Gourmet Hot Chocolate Mix

Those of you who have already had your tastebuds tickled with these delightful hot chocolate blends and gourmet snacks from Fates Creation will agree that they are simply the best! If you are looking for a unique Christmas gift for someone special, or a tasty hostess gift, or an 'out of the ordinary' beverage for your special gathering head on over to their brand new website. It is still under construction but you can email them for information and pictures. Be sure to have some on hand for the holidays!
http://www.fatescreation.ca/

Making Yogurt

We have been enjoying the taste and quality of homemade yogurt for a while now but I must confess I was getting a bit weary of the process.

Yogurt can be made successfully with canning jars and a heating pad. However, our heating pad shuts off automatically so I had to remember to constantly check on it. Several times I got busy outside and when I came indoors found it was off. The yogurt was always good but I was getting stressed out over having to keep such a close watch on it. So, after 25+ years I have taken the plunge and bought another yogurt maker.

What freedom! What liberation! I am no longer a slave to automatic shutoff. This little gadget simply plugs in and keeps on going until I choose to turn it off (what power!) whether it be 3 hours, or 6, or even 10. The yogurt is still tasty, and the 7 little jars make a total of 42 ounces. I only wish the jars were bigger. They hold 6 ounces each but you'd never think so as they look like over sized baby food jars. I kind of liked using 2 - 16 ounce canning jars, it made me feel like I had more product (I know, it's just psychological), but also two big jars was a lot less fiddly than 7 little.

Ah well, I guess there are trade-offs in having convenience and I think I can live with this one.

Happy August and bon appetite,

Joy

Years ago my sister and I each bought yogurt makers and made our own yogurt with raw milk. It was good but since my yogurt maker died I've been buying it ready made. I like the variety of flavours available but am finding them all too sweet. That led me to buying plain, unsweetened from the health food store at a cost of about $4.00 a litre.

After a little research I found out that it can be made without a yogurt maker if you have a heating pad. I had heard before that you could make it in a thermos or in the oven but my oven doesn't go low enough (lowest setting is 150 degrees) and I don't have a big, wide mouth thermos.

The heating pad worked great! I put the pint sized jars onto the heated pad, folded the pad over the top and covered the whole thing up with a heavy towel. In 4 hours it was ready. It may have been ready even sooner but I forgot about it so it might only take 3 this way.

It turned out very nice, thick and tasty, not too tart and definitely not too sweet! And all it needs is a bit of jam or fruit for flavour and there you have it. Very inexpensive with a litre of milk costing around $1.00!

To learn more about yogurt making at home check out these links:

http://chetday.com/howtomakeyogurt.htm

http://rubyglen.com/kitchen/yogurt.htm

Blessings, Joy

Dark and Rich Hot Chocolate

We are hooked on dark chocolate.

But we have found a supply of high quality bars which are made near our own home town. Though they are somewhat expensive, we find we don't have to devour the whole thing in order to satisfy our craving. One piece will do it. So one bar actually lasts the two of us for three days which, in reality, makes it cheaper than corner store candy bars.

However, since we've become accustomed to dark chocolate my husband has found his favourite hot drink, a comforting cup of Nestle's cocoa, no longer tastes so good. The supermarkets and health food stores do carry different brands of a richer dark chocolate mix but they seem quite expensive so my husband came up with his own solution. He simply adds some good old fashioned cocoa powder to the usual amount of Nestle's Quick and wow - what a difference!

Here's what we do to make one cup;

Place 2 teaspoons of powdered Nestle's Quick (or other brand) into a cup.

Add 1 teaspoon unsweetened dark cocoa powder (I buy the Dutch process dark chocolate from our health store as I find Fry's just isn't dark enough)

Mix well, adding just enough cream to make a thick paste.

Stir until smooth and fill cup with boiling water.

Stir well and add cream.

Delicious!

Extra special topped off with a dollop of whipped cream and some shaved chocolate, and you will feel like you've sipped on something decadent from a ritzy coffee house!

Bagel Baking Day

It never dawned on me that I could make our own Bagels. But a dear little dutch lady down the road told me she always made her own when her kids were growing up and that it is simple to do. I don't like the smell of the preservatives in the bought ones, it always puts me off, but the man in our house likes something more substantial than sliced bread for his lunches, and he does enjoy bagels, so I tried it. They really are easy to do and they taste much better!

Bagels have risen and are ready to be boiled.

It just takes a couple of minutes - 1 or 2 on each side.

Once boiled they are brushed with an egg wash and topped with sesame seeds or whatever happenns to be the fancy of the day. Then into the oven they go.

All done and ready to eat!

Bagels

4 1/2 tsp. yeast

2 cups warm water

2 Tbsp. brown sugar (or honey)

5 -5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

seeds, etc. for topping

Water for boiling

Prepare dough the usual way depending on what type of yeast you are using. After it is kneaded put into oiled bowl, turn to grease top, cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled.

Punch down, divide into 12 pieces and make each piece into a ball. Poke a finger through the centre of each ball and give it a spin to make the hole about 1 to 1 1/2 inches across. Place bagels onto greased baking sheet and let rise about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted (1 tsp.) water to a boil. Reduce the heat a bit and carefully lift bagels from cookie sheet with a pancake flipper and place into boiling water. You can do about 3 or 4 at a time depending on the size of your pot. Boil about half a minute on each side, then lift bagels out of the water with slotted spoon and place on a well greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (optional). Brush each bagel with egg wash and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, oats, onion or garlic, or whatever else suits you.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from sheet and cool on rack.

Variation:

for cinnamon raisin bagels - replace 1 cup ww flour with 1 cup white, increase sugar to 1/4 cup and stir in 2 or 3 tsp. cinnamon and 1 cup raisins. Top with oats.

Sunflower seeds are nice in whole wheat bagels.

I find homemade bagels spoil quite quickly so I freeze what we won't use in a couple of days.