Homemade Yogurt

So earlier this week the boy and I decided it would be fun to make yogurt. A while back I purchased a yogurt maker and it's been sitting here mocking me. Every time I walk into my office and see it on the shelf it yells at me and laughs. Why, you ask? I love gadgets. I have sooo many gadgets in this little sixteen hundred square foot house. Gadgets for the kitchen and my crafting - there really isn't enough room for them. What I need is a couple hundred extra square feet and a few hundred thousand dollars to make the types of rooms I need in order to actually use all of my gadgets properly. Oh and I need the time to play with them.

Back to the yogurt maker. I was at Tuesday Morning looking for a birthday gift for my MIL and saw the Waring Pro Yogurt Maker sitting on their shelves. I have been wanting a yogurt maker for quite some time and have just not made the purchase. So naturally since I was already in a buying mood I purchased 2. After all my MIL shouldn't be the only one who benefits from this gift.

The gift was wrapped and given and she even used it a while back. & still my yogurt maker mocked me. I didn't ignore it completely I did open the box and check everything out. Read the manual and recipe book and have to say I wasn't too impressed with the recipes. They just didn't make sense to me about having all those ingredients for yogurt. So I decided I needed to research further.

More mocking from the yogurt maker in the other room. This time its voice is getting louder. Oy. I decided it's time for some internet research. Recipe searching begins. I even check out youtube to see if anyone has posted about this subject and YES they have. To be honest I wasn't interested in regular yogurt, I was more interested in Greek Yogurt which is a lot thicker than standard yogurt. We tend to like that more in this house. All of my searches proved successful. I found a few recipes that weren’t too involved and looked decent enough. Watched a couple videos on how others made their yogurt. One guy did it all on his stove and was very careful. You see successful yogurt making as mostly about temperature. I don't have the patience it takes in order to watch a stove for several hours in hoping my milk doesn't scald and ruin the batch. Which solidifies the thought that purchasing this particular gadget was a smart purchase for me. So I decided it's time to get started.

Out comes my Waring Pro Yogurt Maker. Everything is cleaned and dried. Ingredients come out. The recipe I chose was a very straight forward recipe. Milk and Yogurt. You apparently need a yogurt starter in order to make yogurt. Kinda like good sourdough bread, it always needs a starter. Pan hits the stove and milk goes on to heat but no higher than 185 degrees. Then a quick cool to 110 degrees. In a separate bowl I mixed a small portion of the store-bought plain yogurt with some milk and add that to my cooled mixture. Mix together and pour into my little yogurt jars that came with my yogurt maker.

Now we reach the hard part. These steps are really easy since like I said I am a gadget person and I got to use my digital candy thermometer to warn me of liquid temperatures and such. My son Hayden was with me every step of the way. Aside from the stove cooking this is a really good kitchen project for you and your 5 year old. He enjoyed pouring in the milk and mixing the starter base. As he helped me load up the jars into the maker I explained to him that now comes the hardest part....the waiting. If you do this on the stove you can make yogurt in about 4 hours but if you're like me and don't have to patience to do that nor the patience to entertain a 5 year old while babysitting a stove then you will appreciate this next step. We cover the machine and set the timer for 10 hours.

Poor Hayden, he really did wonderfully in this process. Every now and then he would drag out his step stool to see just how far the process was going. To be honest it took a few hours for me to even notice anything. Most of the changes are visible at the tail end of the process. He would return to see the numbers change on the digital reader. Another feature made specifically for a 5 year old. The digital reader is not like what is on our ovens or microwaves when using a timer with hours and minutes. This digital reader just indicated how many whole hours remain and in the last hour it counts the whole minutes. Every now and then I would hear a little voice in the kitchen declare "4 hours more."

Finally 10 hours arrive and the buzzer buzzes. At this point we could cover and refrigerate the jars and call it done. We however prefer Greek Yogurt so there is more work to do. Out comes the step stool yet again and the boy helps empty the jars into a kitchen towel lined strainer that is placed in a bowl. We tie up the towel and place the whole in the refrigerator for the morning. Now off to bed.

In the morning the boy is up before I am and I waken to the familiar scene of a mom being gently awakened by her son without him speaking a word. I am talking about the silent stare at mommy until she wakes up - but one must do this at about a foot from her face so she can feel the breathing....you been woke up that way? Nothing like starting the heart with a good 'ol fashioned scare before coffee hits the veins. I'm up now.

He is so excited now because he gets to eat his long awaited yogurt. We open the refrigerator and everything is done the way it should be done. The whey drips from the yogurt collecting in the bowl beneith and we now have a nice thick yogurt that is now called Greek Yogurt. I see it is a little too thick, really it's the consistency of cream cheese so I add some of the whey back in, mix, stir, and load of the kids bowls.

