Hullo, July! I'd like you to note how relatively cool June was and its manageable number of mosquitos. Its watermelons however weren't that great, so you could totally one up her on that account.

Anyhoo, some things I've been loving this summer:

- 1 -

Grilling Pizza: We love pizza. A year ago I started using this recipe for crust from The Kitchn and haven't looked back. It's remarkably easy. Sometimes I'll put in a little semolina flour if I want a more crackery crust. We put out toppings and build our own pizzas on parchment paper and then toss them on the grill.

My brother in law even cracked an egg on his last week, and it was just about the most beautiful sunnyside up I'd ever seen.

- 2 -

Homemade Ice Cream: We have my mom's Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker on loan, and Costco has been keeping us in some decent quality cream. I've LOVED being able to try out all different flavors especially since our summer has been Blue Bell-less. And by all different flavors, I mostly just mean different ratios of malt and salt.

- 3 -

Hang Drying Laundry: I've gotten back in the habit of hang drying laundry. (I LOVE hang drying laundry. I even have a post in my draft folder all about how much I love hang drying laundry, but every time I try to publish it, I get nervous that it sounds all "Rah rah simple life! I'm doing it better than you!" - and since I am #nonconfrontational #forevah, in the draft folder it stays.)

Our dryer has been taking a looooong time to dry clothes, so out on the line they go, and I'm reminded of how much I love the activity. Admittedly, Houston is kinda soggy and even the sunny day turns on you in a matter of minutes, so while hanging the clothes out on the line may feel like a breezy pioneer poem, many a load has been frantically retrieved to the tune of thunder and in an onslaught of Braxton Hicks as I waddle dash outside to save the dry laundry.

- 4 -

A Zoo Membership: At the beginning of the summer we got a zoo membership. This is apparently something you "just do" if you're a mom in the city. I have no idea how to urban parent. All the parents I knew growing up just sent their kids to the creek and told them to watch out for fire ants. Things like theme parks and zoos were HUGE annual efforts. While I balked at getting a zoo membership, I love it. We can have a day there or a morning there or just drop by when we're in the neighborhood. We can plan a morning playdate there and see half a gorilla and call it good. We can picnic and get the kids completely zonked at the splash pad and head home in time for naps. And nobody makes any comments about how close your kids are together...because it's already a zoo.

- 5 -

Lentil Salad: A friend of mine tuned me into this lentil salad recipe recently, and it's changed my relationship to the blah lentil. I typically make it with more balsamic vinegar than ACV, maybe not quite so much mustard, and whichever of the spices I happen to have. New Roots calls it the best lentil salad ever, and I can't really attest to that, because it's the only lentil salad I've ever had, but it's delish. I've tried all kinds of add-ins, and haven't gone wrong yet.

Linking up with Jenna!

Make Your Own Yogurt, You Yogurt Eater You

To make or to buy? This debate spans all kinds of industry, but is especially hot when it comes to yogurt. Is it really worth the hassle? Not surprisingly, I think it is. I tend to prefer my food life to be served up with a whole lot of unnecessary fuss in the name of "simplicity" however, and maybe you're like the polar opposite and that's fine. So here are some reasons to make yogurt at home.

- 1 -

It's Cheaper

Homemade yogurt is cheaper. Our homemade yogurt costs about $1.50/quart and our preferred storebought yogurt costs $4.00/quart. That means it's at least twice as expensive to buy it at the store. Your margins might be different, but this is true for us.

Maybe you're a frugalista like me, and you calculate how much you save by doing things yourself and then converting that into an hourly wage. I've been making yogurt for a long time, and it honestly only takes me about five minutes of "active" time. So if I make a half gallon of yogurt that saves me 5$ and it only takes me five extra minutes, it's kind of like earning 60$/hour.

But let's say making yogurt takes a lot more time than that for you, maybe you like to watch the pot boil and the temperature rise and you did nothing but stare at it for that entire half hour. Even in that scenario, I bet you'd still come out above minimum wage.

- 2 -

You Have Control Over the Milk Quality

I'm picky about my milk. I like it local and non-homogenized and grassfed and not ultra-temp pasteurized and preferrably organic but at least hormone/antibiotic free, blah blah blah. Yogurt that truly meets my dairy criteria is very hard to find and VERY expensive. But I can find the milk for $6.00/gal at Whole Foods, and the milk begets the yogurt.

- 3 -

You Have Control Over the Additives

So many yogurts are chock full of not only sugar but thickening agents and all kinds of other things that I'm sure do something, but I'm one of those really annoying types that likes to be able to pronounce everything on my food labels.

Back when Breyer's did that commercial with the kids who were trying to read the ingredient list of various ice cream brands and they could only read the Breyer's label because the ingredients were so basic. I loved that commercial. I was like "Preach it, kindergarteners!"

- 4 -

It isn't hard to do. 

I've never totally botched a batch of yogurt: I've had batches with better or worse consistency, but never a total fail. I'm pretty good at following directions, but I manage to screw up lots of kitchen efforts despite following the directions religiously. So I can say with the authority of the botcher: yogurt isn't hard to make. Making it takes forethought, but once it's part of your routine, it's a breeze.

