If I could eat a single food every day for the rest of my life and never get sick of it (in addition to meat) it would be ice cream. More specifically, this homemade frozen vanilla custard ice cream. Technically, ice cream and custard are two different beasts. Ice cream is made with cream and sugar, and must contain a certain percentage butterfat, while custard is cream, sugar, and egg yolks. Again, meeting the same butterfat requirements as ice cream, but also a percentage of yolk. But, I don’t get too hung up on the specifics because they’re both ice cream to me, just different types.
But, custard “style” is so creamy, thick, and absolutely lovely that is really is different than regular ole’ ice cream (I love you too ice cream!) It has such an old fashioned taste and I’m completely obsessed. It reminds me of Hanks Frozen Custard, an ice cream stand I used to go to all the time as a kid that has been in business since the 50’s. They exclusively make and churn frozen custard on site and it is out of this world. Thankfully, it’s incredibly easy to make at home with some very basic ingredients.
Let this be my disclaimer: use the BEST quality ingredients as possible. While I believe this should always be the case, it is in recipes such as this where it’s minimal ingredients that quality makes all the difference in the world. Your milk should be full fat, your eggs from pastured birds with bright orange yolks, and your cream should be from cows (or goats) eating that summer grass. This will make all the difference in your frozen vanilla custard ice cream.
I like my custard to be subtly sweet with the help of a little raw sugar. Good cream will provide the custard with much of the sweetness on its own. I have tried recipes that called for double the amount of sugar I call for, and found it almost inedible. In my opinion, this combination provides a custard with the perfect amount of vanilla, right amount of sweetness, and oh so creamy taste.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk (cow or goats milk)
- 8 free range eggs – yolks separated
- 1/2 cup raw sugar (suit to your taste and cream sweetness! My cow’s cream is naturally much sweeter than when I purchased it previously, and so I use 1/4 cup now)
- 4 teaspoons vanilla paste
- 2 cups high quality heavy cream (**see note below)
Directions
- Add egg yolks and sugar to a medium saucepan (NOT over heat) and whisk until fully incorporated and lightened in color. Set aside.
- Add milk and vanilla paste to a separate saucepan over medium heat until it starts to steam. Don’t boil or simmer it.
- Temper the eggs by constantly whisking the yolk and sugar mixture and add heated milk a tablespoon at a time at first, working up to a gradual pour. Tempering heats up the eggs without scrambling them, so add very little initially and work your way up to the whole saucepan.
- Return milk/yolk/sugar mixture to stove over medium heat. Constantly stir with a rubber spatula until slightly thickened and coats the back of the spatula. Remove from heat.
- Add custard mixture to a sealed container and stick in the fridge. It needs to be completely chilled before using, the longer it sits in the fridge the better! It will be thicker, creamier, etc. Once it’s completely chilled, add the heavy cream and shake to combine.
- Bust out your ice cream maker that you still have yet to return back to your best friend, and add your vanilla custard base to the bowl. Remember to shake it up and get all that vanilla that has settled to the bottom! Allow to churn to your desired thickness, my sweet spot is 20-25 minutes.
- Put on your elastic pants, sit back, and prepare for the most delicious frozen vanilla custard ice cream you every consumed.
Happy Custard Eating,
In May of 2016, I met the other future love of my life next to my husband and I didn’t even know it. We were doing the first showing of our house and made our way into the garage. The garage was tidy and neat, and then there under the stairs under boxes of junk I saw her…
Underneath the boxes was a rusty, dusty stove that clearly hadn’t been used in quite some time. I knew nothing about stoves, was it busted beyond repair on the inside? Was it worthless? I had no clue. But I turned my head to our real estate agent (aka cousin) Crystal and said “this stays with the house no matter what”. Clearly I had already made up my mind we were going to buy the house. I had no idea the deep love affair that would come about.
Well, we bought the place, and some time passed. If you follow me on Instagram you know that our place and property has been quite the project and kept our hands full. Money to restore a stove wasn’t exactly top priority, so she continued to sit in the garage. Unused and covered in boxes. I would go out occasionally, check in on her, give her a good look over, and whisper sweet nothings into her rusty nickel warming shelves. Her time would come soon enough, but we weren’t quite ready for her.
After several months I started to get curious. I had no idea what I had in the garage, if it could even be restored, and if it could, how much money it would cost. After some quick googling, I found a local stove guy that specialized in antique stove restorations. Seemed like the man to call. So, I did and what proceeded felt like an episode of antique roadshow.
“You have a WHAT? Does the number on the back left say 8-20? And it has all of the nickel warming shelves, the side shelf, AND the queens shelf?” David (who would soon become “my stove guy”) was in shock. He couldn’t believe that not only was I in possession of a Villa Crawford, but that it was complete with all of its shelves, burners, and without any major visual defects or damages. In his over forty years of business, he has seen three…THREE! He demanded I send him some pictures to confirm, and I did. Turns out that I had a true rare gem on my hands. I was that person that showed up for an appraisal with some crummy old vase expecting $20, was worth $20,000, and had “no idea what I had”. Turns out I was sitting on a gold mine. Okay, maybe not that extreme, but still it felt very Antique Roadshow-esque.
I made it my mission to give this stove a complete restoration, and look like the day she left the foundry. So I saved, and I saved, and saved. I saved for two years. Then, our existing subpar kitchen woodstove developed a major structural and safety malfunction in the late spring of 2018. Not worth repairing, we were in need of another woodstove. It was time for Lady Crawford to shine again.
