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January 23rd is National Pie Day

1/21/2022

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It is hard to believe that a day so close to the holidays is claimed as National Pie Day, (not to be confused with March 14th.) But, if you love pie, then it is just fine!

Pie is a big part of our food traditions in our family. Here on the blog, we have posted a number of posts about all kinds of pies! Just type "Pie" in the search bar, and you will find them all. Or, you can purchase our downloadable e-book, For the Love of Pie, from our Etsy shop and have most of the recipes at your fingertips!
For the Love of Pie usually sells for $10, but for the next few days only, we are slashing the price in half and only charging $5! Yes, we love pie that much and want everyone to be able to celebrate Pie Day with us! (It seems to me that there are a number of Pie Days throughout the year, so you can be prepared for all of them!)

Here are a few of my favorites from the blog:

What is your favorite pie? Will you make a pie for National Pie Day? It could be an easy way to add a little celebration to your family's lives! Let me know if you celebrate with us!

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Unconventional Family Traditions

1/17/2022

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It is Martin Luther King Weekend. It is always great to have this long weekend after throwing ourselves back into reality when the holidays are over. This weekend always stirs up memories of one of our family traditions from when our kids were young. If there was snow in Flagstaff, AZ, we would always go up and play in it on MLK Day.

This great photo is from Flagstaff, AZ's page. Good info there.

We would often go to a park in the middle of town, just down from the Lowell Observatory, The kids would play in the snow, and behind the park was a steep hill that we could all slide down for a really long distance! Some people even skied down it! I guess people were getting hurt there or something, because now that hill has barricades to keep you from sliding down it. It was fun while it lasted. We found other places to go sledding after that.
I know that some of you just need to open your front door to "go to the snow". But, here in Phoenix, we have to drive a couple of hours to get to it. This was a highly anticipated outing for our family. We would pull out our tub of sundry snow clothes and mittens and see what fit whom that year and what we needed to find as far as boots, scarves and beanies. We had some misfit outfits, but when you only go to the snow once a year, you don't invest in chic. Since we were going after Christmas, we could usually find some good clearance items at the sporting good stores.
After a couple of hours of playing, everyone would be cold and worn out. We would pile back into the car, change into dry socks and pants and whatever if necessary, and head home. But, one of the things everyone looked forward to the most was stopping at a restaurant on the way out of town and getting a mug of hot chocolate, piled high with whipped cream.

This was the kind of tradition that has stories that we tell and retell and laugh about. Sometimes other families went with us and added to the fun, but usually it was just us.

  Many people have expressed surprise and curiosity when we have told them about our MLK Day tradition. Some of them have adopted our tradition or created a similar one of their own. I love that!
   My roommate from college, Debbie, told me that her family never had traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Her family always went skiing on Thanksgiving and ate turkey sandwiches! What a great memory!
   Does your family have any a little bit off the wall traditions that are not the norm for everyone else? I would love to hear about them!
   Now that our kids are grown and we don't do the MLK Day tradition anymore, I don't really miss going up to the cold and all of the prep work, I have gotten a little too old for the sledding. ( The last time we went it took my husband and I a month to recover!) But, I cherish the memories and I still love a good cup of hot cocoa! Maybe that is what inspired us to come up with Hot Cocoa Bombs!

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Lemon Blackberry yogurt Cheesecake

1/12/2022

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In my last post, I shared my first experience making yogurt. One of the great things about making yogurt is that you can use it for so many things. One of the things that I wanted to do first was to make cream cheese from the yogurt and make a cheesecake. Just like making the yogurt, turning it into a cream cheese substitute is very easy.

The first thing that you have to do is drain the yogurt until it is much thicker than the yogurt that you would normally eat. Since I needed about 2 cups of cream cheese for my cheesecake, I measured out about 2.5 cups of yogurt into a clean flour sack towel and put it into a strainer sitting over a bowl. The bowl will catch the extra whey that will drain out. Leave the yogurt to drain in the refrigerator over night. You could also use your regular yogurt strainer. I didn't because my yogurt amount was so small that I could take up less room in my fridge by using a smaller bowl and strainer.

When your yogurt is finished draining, it will look like this. Next you use it just like cream cheese and make your recipe as you normally would.

Nice and thick

I decided to make a Lemon Blackberry Cheesecake by baking the lemon cheesecake base and then topping it with a stabilized blackberry whipped cream. I used lemon oil and lemon zest to flavor the lemon cream cheese base. It came out pretty awesome. Here is the recipe:

Lemon Blackberry Yogurt Cheesecake

There will be more yogurt product recipes to come, so come back and see!

Here are some other cheesecake recipes you will enjoy:

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Make Homemade Yogurt Without an Instant Pot!

1/10/2022

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One family member, my son's mil, Anita, is always so supportive of our blog. She is so talented and always has ideas and inspiration for our blog! This past Christmas, she sent me a yogurt strainer. She showed me her results of making yogurt in her Instant Pot and where she found the recipe. I got so excited thinking about all of the things that I can use this strainer for and for all of the things that I can do with the yogurt. Unfortunately, I discovered that myInstant Pot Lux does not have the yogurt setting. But, I knew that before there were Instant Pots, people still made yogurt. So, my search began for a way that I could make yogurt without an Instant Pot. I found many ways! I used a combination of those ideas and experimented on my own, as is my way.

Guess what! My very first experiment was a great success and it was so easy that I can't believe that I haven't been making my own yogurt all along!

This one has the yogurt button.

No yogurt button.

I made a video of myself making my very first batch of homemade yogurt! Watch it, and then I will list some highlights to help you make your own yogurt without an Instant Pot as well!

Whelp, now you know how I look in the morning.

Here are a few highlights to remember:

You can use any fat content of milk. I used whole milk this time, but low-fat or non-fat will also make great yogurt.
Heat the milk in a large pot to 180 degrees F. then, cool it to 110 degrees before adding the yogurt culture.
Use plain yogurt of any type or brand that you prefer as your culture. It can be Greek or regular, it will definitely influence the taste of your yogurt, so choose the type that you like.
I have seen people use from 1 Tablespoon to 1/2 cup of the yogurt culture. I used 1 1/2 Tablespoons and it worked great.
After your milk comes to 110 degrees, you may add the culture. When you stir it in, remember not to scrape the bottom of the pan, which may have scorched milk on it.
Put your milk and yogurt mixture into a warm, not hot crockpot. Wrap it with a towel and let it sit, unplugged, for 8-12 hours. I let mine sit around 9 hours. It is so amazing to see that it is thickened into yogurt when you open it up!
Drain off the whey, taking about 2-3 hours to allow it to drain. If you don't have a yogurt strainer, you can use flour sack cloth or coffee filters in a mesh strainer over a bowl. You can save the whey to make ricotta cheese, as a stock in soups, in smoothies, to amend acidity in soil and so many other things!
After straining the yogurt, you are ready to add flavoring and sweeteners as desired. So far, we have loved 1/2 cup of honey and a teaspoon of vanilla in the basic yogurt. Later, we add jam, granola, fresh or canned fruit or whatever we want. It is so delicious.

In a few days, I'll share the recipe for my lemon blackberry cheesecake that I made with this homemade yogurt! There will be a few other things to come as well!
Here is a shoutout to Anita for getting me excited about making yogurt! It is such a satisfying feeling to make something that is successful, delicious, versatile and money saving! Let me know if you give it a try.