Saturday, January 19, 2019

Survival HT: milk ---> yogurt ---> cream cheese

I bought a container of lime-flavored yogurt and it sure is good. And I thought, I bet you can do even better at home. I'm always reading about using this mass produced yogurt as starter to make your own. But careful which one you buy. It must be live.

As a teenager I was with my friend Gary Hennigan working at the hotel run by mother. I did various odd jobs fit for a boy. She used me. Quality Inn in Shreveport, Louisiana. She was an impressive woman. The nearest famous comparison I can think of is Ann Richards, one-time governor of Texas. But that's not a great example because there is this thing about Louisiana vs. Texas that makes me think Mrs. Hennigan would not appreciate the comparison. But they do remind me of each other. Their personalities were similar. Mrs. Hennigan is the only woman I know who packed a large black gun in her oversized purse and made it known that she does have protection. And she would use it too, without any silly compunction. She lived way past the opposite side of town from the hotel, beyond Shreveport actually, way past Bossier City, farther out into farmland by a very long way. So it was a long drive to work everyday back and forth. During a period I stayed in a room at the hotel.

For a few weeks I ran room service. That meant going around and picking up all trays that people left outside their rooms. This day Gary and I were working together. One tray we picked up, the guy didn't even touch his milk. A full glass of milk was left with the dishes on a tray in the hallway. How wasteful. As I recall it, there was a problem with the air conditioning in that section, usually set to arctic temperature, but now quite warm throughout. The milk turned to solid. This puzzled us. How can milk do that overnight? Gary realized the airborne bacteria was enough to change the milk into yogurt. Wouldn't that make it sour? But it did not smell like sour milk does. None of us dared to taste it. It was just one of those weird science thing that happens. Naturally occurring yogurt.


One good thing about pulling your hair down in front of one of your eyes like a pirate wearing an eyepatch, and look through your hair like an English sheepdog, is you only have to do eye makeup on one eye.

3 comments:

ricpic said...

Chip, you must have a cast iron stomach to try all the foods you do. I'm on a limited diet and if I go off it...well, things happen.

MamaM said...

"Well, things happen" is putting it mildly, to include consequences that extend beyond visual appeal and the delights of discovery and ingestion.

I have, on another topic, received some insight into the abundance of Tube videos coming out and showing up here that contain what appear to me to be a weird combination of information and absurdity. SonM explained the concept of Influencer Marketing, in which individuals who can gather enough clicks and followers on YouTube are determined by advertisers to have influence, with monitary rewards to follow. Getting people to watch is the goal, which is what I did with the Coconut Bar lady and Celery Man presentation.

No so with the lady with her hair covering her eye. I refuse to give her a second glance with one of my eyeballs!

chickelit said...

That's cool, Chip. It might work for my pumpkin cheesecake I make every Thanksgiving. Do you know how to make creme fraiche? I hear that it's richer than sour cream.