Cooking marathon, cheesecake, and yogurt

Hey.

So I never posted about making yogurt. I decided to use the heating pad method. The page you should actually be referring to for temperatures is on the Pecanbread Yogurt page. So be aware that there are some discrepancies between the pages.

I had acquired a thermometer. It was not the best choice, because it was a meat thermometer, and it didn't go any lower than 100 degrees. Oh well, I thought I would just work with what I had.

I held the thermometer in the goat milk as I heated it on the stove. I intended to turn it off once I hit 185 degrees, like the Pecanbread site says, but the temperature climbed really quickly and the goat milk did end up boiling for a few seconds. We're supposed to try to avoid this, but I was going to go ahead anyway.

I took the pan off the heat and put it in my large saucepan which had two trays of ice cubes and some cold water in there.

I then realized another thermometer problem, because you need to cool the milk to at least room temperature. So I kind of had to guess. I splashed a bit of it when my arm and when it felt cool, I added the Progurt as specified -- mixing it with about a cup of the milk and then mixing it throughout the whole pot of milk.

Then it was time for the heating pad. I'd picked a spot on my counter that was pretty cozy, and I made sure to purchase a heating pad that would not shut itself off.



After that, I had to figure out a way to get the thermometer to stay in the yogurt without it touching the bottom of the pan. I tried just wrapping the top of it in foil and sort of balancing it against the side of the pan, but that didn't work.

Then I saw the handle of my colander and I got an idea.



After that, I covered it up and set it on the heating pad. I added some dish towels around the sides of it to keep the heat in, too.

Well, it was hard to tell if it was getting up to temperature because the thermometer was kind of crappy. I got up at 2 a.m. since Clark was up at 2 a.m., and I saw that the yogurt wasn't even up to 100 degrees. So I propped up more of the heating pad against the pan by using a Yankee candle that somebody bought me at my office. I didn't take a photo of it but you get the idea. :)

By morning, it was up to temperature, so I wasn't really sure when to start the 24 hours. I decided to just do 24 hours since 6 a.m. or so and so I ended up fermenting it overnight again.

It came out OK. I was surprised at how thin it was. I dripped some of it with a coffee filter placed in a plastic funnel balanced over a drinking glass. That worked pretty well, as long as I didn't put too much yogurt in there at one time.

And then Clark had his weird reaction, and you're now up to speed.

So. I realized later that my thermometer was in fact off, by quite a lot. I measured boiling water with it, and it registered as 195 degrees. Not good. So all sorts of things could have gone wrong with the probiotics.

I bought a new thermometer, a digital one with a probe. I really like it. It comes with a timer that you can set for 24 hours. That one worked much better and registered the temperature of the goat milk correctly. Hooray!

I was also able to see with my new thermometer when the goat milk yogurt got down to the appropriate temperature to add the probiotics (about 65-70 degrees is a good range to shoot for).

I also started the yogurt much earlier (around 3 p.m.), so I was sure it was up to temperature when I went to bed. The probe balanced in the milk a little easier, and I didn't need my colander this time. I just wrapped some foil around the top of the probe and secured it to the handle of the pot.

And yes, I used the Yankee candle again. :)

I tried dripping the whole batch in bulk but that didn't work so well because there was still too much for it to all go through the colander well. I'll try the handkerchief in the colander method at some point and I'll let you know how it goes.

When I had enough that was dripped, I decided to make a half recipe of the SCD cheesecake in the BTVC book, except I wanted to use all yogurt instead of the dry curd cottage cheese, since we're not eating cow dairy. Here's what I did.

HALF AN SCD CHEESECAKE (STAGE ONE, whenever yogurt is tolerated)

2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup dripped SCD yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp grated lemon rind (I didn't use it)

Bake in a pie pan at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until it browns on the edges. It will be only about 1/2 inch thick, since it's a half recipe. :)

So I baked that, and I gave Clark about a full teaspoon of it about an hour before bedtime. I wanted to be sure I got a clear reaction. He seemed fine. In the morning, though, he wasn't fine. He was stimming, stimming, stimming.

So he's not ready for it. That's OK. Good to know. We'll try again in a month or so.

For me, though, at first I didn't think I liked the cheesecake. I even added extra honey to it. Clark said he liked "cheese pie" so he was clearly fine with the taste.

But then later I went back and ate some plain. And then later I went back to even out the edges. And then I ate some more.

So, I changed my mind, and I really liked it! Yum. I can see how the lemon would really complement the flavor of it, so maybe I will look for that lemon stuff. I guess I've gotten past the initial taste of it, finally. It's kind of like when you first go gluten free and you eat a piece of GF bread. It's not much like regular bread at all, so your brain can't get past that at first. And then you learn to like it for what it is, not for what it isn't.

