Instapot Yogurt Success

I can’t believe this was six weeks ago that I was out black Friday shopping. I actually braved the morning and ran to the Fry’s grocery store for some items that I wanted from there. It was a rainy morning and the parking lot was emptier than I have ever seen it on a regular trip to the store. I filled my cart with all kinds of goodies and headed for the checkout in record time. As the woman was ringing up my purchases she said, "you don’t want the Instapot that’s on sale for $49.99?" I hadn't gone there for that item and it wasn't on my brain. She proceeded to sell me on the great deal and why not? It was much less expensive than the smaller ones I had just sent as Christmas gifts. To make a long story short ...I paid the price she quoted which ended up being about $34 less than it should have been. Really.  I should have picked up several of them!

I finally took it out of the box but am scared to use it. Why? I have used a pressure cooker many times for canning things but never for cooking food. This must be much safer than the contraption I can with.

My girls will talk me through my fear, I am guessing, because they are making meals with them like champs. I did try the yogurt business last week. Wow! Much easier to run to the grocery store refrigerator section and fill my cart.  So eight hours of cooking and another at least eight hours of chilling and I have yogurt. I didn’t add the sweetener this recipe calls for and just made it plain. Enough to pucker up right quick. I love honey for sweetener so dumped a whole bunch of that and some blueberries and it is actually very delicious.

No additives. No fake flavors. No fake anything. I did add vanilla to the entire batch when it was done, but I make my own. And ... lactose free milk! How good can this get?!

Now I wonder if I can use the yogurt that’s left for a starter for the next yogurt. Has anyone done this?

If you have any other Instapot miracle recipes… Share them with me please!

I promise (hand over my heart) to share any that I find and love with you.

First though, I am going to hard boil eggs and see if my kitchen is still in one piece when I'm done.

family fishing

Two weeks ago today we were at this lovely fishing hole with the kids.

Two weeks?!! 

No wonder those birthdays creep up so fast and often ... if two weeks flies by so fast!

Who would think that almost in the middle of a town there lies this beautiful spot.

Could you just stroll out here and clear your mind?

This is me.

These are mine.

This would be my joy.

Anna & Tia were not able to do any fishing ... 

Hint: don't attempt to get a fishing license the same day you get your ND drivers license .. they won't let you.

Second Hint: if you purchase a non resident 3 day fishing license, check your expiration date. Our 3 day licenses expire in March of 2020. You just never know when you might win!

Should you have any hints on how to score a free airline ticket with Allegiant ... let me know!

I"ll go fishing.

We don't deep fry food at our house, but I might have to start.
Anna & Wylon have some marvelous deep fryer that I might need to look at someday.
Friday night fishing.
Saturday night dining.

I can still taste that walleye!

Now I'm hungry.

makaronilaatikko birthday

Last Wednesday would have been Mummu's 93rd birthday.

In the years we were first married, and for many after that, we often dined on makaronilaatikko.

My first foray into that Finnish delicacy had to include ketchup and it continued that way pretty much forever.

Wednesday I googled (don't you just love the google?!) and found me a recipe. I seriously believe this recipe has a few more ingredients than the one I ate for so many years.

As I looked at this recipe and wondered how many dl or grams something was, I said a serious thanks for this day we live in. I think I tossed many recipes years ago when the figuring was too difficult for my non metric brain. This time ... it was a piece of cake.

I wonder what would have happened if I hit the little shopping cart next to the basilikaa? S'pose it would come via Amazon in the next 10 minutes?

Ground beef into the skillet and chopped with my favorite ever Pampered Chef chopper deal.

Cooked macaroni dumped into the skillet. Sometime in this life I am going to learn how to make just the right amount of rice or macaroni for a recipe. Someday.

A mix of milk (lactose free in this house now) and eggs (fresh picked from my beautiful hens) whisked.

Meat/noodle mix into the dish, topped with the milk/egg mix and slathered with cheese. Into the oven and enjoyed like it was 30 years ago and we were sharing the table with our dear mother.

I probably don't need this in my diet every week, but maybe I'll make it an annual birthday dinner.
I think she might have liked this version.

Happy May Day!

Laina's wheat bread

I don't bake bread. I haven't used my nice big metal bread bowl for a number of years for yeasty things. This bread is my favorite. It has honey in it to make it a treat for my taste buds.

I cut the recipe, dumped the ingredients in my trusty and well loved bread machine. Once it was done mixing and raising for a bit ... I put it into my own bread pan and one pie pan for a flat bread, raised again ... and baked.

Serious deliciousness.

Laina's Wheat Bread

4 c boiling water
1 c evaporated milk
2 sticks oleo
2 pkgs dry yeast
1/2 c honey
4 c wheat flour
1 tbsp salt
8 c white flour

Heat water, oleo, salt & honey together in a saucepan. After cooling mixture, add 1 c evaporated milk & yeast dissolved in 1/2 c warm water. Add wheat flour and mix well. Let stir until mixture bubbles. Add white flour, enough to make dough stiff. Let rise. Shape into loaves. Let rise until 1 inch above pans. Bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.

** I used regular milk and butter instead of evaporated milk and oleo. Nor did I do all this mixing in a saucepan. I just melt my butter, warm the water/milk a bit and dump it all into the bread machine.

july in minnesota .. the end

Another afternoon spent in Litchfield. As we have been given the opportunity to travel to Minnesota, and only God knows the number of days our dear parents have left with us, we shared a great afternoon with Pekka & Laina. 

I have taken to napping for 30 minutes in the car as we drive again. Next to the main reason for our trip to Minnesota.

This organ.

I play, although I don't play as many I love to listen to. And I've never played in this church. Level of sound ... anxiety about pushing and pulling organ stops ... I might have just been almost sick. In the middle of my panic, I came up with a plan. Being as I've never figured out how to work the presets, I picked up stickers from Target and labeled both great and swell stops for each song. The ones that were going to send me into a panic. Yellow for the bridal party. Pink for ... of course the bride! And green for Go .. or the recessional. I think it worked. It was an honor to be asked and I think this is the last time that Tia's song will be played at a wedding. We should be good.

My beautiful daughter, Tia, who played an important part in Emilee's special day. We couldn't be happier for Em.

Wishing you a life of blessings Mr. & Mrs. Laho.

Following the wedding, we headed for yet another home and another bed at Becky & Wayne's. More visits, more laughs and maybe even a little sleep.

Anna & Paisley joined us and we breakfasted in Elk River at the Olde Main Eatery. Don't you just want to climb in the 'puter and squish those cheeks?! Anna took off driving to Williston and we headed to church in Elk River. I was there last year for the first Christmas Sunday School program but hadn't been there since. Sound?! Oh. My. Goodness. I think the music there must be what Heaven sounds like.

Lunch with the pros in the kitchen. Brian deep frying fish caught in a variety of places, including Canada. Bethany is the pico de gallo pro and her veggie chopping skills might be a blue ribbon winner.

Meanwhile, the grill outside was being manned by Wayne & Fred. Seriously good Minnesota sweet corn. I think I might make it through the year now .. just barely. I really should have taken a picture of my plate. I need to start doing that. If nothing else, to make your stomach growl. More visits with more dear people ....

... and it's flight time again!

We drag ourselves in the door, set our alarms, pour our tired carcasses into the sheets and get ready to face Monday morning again.

We both enjoy our work, but sometimes I wonder what retirement will be like.

smart kids

Do you know that I have some super smart kids?
Like seriously.

I buy ground beef from Costco, take the round chunks of meat and shove them in a ziploc bag.
Toss that round hunk into the freezer (unless I brown them first which often happens) and can never get them thawed fast enough for a quick dinner because they're in a hunk. Which would be the reason I brown them first. Which also means that I never have raw meat to make into a hamburger patty.

Insert smart daughter.
She does this.
She doesn't freeze hunks of it.
She uses the ziploc and presses her ground beef into a flat thing that fills the bag.

Smart girl.
Fits in the freezer better for one.

Excuse my sink ... it needs a dose of bleach or comet or something.

And best of all ... drop it into a tub of water to thaw .. and dinner is almost cooked. 

Seriously. So fast.

We had absolutely scrumptious burgers on the grill last week. 

Twice.

Just call me a life long learner over here.

crockpot lasagne

Thanks!

It worked!

Plop frozen lasagne container inside crockpot and put on low.

Dinner done house cool.

food prepping

For the most part, there are two of us who live here and eat. Once in a while, there will be an adult child at the table. However, I still sometimes tend to cook like I'm feeding the Finnish army. Usually it probably tastes better tho. That is when I cook. Somedays after a long day at work, I could care less if I eat a piece of peanut butter bread. In reality, I'm a bring leftovers to work kind of gal. Several years ago I made a goal to not buy lunch in the cafeteria at work and typically I manage that pretty well.

Crafting season is here and if I could get my buns in gear and get busy ... I'd rather be crafting than cooking. So ... I bought a package of these little pans the other day, came home and filled them. They are labeled and in the freezer! Lasagne is good to go. I just need to pop it into the oven, whip up a salad and dinner is ready! Now if I could just figure out how to heat it up without cranking up the heat in the kitchen .. I'd be tickled pink.

I've also had a hankering for some peanut butter cookies. I don't know why I did this, but I doubled the batch. Not a good idea. I don't make cookies anymore. Haven't made any since Christmas. These might be hanging around until then ... just like my prune tarts are still hanging around from December. Argh! All I really needed was a few spoonfuls of cookie dough and my craving would have been satisfied. Go figure.

Have a fantabulous day! Fill it with a little sugar and chocolate hey?

peaches ... already?!

It feels like we just finished with pounds and pounds of peaches, but the canned peaches are long gone. The freezer has been empty of frozen peach slices for a while and it was Peach Festival Weekend at Schnepf Farms in Queen Creek.

