Well, I’ve made five batches since then and I’m tellin’ ya, this is something even I can do<\/i>. (And when you’re talking things of the kitchen, that’s always In the first batch I fermented different blends in six jars. Five turned out scrumptious, with the most delicious of all being the one with Karen’s locally made apricot syrup in the bottom. One learning experience: Pat was right and the instructions that came with the yogurt maker were wrong; you can’t stir fruit syrup directly into the activated milk. It won’t set properly. But pour it in the bottom and mmmmmmm.<\/p>\n I chose the Yolife partly because it has two hoods<\/a>, one for use with its own small jars, one tall enough to fit one-quart canning jars.<\/p>\n Good theory. In practice, not so much. Turns out you can definitely make quart-sized batches of yogurt — as long as you do it in horizontal containers. But the heat doesn’t reach high enough to set the liquid in a quart-sized Mason jar.<\/p>\n No loss, though. It also turns out that even soupy yogurt can be turned into pretty decent Greek yogurt. To wit:<\/p>\n Just wrap a bowl in a piece of clean cloth (in this case, a flour-sack dishtowel), pour the soupy glop into it, cover and refrigerate overnight. Voila!<\/i> Next morning large quantities of whey will have drained through the cloth into the bowl, leaving nice, firm, tasty yogurt on top.<\/p>\n Rifle raffle update:<\/strong> Uh. Yeah. I said I hoped to have sketches of proposed custom camo for you to v*te on in September and a painted rifle by mid-October. Well. Um. I’m not.<\/p>\n I will though. Eventually I will. Really.<\/p>\n Responsibilities of a citizen of the police state update:<\/strong> Part V. That ain’t gonna happen. I finally realized I’d said all I had to say. You’ll have to be content with the four parts already published<\/a> and the (related) oldie-but-goodie Sustainable Freedom series<\/a>.<\/p>\n Or write your own Part V. That’s a possibility.<\/p>\n Defective dog update:<\/strong> The boy with the birth defect is still here (his story is above, same link as the one about receiving the yogurt maker). That’s him in the photo up there, hoping a bowl of tasty stuff will fall on the floor. <\/p>\n None of our options for getting him to a teaching hospital or a clinic with experience in this rare defect panned out. So he goes under the knife locally on Tuesday. I totally trust our great vet to do the job.<\/p>\n More good news: once he recovers he’s probably headed for a prison-pet-partnership program, where he’ll be trained by an inmate and adopted out with some of his rough edges smoothed.<\/p>\n Belated book review:<\/strong> Thank heaven I’m not the only one who gets a little behind now and then. Jim Bovard calls this a belated review<\/a> of Hardyville Tales<\/i>. But in my book no review this good can ever be too late.<\/p>\n And speaking of belated …<\/strong> The tired, troublesome old world is finally<\/i> going to end<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n ‘Bout darned time. We’ve been waiting five months. Or thousands of years depending on your perspective. Oh, and there’s good news for us skeptics. Apparently there are no lakes of hellfire<\/a>, pitchfork prods, or putrid political promises in our future. At least not eternal ones. (Although what Deuteronomy 25<\/a> has to do with it I can’t be sure. If anybody’s future hangs on D25, I think everybody’s in trouble.)<\/p>\n But hey … does this mean that after this Friday we won’t have to worry<\/i> any more about things we’ve gotten behind on? Or who wins the next presidential election? Or whether Lindsay Lohan has to go through rehab again?<\/p>\n Yeah, there are some huge plusses to this end-of-the-world thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay. I promised updates. I’m behind on some of them. So no revolutionizing today. No deep probes into the psyche. No snicker-snark over political follies. Just catching up. Yogurt update: Two weeks ago I posted about making the first batch of yogurt in my new Yolife Yogurt Maker. Well, I’ve made five batches since then and I’m tellin’ ya, this is something even I can do. (And when you’re talking things of the kitchen, that’s always a good a completely freaking amazing sign.) Not only is it easy. It’s so easy that I usually whip up a batch before I’ve…<\/p>\na good<\/del> a completely freaking amazing sign.) Not only is it easy. It’s so<\/i> easy that I usually whip up a batch before I’ve had my morning tea. And believe me, I don’t do anything even mildly challenging before tea.<\/p>\n![\"Poorly](\"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/GreekYogurtMaking_1011.jpg\" "\\"GreekYogurtMaking_1011\\"")
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