This stove underwent a complete restoration, down to the nuts and bolts. It’s more solid than the day it left the Crawford Foundry in Watertown, Mass in 1898. It was sandblasted to remove all rust and residual paint and debris before being repainted in a period correct finish. The nickel was re-plated. Any cracks or breaks within the stove itself were reinforced and welded. The firebox intended for coal, was converted to wood with an extender added to accommodate longer logs before being reinforced with fire cement. Each burner that was “worn out” had a metal bar added to allow the handle something to grab onto to lift them. There is not a corner of this stove that wasn’t inspected, reinforced, and refinished.
A Brief Little History
So you’re probably thinking what makes this stove so special? Aside from the sheer beauty of it, it is pretty incredible. Prior to 1900 these stoves were functional works of art. Intricate scrollwork and filigree, with raised emblems, and totally nickeled out. The amount of detail in this stove is unbelievable. From 1900 on, the stoves went more steamlined as this was the “modern” direction people were going. Filigree and raised scrollwork gave way to flat surfaces, and they became pretty plain. Nice functional stoves, but you certainly don’t look at them and go “wow”. This was what was appealing at the time.
Now, here we are over a hundred years later and these pre-1900 stoves are highly coveted for their level of detail and “fanciness”. But, the timestamp isn’t the only thing that makes this stove so special. It is COMPLETE with no missing major components. Typically, these things got moved around over the past hundred years with the addition of modern gas/electric stoves into peoples kitchens. These wood burners would get moved out to a garage or barn much like where we found ours. They get neglected, bumped by a tractor, shuffled and moved around and things get lost. Most commonly the removable shelf on the right as well as the top “queens shelf” were the most common victims of this. They are removable, so they easily get bumped off and lost forever.
Not my Lady Crawford. I didn’t know it when I saw her sitting there in the garage for the first time, but with the exception of the kick plate and simmer trivet, she was complete. Aside from the fact that this is such a rare stove to begin with, David could not believe the condition that it was in. Thankfully being an antique stove restorer, he has quite the cache of random original parts and during the restoration replaced the kickplate and simmer trivet. Both original Crawford items.
Another incredible thing about the stove? The heat indicator is not only clean and clear like the day it was made, but it works. Due to being exposed to the elements and severe fluctuations in temperature, the glass on these is commonly cloudy and hazy, full of condensation. And even more commonly, they just plain don’t work. Despite the stove being kept in a garage for who knows how many years, it is perfectly functional and clear.
A Modern Twist
You know how when you’re burning in your woodstove and you get that awesome bed of glowing red hot coals and you think “man that would be awesome to grill over?”. Well, with one little modern twist you can!
David has a cast for the standard opening seen in Crawford and Glenwood Models where the two burners over the firebox lift up and out. So, what did he do? He made a grill insert that fits perfectly over the firebox. The ductile iron pan is slightly pitched down to allow the juices to collect in the reservoir on the left side with a pour off spout. Once you get a good bed of coals, you open the drafts (this will suck any smoke down, out, and up your chimney) throw this baby on and you can get your grill on in the middle of winter. Wood fire grilled chicken breasts in January by the comfort of my warm stove? Yes please!
Another incredible invention that didn’t come about until several decades after this stove was made, was the multi burner lifter. Wood is loaded into the firebox from the top, and there are two burners and one middle plate to remove in order to load. When this stove was built in 1898, the only way to load was to individually lift each burner and the center plate out with the single lifter, load, and then put each one back. So, we are talking six lifts per load. Tedious much? Post 1900, and don’t quote me on this but I wanna say it was around the 40’s, a new lifter was invented that allowed you to lift all three at once. You have a good enough grip to be able to hold it as you load your wood and then place it back. Amazing how such a simple design can make such a difference in the practicality and use.
My love for this stove knows no bounds, and I am just as amazed by it two years later as I was the day it came back from the restoration. I told my husband that my final wish is to be cremated in it 
The number one question I get asked is it’s it horribly inefficient? People equate old to inefficient or subpar. I will fight anyone on this topic – modern stoves have nothing on this girl. This is coming from the person who ripped out two Woodstove Soapstone stoves to put in hundred year old Crawfords. They just cannot compare in craftsmanship and design. Its design turns it into one big cast iron radiator that allows it to pump out the heat as well as the food all winter long. The best seat in the house is right next to the stove, and is usually where you can find me with knitting needles in hand.
If you’re interested in a video walk through and the ins and outs of how the stove works, what does what, etc, I highly suggest you check out my IGTV video walkthrough below, and all things #villacrawfordstove on Instagram.
There are loads of different ways to preserve tomatoes. I don’t know if there is another vegetable that is as versatile when it comes to canning as the homely tomato. While I may be largely falling out of love with gardening the more I raise my own meat, there are a few staples that I will always grow for storage and/or preserving. Onions and potatoes for storage, corn for freezing, and tomatoes for canning.
My Nana is the one who taught me how to make sauce several years ago, and to this day I still do it the way she taught me. Like pretty much everything else in my life, I have taken the foundations I was taught and expanded upon them. This has led me to new varieties of tomatoes as well as new preparations for me to preserve.
I preserve different tomato types in different ways depending on which they are best suited for. Some make better sauce, others hold their shape better for diced, whole peeled, etc. You will find what varieties you enjoy growing most and for what purpose. Like anything else worth doing, it’s as lot of work, but having shelves full of every type of tomato style you need in the dead of winter cannot be beat!
This post is not a “how to preserve” post that tells you how to can every different type. But, a post to highlight some different ways to preserve tomatoes. Hopefully this gives you some new ideas you have never tried before
Types of Preserves
- Sauce: I would say that this is the most versatile of ways to preserve tomatoes. For sauce, I reserve my family heirlooms for their tenderness, incredible sweetness and flavor, as well as paste types for added thickness. I can my sauce plain/unflavored that way I can use it for whatever I want. Spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, lasagna, goulash, ratatouille, soup, the possibilities are endless! Sometimes you want it spicy, sweet, or a little acidic. I don’t want to box myself into a flavor profile off the bat! Not to mention tomatoes are not the same year after year. Depending on the garden season’s weather, sometimes they’re naturally sweeter, other times they’re more acidic. There is no “one size fits all” recipe that will work year after year. Also, flavors develop as they sit on the shelf in the jar, and I may not like what I get. I prefer to incorporate fresh flavors after I’ve cracked that jar open and taste as I go depending on what I’m making.
- Diced: Another pantry staple for everyone, diced tomatoes come in handy for anything and everything (read versatile!). Rice dishes, slow cooked meats, soups, stews, or even a chunkier sauce can all use diced tomatoes. For these, a firmer tomato is ideal, as it will hold its shape during the dicing and canning process.
- Crushed: Now, this is where things get a little tough on distinction. Crushed versus puree, well, I don’t see the difference with store-bought . Some say crushed are chunkier, whereas puree is well, pureed! But, I have had my fair share of “crushed” tomatoes that are a distinct pureed consistency, much like my sauce. So in my world crushed = chunky. Whole peeled tomatoes, cooked down and pulverized with the potato masher into a chunky, yet soft consistency. Crushed can be used in many of the same dishes as diced, so I used the same tomatoes with a few family heirlooms thrown in the mix. The crushed aren’t as firm as the diced, and are a saucier consistency rather than the distinct diced tomato pieces. Think somewhere between a sauce and diced.
- Whole Peeled: Whole peeled definitely have their own place in certain dishes where you want the distinct whole tomato intact. I use mine in thick stews, pulled chicken, certain pasta dishes, and mexican rice. For whole, San Marzano or another type of paste tomato is ideal because they are firm, have minimal seeds and gel, and don’t break down when canning. They hold their shape and hold up well to all the handling and heat through the blanching and canning process. They are a pantry must!
- Salsa: Salsa is much more than just a delicious dip for tortilla chips. It can also be added to burrito bowls, as well as pulled chicken or turkey!
- Soup: I absolutely love tomato soup. Combined with grilled cheese in the dead of winter, it makes for one of my all time favorite comfort foods. I have a very particular taste for it though, and I don’t like it “vegetably”. For me, tomato basil soup is the only way to go. I have always made it in the middle of winter as I need it for dinner, but the problem always is I don’t have fresh basil in the middle of winter! Which means I have to go to the store for just basil (because everything else is a pantry staple!) which is just annoying. So this year I thought, why not make a big batch and can it now while basil is abundant and save the headache later? Well I did, and I am so glad I did!!
This is far from an all inclusive list of all the ways to preserve tomatoes. I didn’t even touch on dehydrating ( I don’t do it) but I know people are a huge proponent of it. Hopefully, I highlighted a different preserves you never thought to try before that you can experiment with this canning season!
Happy Preserving,
Hear ye! Hear ye! Calling all dairy lovers. I have a new love for the summer of 2020. While 2019 was the year of Goat’s Milk Greek Yogurt, 2020 will be dubbed the year of Goat’s Milk Skyr. What is Skyr you ask? And how is it different than Greek yogurt? Well, let me explain.
Skyr is Iceland’s version of thick yogurt, and has been around for centuries upon centuries. You may know the name brand “Siggy’s” that can be seen in some grocery stores. While technically Skyr is a soft cheese because it is made with rennet, it is in fact consumed as a yogurt. It’s thick, creamy, has a whipped-like texture, and is absolute heaven. Traditionally it is made with skim milk so it is low in fat. Yet, through the powers of rennet it still can achieve that thick and creamy consistency. We are a high fat household, so this is not something that is appealing to me from a dietary standpoint per se. However, if you have a milk animal that is lower on the butterfat percentage scale and you struggle to get super thick and creamy yogurt, this is the recipe for you!
Just like with any other yogurt, there are several different ways to make Skyr. You can buy a dehydrated starter culture or use some fresh yogurt to culture. You can make it in the instant pot or other means of incubation. You can make goat’s milk skyr or cows milk skyr. I am going to show you how I make it and what works for me! If you have already followed my greek yogurt and mozzarella recipes, then you already know the steps. Goat’s milk skyr is like if these two recipes had a baby. A beautiful, creamy, and highly addictive baby.
What You Need
- 1 gallon Raw Goats Milk (you can use pasteurized as long as it isn’t ultra pasteurized)
- 1/2 cup Skyr Culture – I used a 5 oz container of plain Siggy’s to start
- Instant Pot – make sure it has the yogurt button!
- Cheese Skimmer
- Instant or Quick Read Thermometer
- Greek Yogurt Strainer
- 1/4 teaspoon QUALITY liquid animal rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water
The Process
If you’re using raw milk follow steps 1-3 below to pasteurize. If you are using milk that’s already pasteurized, simply warm the milk up to 105°F-110°F then start with step 4
- Add your milk to your Instant Pot and put the lid back on. Hit the “yogurt” button until it says “boil”. Then walk away! Go carry on for whatever you have to do for the next hour while the IP pasteurizes your milk until it beeps and it says “yogurt”.