Now I must let you know that the yogurt is as plain as plain can be. It's up to us to add our ingredients to suit our tastes. The first day we opted for just plain 'ol honey. and I enjoyed it but the kids thought....eh. This morning I mixed it up kid style. Got granola crunchies out of the pantry, added a sprinkle of brown sugar, a drop of vanilla and for my son a spoonful of berry jam his grandma made for him. Let the kids mix and eat and I have to say if they could have licked their bowls they would have.

Yogurt making takes time but we really enjoyed the exercise and the kids want to make some more. All I have to do now is save a little bit of the plain yogurt from this batch for our next batch and keep it going. Considering how much yogurt this family eats on the norm I can just imagine how much money we will be saving in the long run. This was a most excellent purchase for our family. Granted if you had more patience than I then you could do this all on your stove with your canning equipment but I am glad I did it this way just because of the anticipation factor for my son. Now if you have a yogurt recipe you would like to share with me I’d be happy to try it. Please post away!

Until Next Time, SoCal Marisa

What is MOPS to me?

Revised 01/26/11 for Tea & Testimony @ MOPS


Good Morning!

I have so many thoughts and feelings I just cannot wait to share with you. My mind is all a jumble so let’s see where we go today. I think this week’s topic will be MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers.) Once upon a time in a land very far away from here….we will call this mythical land Alta Loma…I lived with my husband and newly born daughter. At that time I was a corporate working woman who commuted 110 miles a day. I loved my job but wanted to be home with my daughter and definitely wanted to reduce my 60+ hour work week. So I boldly walked into the VP’s office and told her I when we worked on the next round of layoffs to put me on top of the list. 6 long months I waited and while driving into the office a little birdie leaked the information to me that layoffs had begun. I had never been so excited to drive that long 91 commute before. A few hours later with what remained of my office in my backseat I was free!

Now what? We sold the house for equity and moved to a “beachside community.” Ventura. I did the mommy thing and took Elena to a music class here, and tumbling there. Unfortunately for me I just couldn’t connect. I hated it where we were and our business venture (which is a totally different subject all together) was failing. So we made the decision to return home.

We returned home but we were now flat broke and had to start all over again. This is a really hard pill to swallow when faced with the knowledge that everything and I mean everything with exception to our marriage and daughter, everything we worked for was gone like vapor. Oh boy did the depression set in. No money. Facing Bankruptcy. Living in this little house in a bad neighborhood. Working all sorts of jobs just to have food on the table. Facing reality. It was bleak. Then after 35 years of marriage my parents divorced. It got very ugly and ultimately decisions were made. My sad little joke is Daddy got me in the divorce and mom got my sister. I made the unconventional decision to cut off mom and her side of the family. That was almost 7 years ago. Now days I communicate with my sister but our relationship could be a lot better.

At the time all this was happening my in-laws kicked out one of their tenants and we moved into one of their properties. It was only supposed to be a “temporary thing.” They were helping us and we were cleaning up the house making it livable - but to me that was pretty low. We couldn’t even support ourselves at that point. As I was painting the house making it ready for us to move in, my mind started to wonder and count days. Yup, you guessed it; I was pregnant with our second, Hayden. 3 major things happening in our family was very hard to cope with. Rock bottom. Suffocating depression. Wondering if we would make it as a couple. That’s when we threw up our hands and stopped trying to do things our way & gave it all to God.

Then good things started happening to us. Brian got a job with the City. We were able to put our daughter in preschool. One of the other mothers must have seen what a mess I was and said to herself, this woman needs MOPS. She started in on me about joining MOPS. I’ll be honest I had absolutely no interest in the group. It sounded weird to me. I mean, what’s a MOPS? Do they get together and clean? If so, then I am definitely out! Plus even though we had given everything to God we hadn’t found a church home yet. So we were kinda drifting. I didn’t join that year; but my friend was relentless. Next year those MOPS ladies were out front of the school and my friend dragged me over to their information table. Together my friend and the lady there convinced me to at least visit a meeting. Reluctantly I agreed. Fully expecting to be asked to clean something.

The next week at our first meeting my son went to this place called MOPPETS and they watched him while I was in a totally different room away from him and was put at this table with quite a few other women who I only knew one of (my friend of course.) These women were AMAZING. They talked and shared and laughed and welcomed me. & we were doing a craft which is something I love but hadn’t done in a long time. I ate a warm breakfast and actually got to sit down while eating. I had the best time there. Our next meeting was two weeks later and there was no stopping me from going. I was hooked. That was 5 years ago. This year I started my 5th and last year at MOPS and it has been an amazing journey for me. I was at my lowest and these women made me whole again. MOPS is what you make of it. If you put yourself out there the women will welcome you. If you just go for the speakers and don’t commit you won’t build relationships but you’ll get to listen to speakers on childcare and marriage. But let me just say, you get back what you give.

