershire sauce/mustard and marjoram.

What I'm really saying here is, you get more filler sauce then in the past.. You don't need all that sauce... it's a rip off. We consumers are plagued by this type of rip off on many food items.