- Once it’s done pasteurizing remove the lid and temp it. Instant Pot has an acceptable range to which it will pasteurize milk, but mine doesn’t always get the temperature I need for yogurt.The temperature that you NEED for thick yogurt is 185°F. So, take the temperature. Did it pasteurize it to 185°F on its own? If it did good, put the lid back on. If it didn’t, don’t sweat it. Hit the saute button once so it’s on “low” and constantly stir while checking the temperature. Even if your IP brought it to the lowest acceptable temperature within range (167°F), it will only take a few minutes to get it up to 185°F. Continually stir so you don’t scorch the milk, and once you achieve 185°, turn off the IP, and put the lid back on sealed
- Go about your day and let the milk drop down to 105°F-110°F. Once it cools, remove the skin that forms on the top of the milk. If you need to speed up the cooling process you can put the pot in the sink with cold water stirring to cool it down.
- In a small bowl add 1/2 cup of your Skyr starter culture yogurt and ladle in a couple spoonfuls of your 105°F-110°F milk. Whisk to break up, and add more milk until it is a runny and smooth consistency. No lumps!
- While gently whisking the milk in the instant pot, slowly pour in the starter culture/milk slurry. Stir well to make sure it’s thoroughly combined.
- Add your (7) drops of liquid animal rennet to 1/4 cup of cool non-chlorinated water and give it a slight swirl. (don’t do this step in advance, do it right before adding) Add the rennet and water mixture to the milk, stirring in and up and down motion for 15 seconds.
- Put the lid back on sealed, and hit the “yogurt” button until it’s at normal and set your time to at least 5 hours. 5 hours is the amount of time the yogurt needs to incubate to properly set a curd. This time frame yields a thick but very mild yogurt, with no tartness. If you are after more of a tart yogurt, you can incubate longer (this will not make it any thicker, just more tart). Remove the lid and taste test periodically as it incubates until you reach your desired tartness, and remember what your ideal time length is to set your IP in the future.
- Once your incubation time is up, you should have a nice set curd with visible whey around the sides and top. Use a long knife to cut parallel lines into the curd to bottom of pot. Turn pot 90° and cut parallel lines perpendicular to the first ones creating small cubes.
- Using your cheese skimmer, gently scoop the curds from the pot and put them into your Greek Yogurt Strainer. Just like with the mozzarella, you want to be gentle with the curds. Scoop gently, don’t dump the curds!
- Let strain in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours for thin Skyr, or overnight if you like it on the thick side. (*Note my favorite batch I incubated for 7.5 hours and then accidentally left it out on the counter to drain for a full 12 hours. It was my most perfectly tart batch yet!)
- Once your Skyr is strained to desired thickness, scoop it out of the strainer and put into a large bowl. It won’t look like the most beautiful thing in the world, but the next step is where the magic happens.
- Using a hand beater preferably or good ole’ elbow grease and a whisk: whip it good. It will transform into the creamiest, thickest, lightest, most heavenly texture imaginable. I personally am a plain yogurt person 99% of the time as I like to flavor my yogurt differently each time I eat it. But, if you want to flavor it, this would be the time to add some pureed fruit, vanilla bean paste, etc. I am on a kick currently where I blend in some fresh pureed berries of whatever is in season. It’s like frozen yogurt without being frozen.
- Put into an airtight container and keep in the fridge. The culture will be the most active for the first week or so, so remember to save a half a cup to culture your next batch!
Happy Skyr Eating,
Biscuits!!!! I love you so. Up until fairly recently though, it may surprise some of you to read that I made pretty subpar biscuits. They were kind of squatty, which made them a bit dense and were missing that flake you get with a properly leavened biscuit. While biscuits are a humble food, there are a lot of little things that can really mess them up. Such a simple thing like you twisted the biscuit cutter which sealed the edges can kill your biscuit’s rise. Thankfully I refused to give up, and with a lot of little changes and things to pay attention to, here I am sharing how you can get sky high puff style flaky lard biscuits too.
Now if you can’t make flaky lard biscuits because you don’t have lard, I guess there are worse things that can happen. War, famine, drought…but it’s up there on the list. You can use all butter instead, but it really isn’t quite the same. There is a reason lard is coveted among pastry chefs! As far as the acidified milk goes, you have various options. Whey leftover from cheesemaking, buttermilk, or just some vinegar splashed into regular ole’ milk will be just fine.
This recipe is based off of Martha Stewarts Test Buttermilk Biscuit recipe, but modified to include lard and whatever other acidified milk you have available. Before we get into the recipe and instructions, there are some distinct biscuit do’s and dont’s that need to be mentioned. While these may seem a little ridiculous, I assure you each one is there for a reason.
Do's
- Make sure your baking powder and soda is fresh and not expired – you won’t get a proper rise!
- Bake in a hot oven, don’t put it in before it’s preheated to 450°- the heat hits the biscuits like a punch and immediately gets that butter and lard steaming to create pockets in the dough aka flake
- Snuggle them together about a half inch between – biscuits are friends and help each other rise
- Immediately put them in the oven after cutting – letting them sit out will allow the fats to start to soften
Don'ts
- Overwork or over handle dough – it will make for a tough biscuit
- Use a twisting action if using a biscuit cutter – you’ll seal the edges which will keep it from properly rising
- Over cut the fat, pea sized chunks is what you’re after – this size is ideal for creating those pockets of flake
- Use warm butter or lard – you want STONE COLD – to create that steam and pockets in dough, aka flake
- Use warm milk – again you want COLD – helps keep everything cold
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 5 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 5 Tablespoons cold leaf lard
- 1 cup whey or acidified milk/buttermilk
- Milk or cream for brushing tops
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F
- Whisk dry ingredients together thoroughly in large bowl
- Cut lard and butter into smaller chunks, sprinkle overtop of dry ingredients and using pastry cutter, cut until fat is pea sized. Quickly toss with fingers to ensure fat and lard chunks are fully coated in flour.
- Drizzle whey all over, and gently toss with rubber spatula until just combined. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. Some dry bits are okay.
- What happens next is what makes ALL the difference in the world in the flake factor of your biscuit. We are going to create a “puff” style flaky lard biscuit here, by layering, flattening, and layering (see video below) So, roll your dough out onto a piece of parchment and gently form it into a rectangle and flatten (feel free to use a rolling pin)
- Grab the parchment and fold the rectangle over itself in half, push and flatten it into a rectangular shape again using the parchment if you have hot hands so you keep the fats cold. Dead hands over here can bare hand it with these icicle flanges. Repeat. Repeat. I have done this as few as three times, and as many as five. I feel like the more folds, the higher and flakier the biscuit. But of course there has to be a limit.
- Once the last rectangle has been formed use a knife and cut into squares or use your biscuit cutter. Personally, I am a BIG fan of the square biscuits, as there is zero waste and makes for minimal handling. **By trimming just the very outer edges of the biscuit squares where it’s tapered down, it will help them rise even more. I don’t do this because I can’t bare to cut off “scraps”
- Transfer the biscuits to a butter greased cast iron skillet snuggled up with about a half inch between them. Brush the tops with milk or cream. You could bake them on the parchment on a baking sheet, but why? Bake for 16-18 minutes rotating halfway through until golden brown and cooked through.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool slightly before slathering them unapologetically in salted butter.
Happy Baking,
Last summer I became a full fledged goats milk greek yogurt addict. I was making it several times a week, and would gorge on a heaping bowl everyday topped with whatever wild fruit was in season at that particular moment. Honestly, it’s a wonder that at the volume I was consuming it, my digestive system didn’t go into full fledged revolt.
Well, it didn’t take long for my addiction to further spiral out of of control, and I started to dip my taste buds into the world of frozen goat milk yogurt. Goagurt? It is single handedly (and I’m not exaggerating here) one of my favorite things in the world. I then and went and turned my friend Anne into an a frozen goat milk yogurt manic last summer, who has been eating it ever since. It truly is a refreshing summer treat.
This frozen goat milk yogurt recipe can be adapted for quite literally any fruit. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, whatever! Fresh or frozen! Or, *sigh* any yogurt if you are into the whole bovine versus caprine thing. The only thing that may need to be adjusted is the amount of sugar and lemon juice depending on the fruit. Some are naturally sweeter or more tart than others. Think sweet peaches versus tart raspberries, you wouldn’t add the same amount of sugar and lemon juice for both?! The good news is once you make the base, you can give it a taste test and add more of what you think is needed.
I am writing the recipe as general “berry” frozen yogurt, but strawberry is the most common one I make. I consumed approximately 234,783 gallons last summer in addition to my Nana’s Strawberry Pie. Again, feel free to substitute any fruit that’s in season, or use frozen if none are in season, and adjust to taste. I personally never measure and always just add and taste as I go along. Add too much fruit? Blend in some more yogurt. Not sweet enough? Add more sugar. In order to write this blog post, I actually had to measure everything out I was eyeballing so just know it’s extremely flexible and forgiving!
There are only two things that I ask of you if you’re going to make this recipe:
- Please for the love of all that is holy DO NOT skip straining the seeds. Yes, it’s one measly little extra step, but it makes all the difference in the texture of the yogurt. I promise.
- And PLEASE, unless you’re consuming it all within a couple of hours of making it, don’t forget the alcohol. It won’t get you drunk, it won’t get your kids drunk, and you certainly won’t taste it. What it will do, however, is keep your yogurt from turning into an icy, unscoopable cinder block in the freezer. For reals.
Remember that the quality of fruit varies (and matters). When in season, some are so deliciously juicy and flavorful, while others are a bit bland. If you have bland berries, you may need to add more than the recipe calls for, and you still probably won’t get a super concentrated flavor. So, the quantities I call for are general guidelines and I erred on the side of caution when it comes to sweetness and acidity. Less sugar, less acid. You can always add more, but you can’t take it away once it’s there. The amount you add will depend on the particular fruit as well as your own personal taste. I don’t particularly care for any of mine to be super sweet, so I always use less sugar.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is use this recipe as a guideline. Add less at first, taste, and adjust to your liking. Don’t be afraid to try new flavor combinations and get creative, this is a solid base for you to expand upon.
Ingredients
- 5 cups fresh or thawed frozen berries
- 1/2 cup raw sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- A good glug of vodka ~1.5 tablespoons
- 2 cups Greek Goats Milk Yogurt (the thicker and fuller fat the better, obvi)
**I have never subbed honey or other natural sweetener here because in the grand scheme of things I use so little. I would imagine though if using honey, due to it being a supercooled liquid that it would also prevent the yogurt from freezing solid much like the vodka.
