Expectations

One of my current cooking goals is to make all my family's "convenience food". The snacks, the frozen dinners, the stuff you grab when you need something quick and easy. Making them myself is healthier, cheaper, and one more way for us to stop supporting the industrial food system that makes me cringe.

I figured I'd start with the easy stuff, like crackers and granola bars. Today I made multi-seed crackers from one of my favorite baking books.....

King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

Finding the time and energy to make these delicious snacks has not been the hard part. Its surprising how much of the week's baking you can get done in one short afternoon. What has surprised me is how much my expectations of what food should look and taste like has been shaped by the boxed foods available at the market. I feel like if all my crackers are not a perfectly uniform shape, size, and color, I must have done something wrong.

This is not what crackers from a box look like....


Granted, appearances, taste, and texture will improve with more practice. But really, these crackers are delicious. More and more I am realizing that making your own food from scratch requires a rethinking of what exactly real food is.

PS. My new favorite thing to eat on crackers, toast, sandwiches, right out of the container, is homemade yogurt cheese. Its like a very tangy cream cheese. This is fool-proof.

Yogurt Cheese

1. Start with plain yogurt, either full or low fat works. I haven't tried non-fat, but it probably would work to.
   
2. Scoop the desired amount into a piece of butter muslin or very-fine weave cheese cloth. About 2 cups is usually enough for the week for my family.
3. Tie up the corners and hang the bag with the yogurt over the sink or a bowl for 12-24 hrs.
   
4. Remove from the cheese cloth and enjoy! Refrigerate.
5. Be creative, add any herb combination that strikes your fancy.