Busy in the Kitchen

This morning I had to hit the deck running . . lots to be done in the kitchen and the oven has been going way too long for such a hot day.

Sourdough English Muffins:

A friend here loves my Sourdough English Muffins with added dried cranberries and walnuts and I try to make a batch for us and for them (a dozen each) every week but I didn’t make any for them for at least three weeks when I was feeling bad. Even once I felt good enough to make them for us, I was afraid I might pass along germs to them but now that I’m feeling back to normal, I started theirs last night, finished them today and will stir up a batch for us this evening. I like making the dough about 6 p.m. That gives me enough time to get some stretch and folds in before bedtime. Then I finish them the next morning.

I ended up with 14 in the batch for our friends so Vince and I each had one so they still get a dozen.

Blueberry Pie Bars:

We’re having dinner with friends at their home this evening and I’m bringing dessert so I made Blueberry Pie Bars.

There were several things that popped into my head that I might could make but these bars stay in the fridge til serving time so something cold sounds really good these days.

Bread:

Not only do we eat more bread than we should but it seems I almost always give away a couple of loaves a week.

I knew when I put this dough in two pans that I should have used three short pans but I had these two (one short and one longer) already oiled up so I used them and yes, the bread rose over the sides of the pans. That’s ok. Maybe it’s too ugly to give away so we’ll keep it all here for us.

Yogurt:

Last I started yogurt in the Instant Pot yesterday. I’m almost always up til after midnght but last night I was tired and ready to go to bed about 10 but had to stay up and wait for the yogurt to finish, go into the strainer and into the fridge.

You can see the line where the yogurt was near the top white rim and this is how much whey drained out. We like our yogurt thick like Greek yogurt.

I don’t measure but when I make yogurt, which is about three times a week, I start with about 1/2 gallon of whole milk. You can see that 1/2 gallon of milk yields about 1-1/2 pints of yogurt and close to a quart of whey. I will use either storebought whole milk or raw milk from the local dairy. For both, I heat to 165, let it cool to 110, add the culture (a few spoonfuls from the previous batch of yogurt) and let the Instant Pot do the rest for 7.5 hours.

I always use the whey for something – mostly as the liquid for making bread. I’ll use it in about anything I bake but if there’s any left over, I’ll pour it around tomatoes or any acid loving plants. I found this blog post about uses for whey. There’s no need to waste it. My chickens loved it . . and having whey and no chickens makes me kinda sad but it is nice not having to deal with them.