Create Your Base
- Take berries thru vodka and add it to the bowl of your blender or food processor. Give it a quick toss, then let sit until syrupy and juices have extracted. Then blend until smooth scraping down sides, then add yogurt and blend until incorporated.
- Pour through fine mesh strainer fitted over a canning funnel if you have it, into a storage container of sorts (mason jar works!). Press/stir around with rubber spatula to help push the liquid base through, scrape out seeds and put in your Big Marie slop bucket as needed. The goal here is to remove the seeds and allow the smooth yogurty goodness to strain through and leave the seeds behind.
- Put the base in the refrigerator covered and let it get good and cold.
Churn and Burn
- Pull out your best friend’s ice cream maker that you borrowed two years ago and never returned back to her.
- Add your chilled base to the frozen ice cream maker and let it churn until it reached your desired thickness. I let mine go around 20-25ish minutes usually.
- Eat it soft serve straight from the ice cream maker bowl, or put into another container and stick in the freezer for a few hours to let it firm up even more.
- Put on your elastic waistband sweatpants, sit back and enjoy!
Happy Goagurt Eating,
Everyone has that go to appetizer, side dish, or dessert that they make when they’re asked last minute to bring something for dinner right? My go to is pitter!
These situations always seems to happen to me at the most inconvenient time. I’ll be knee deep in a project, or it’s an absolutely beautiful day and I’m kicking butt outside. Both are situations where I do not want to go inside to bake a cake or scramble to make something I’m likely missing half the ingredients for.
This is where pitter saves the day for me every time. It only requires a few very basic pantry ingredients that I always have, and comes together and cooks quickly. In and out of the kitchen without skipping a beat. Pitter simply put is your choice of jam baked between two thin pieces of dough. The baking process turns the jam into an almost jello-like consistency. It’s light, tasty, and highly addicting.
Now, if you google pitter, pitter dessert, polish pitter, etc you will not find this recipe. There’s a lot of harry potter, some nail polish, and random other things. Not a recipe to be found in fact. I swear this doesn’t exist on the internet. This recipe is from an old polish cookbook, and if my Babka were still alive I’d ask her if it was ever called by another name. Sadly that isn’t possible, so here we are!
So, just know that you found it here exclusively 
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) softened salted butter
- 2 eggs (1 yolk reserved)
- 2 T sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 T brandy (or additional sugar)
- Fruit jam of choice (at least a half pint minimum)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Cream butter. Add sugar, whole egg, egg white, flour, and brandy (or additional sugar)
- Mix until forms dough
- Divide in two halves. Roll out first half fairly thin and place in buttered and floured pan slightly larger than pan to create a rim.
- Spread jam over dough.
- Roll out second half of dough and cover first half.
- Brush top with reserved egg yolk and bake @ 350°F for 30 minutes
Did I tell ya or did I tell ya? No muss, no fuss. Once it cools and the jam sets it can be cut into squares. The jam gels naturally and is perfectly sandwiched between two layers of thin buttery dough. I absolutely love it, and I know you will too!
Happy Baking,
Move over caesar salad, I have a new love in my life and it comes in a corn tortilla. For the past month plus I have been making (not to mention consuming my body weight in) THE BEST FISH TACOS IN THE WORLD. I am full on addicted. You know you have done it right when you have no desire to go out to eat for the fish tacos you used to always crave, and choose to stay home instead. They’re flavorful, crunchy, light, a bit spicy, and absolutely delicious. I have also made this exact recipe with shrimp, and it’s equally delicious. While I prefer shrimp’s flavor over fish, as far as the mechanics of eating go, I find that the fish tacos are easier to eat. You’re able to achieve that perfect ratio of fish : slaw : sauce in every bite. Trust me on this, I’m a professional eater.
The cabbages in the slaw are merely suggestions, feel free to experiment with different kinds or use whatever is available to you! Also note I don’t give exact measurements. First of all I don’t tend to measure, second, it’s a slaw eyeball it and adjust. Third, I don’t make it the same way every time. If I have a larger head of red cabbage one time it will have more red cabbage than Napa, or vice versa. It truly doesn’t matter, it’s all tasty!
This recipe is a compilation of elements of different recipes I’ve tried, tweaked, and then combined to create the best fish tacos!
The Fish
- Fresh fish (or shrimp!) of choice cut into strips – I prefer haddock or mahi-mahi
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1.5 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- salt and pepper
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- Half and half mixture of plain and panko breadcrumbs
- Corn Tortillas heated
The bang bang sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 heaping tablespoon sambal oelek chili paste
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco (or more to taste)
The slaw
- Red Cabbage
- Napa Cabbage
- Bunch of Scallions
- Fresh Mango
- Handful of fresh cilantro
- Fresh Lime
directions
- Make the batter and assemble the fish: At least an hour before you plan to eat (or earlier if you have the time!) Mix together flour through salt & pepper in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk egg and milk and then slowly incorporate into dry ingredients whisking until smooth. On a separate plate mix plain and panko breadcrumbs. Add strips of fish into wet batter and toss around until fully coated. Let excess drip off, then roll in breadcrumbs pushing to adhere. Place fish on a drying rack over baking sheet. Once all fish is done, let sit uncovered in the fridge until ready. **While it certainly is possible to do this and immediately fry, when breading anything whether it be fish, chicken, pork, etc letting it sit in the fridge helps the breadcrumbs cling to the meat and will prevent it from falling off when frying
- Make the Bang Bang: Mix the ingredients for the bang bang sauce until well combined, adding more or less tabasco to taste to adjust heat preference
- Prepare the slaw: Shred the Napa and Red Cabbages and add to a bowl. Chop scallions green and white parts, cilantro, and mango and add to cabbage. Toss to mix, adding fresh lime juice. Add a few tablespoons of bang bang sauce and continue to toss until lightly and evenly coated.
