A Quick Recipe Post

It’s rhubarb season.  I tried to make a dent in rhubarb lane across the road from us, but even after picking all of this, you can’t even tell I was there.  I only have 3 jars of rhubarb jelly left.  We’re on our last jar of strawberry jam (which causes me to breathe fast when I think of it.)  Strawberry is my favorite.  We still have 2 jars of strawberry-rhubarb jam, and 1 jar of blueberry-rhubarb jam.  If you saw how much we normally stock, you’d recognize this as a huge shortage in our house.   I didn’t put away any jams or jellies last summer because I just didn’t feel up to it when I was pregnant with Solveig.  This year I need to catch up.  Since the strawberries aren’t ready yet, I’m going to start with some rhubarb jelly.  I think I’ll prepare the juice tomorrow and turn the rhubarb juice into jelly tomorrow.  If I have a free hand, I’ll post how to make it.  I’m not promising, though.

I posted on facebook awhile back about making yogurt.  It has always been a scary idea for me, but since Knut’s cousin and fellow farmer, Erik, has enjoyed delicious yogurt made by his wife, I’ve been hearing it.  I debated about using a crock pot method, but in the end, I decided to use the method recommended by Sara, Erik’s wife.  The website used as a reference can be found here.  I found it extremely helpful.

I’ve just done my second batch.  The first batch went pretty fast.  My family likes yogurt, and I didn’t buy it as often as they wanted it because it would go so fast and cost so much.  Since this is once again a fraction of the cost, I don’t feel bad about serving it all the time for snack.

I’ve been making 3 quart jars in one batch.  The first batch was a bit watery, but I think I’ve gotten the hang of making it a bit thicker.  I stirred much slower, and let it incubate longer.  We tried eating it with fresh fruit, but found we all like it with sugar added as well.  Actually, honey is great in place of sugar, too.  The quick and easy (my favorite) way to eat it is with some jam.  Sugar + fruit = yum!

I made the second batch last night, and we’ve just finished the 1st quart from that batch today.  O, this was such a tasty snack this afternoon!  (A few of us had it for breakfast too!)   It really could have used some granola, though.  Anyone have any recipes or links to point me to?  I really don’t have the time… but when has that stopped me?