I really wanted to go Friday morning as it was the only morning free. Jari looked at me like I had lost my mind. We've gone before and it's not exactly peach picking in 70 degree breezy weather. Tia agreed to go with me. My intent was just to purchase boxes of picked peaches. Good thing we didn't ... they were sold out of picked peaches before we got back from our short trip to the orchard!

We took our boxes and off we went to pick. It didn't take long and the boxes were filled.

Just because I'm a numbers kind of person .... I had to figure this out. I paid more to drive over an hour away and pick these peaches than I do for Colorado peaches that are delivered to me ... if I purchase a 38 pound box. Mind you ... the price of the Colorado peaches also includes travel for the peaches and fundraising benefit for the congregation delivering them. At least these will tide me over until the others are due to be picked!

We came home to play several games of Settlers so I could gracefully lose them both ....

and bury myself under a blanket for a minute or two before starting peachy business.

Have to be honest here. Fred (in town for golfing weekend) and Frans (with kidlets) came over Saturday evening and I whipped up a fresh as you can be peach cobbler. Frans said it was the best cobbler he had ever had .... right up there with some camping cooked in the dutch oven prepared by a Johnson (if you know they're cooking skills .. you'll understand) cobbler he had years ago.

Sigh. I will show up in Queen Creek earlier in the day next year and be almost first in line.

365: ending 30 and 31

199-202/365:

Play time! 

This is therapy for me and if I am very fortunate, I get about 10 hours a week of this activity .. at this time of year. By noon I can't handle being outside anymore.

Keeping cool. 

Last year we had a misting system that was very cheap and ineffectual for the most part. All it did was drench the patio furniture. And we had an above ground pool. This year we have neither and have managed to survive just fine!

Rainy morning.

In the cockpit and ready to fly. 

202-206/365:

#sunrise

This little picture doesn't capture how stunning it really was. Those clouds!

So many ideas ... so few weekend days to accomplish them!

Hanging up 15# of lead at the end of the day. 

... and this is the light one!

We have roots!

Gwen sent me a super cute idea for planters. Coming up sometime after I clean up my pallet pile ... along with some concrete play time.

207/365:

Do you think he will qualify me for the carpool lane?

Seriously I have never been this close to a bee unless they were attacking me and then I wasn't standing still to snap a photo.

208/365:

When you get lost on Facebook for a few too many minutes.

Except for the burnt parts ... it was really good!

Cajun Chicken Pasta Skillet from I Am a Baker on Facebook. Tia wrote down the list of ingredients for me and I winged it. If you are a person who doesn't need ingredient amounts and feel comfortable winging it:

Chicken breast cut into pieces

Salt, Pepper and cajun seasoning mixed with chicken pieces and cooked in oil.

Add: red bell pepper, onion, garlic

Add: chicken broth, noodles, heavy cream and monterey jack cheese

They cooked the noodles in the chicken broth in the skillet. I would cook them separately the next time around. Or not get lost on FB for a few too many minutes.

209/365:

My 260 degree world.
Somedays I yearn for a BHG or Country Living existence. One where everything is so darn cute and put together that you just want to never leave it. I see photos of yards .. and I visit them .. where everything is so neat and tidy. The lawn is perfectly green. The patio furniture is perfect. The plants are well tended. They look so inviting! And then I come home. I put my work clothes on .. haul out tools from here and there and get to work. Because as much as I love those other places (and mine can clean up well) I love this more. Way. More.

Panoramic photos sort of make tables bowed. In reality .. it might not look like that.

210/365:

Perpetual inefficiency ... year after year after year.
I wonder if those super duper efficient houses have living people in them. Or perhaps they are all escaping the heat and have gone to cooler climates for the summer. All I know is that it doesn't mater if we have our 3 little selves here or an extra family ... we always qualify for inefficient.

This nearly rounds out our July. We really haven't gone anywhere this month or done anything exciting. Just sorta lived it. Waiting to see what August brings!

a christmas dinner for a king

My linens are usually starched.

The china is dusted.

The silver might be polished.

This year we moved it all outside.

Brown paper covered the tables.

The men did almost all of the cooking.

(sort of like camping in my world)

One pot has shrimp, corn and potatoes .. in some sort of order ...

crab legs ... pound after pound ..

in a pot big enough to feed a few.

Out of the seasoned hot and into the hot cooler they went.

Bridget had a few firsts today.

Shrimp ...I'm not suppose to eat those little feet?!

Or it may have been the look on my face when Jari missed the discard pot

and hit my drink glass instead.

Something being shared over there.

Our dear Char who cleaned up everyone's crab pieces.

Her family doesn't waste a bit of it ... she's a pro at this business.

I had forgotten about this drink until Blayde reminded me.

He has taken this drink of Denise's, from a shared holiday in Alaska,

and made it his holiday tradition.

This is the first time we've done this and I must say we stressed a little bit.

Was it going to be too spicy?

How were we going to cook it all?

Was it even going to work?

We learned a few things along the way and it was

delicious!!

Seasoning straight from heart of Louisiana.

Crab flying, finger licking, lip tingling, laugh producing, stomach filling

downright goodness.

Not to mention the best company one can ever have.