– I’m so pleased with myself over this ice cream. I had whole milk and half-and-half left over from my first (and semi-failed) ice cream experiment, and I knew I wasn’t going to use them before they went bad (I use skim milk for yogurt and tea, and I put almond milk in my coffee). So I stirred 1.5 cups whole milk, 1 cup half-and-half, and one small box of instant vanilla pudding in a bowl for a few minutes, and then I dumped it in my ice cream maker. Ridiculously easy and SO good. It sat in the freezer for about an hour after it finished churning, which meant it was the perfect froziness when I was ready to eat some. And it was still light, so I took a photo (FOR YOU, ALEX).
– If one could create a ‘word cloud’ for my blog, but with entire phrases, I’m pretty sure ‘pleased with myself’ would loom large. Of course, every time I say that I’m pleased with myself, what I really mean is that I’m pleasantly surprised with how well something has turned out. I’m not really that chock full of self-confidence, complacently chuckling over my abundant talent all day long.
– But speaking of being pleased, my second batch of yogurt made in my thrifted Salton Cosmopolitan yogurt maker came out even better than the first. I used half a cup of yogurt from the first batch as my starter culture and let it cook overnight (at least ten hours, in the end). I’d almost forgotten about it by the time I stumbled into the kitchen this morning, so that was an exciting discovery. I expected it to be thinner than the first batch, since the culture generally gets weaker every time you use it, but it’s actually much thicker than the first time. Success!
– Beany and Birdy continue to get along better and better. When they walk by each other now, they’ll usually stop and bump noses, and then Beany give Birdy a few licks on the head. Affection the other way around usually isn’t accepted, however; Beany hisses if Birdy tries to get too close on her own. I imagine Beany is just trying to keep the balance of power tipped in her favor. They were doing a lot of play-chasing earlier today, and I saw Beany streak by more than once with Birdy in hot pursuit. What will become of the household when Birdy weighs more than two pounds?
your kitties are too cute! Mine plays the kitty version “patty cake” all the time. I am glad that beany is taking a liking to birdy so quickly. It took a long time for my older cat to warm up to my younger cat.
YESSSS. Ice cream shots! Can’t wait to see the glamorous Canadian Crunch photo shoot.
Re the yoghurt, surprisingly, it does get thicker each time when you use your own culture – even if/when the first batch made from commercial yoghurt was quite thin, the yoghurt made using some of this first batch as a starter will be thicker. I used to start from scratch all the time and couldn’t get it thicker, til I read that this was not the way to go in one of the older vegan cook books about 10 years ago – and since then I’ve made (soya) yoghurt and cheese almost weekly.
i love when things happen in wonderful ways.
i have been seeing a lot of mention of homemade yogurt in many of my favorite blogs, it’s been on my list to-do for ages. must get on that.
p.s. i was so sad to hear about booty, even if expected, it’s never easy to lose an animal family member. {hugs}