- 5 -

You Can Find a Method That Works for You

There are lots of ways to make yogurt. You can make it in a Crock Pot. You can make it in your oven. You can make it with a cooler. You can make it in the yogurt maker you scored at Goodwill. Lots of options. See my way at the end of the post. Or Google it and find one that works with your life and your schedule.

- 6 -

You Can Strain it to Make Greek Yogurt

Real Greek yogurt is thicker than regular yogurt because the whey has been strained out. (You can do this by dumping your yogurt into a cheese cloth draped over a strainer and letting the whey drip out for a few hours.)

Just think: someday when you skip your nightly ice cream scoop to indulge in your homemade Greek yogurt sweetened with raw local honey, not only will you get to eat something delicious that you made all by your little self and is pretty good for you on the dessert scale, you'll also get to contemplate how in Rhodes Log estimation you've reached the epitome of coolness.

- 7 -

Our Method

Gather ingredients: Milk and "Starter Yogurt" (Use yogurt from your last batch or if it's storebought, make sure it has "live and active cultures.)

Place jar(s) in stock pot.

Pour milk into jar(s).

Fill stockpot with water.

Boil jars in your pot till milk reaches a temp of 185 degrees-ish. (No thermometer? They're pretty cheap, or you can just heat it till the milk has a skin on top.) I start my batches of yogurt when I know I'm going to be in the kitchen for at least a half hour because that's about how long it takes to heat the milk in the stock pot.

Remove jar from pot to cool.

Check back in a couple hours. When the milk reaches a temperature of 110-120 degrees, gently stir in 1/4 c. yogurt per quart of milk. (No thermometer? Cool it till it's very warm but not so hot that you can't hold the jar comfortably in your hands.)

Put lid on jar and store in warm place (like your oven with the light on) for 8-24 hours.

Once yogurt has set, transfer it to the fridge. Don't stir it and try not to jostle it before it's chilled, that seems to be the key for better texture.

And Voila! Thoughts? Tips? Advice? Beef? I'd love to hear any and all of it. Linking up with Kathryn!

So Much Cooking

So I feel like for the past few months I've been cooking nonstop.

Part of this is my fault. I'm very much a from-scratch person when it comes to cooking. I'm pretty much always looking for ways to go further down the unprocessed food chain.

Did you say I can MAKE my own coconut milk? Will it take LOTS of extra time and will my results be marginally worse than canned coconut milk but that will only cause me to try again and again and again? When can we start??

Today I was looking at a recipe that called for buttermilk and I thought "Well, I don't have enough time to buy my favorite cream from Costco and culture it and then churn it before tomorrow, so I guess this one's not happening." I know. I even annoy myself. In order for me to drive to my neighborhood grocery store to buy buttermilk I will have to give myself a pep talk. With a lip-pursing, steering-wheel gripping kind of pep talk, I can usually do it. 

Can't relate? Well, we all have our crosses, right?

Ugh. So yes. I spend a lot of time cooking, and that's a whole lot my fault. 

But we've also had a lot of people eating over here lately. My little brother's been living with us and he probably eats enough for two and a half adults, so I have to up my game on the regular. I have another bachelor brother in Houston who comes over semi-regularly, and it seems like every week we have some friend or relative driving through town and stopping in for a meal, and I feel like I'm just doing SO much cooking. And it's hard. It takes so much thinking and planning. And I want to be good at it. And it's hard. 

We hope to have a whole bramble of children. They will probably want to eat everyday. I'd love for our house to be a house of big meals and big laughter. But, geesh, if I don't feel like I'm already living in a loop of me clutzing about my kitchen chopping onions, wielding giant pans and pots, dishing out food, nursing a baby, unloading a dishwasher, processing some laundry, and then, hey, we're chopping onions again! 

And sometimes I have to lower my simple food nazi standards and buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, sometimes I don't have the time to let my chopped onions rest long enough to develop their cancer-fighting allinase enzymes. I'm learning to make it through those moments.

I'm learning a lot actually.

Some little lessons like "When in doubt, triple the recipe."

"Unless it's from the Pioneer Woman."

I'm learning to talk myself out of stressful situations. Like when the husband is still not home, and we're barreling into toddler meltdownville, and I'm figuring out how to stretch the entree because I just found out that so-and-so is coming to dinner, and I'm begging Jake to run get a toy for the six month old in the Bumbo since my very modulated version of Little Bunny Foo Foo is no longer cutting it, all I have to do is get a little perspective, a little eye of the storm. I have to remind myself that this is just all I ever wanted. 

I have to remind myself that it won't do to stress out over preparing big dinners because big dinners are among my most favorite things.

I have to remind myself how happy all this feeding of big mouths and quieting of little ones makes me.

Because I'm so happy. Life has never been fuller or more demanding. Sleep has never been so precious or so unpredictable. My blog posts have never sung so many verses of the same song, but it's just the truth. I'm so blessed. And I'm so exhausted. And I'm so blessed.

Now I'm off to make another resolution to meal plan.