Friday, June 16, 2006

What a site!


Thank you Nancy for sharing the "Hillbilly Housewife" site with me!

The owner and creator of the site is "Miss Maggie." I whipped up her Magic Milkshake recipe tonight and I have to say it is an excellent recipe. No milk, no ice cream, the recipe makes quite a lot at one time, and I used Splenda, a cup for cup sugar substitute instead of real sugar. Not only did the kids love it but after they had their share I put in about a 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee granules in a glass for me, and I swear I was drinking a Tim Horton's Iced Mocha! Very delicious, low calorie, and other than the corn oil (I used canola) it was pretty healthy, well more healthy than a real mocha from a fast food joint. Miss Maggie gives some other variations you could use such as banana, peanut butter, or mint and she compares her milkshakes to Wendy's Frosties, (although I've never tried one so I wouldn't know).
Right now I am trying out her Homemade yogurt recipe. I made a different one off the net tonight too and it called for starter (plain yogurt), milk (I use skim) and powdered milk but Miss Maggie's recipe is starter, water and powdered milk, no fluid milk at all. It's going in my large dehydrator in about ten minutes so we shall see in the morning which one is better. I'm hoping it's Miss Maggie's because, although it's rare, I don't always have milk on hand and it's a long drive to the store.
Anyway this post has nothing to do with looming...but if you can save a few bucks by being frugal you can buy more wool, looms, etc :) LOL

UPDATE: Well both yogurts were okay, except Miss Maggie's wasn't as thick or as creamy as I like it. Yet the other one calls for just too much milk sooooo; I am making it using both recipes combined and it's turning out great. My ingredients and measurements are: 2 1/2 cups milk, 1 cup water, about 2 cups instant milk powder, 4 tablespoons of plain yogurt with live cultures for starter.
The recipe is as follows:
Pour skim milk into a 4 cup measuring cup and add enough water to bring it to 3 1/2 cups. Add the milk powder. Stir well. Microwave for 8-10 minutes until boiling. Let cool, do not put in your thermometer until it's slightly cooled as it will boil over. When the temp is around 115-118 degrees add the plain yogurt, stir well.
I poured it very carefully over a dollop of blackberry jam in a half pint jar and it set beautifully, (I wasn't sure if it was going to set) so I only tried the one small jar and put the rest into a quart jar. Place into dehydrator, leave undisturbed, keep the temperature between 110-115 degrees and in roughly 6-8 hours you should have a very thick and creamy yogurt. I had some this afternoon with the carrot-cake jam I canned last year and it was delicious!
Check out "Hillbilly Housewife" or "Fias Co Farm/Dairy" for other ways to incubate your yogurt if you don't have a dehydrator or yogurt maker.

2 comments:

sarainitaly said...

I tried hillbilly housewife, and i love it! I made teh fudsicles, and croutons so far. can't wait to try the milkshakes and kettle corn. thanks for the tip! Especailly since I live in Italy, I can't get many of the things she has on her site - like coolwhip!!!!

Anonymous said...

My kids love the "Magic Milkshakes" too. During the school year we make Friday nights our pizza and "Magic Milkshake" nights. :o)