First and Last

Yesterday I made my first batch of yogurt: plain nonfat. I love this stuff with homemade maple granola. In this combo one cup of the nonfat yogurt weighing in at 89 calories, is balanced with the high calories of the other, a quarter cup being 140 calories. Together they are a great lunch. I followed the yogurt recipe at this site but there are tons of them out there. One thing I did differently, is I strained a bit of the whey off after the incubation period. I like my yogurt less soupy.

Also yesterday the girls finished up the last of our maple granola. When I reached into the refrigerator to get the maple syrup for making more of that oat and fruit goodness, and found none, I asked, "Where is it?" "Gone," was the sheepish answer given by the two piggies chowing directing out of the granola tin.

We are down to our last quarter of maple syrup that I had pushed to the back corner of the upper most shelf in the cabinet. It's some of the first syrup we made last year, and therefore some of our lightest, not our favorite. Still, usually we are out of syrup by August but this year we made it right up until the start of the next. I'm delighted.

There is anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks until the sugaring season starts. All this wonderful snow and cold is ushering a season of greatness. Last night as we laid down for bed, the man asked if I thought the season would start around Valentine's Day again. I thought not. All this cold weather seems to be lining us up for a more traditional start in March. We will see. The taps, and buckets are ready.

And one more thing: Just in case you ever wondered what you could do with all those hand knit wool socks, when they are not warming your feet. I found this site next to my little one's bed.

Snow globe warmers... all I could think of was Jan Brett's book The Mitten. Good stitching, still thank God we don't have a bear in the house.