My first two years I was just a mom. I didn’t go to many outings in the first year. But, I went to Bunco. My second year I started helping out and getting involved. My third year I stepped into a leadership role, tapped into my Marketing background and did the Publicity for my first group. During that year I was approached to help “birth” a new group at my home church IHC. I worked behind the scenes and when our church saw the beauty of this ministry we started preparing for our first year, which would be my fourth year. I continued my leadership role into my fourth year but God had a different path in mind for me. One morning my son had a Grand Mal Seizure and then several Petit Mal Seizures. Shortly after that I made the decision to step down from my position. It was one of the most difficult decisions I have made. I felt like I was letting my girls down. It was the best for me and my family at the time but I still felt the loss.

Now when I first joined MOPS I was already a mess and just attending. Learning that I wasn’t the only one who struggled with motherhood was enough. I grew and healed quickly and was able to support other MOPS moms when they needed it. This time though, facing the unknown and dealing with doctors over my son was a very frightening experience. I can say right now my MOPS groups saved me a second time. Despite me stepping down from my position. Just their love and support was enough but they brought meals. They embraced me. They were there for me. My MOPS friends were there for me a third time when our home was burglarized in June of last year. 2010 was my needy year. Time and again they supported me; later with the death of my Granpa Carlos on my Dad’s side in October, and my Grandma Chala on my Mom’s side, the day before Thanksgiving. Last year was a very bad year for the Martin’s. Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God…” this verse gave me peace and strength to face each day. When times are tough I am reminded to stop and rely on God. To be still.

These women, my friends, we all nurture each other. We support one another. When one of us is having a difficult week we encourage and support. When the other is having an awesome week we rejoice with her. We all come from different walks of life. We are all from different age groups. But we all have a few things in common; we are mothers, we need God, friends, guidance, and a little help to make it through. James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” Each genuine friendship is a gift from God.

As I said earlier; at the end of this year I will have been in MOPS 5 years. I graduate and that makes me sad. It has been an amazing journey and I don't know if I am ready for it to end. I look at my group of friends today. I still talk to and spend time with those women at my first table. Many of us play Bunco together. My oldest is now in the 4th grade and I see many of my friends on campus, in our after school programs, at coffee, or at breakfast. I am very blessed by the gift of love I have received from all my friends. I cannot imagine what my life would be like right now if I ignored my one friend, if I didn’t join, and if I didn’t put myself out there. I am happy now. I am blessed.  If you are a mother of young children from birth through kindergarten then you need MOPS too. I don’t care which group you join, just find one and dive in!

Until Next Time, SoCal Marisa

What a Great Morning!

This morning before small group I picked up more of my volunteer forms. I'm the OC Harvest Festival Volunteer Chair this year and am in the middle of gathering volunteers for this years Harvest Festival. I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how many people have submitted volunteer forms. I was expecting for this year to be different what with the economy and some parents having to go back to work. All in all parents love their kids and want to help further their education. So far the Festival is looking pretty good.

My Small Group (Bible Study) met for the first time since our summer break. What a wonderful morning. I cannot believe how much I missed those ladies. We had breakfast at 9am and I just got back home! What a bunch of hens we were with the gabbing. We have several new women to our group and which will bring a new perspective to liven things up.

This weekend our church, Inland Hills Church, begins our fall study. Once a year we do a church wide study and this years study is "One Another" It's a 7 week study and Pastor Dave will open with "Living Beyond Myself" for the first weeks topic. Taking a peek at the new magazine I have to say I cannot wait to begin this study. I still have a high from this morning! :-D

Anyway, that's my day so far. Nothing phenomenal but so far my day is going pretty good and I am in a most excellent mood. Guess I had better start getting ready to pick up the kids...

Until Next Time, SoCal Marisa

Let's Begin

So what makes me think I can start a Blog? Well to be honest I was encouraged by a friend of mine while we were playing Bunco the other night. You see I am an avid Facebooker. I post relentlessly. I post about different things, random thoughts, places I've been or am going to. Recently I posted about our home being burglarized and everything we went through in order to attain normalcy. More on that later.

I'm told by friends they enjoy reading my posts and often log on just to see what I have to say. What's going on with my kids? What am I eating? Where am I going? What am I doing? Lately they have been treated to the home improvement projects at the house. Sure, I do get the jokes especially from those friends who say I post too much. But they are still looking and reading. So the jokes on them.

So here goes. I think I have been encouraged just enough to attempt this venture (believe me it doesn't take much to get me moving). I have several ideas on where I want to go with this Blog and I hope it is just as fun for you as it was for me to write. Over the next few posts I will tell you about me, my family and what's going on in our lives. I will more than likely go into detail about our burglary and how that's begun several home improvement projects. Sounds mundane? well maybe. But we'll see. Who knows hopefully by then I will have taken a picture of myself I am satisfied with enough to upload. Until then enjoy the picture of "Fancy Girl" the hermaphrodite Beagle.