Some of my Favorite Things, and making Homemade Yogurt and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Some of my Favorite Things

This morning as I was doing some housework I was thinking how I do actually have some favorite things involved in housework. I never thought I would say this, but laundry has become one of my favorites! I know, strange! It didn’t use to be, I use to dread it! One day as I was reading someone’s post on the computer they mentioned that they always start a load of laundry first thing in the morning when they came downstairs. I decided to try it and found that if I did one or two loads every morning I could keep it all under control. After a while I had an “Aah Haa Moment” and I realized that if I didn’t have time to fold the laundry it was better to wait until the next day! So since then I’ve been able to conquer the laundry monster at our house! I really enjoy the nice weather when I can put my wash out on the line. I’d dry everything on the line, but my dear sweet hubby has an aversion to crunchy towels and jeans. I love line dried sheets on my bed, they smell so fresh!

This is one of my favorite times of the year because all the lilacs are in bloom! They smell so sweet! I love to bring a bouquet into each room, even the bathrooms get a little bit of that wonderful smell.

One of my favorite things to eat is yogurt. I was getting tired of stocking up on it at the store so I did a little research and came up with an easy recipe that taste yummy and saves my food budget. So a couple of times a week I make a couple quarts of the yummy stuff. I always add Splenda before I serve it along with some fruit mixed in and sometimes some cinnamon. I’ve also added sugar free jam.

Homemade Yogurt

1 1/3 cup of instant milk powder

½ can evaporated milk, not sweetened condensed

1 ½ teaspoons Knox gelatin

2 heaping Tablespoons Yogurt with live cultures, I use Mountain High, Dannon

¼ cup cold water

Warm water

Pour the milk powder in a blender and add the ½ can evaporated milk. Pour the cold water into a small dish and carefully sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let the gelatin sit for 5 minutes. Put the gelatin in the microwave for 10 seconds, then stir it and do another 10 seconds. You want to dissolve the gelatin completely, but you don’t want it to boil. If it does boil, start it over with fresh gelatin. When it’s dissolved pour it in the blender and add the yogurt and puree for 1 minute. Pour it into a clean quart jar and put some hot water into the blender and kind of rinse out the mixture and pour it into the quart jar until the jar is full. Stir it up really well, and put the lid on the jar. Wrap the jar up in a tea towel and fasten with a rubber band. Turn the oven on warm. Then when the oven is warm, turn it off, put the jar in the oven and turn the oven light on and shut the door. Leave it in the oven for 8 hours. I like to make it do before I go to bed. I like to make a double batch so I don't have a partial can of evaporated milk in my fridge. I just do it twice because I don't like to fill my blender to full.

This makes the best yogurt. It is the color of cream and after it’s refrigerated it gets a little thicker.

One of my kids favorite breakfast is muffins. My daughter especially loves this recipe, and she always tries to pick the ones with the most chocolate chips! She can’t eat chocolate without leaving some on her face, so I always have to do a face check before she leaves for school when she’s had these muffins!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 cups flour

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

1 egg

¼ cup oil

½ to ¾ cup chocolate chips

Measure the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk to distribute the ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Add the chocolate chips. Use a ¼ cup ice cream scoop and scoop into greased muffin pans. Bake at 400 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes.