Yogurt Failure

After 8 or 9 completely successful batches of homemade, organic whole milk yogurt, I finally screwed one up. Turns out you should pay attention to the half gallon of milk you're heating on the stove. If you boil it hard for about 25 minutes, it's just not milk anymore.

The batch of yogurt I'd made just prior to this failed attempt was a bit runny. I thought maybe I'd stressed my yogurt cultures by stashing them way in the back of a too-cold fridge. So I bought a new starter with resolve to store my next starter holdback in the door of the fridge that I've already turned "up."

The boys love the drinkable yogurt I make for them. I'd been complaining about all of the work involved in getting the pure juice out of the strawberries. I found a solution. I bought some juice boxes in the organic section at my favorite Hy Vee. They claim to contain "pure juice" which is what I'm after. I add lot white sugar, because I object to the more commercial type of corn syrup sweeteners found in the regular juice aisle. That raspberry/strawberry juice mixture tasted just great, but was a funny brown color. A few drips of red food coloring fixed that problem and brought the yogurt back to a nice, appealing pink hue. Until I get my own juicer, I think this fix is just going to have to do in spite of the red coloring.