Happy & Glorious: 2018 Edition

Happy New Year!

I knew it had been a while since I’d posted something here but didn’t realise it had been a whole year!  And what a year it has been!

The only way is up!

I feel like a butterfly.

That butterfly may be experiencing nasty headaches but I still feel like a butterfly; emerging all shiny and new.

Adventures in raw milk: THICK yoghurt!

I’ve been researching ways to make my home made yoghurt thick & creamy like store bought yoghurt. There were a few options that came up in my internet research, which were: –

• Ferment/prove it in a natural clay pot; the pores in the pot will wick away the moisture. 
• Strain through a muslin cloth to separate the liquid leaving the thick creamy yoghurtyness behind. 
• Simmer the milk for longer at just below boiling point (up to an hour) which denatures more of the proteins and in some chemically magical way makes a thick and creamy yoghurt. 

I went with the third (and cheapest) option and simmered the milk for about 25 minutes before adding my starter (Yeo Valley as I’d run down my home made supplies) and settling it in for the night in the airing cupboard. 

This morning….lovely thick, creamy, tasty yoghurt!   

Adventures in Raw Milk: Yoghurt

Yesterday saw my second foray into the world of yoghurt making.  I had intended to post about last week’s batch but, as happens to most of us, life got in the way and that job didn’t get to the top of the list.  So, forgive me if this post is brief but I wanted to get it ‘out there’ before I head out for a day to the Chatwsorth International Horse Trials.

Adventures in raw milk day 3: Butter!

After allowing my raw milk to settle in the fridge, I was presented with a delightfully thick layer of cream. I decanted a large portion of this into a separate jar and have still been left with delightfully creamy milk for my morning latte and afternoon cup of tea.

You dont see this with homogenised milk.

 

This evening, after having a dash of cream over a portion of decadent Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding I poured the remainder into a screw top jar and sat down to watch TV and shake my cares away to make some butter.

 

Before

 

After

 

All that was then left to do was to pour off the buttermilk and ‘wash’ the butter by rinsing it in cold water until it runs clear (some recipes call for ice water but my tap water is cold enough for the job!). I added enough water to cover the butter, agitated the jar for a bit, drained the water…rinse & repeat as needed.

 

Freshly ‘churned’ butter & buttermilk

 

Then I added a little salt to a small bowl, added the butter and mixed with a spoon. The only

Problem now is that I might need to buy some lovely bread from the Farm Shop to go with the butter.

 

Butter: freshly made by my fair hand!

 

Adventures in raw milk: day 1

Today I finally made my way up to the local dairy to collect some fresh-from-the-cow milk (also known as ‘raw’ milk). It has not been pasteurised, homogenised or otherwise messed with, other than being pumped through a handful of meters of piping from udder to tank.

Still here!

Forgive me bloggers for I have sinned; it has been 11-weeks since my last confession….

But, oh! what an 11-weeks it has been!

My last post on here was 21st March; in which I was suffering a mild setback from “doing a lot”.  To say that my last bout of “doing a lot” will knock my previous record out the water will be an understatement…

Turning the frowns upside down

I have mentioned before that a HUGE tool in the kit of dealing with CFS is positivity.  On days like today it is difficult to remain positive in the face of disappointments.  This is how I try to turn my disappointments into positive reinforcements

Fast is the new…. Fast!

Forgive me friends it has been 66 days since my last blog.

Going back to my last blog, on 7th Jan, I was 7-days into the Fast Diet (or 5:2 Diet) and was feeling superb.  Fast forward to today and I am only just finding time to sit down and update you all on my progress.

Fast is the new Slow

This year, in my ongoing efforts to loose the weight I gained during my battles with Glandular Fever in the 90’s, Post Viral Fatigue in the naughties and eventually Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the naughties/”210’s” I have started following the “Fast Diet”, alternatively known as the “5:2” diet.