Cinnamony French toast, homemade pancake syrup, and take-that-Starbucks

You know those times you try something new in the kitchen and it's a complete flop?

I definitely have experienced that.

Today, however, was not one of those times. Today I tried THREE new things and they ALL worked! I was so excited.

We had French toast for breakfast this morning, one of Joshua's favorites. I love putting cinnamon in the batter that the bread gets dipped in (I REALLY like cinnamon), but usually the cinnamon doesn't mix in and just floats on top. So the first few slices get lots of cinnamon on them and the last few don't get any. Not cool. Today I changed around how I mixed the ingredients for the batter and it worked beautifully!

First, I beat two eggs in a medium bowl. Then I added about 1/4 cup dark brown sugar and beat it again till there weren't any lumps. Next I mixed in about 1/3-1/2 cup plain (homemade) yogurt (I don't usually measure) and beat again till smooth. Then I whisked in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and it mixed in beautifully! Finally I added 1/2 cup 2% milk (or so), and it was perfect. Usually I mix the eggs and milk first, so it starts out pretty runny. This time the batter was quite thick when I added the cinnamon, so the cinnamon mixed in well. It made amazing French toast!

While I was cooking the French toast I made homemade syrup to go on it. Last night I Googled "homemade pancake syrup" and found this recipe. It was so easy, and it tasted incredible--my husband absolutely loved it. I don't know if we'll quit the store-bought syrup altogether, but we'll definitely be using this pretty often. I added about a teaspoon of butter and a few drops of vanilla extract to the mixture after I took it off the heat, plus a little extra water because it was getting thick. I poured it into a half-pint jar when it was still hot, and it solidified in there pretty quickly as it cooled, but I'll just microwave it before I need to use it again. I know it's still lots of sugar, but at least there aren't any weird ingredients like in store-bought syrup, and NO high fructose corn syrup! Yay!

Finally, I made a homemade chai latte this morning. Yeah, you read that right.

I felt like cinnamony, spicy tea to go with the French toast, and then it hit me: if I can make a latte with coffee and hot milk, why not make a chai latte with tea and hot milk? Duh.

It worked. Really well.

I steeped a chai tea bag in half a mug of boiling water, for quite a while (to get it strong). I added milk to mostly fill the mug and popped the whole thing in the microwave for a minute and a half to heat it up well (you could just steep a chai tea bag in a saucepan of 1 cup milk, too, and forgo the water entirely). The milky tea, a healthy teaspoon of coconut oil, and about 1/2 teaspoon of honey went in the pitcher for my immersion blender and I blended it like I do with my coffee (for about a minute, agitating the blender to incorporate a lot of air into the stuff). I finally realized why it gets such a rich foam: the fat from the coconut oil helps the milk (just 2%) get really foamy and creamy. YUM.

Man, it was good. I'm doing this all the time now, when I don't make a coffee latte. Seriously, who needs Starbucks?!?

I apologize for how long this ended up being, but I hope you go try at least one of these things. I kind of tend to geek out over food. Good food, that is. You won't find me going into raptures over a burger and fries. (Unless, of course, it's a homemade burger, grilled and juicy, with oven-baked fries tossed in olive oil... sorry. I'll stop now.)

I made yogurt, and it was good.

So I told you early this week on my Facebook page that I made homemade yogurt.

Well, I am thrilled to tell you that it turned out--and it is delicious!!  And super-easy!

It's not waaay cheaper than store-bought.  But I like knowing what's in it: milk, and culture.  That's it.  No artificial sweeteners (I put honey and vanilla in mine).  No preservatives.  No nothin' that I don't want in there.  I'd LOVE to make it with raw milk...but eh, maybe sometime.  For now, a girl can dream. :)

The process is nothing very exciting.
Warm up your slow cooker (on the lowest heat setting).
Bring milk to a simmer, till it foams.  I had a half-gallon and I used my biggest pot.  That milk expanded till it nearly filled the pot.  It was bubbly and fluffy and glorious, and it smelled delicious.
When the milk has shrunk down, take it off the heat.  Let it cool till you can stick your finger in it without burning your finger.  Mix a cup or so of the warm milk with 1/3 cup plain yogurt.  (I just used a store-brand, it was on sale, so was the store-brand milk, 99 cents a half-gallon!)  Put the rest of the milk in the slow cooker, slowly stir in the milk/yogurt, and then cover the slow cooker and turn it off, and unplug it.
Wrap it up in bath towels so it stays warm all night.
Go to bed.
Wake up the next morning and peer in your slow cooker to see half a gallon of lovely, tart, good-for-you yogurt!
That's the exciting part.  That, and trying to find enough old sour cream and yogurt containers in my cupboard to store all this creamy goodness.

