Freaky Friday

From SFO to swim lesson to Yosemite!

Neil got back from Australia on Thursday morning!!! He called the day before to see if Lana and I would be up to do some adventuring over the weekend before he goes back to work.  I though HE might need a little rest after a 13 hour flight but apparently NOT.  So we made plans to go to Yosemite the next day.  Thursday afternoons Lana has her swim lessons at Waterbabies so we invited Daddy to come along and be our photographer.  Aren't we cute in our swimsuits?? Lana's winking at the camera :)Neil thought it would be fun to go to a bed and breakfast in Yosemite.  We got a great deal at the Groveland Hotel since it is the off-season in Yosemite (The Groveland Hotel Restaurant serves AWESOME dinners too!).  Unfortunately for Neil we were put in the PINK Teddy Bear Room which Lana was pretty fired up about. Poor Neil, it was such a girly room!
We went into the park for some short snow shoe hikes.  The snow made the sounds of the rushing rivers reverberate through the valley, but otherwise it was quiet, except for the snowmen that were hiking along the paths with us!

Here we are in front Yosemite Falls!

And we made it all the way to the Vernal Fall Bridge!  In the snow!  We were glad we had snowshoes.  But there was a seventy five year old couple who walked all the way up in sneakers, and one of them leaning on a cane, so we didn't feel quite as cool. But it was still specatacular.  An Lana was great the whole way - googley eyed in wonder at the crashing sounds of cascades and beautiful contrasts of snow, trees and granite. 

Lana's adventures with Grandma and Grandpa

Lana and I spent 6 days with Grandma and Grandpa Ahlsten while Neil was still away on business.  It rained probably 5 of the 6 days.  But we had fun anyways!  Grandma had just got a new granite countertop and was excited to use her kitchen again. Lana got to spend some special time with each of them.  As you can see everyone had a lot of fun!

While the cat's away!

This week Neil left to go to India and Australia on business. So, Lana and I decided to leave too!  We didn't quite get as far as Neil but we may be having more fun! I have a friend from college and we decided to visit her and her two cute wonderful girls.  Lana had a BLAST.  She really enjoyed following around Ree Ree (the younger of the two girls) who is 9 months older than Lana. I think Ree Ree enjoyed it too, because she's always shadowing Princess (her older sister).  Now finally it became apparent to her that SHE was doing things that were interesting too! Interesting enough to warrant a shadow (Lana).   BTW, I changed their names because I'm not inclined to give out the names of other people's children on my blog.

Here the three of them are smiling prettily for the camera except Lana of course.  Lana is still eating the pinwheel she got as a treat at a playgroup. :)

Success!! MY Yogurt is BETTER than Brown Cow!!!

I never thought it would be possible. For ME to make yogurt better than the most amazing phenomenal most wonderful yogurt on the planet and yet... I did. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

OK. I know I'm a little dramatic but I REALLY love Brown Cow Chocolate Yogurt and I eat a hideous amount of the stuff.

So how does one make imitation Brown Cow chocolate yogurt. I'm going to follow the keep it simple approach.

1. Buy 1 quart of Chocolate Milk (I used Clover Organic Full Fat Milk) - you can do this with any kind of milk nonfat or low fat (if you do use non-fat or low fat put more dry milk in the mix during step 4).

2. Using a double boiler - or a pan inside another pan that is full of water, bring your milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (helps to have a little thermometer to check the temp). This kills all the 'bad' bacteria that can grow in the milk. Oh, be sure to use a clean clean pan for the milk and use clean clean utensil when stirring the milk (try to sterilize them first if possible).

3. Once you get your milk to 180 degrees F get it to cool to 110 degrees F. I used the same pan I had filled with water to 'make' a double boiler and filled it with cold water and ice. This can go fast if you use an ice bath so be ready for step 4.

4. Once you get your milk to 110 degrees and BEFORE it gets to 90 degrees F add your 'starter'. I used 5 oz of yogurt starter that I bought but you can also use a plain yogurt from the store that has 'active cultures' (check the label). You will need to put in 2 Tablespoons of this yogurt. Also add 1/4-1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk, this helps your yogurt to be get thicker and it increases its nutritional content. I used 1/4 cup since I used whole milk. Stir Well, and then immediately transfer your receptacle to it's incubation location. This provides the right conditions for the 'good bacteria' (your yogurt cultures) to spread throughout the milk to make yogurt.

Now all the previous steps can go fast and don't really require that much 'hands on' time but the key part is next!!!

5. Incubation is the KEY!!! Figure out how to keep your yogurt as close to 100 degrees as possible for seven hours. --I KNOW-- but it is possible. I found that our toaster oven has a 100 degree option so that's what I did and it worked perfectly. Other ideas include, figuring out if your crock pot can do that...a heating pad...a burner on low.

Then once you've got your 7 hour mark. put a syran wrap on the top of your container and store in fridge to stop the cultures from working on your milk further. It will get more sour the longer you let them operate.

After the yogurt gets cold you have some SERIOUSLY GOOD yogurt to eat.

Only problem is I ate most of it already :(