After that, however, I ate my usual amount of the yogurt that I'd worked up to, and I had a bathroom emergency soon after. So I think that the probiotics were much more active in this batch, because I think the temperature in my first batch got too high, and killed off some of the bacteria before the yogurt was done. Or I ate too much cheese pie. Oops.

As for this weekend's cooking marathon, I'm behind again. My script for Pendant Audio finally got out to the cast, and my darling hubby and I went on a date!

We went to see Cloverfield at the Mann's Chinese Theater in downtown Hollywood. It was fun, but parking was a mess. We didn't realize that there was an awards ceremony at Hollywood and Highland that evening for the ASC Awards, so parking was a little tricky but we managed.

After the movie, we went to the Pig n' Whistle, also in Hollywood. I was surprised to see that their only steak was $25 so I kind of freaked at that. Instead, I ordered a plain hamburger for $15, and Jeffrey ate my fries. Even though the Pig n' Whistle is only about a block from Hollywood and Highland (which is where the mega huge parking garage is), it was raining like crazy so we bought a very large and surprisingly nice umbrella from a street vendor for $5.

We had a great time. We don't get to go out often. Since Clark is autistic and is quirky and manipulative in so many unique ways, we have only had our very good friend babysit for us after Clark is in bed. We got home around midnight and got into bed by 12:45 a.m.

At 1:45 a.m. Clark got up, as he had soaked through everything on his bed. I stripped his bed and changed his pajamas, sheets, and blankets, and went back to bed.

So I'm kinda tired today. But I had so much fun, so I am happy anyway.

I just finished cooking the pineapple, soup's on, ketchup's on, and carrots are cooking. I had enough ketchup to last this week -- until the jar slipped out of my hands about 12 inches above our tile floor. Smash. SIGH. What was worse was I had half a bag of onions on the floor next to the fridge, and considering the glass, I pitched them. Oh well, at least onions are cheap.

I bought some mushrooms to play with this week. I think I'm going to cook some spinach with the ground sirloin patties and add the mushrooms...mmm. Sounds like a good way to test food to me!

Asian dipping sauce recipe for YOU!

OK, so I only have a few minutes and I wanna post this recipe. I will warn you, because of all the spices the sauce has a slightly gritty texture. I have made it with just almond butter and honey but it's REALLY thick and then it's only good for topping something hot like chicken just out of the oven or microwave.

ASIAN DIPPING SAUCE (STAGE TWO)

1/2 c almond butter
3 TBSP honey
2 TBSP coriander
3 TBSP oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin (optional)

Mix and eat with chicken, or chicken and cooked pineapple. I think it is super tasty. Yay.

The plot thickens

So after discussing my difficulties with Clark with the Pecanbread list, I'm wondering if the yogurt turned out OK after all.

My thermometer was actually not working correctly, and I think it may have gotten too warm. If that happened, the probiotics could have died before fermentation was complete, and then he would have gotten some lactose and casein that wasn't fully broken down, which would be bad.

But I'm confused because if he HAD gotten lactose (which is a sugar after all), I would think he would have had some kind of gastrointestinal sign. And he didn't -- it was all totally behavioral.

Also, I would think that the reaction would not have lasted for nine days.

So it is a mystery. However! Since then, I got a new awesome cool superthermometer, and I made a bigger batch of yogurt that is pretty awesome. Now all I have to do is drip it and then I can make some SCD cheesecake. At least I can test the actual yogurt product with him that way.

We will continue with nightly Epsom salt baths. I'll keep you all posted.

How I'm doing

I wanted to post a quick update about myself and about Clark.

As you know, we started the goat yogurt with Clark, and he kinda went nuts with the 1/8 tsp I gave him on two consecutive days. We've discontinued it since then, and it is taking a long time for him to get over it.

The fact that it is taking a long time is more evidence that he is probably reacting to the probiotics. Still, I need to figure out exactly what the problem is, so I am making a double batch of yogurt right now in order to drip it and make an SCD cheesecake. That will *really* destroy the probiotic content, and then I will know if he is reacting to the probiotics or the yogurt itself.

About me, though, I'm doing really well. More signs of gut dysfunction are showing themselves as I heal. For example, now I have my period, and I have 'D' as the SCDers like to refer to it.

This is interesting because my sister has tons of signs of gut dysfunction where I have none, and she always has D when she has her period. How about that. We have something in common (and that IS a miracle, people). :)

My swelling though is way way down. I can't remember a time when my hands were consistently this good. So I'm pretty happy. I do talk about my right hand having problems, but that's due to overuse. How do I know it's not the arthritis? Because icing it makes it feel better, and as most people with arthritis knows, ice is not awesome at all for arthritic joints.