I already used it to make cornbread, instead of milk.  Success.  Delicious with bananas, honey and vanilla.  Okay with raspberry jam, honey and vanilla.  Going to try it with pineapple tomorrow.  Planning on making homemade granola soon, because the marriage of granola and yogurt is a beautiful one.  Especially when both are homemade, and there is plenty of honey involved...

But I digress.

HERE is the recipe I followed, to the letter for once in my life, because I was a little nervous about this turning out.  (Thanks, Elsie!  It worked great!)

I'm excited to experiment with more flavors for my yogurt.  I'm thinking cocoa, and/or peanut butter, would be good.  I also plan to use it in cooking (for example, in the aforementioned cornbread).  If any of you know of good recipes which use plain yogurt, let me know!  I made a delicious salad last night with chopped tomato, half a sliced cucumber, some lime zest and juice, a little minced garlic, salt, pepper, and about a cup or so of yogurt.  SO good.

Anyway.  I'm excited that this latest experiment worked out.  Next time whole milk goes on sale (that's what I used) I'm going to buy three or four half-gallons and stick them in the freezer, because I think whole milk is probably the best choice for yogurt-making and, sigh, in this non-dairy-farming state whole milk is well over $4 a gallon.  Grr.  And that's the pasteurized, store-brand stuff.  Ah well.

It's worth it for the yogurt.

Successful, failure--or both?

In one of my classes yesterday we discussed success and failure: how we defined them, and how we reacted to them.
I said that success is learning from an experience even if it doesn't go the way I want it to.  When I am successful, I tend to pat myself on the back too much.  My response should be to glorify God in every success.
I define failure as not living up to my own (usually very high) expectations.  When I fail, I put myself down, taking failure very personally.  I look at myself as a failure instead of whatever I was trying to do.

I often feel like a failure when the kitchen is a complete mess for more than a few hours at a time.  When the bathroom is a disaster.  When laundry needs to get put away.  When the living room needs to be de-cluttered and cleaned.  Like tonight, basically.

Sometimes I feel like a failure when I don't get the grade I would have liked on a test, even though I know I didn't study as much as I could have (like yesterday).

When Joshua tries to do something for me, and I don't want him to, for money or time or whatever reason, I feel like a failure for not letting him show how he loves me because of my own selfishness.

These are just a few examples.  When a lot of these "failures" happen at the same time, I tend to get very frustrated with myself, feeling like I can't do anything right.

In a way, it's right for me to feel like that.  If the reason things aren't going the way I want is because I'm slacking on something (spending too much time writing blog posts instead of doing dishes, for example), then I am justified in being frustrated with myself.  There are things I could do better.

However, there are days when I've been too busy spending time with my husband to study for a test as much as I would like.  There are other days when I have a lot of homework to do that prevents me from doing housework.  I do fail sometimes, yes.  But what is important to remember is that
I am not a failure.

My problem is that I take things too personally.  Failing at something does not automatically make me a failure.

And let's look at my definitions of failure and success again.  When I fail, it means I haven't lived up to my own expectations.  But what if my expectations were unrealistic?  What if God had things in mind for me that weren't on my to-do list for the day?
My definition of success is learning from experiences even when they don't go my way.  In that case, every failure is a success because I can always learn something from a failure.

A "C" instead of an "A" on a test?  I need to start studying sooner next time.
Dishes piling up till they're overwhelming?  I need to shut down the computer half an hour sooner every night and get some housework done.
Living room constantly cluttered?  I need to put stuff away as I use it, not let things pile up.

I realize I'm being very law-focused here.  In this context, I'm okay with that.  But what I want to stress--to you and myself--is that not always doing everything perfectly does NOT make you a failure.

And, more importantly, God works through, despite, and in your failures.  His purposes are accomplished no matter what.  Sometimes--most of the time--God uses our failures for his purposes, to bless us and to bless others.

God doesn't define us by our failures.  He looks at us like he looks at his Son Jesus: Holy, pure, sinless.  We are forgiven of every failure, of every sin, of every shortcoming.

Don't let your failures own you.  See them as God's successes.  Remember that he doesn't define you by your failures, and he loves you unconditionally.








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