Bad Economy = Bake Your Own Bread

The economy took a dump on our family big time. We moved a few months before all the exploding of the financial sector, and unfortunately, (as I've bitched about before) I couldn't find a job to save my life.

But being unemployed for 11 months has its upsides. For one, I've got all this time on my hands... Work sucks, man. You work all day, you get some cash sure, but then you never do anything because you have to work! So I began to do some of the things I've held in the back of my brain, telling myself I should be doing but never did because I never had the time.

I was also spurred in this direction out of necessity. No work = no money. Groceries are expensive, especially the way the USA forces us to shop. Gotta spend $6.00 on one box of food that lasts for one meal and doesn't even begin to fill Lucky's hollow leg. LAME. So I decided to take my food into my own hands, something I should have done a LONG time ago.

No more spending $5 on a loaf of natural and organic bread. No more buying in containers. I shop the produce section and get the majority of my food FRESH. THen, I cook. I cook enough for us for dinner, and leftovers for Lucky for lunch.

A big change was baking my own bread. Spending $4 on a bag of whole wheat flour makes way more sense than $5 for a loaf of bread. I've been baking a molasses wheat Brown Bread and it is DELICIOUS. I love it.

And yogurt! I made yogurt! Its so easy! Who knew? I acquired a yogurt maker from a friend and tried it out. Previously I had attempted yogurt in a thermos, but I didn't know what I was doing. So I borrowed a copy of "Country Wisdom & Know How" and looked up yogurt. Simple straight forward recipes that make everything form yogurt to raising chickens look easy! Apparently the trick is sterile tools and just enough bacteria. I've made it twice now, and its great!

Of course I made it soy yogurt, so I was a little unsure of how it would come out. I added a bit of agar agar to thicken it in case the bacterias didn't. Good call on my part. The yogurt is not thick like sour cream or store-bought yogurt, more like tzatiki or greek yogurt: thin and tangy!

Last night I made daal and onions, with chapatti bread and this yogurt was an ideal garnish! YUM!!!

Now, I've been reading through the book and we want to try our hands at cheesemaking. YES. We will make our own cheese!