Kat of All Trades

Though I took that cheesemaking class a little over a week ago, somehow my first dairy experiment ended up being yogurt. I came across a post on whip up last week about making yogurt at home, and it seemed simple enough – and only required two ingredients. I’m all for two ingredient cooking projects!

The recipe from JCasa *handmade is simple to follow, and it makes a tangy and delicious Greek-style yogurt. It’s a family recipe passed down through several generations, which is pretty awesome. I was a little disappointed by the recipe, as she says it will make about eight cups and I got a measly three, making it much less cost-effective. It still diverts garbage from the landfill, though, as New York doesn’t recycle yogurt cups, and I get my milk in glass bottles that I return to my dairy. The only garbage from the process was the yogurt-coated cheesecloth that I used to strain the whey (which I stupidly didn’t save – next time I will not be wasting that!)

Her recipe called for a half-gallon of 2% milk and a 6-8 ounce container of plain yogurt. I buy all of my milk from Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, and when I was picking some up at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I noticed they also had containers of their dairy’s Greek-style yogurt. Perfect!

I followed JCasa *handmade’s directions for the most part, making a few changes based on some of the entry’s comments. I poured my half-gallon of milk into a tempered pot, and heated it until it was simmering and formed a skin, at which point I turned off the heat and moved the pot to a different burner. While the milk was cooling, I preheated the oven to its lowest temperature (150 degrees Fahrenheit).

When I was able to hold my finger in the heated milk for ten seconds without completely scalding my skin, I poured the heated milk into a Pyrex bowl, mixed in the yogurt, and put a lid on the bowl. I turned off the oven, turned on the oven light, and, after wrapping the bowl in dish towels, placed in on the center rack in the oven.

After I returned from an evening of hanging out at Joy’s shop, eating Tex-Mex, and seeing Iron Man 2, the yogurt was, well, yogurt! I scooped it into a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth, and so began the draining.

A lot of whey came out of that yogurt, so I had to change the bowl a few times. (I will save the whey next time. I will save the whey next time.) By morning, the yogurt was thick and ready to eat. As I mentioned above, I ended up with about three cups of yogurt, one of which I then put in a separate smaller mason jar to save as starter for the next batch.

Even with the smaller amount, it is nice to know that I’m putting less waste into landfills by making this: a little bit of unbleached cotton cheesecloth (which perhaps I could wash and reuse?) vs. 3-4 yogurt containers. Also, I’m sure there’s less sugar in this than in store-bought brands, which is another bonus. It didn’t take very much hands-on time, and it was a somewhat magical and satisfying process.

Plus, everything looks cooler in mason jars.

It was a slow weekend for cooking and crafting. There was foodie book club at the brooklyn kitchen, farmer’s market shopping, dinners out with friends, and a roller derby bout (We – the Bronx Gridlock – won!). All those things combined with a cheesemaking class at the brooklyn kitchen – taught by Anne Saxelby and Elizabeth MacAlister – left me with little time to prepare any food.

Cheesemaking class was super interesting, though I think it left me with more questions than answers. It wasn’t a hands-on class, which was kind of a bummer. It also focused on cheeses that really need to be cave-aged, which of course presents a bit of a problem when you live in a city apartment. (You can rig up a refrigerator to serve as a cave; however, I think I’ll stick to some fresher cheeses like mozzarella and ricotta to start.) Nevertheless, Anne and Elizabeth are both incredibly knowledgeable, and after seeing them go through some of the stages of making cheese, I feel a little more prepared to try making it on my own. Anne recommended a few books and websites, and I fully intend to give things a go once I get some of the necessary supplies!

Bringing it back to the title of the post, the other thing Ian and I have been up to is putting the finishing touches on our apartment. We’ve had the boxes unpacked and the furniture set up for ages now, and we’ve finally gotten motivated to hang pictures and arrange the details. My mom’s impending visit might have something to do with that. Maybe. At any rate, I wanted to give you a peek at some of my favorite spots in the apartment.

The above photo is of our guest room, which is also known as Franklin’s clubhouse. If we’re hanging out around the apartment and can’t find our cat, he’s almost guaranteed to be lounging on that bed. My great-grandmother crocheted that blanket, and I love it and its insane colors.

Those walls are both in our insanely long living room. (No really, it’s about 30 feet long by 11 feet wide.) The one on the left is at the “dining room” end, which is closest to the front door and the kitchen. The pizza peel, on the left, was a relatively recent purchase from Ironwood Gourmet. I knew I wanted to be able to hang it on the wall, as our kitchen doesn’t have an immense amount of storage space, so I sought out one that I thought was particularly pretty. The trivets on the right were my grandparents, and they fit well with the peel, I think. In the background of that photo, you can see the hanging racks that Ian installed for our utensils. We have ONE drawer in our kitchen, so hanging storage was crucial!

Ian and I had been admiring the Brooklyn poster for a long time (I fell in love with the Seattle one first, and he really wanted the Chicago one, and Brooklyn made sense for both of us), and he recently purchased it for our living room. I’m so psyched about how that screen print looks on our Kermit-the-Frog wall.

One of our favorite places is the kitchen. Ian really likes to cook, and I enjoy both cooking and baking – especially baking! – and we both like fun kitchen gadgets. I bought that kitchen timer back in 2004, when I was picking up items that would work with my vintage-looking kitchen in Seattle. On the right are silicone pot grabbers that were gifts. And last but definitely not least, we picked up the “at home on your range” salt and pepper shakers at a vintage store in Arkansas after visiting my parents this past Christmas. I’m obsessed with that particular store, as they have amazing finds for really reasonable prices. I can’t wait to go back this year.

Finally, this is my indoor garden, most of which will be transplanted in a few weeks! This corner of our apartment is sandwiched between a north-facing and a northeast-facing window, which has been providing amazing light for my little plants! The half-and-half container at the front holds lavender sprouts, the orange container behind that is rosemary, and the three cans are different varieties of tomatoes. The little watering can is currently hosting cucumber seeds which will hopefully sprout soon, and I’ll be putting mint in there after that. The plant in the back is an ivy that Ian got me last August, and I’m pretty sure it’s doubled in size since we moved into the new place.

So that is a quick little tour of some of the things about our apartment that I love. Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday!