The Canexican ......as she works in Canada and lives in Mexico: Random things

A few weeks ago I had a hankering (yes hankering) for homemade yogurt. Once you've had homemade yogurt you are spoiled forever, and once you know how easy it is to make you feel like a dummy for eating crappy store yogurt for so many years. There are many ways of making yogurt and the web is full of all kinds of instructions, here is how I made yogurt last week with limited supplies. First you need a starter, so I went to the health food store in Mazatlan, it's on Zaragoza and I can't remember the name, across the street from the little Zaragoza plaza. Once you find your way there you buy a small container of their homemade organic yogurt which you will use as a starter. Your starter has to be plain yogurt, no flavoring or sugar. You take 2 heaping Tbsp of it and put aside, the rest you eat. If you don't want to make yogurt right away you can freeze your starter until you are ready ready. I checked the weather forecast and picked a day that was supposed to be hot. I heated up 3 cups of milk in a pot on the stove...you must stand there and stir so the milk does not burn, heat the milk to about 180 F (never boiling) try to hold that temperature for about 5 minutes at least, maybe even 8-10....I usually get tired of stirring at about the 5 minute mark and call it good. Now I put some cold water in my sink and put the hot pot in the cold water to cool the milk off fast, cool it until it is about 100F, then you put your 2 tbsp of room temperature starter into the milk and whisk to make sure it is stirred. Now you need an incubator, be creative. I pour the milk into a mason jar and put a loose fitting top on it (a little bowl turned upside down on the top, then I wrapped it all in a tea towel and put into a plastic bag and tied the bag shut. Then I set it out in the hot sun (on top of my fence) like so

Yogurt incubator

The longer your yogurt is incubating the tarter the yogurt, I find 6 hours is perfect for me, I don't like it too tart at all. Ideal temperature for incubating 32 C. Once done put it in the fridge, warm yogurt doesn't taste very good. If you want some flavoring you can add it at the same time as you add your starter, honey is nice if you like some sweetness, vanilla is good, play with it...remember if you use any flavoring you now can't use it as a starter, always save some for a starter. If you like your yogurt firmer you can add about 4 tbsp powered milk when you add the starter, I usually do but I didn't have any.
Now on to some other random stuff.....

I'm doing a little knitting in the evenings in my hammock

Went Geocaching in Mazatlan with a friend, not sure what that is? Check it out here http://www.geocaching.com/ One day we ended up in graveyard, graveyards here are like museums, full of art, full of history and beauty.

Petra lived for 99 years.

I see this bus all the time parked in front of an orphanage on Zaragoza, it was donated by the Rotary club in Grande Prairie a few years ago. If I remember right they also donated a fire truck and an ambulance. I saw a school bus today from the Lethbridge Rotary Club at the La Vina Church. Way to go Rotary Clubs!

Now on to the singing/whistling cowboy that lives 2 doors down.

This is Cowboys everyday riding horse, here he is giving his grandchildren a ride. He rides with them almost everyday.

This is the horse that he is training, when he rides him he ties a handkerchief (remember those) over his face

He is completely blindfolded and must trust cowboy completely to guide him.....it's been an interesting process watching the bonding between them.

This is the horse he is teaching a lesson, from my understanding (he took his time explaining this to me) this horse likes to put his head down and his bum up, I didn't understand that all because even with the tree around his neck it looks like he could still put his head down and his bum up. But I pretended that I understood him.....don't want to appear to be too stupid.

Moving on.....told you this would all be random. Do you remember Orange pop, the real orange pop, made with real sugar instead of corn fructose, in a real glass bottle? They still have it here, and the Coke is made of real sugar too.