Five Friday: My Top Five Foods to Make From Scratch

The first two even the busiest person absolutely has time for. So simple, so not time consuming, so worth it.

1.    Balsamic Vinaigrette combine 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 T brown sugar, ¼ c balsamic vinegar, ¾ c olive oil. Shake well.  Does not need to be refrigerated.

2.    Vanilla Extract. The hardest part? Buying vanilla beans, but even that is not hard. Most supermarkets have them now but you might have to look in a speciality shop or online. But once you get them, all you have to do is use the tip of a knife to slice a line down the center of 2 beans, throw them in a jar and fill it with cheap vodka. Put a lid on it, put in the dark cabinet, wait 2 months. I like to have 2 jars going at once, so when you are done with the first one you have the second one ready to go. Also, when that first one is done, throw some more vodka in there. You can use those babies twice.

3.    Bread This book single handedly got me over my fear of making bread: 
http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369397401&sr=8-1&keywords=artisan+bread+in+five+minutes+a+day

 The authors assured me it would be easier than I thought it would be and that I wouldn’t have to knead. It’s true, I just use the Kitchen aid mixer. But before I had that I just used the dough hook attachment on my hand held mixer (you may have one and not know what it is, it’s a spiral attachment.)I look up bread recipes online all the time now. The one I use the most is:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/Detail.aspx but I usually use a little more whole wheat than they say to. 3 loaves at a time which will last us either a few days or a week depending on how much cinnamon toast my breakfast munchers want that week.

4.    Granola & Granola bars. We’ve tried a few and these are our favorites:

-->    https://www.facebook.com/notes/sister-serendip/granola-bars/630978813583427  and https://www.facebook.com/notes/sister-serendip/coconut-granola/629290580418917

 

5.    Yogurt! I bought my yogurt maker at the thrift shop and since that first one I have found two more that I bought for friends. The internet is filled with suggestions for making yogurt without a maker, though, such as with a crock pot or even in the oven. I experimented with the crock pot so I could report back to you but I didn’t follow the instructions perfectly and therefore had less than perfect results…sorry 'bout that. If I have success with one of the alternate ways I'll report back. But the actual making of the yogurt is simple, it's mainly bringing milk to the boiling point then cooling it and mixing it with a little bit of yogurt and then incubating. This website has some non-yogurt-maker ways to try if you're so inclined:

       http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/recipes-with-yogurt/more-than-six-ways-to-incubate-yogurt-without-a-yogurt-maker