I do still have to order some more Enbrel though. I'll do that today.

I am hoping that tonight I will finally be able to regale you with tales of yogurt making. I also have a new recipe to post -- an Asian dipping sauce. But I left the post-it on my desk at home so you will all have to wait! :)

Talk to you soon!

Snoooore...cooking marathon

OK, so this week's marathon is a little spotty. I started Friday night, since I was supposed to be writing my next Wonder Woman script, but my right hand was bothering me due to a lot of typing at work.

So. I decided I would make some Stage One Meatloaf with the rest of the ground beef I had. I found the photo I posted of the last ones! I think I will change the name now to Porcupine Meatloaf.


The right side is before baking. I covered both sides with onions after sticking in all the garlic cloves.

By the way, I made the meatloaf without adding egg to it, and it turned out fine. It was a bit crumbly while warm, but after it was refrigerated it behaved like any other cold meatloaf. I will put the egg as optional in the recipes.

Since I didn't want to just have the oven going for one pan of something (Ha! Remember the old days, when you would just cook ONE dish at a time in the oven?), I also put in a pan of chicken in with garlic and onion.

Then Jeffrey and I watched a bunch of TV, the timer went off, and I forgot to go get the food until it had been in there probably 30 minutes or so longer than it should have been. Fortunately, just the onions on top were burned. Whew! I also took out chicken parts to make soup the next day.

Saturday, we headed out early. We stopped at Whole Foods for almond butter and shortening (I wanted to grab some of the spectrum stuff in case I wanted to experiment with it), but they were out of the 365 brand almond butter. We picked up a similar jar, which we thought was $9 but it was actually $14. That took about 10 minutes to straighten out, but straighten it out we did.

Next, we hit Costco. I picked up a bag of Tyson chicken breasts, a package of ground sirloin patties, a container of fresh cut pineapple, a large bag of onions, and five dozen eggs, so it was a light trip for us. But! I found one of those digital thermometers with a probe, which I will now be using since my yogurt thermometer has proven to be inaccurate. I tested it in boiling water and it registered boiling at 195 degrees. Augh!

We went back home, and I was trying to decide what to do, since we were going to run a few more errands but we had to have lunch first, and I didn't want to disrupt my planned cooking too much. So as soon as we got home, I put a large dish of pineapple into the oven for two hours. I shooed Jeffrey out the door to go to In-n-Out, and when he came back there was still an hour to go, so my planning wasn't really perfect. I dozed on the couch while my kitty Zack crawled into my lap, because that's really all you can do when you're pinned down by 14 pounds of feline.

It was somewhere in this time, when Jeffrey was putting receipts into the checkbook, when we realized we finally had enough money to buy a Wii.

This was a little bit unprecedented. We had planned to get a package deal at some point, but the package deal had unfortunately sold out. However, we knew our local comic shop had them, and they were only slightly exorbitantly priced there.

We pondered, considering the money we'd saved and the bills we had. We promised that we would send the tax refund directly to the credit card. And then we went out to see if they had any left.

They did not, but they said more were coming within an hour. So we went over to Target and got a couple of games and the extra controllers we needed, and then we went back to pick up the Wii. Whee!

Obviously this kind of shot half the afternoon. We knew we wouldn't even be able to open the thing until Clark went to bed anyway. As soon as I got home I started chicken soup, realizing I was out of celery when I was ready to cook. Oh well, no celery then.

We played with the Wii a little bit at night, and I made the unfortunate discovery that playing the games will aggravate my wrist. Well, considering how much writing and crap I have to do, it's probably a good thing. Also, the Resident Evil game is kind of disappointing. I've been a fan of them since the beginning, since nothing relaxes me like blowing the heads off of zombies, but interspersed in the games is a lot of suspense and a fair number of puzzles that you have to figure out and work through. I always appreciated that. And this game has no puzzles at all, and very little suspense. You even have unlimited handgun ammo, which also robs some of the tension. As fans of the other games will attest, there's nothing as nerve-wracking as exploring a new area while knowing you're down to your last 14 bullets.


Not that great.

Anyway! Next, I made a pan of almond butter brownies. I made them with the egg replacer recipe on Pecanbread due to a desire for more egg free recipes expressed by my readers! Don't say I never did nothin' for ya!

For the egg replacer, I omitted the vinegar and I should have omitted the baking soda that's already in the recipe, due to the fact that each egg replaced has a teaspoon of baking soda, but otherwise they were pretty decent. They were very cake-like but they held together pretty well once refrigerated. Plus, I got to lick the bowl, and that's almost worth the price of admission right there!