- After the fish has rested in the fridge for at least an hour, add avocado oil to a heavy bottomed skilled on medium-high. You are pan frying, not deep frying so just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Fry until golden brown, and fish is flaky and cooked through.
Assemble your taco, and may I recommend bang bang sauce on the bottom and a light drizzle on top? PS – the taco holders at home are an absolute game changer. Enjoy the best fish tacos ever, and I dare you to not become a full fledged addict such as myself.
I am a carnivore through and through, which I believe is evident by how we raise our own pigs, chickens, and lamb for our consumption. I dare say a meal for me is not truly complete without some kind of animal protein. However, as they say there is an exception to every rule, and my exception is corn on the cob.
From the Fourth of July until the weather really changes in September, I eat corn on the cob every chance I can. I even happily will break my “must have meat” rule and sacrifice animal protein for this seasonal delicacy. Its season is a flash in the pan, and while the eating is good I take full advantage.
All good things must come to an end and sadly that doesn’t exclude my unapologetic binge eating of corn. But thankfully, you can preserve the summers bounty and get that fresh summer taste in the depths of winter by properly freezing it. While it may not be corn on the “cob”, it tastes like it was freshly cut from the cob just picked, which is about as good as you can possibly get.
You can use this method to freeze as little or as much corn as you want. I try to freeze two bushels a year, and usually do it a bushel at a time. It’s one of those things that you have to get set up and you are going to make a mess anyway, so why not do a bunch?
What You Need:
- Fresh corn (make sure it’s fresh picked and not overly mature)
- Large stockpot with lid
- Clean food grade bucket
- Propane burner/propane (this makes a big mess so I always do it outside!)
- Sharp knife
- Bundt pan
- Large colander
- Large tongs
- Freezer Bags
- Cookie sheet/dish to put cut corn in
- Table to “work” on with a hose closeby
Directions:
- Get your work station set up. Fill your stock pot with water, and get it boiling on the propane burner. Fill the food grade bucket with very cold water (I use the garden hose). Clean off your table and have your bundt pan, colander, and knife ready with the cookie sheet or dish close by.
- While the water is boiling, get to shuckin’. This is admittedly the crappiest part that happens right off the bat, but sadly necessary.
- Once your water is at a full rolling boil and your corn is all shucked, add 8-12 ears of corn to the pot. Put the lid on, and wait until it reaches a full rolling boil again. This will take a couple minutes. Once it does, check your watch and time it for 2-3 minutes (2 minutes for smaller ears, 3 minutes for large ears) **The amount you add depends on the size of your pot and the corn. You aren’t looking to fill it, it cooks quickly. For a 22 quart pot, I add 10-12 ears at a time.
- After the time is up, quickly grab the corn with the tongs and put into your bucket of very cold water (try to minimize the amount of boiling water that goes in). You are blanching the corn, so you need the water to be very cold so it can stop the cooking process. Be prepared to dump and refill the water before each new batch of corn. It has to be cold!
- Once the corn is cool to the touch after a few minutes, put the ears in your large colander so the water can drain off.
- Then, grab an ear and place it vertically pointed side down into the hole in the bundt pan. Using your sharp knife, cut the kernels off the cob being careful to get as close to the cob as you can without actually cutting chunks of the cob off. Using the hole in the bundt pan prevents the cob from sliding around and slipping, while the kernels are captured below to reduce mess.**There is a tool that is specifically for cutting corn off the cob, which I used to use. However, it didn’t cleanly cut the kernels off and make it more of a “cream style” texture. I prefer whole kernels which you can only get from cutting with a knife.
- Continue cutting the kernels off the cob and dump into your larger container as your bundt pan fills up. Once you have prepared all of your corn, freeze it in bags (either ziploc or vacuum sealed) being careful to get all of the air out.
- Enjoy the fresh cut from the cob taste all winter long!
Once you get into a groove, you can do a lot of corn in a short amount of time. When you hit your stride, you will have corn boiling while some is cooling in the bucket and simultaneously cutting kernels off the cob at the same time. You don’t need to take it from Step 1-6 before starting back over again, multitasking is the name of the game!
If you follow me on Instagram and pay attention to my stories, then you know that I have eaten no less than 4,237,432 gallons of goat’s milk greek yogurt so far this year. To say that I have an addiction may be a slight understatement, but I just can’t help myself! It’s that good.
I tried and failed to make yogurt all last year. The reason for my failure? Improper incubation.I tried all those homemade methods. Crock pot wrapped in towels, in a cooler with hot water, heating pad, I tried them all. Sometimes they worked, but mostly they didn’t. The inconsistency and waste of milk was infuriating. So, this year I decided I was going to break down and get an Instant Pot. Thanks to its “yogurt” function, It allows you to properly incubate the culture which consistently produces delicious yogurt every single time. No more guessing if it will work or not, it’s as reliable as my Ole’ Boone Dog.
