watching "The Giver" and making yogurt and granola

The Giver by Lois Lowry (which was probably the first dis-utopian book I read)

Last night and tonight, Glen's theatre students put on the play The Giver. Originally it was going to be a regular play performance but a week or two ago the decision was make to have it be a reader's theatre piece instead. It was really fabulous. I think it was better as a reader's theatre piece than it would have been with a set and the actors moving all over the stage, which might have been a distraction. It made it more stark and intense, I think. The focus was on the story. The students did an outstanding job, too. I'm really glad I went.

Spoiler--
The book's ending is considered ambiguous--though to me they clearly froze to death even if the words didn't come out and spell it in black and white. But others (my sister included) thought they made it to another town. At the end of tonight's play it was clear that Jonas died since Rosemary, who was dead, welcomes him. Turns out that the director (one of the students) added that so that the end outcome would be clear. Man, I got all choked up when Rosemary greeted Jonas--and felt silly about it. But it was great.

Next weekend is the play Almost, Maine. Hannah's in that one--I think she has one line. But it'll still be fun to see her on stage. Apparently, it's a romantic comedy with several different storylines going on at the same time. It sounds good.

*****

I made some yogurt today. And then I made granola to sprinkle on the yogurt.

Making yogurt used to be Glen's domain. I had him show me once, but then never had the courage to take it on. I think that's because I'm an "exact" sort of person (give me a measurable amount, like--add 2/3 cup of powdered milk) and he is more of an "estimate the amounts" kind of cook (like--just add a scoop of dry milk).

I recently overcame my fear and chose a recipe. It turned out to be such an easy thing to do, and it only takes about 30-40 minutes of hands-on time. So I've started doing it a lot. It just makes sense when you live on a dairy farm to not buy your yogurt. We like to make smoothies and frozen yogurt as well as eat it with fruit and granola sprinkled on top...which led to our making our own granola. Which in the past has been Glen's domain, too.

So, here's how I make yogurt. We have 2 different yogurt machines, both bought 2nd hand. One has five 3/4 cup sized jars (one of which we don't eat but use as our starter for the next batch) and the other one is a single quart-sized container. So we make a double batch which is:

Yogurt

heat 7 2/3 cups raw milk in a pot over medium-high flame while stirring almost constantly
when thermometer says 185º remove from heat and whisk in 2/3 cup of powdered milk

set the pot in cold water in the sink until the temperature reaches 110º (between 90-120) then whisk in the yogurt starter

ladle the mixture into the various cups, put them in the yogurt makers for about 7-8 hours
put the yogurt in the fridge

And that's it. The consistency is a bit different from store bought...maybe because there's not gelatin in it.

When we go to eat it is when we add some sugar according to our likes. Good stuff.

Plain Granola

4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup coconut
3/4 wheat germ
3/4 cup almonds, sliced, slivered, or chopped
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon

Combine oats, coconut, wheat germ, almonds, sugar, cinnamon, and powdered milk in a bowl. Heat the honey and oil to dissolve the honey. Add the vanilla extract then pour over the oat mixture. Stir well.

Spread on a greased or parchment-lined 11 x 16 cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake at 325º stirring every 5 minutes until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

chocolate chip cookie recipe

I think I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe I'm happy with. Often I just use the recipe on the back of the chip packages and usually I am disappointed as I keep having to add more flour as my text cookie doesn't have enough body and is thin and anemic looking. Then I am not totally happy with the cookie. My family likes a certain recipe that uses shortening, but I don't really like shortening in my cookies.

So here's the recipe we've used several times lately and I'm going to stick with it:

Chocolate (or any flavor) Chip Cookies

mix together and set aside:
2 1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

cream together:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar if you like a softer cookie, like I do
     or 1/2 brown and 1/2 white, or even 1 cup white sugar if you like crunchier cookies

then add:
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Now mix in the flour mixture without over beating.

Add:
2 cups of desired chips

Use small cookie scoop. Put on ungreased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake 375º for 10 minutes.  Makes 46 cookies with my scoop.

I think I might play with adding oat flour or bean flour next time.