And that was Saturday. See how I'm not really getting that much done? Sigh. During Saturday night, I made an interesting discovery. You know how I was talking about peeling all that garlic? Well, the garlicky acids or whatever ended up physically burning my left index finger. Someone had warned me this could happen, but I was having a heck of a time wondering why cutting up a lemon was burning the crap out of my finger. It's not visible or anything, but anything acidy or tomato-ey is all WHOA OW.

On to Sunday! First I made mayo, and I cooled the mixture before putting it in the blender, but I still ended up ruining the mayo. After being really mad about it, I made another batch with REALLY cooled off cooked mayo, and that worked like a charm. So make sure you really cool off the cooked part before you make it! It will save you time, sanity, and whichever oil you deem to use in the mayo!

We then went to the regular grocery store for goat milk, sparking water, spinach, gelatic, squash, and decaf coffee. Ever since starting this, I've become pretty sensitive to caffeine, which wounds me greatly. Being a picky sort when it comes to coffee, I am secretly insisting that I must get a decaf version of each coffee that matches the caffeinated ones I have so that I can do half and half without sacrificing taste. So, I have two bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee, so I went out and got a bag of Dunkin Donuts decaf. Oh DD, when will you come to SoCal and make my life here complete? This former Midwestern girl misses you so. I hear they are coming, which is why I can now buy DD coffee at the grocery store, so I cannot wait!

Oh, and at the grocery store I bought spinach in bags, because I bought spinach at Smart-n-Final and it came in this 3-pound brick from Mexico:


A more appetizing brick, I have not seen. May be used for construction in any climate zone with permafrost.

Since it took approximately 1,024 years to thaw, I decided I would get the kind in bags despite the fact that the bags are slightly more expensive.

I came back home and did a bunch of dishes while Clark had lunch and Jeffrey went to In-n-Out. I started a pot of green beans to boil, and when Jeffrey came back I started ketchup. In order to have enough for the week, I use two huge cans of tomato juice and 1 cup of vinegar and let it boil forever all alone by its lonesome. I don't stir and stir anymore.

I then prepared another pan of chicken breasts and another pan of hamburgers, and those are in the oven now, but I forgot to set a timer so now I will have to guess when they are done. LOL.

Now I gotta get my yogurt started, and after the beans are done, I will be able to make two pans of egg bread. I'll also probably hard boil some eggs for breakfast next week.

I'm going to post about my yogurt making, I swear. Probably next post. With more photos! And stuff! See ya!

The new plan

Well, Clark didn't seem all that much better in the morning, so we decided we were going to give him a couple days to get over the yogurt adventure we've been having. I want to be sure it's the probiotics making him crazy, so here is what I am going to do. I am going to freeze a small amount of the yogurt and give it to him. If he goes crazy, he doesn't tolerate the yogurt itself. If he doesn't, then it's the probiotics that are making him nuts, which is kind of a good sign.

We'll work it out. I'm sure. :)

I was Ms. Energizer Bunny yesterday...just kept going and going.

I left the house at 6:20 a.m. and made it to work by 7. I ended up working overtime, and I left at about 4:30.

I walked in the door and immediately made myself some dinner, since Clark and my husband were already eating. I also made my lunch for the next day.

I knew we were out of almond butter brownies, so I mixed those up and stuck them in the oven. I then took Clark to the bathroom for his epsom salt bath and hung out with him for 20 minutes while he had fun playing.

Came out and realized the almond butter brownies were burning. I made a double batch and tried lining a cookie sheet with foil (I couldn't find the parchment right away) and they cook quite a bit faster that way! I pulled them out and pulled the foil with the brownies in it out of the pan and set them on the kitchen table so they would stop cooking faster.

Got him out, dried and in his pajamas. Had a bit of a meltdown during story time. I'd forgotten to have him go poop before bed, and he didn't want to go, so he screamed. Ow, my ears. But he did go, because we rule with an iron fist around here. LOL.

After he made it to bed, I cut up the almond butter brownies and separated them into totally edible, kind of burned, and REALLY burned. I saved the really burned ones for myself. :) Then my husband and I worked on our side business for an hour or so. Afterwards, we managed to watch the second half of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles pilot, so that was nice. We also watched some Daily Show and Colbert Report that we'd saved for when we had time.

Next I recorded lines for an hour. I do voice acting for Pendant Audio. And by that time it was past 11, which is WAY past my bedtime. Whew!

I am grateful, so grateful, that I am able to do these things. The first year I had RA, I couldn't do anything at all, pretty much. So I'm happy. Tired, but happy!