If you’re serious about making yogurt, I encourage you to invest in an Instant Pot if you don’t have one. I got mine on sale on Amazon for $85 and just in yogurt alone it has more than paid for itself this year on top of other things it can do! Here is how to make perfect, thick, creamy, goats milk yogurt every time:
What You Need
- Raw Goats Milk (any volume of milk you have that will fit in your IP)
- Bacteria Culture (I personally use the ABY2C)
- Instant Pot – make sure it has the yogurt button!
- Instant or Quick Read Thermometer
- Greek Yogurt Strainer (optional but I like it really thick)
Note that there is no powdered milk or gelatin…you don’t need it! I will show you how to achieve thick goat’s milk greek yogurt without any additives… it’s possible people!
Another quick note, this is not considered raw yogurt. I start with raw milk because that’s what I drink, but I do pasteurize. Why? Because while raw milk is full of good, healthy bacteria, so is yogurt culture. If the milk was left raw, you would have good bacteria competing with each other which could create some funky yogurt. So, I pasteurize the milk in my process so that there is nothing competing with my yogurt culture. I drink plenty of raw milk to get my dose of good gut boosting raw milk bacteria, don’t need it in my yogurt too!
The Process
- Add your milk (I never make less than a gallon at a time) to your Instant Pot and put the lid back on. Hit the “yogurt” button until it says “boil”. Then walk away! Go carry on for whatever you have to do for the next hour while the IP pasteurizes your milk until it beeps and it says “yogurt”.
- Once it’s done pasteurizing remove the lid and temp it. Instant Pot has an acceptable range to which it will pasteurize milk, but mine doesn’t always get the temperature I need for yogurt.The temperature that you NEED for thick yogurt is 185°F. So, take the temperature. Did it pasteurize it to 185F on its own? If it did good, put the lid back on. If it didn’t, don’t sweat it. Hit the saute button once so it’s on “low” and constantly stir while checking the temperature. Even if your IP brought it to the lowest acceptable temperature within range (167°F), it will only take a few minutes to get it up to 185°F it needs to be. Continually stir so you don’t scorch the milk, and once you achieve 185°, turn off the IP, and put the lid back on sealed
BINGO
3. Now, go about your day. The milk has now been pasteurized but has to drop back down to the range your culture specifies before it can be added. I personally pasteurize my milk first thing in the morning after milking. It takes all day long to cool off to the 106°- 110°F range my culture needs, and then it incubates overnight and is ready to chill when I finish milking the next day! It is the perfect system for me.
4. Once the milk has cooled down to your cultures specified range, (again mine is 106°-110°F) remove the skin that formed on the top of the milk and add the amount of culture specified on the bottle that is needed based on the amount of milk. Give it a good stir to make sure its fully incorporated into the milk. Put the lid back on sealed, and then hit the “yogurt” button again until it’s at “normal” and set your time anywhere from 10 hours minimum, to 12 hours. 10 hours is the minimum goats milk needs to properly set, anything beyond that really is a matter of personal preference as well as what time it will end (for example if 10 hours means it’s going to be finished at 4 am I will incubate for 12)
5. Walk away! The IP will maintain the perfect temperature to incubate your culture and do all the work for you while you go about your evening and sleep.
6. Once the 10-12 hours are up, you want to remove the entire pot filled with yogurt. Now, you can do one of two things here. You can put the yogurt into containers in the fridge as is and eat it that way, or if you like really thick and creamy greek style yogurt such as myself, you can strain it
7. If you like your goat’s milk greek yogurt thick, put the entire pot with the yogurt in the fridge.Thoroughly chilled yogurt strains better than warm, so leave it in the fridge until it good and cold. I usually leave it in there until the evening, which is about 12 hours. Then, once it’s chilled, pour it into your Greek Yogurt Strainer, each one holds a half gallon – which is why I have two!
8. Put the strainers in the fridge until it reaches your desired consistency. I used to strain for ~12 hours, but I have been straining for a full 24 to get a really good and thick yogurt. If you happen to forget about it and overstrain, no worries! Just mix some of the whey back in. Put it into containers and store in the fridge. While it never lasts long around here so I can’t give a firm shelf life, I will say I have had yogurt that was 2 weeks old and will still just as good as the day I pulled it out of the strainer!
9. Prepare to become a yogurt addicted monster such as myself and enjoy it with anything and everything you can possible put in it. May I suggest frozen goatgurt?
Tips for Yogurt Making
- Have a dedicated seal JUST for making yogurt. I bought a five pack of seals on Amazon (they’re cheap) and my red one is dedicated to milk only purposes.The silicone seals absorb odors, so if you make something savory say chicken stock, and then turn around and make yogurt with the same seal, you could have chickeny tasting yogurt.Gross.
- The butterfat content of your milk is going to make a big difference in your yogurt. The fuller fat the milk, the creamier and thicker the yogurt.
- Fresh is best. Unlike my mozzarella recipe, fresh milk is best for making yogurt. I always use milk from that day or the previous day when making it, never older.
- When you strain your yogurt to achieve the really thick stuff, there is going to be a lot of whey loss. Whey is wonderful, but it makes it runny! So, be prepared that if you are going to strain it like I do and start out with a gallon of milk, you will yield about a half gallon of finished yogurt after 24 hours.If you let it go even longer you can achieve a cream cheese consistency. It’s all a matter of personal preference! Whey is great for making bread and biscuits though, and pigs love it too! So it never goes to waste here