Tuscan White Bean Soup

It seems absolutely ludicrous to be posting a recipe for bean soup at the moment. It is SWELTERING in LA. It was 101 at my house yesterday, which is less than a mile from the ocean. And today it's a lower temperature, but as humid as an orchid greenhouse. I would no more eat soup than put on a fur coat and run laps around an asphalt parking lot. But I've been meaning to post this forever and I'm aware that some places in the country are actually experiencing fall and cooler weather and maybe even soup.



I made this recipe up from the top of a take away container from the Zinc Cafe. It was delicious when we had their version in May and it was equally delicious when I made it last month at home. I added kale, because everything is better with kale, but other than that I just followed the ingredients listed on the lid.



Tuscan White Bean Soup with Kale

Adapted from the Zinc Cafe in Corona Del Mar

2 cups (more or less) dried cannelleni beans
soaked overnight in plenty of filtered water

1/4 c olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 - 1.5 cups carrots cut to a small dice

8 (or so) ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1-3 bunches tuscan kale, de-ribbed and blanced in salted water for a few minutes and drained.

2 springs rosemary
a lot of fresh thyme
leaves from a few springs of oregano
pinch of red chili flakes

salt and pepper

Beans: after soaking overnight, bring to a boil and then simmer until soft, about 1 1/2 hours. Once the beans are done, add 1 T of salt so the broth and beans taste delicious on their own. (Do not drain or discard broth).

Cook onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat with a pinch of salt until soft. Add rosemary, thyme, and oregano (all chopped however you like). Then add carrots and cook until mixture is soft and tastes good. Add salt and pepper if necessary (as Alice Waters always instructs) so the mixture tastes good as you go. When aromatics are tasty, add tomatoes and juice. It is my personal opinion that peeling, seeding and chopping tomatoes is basically kitchen heroics, and not altogether necessary. But it does make for a prettier, unseedy soup. And it's really not that bad. Finally add a pinch of chili flakes. Cook until well mixed.

Add cooked beans and enough broth to make a good soup. If you don't have enough broth, add more water. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer. Stir in kale.

Taste soup. Add salt and pepper if necessary and garnish with parmesan when serving.

This is even better the next day, though you may have to add a bit more liquid after it has soaked in the refrigerator over night. I decided to skip the vegetable broth and instead use the bean cooking liquid, but you could make stock first if you're so inclined.

Those of you in So. Cal, tuck this away for December when it's cooler out. I promise it is delicious.

Buttermilk Flaxseed Pancakes

These are quite delicious. They hail from my friend Becca, whose husband's dad has been making them since he can remember. I tasted them when I was visiting with her family (she's my BFF Laura's big sis) in San Diego and have finally gotten around to making them myself.

Our babe is still a little young for pancakes, but these are great kid food too. In fact it's one of Becca's son's staple menu items.



Do you want to hear a most satisfying detail? We made butter on Friday night and the leftover buttermilk went into our pancakes. How great is that? I was very pleased. And the homemade butter is something else. It's so creamy.




Buttermilk Flaxseed Pancakes

1 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c ground flaxseed meal
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

4 T melted butter
2 eggs
2 c buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk eggs until well mixed. Add butter and whisk until well combined. Add buttermilk and mix.

Fold in dry ingredients until just combined.

Grease skillet with butter (or oil) and I think everyone knows how to make pancakes. I added sliced bananas to some of ours and they were delicious.

If you want to skip the buttermilk you can substitute 2/3 cup of yogurt and 1 1/3 cup of water (or possibly milk?). Which makes them, I don't know, possibly healthier?

Either way they are delicious.

things grown, things eaten

Mixed carrots.



Pretty washed and lined up.



Peas & avocado, roasted sweet potato with a teensie bit of cinnamon and ginger. These would be for the baby, not for us.





Salsa (stored in a nice glass jar!).



Roasted homegrown pasilla chiles for tacos. (Caved and bought corn tortillas. I was desperate and they are made in LA so I felt a little less bad.)



And our tower of sunflowers. I've always wondered what the plant looks like that grows cut sunflowers. Apparently it's a huge cone-like thing? Though this could just be a mutant specific to our yard.

Also, ventured to Waterloo & City for early drinks (it's right in our 'hood), I worked on a bunch of stuff for Hitched (our table is going to be tres cute!), and Brock made me do a 10K on Sunday morning. 10Ks used to be a piece of cake, just for the record. It was hard and I was completely wasted for the rest of the day. But as a reward we made banana pancakes slathered in homemade butter and maple syrup. Kind of worth it.

Hope you all had delicious weekends too.

Peach jam that you don't want to miss

I AM going to post the white bean soup recipe, promise. But first, because summer is waning and peaches won't be with us much longer, I think you need to know about this jam. I made it two weeks ago and I wasn't expecting anything special. It's just peach jam after all. JUST PEACH JAM!? HA! How foolish I was.

It's so deceptively simple that you're not going to believe me until you make it yourself. The key is in how you cook it, so pay attention to that part.



Old Fashioned Peach Jam

4 c sliced peaches (I left the skin on)
4 c sugar
1 T lemon juice

Obviously you could use more peaches and sugar to make more jam, as long as you follow the same ratio. And actually, I think you could skimp on the sugar. It is a particularly sweet jam. Or preserves. Can someone please explain the difference between jam and preserves? To me they are one in the same.

Okay, now. To prepare:

In a heavy bottomed pan/pot (I used my short all clad stock pot), bring all ingredients to a simmer and cook over low heat until peach slices are translucent. This is the key. It seems like they are never going to turn, but they will. It took at least an hour when I made my first batch. Then, and only then, turn the heat up and boil the jam (stirring v. frequently to avoid burning) until both peaches and syrup fall off your wooden spoon as one unit. And then you're done! You can process jam in small jars for gifts or dump it all into a big jar and stick in the fridge so you don't have to share one drop.

I've been enjoying ours on pretty much everything, including spoons. But it seems to be particularly delicious on leftover toasted ciabatta. Note: you must be sure that every square cm is first covered in butter BEFORE applying jam. This will guarantee maximum enjoyment.

Recipe was the fruit of a quick google search that lead me to Cooks.com. I chose it because it seemed the least fussy (no peeling and mashing and marinating the peaches), and it turned out to be revelatory.

project update: week one

So things are going relatively well. We've had a few oops moments for sure, but overall it's been pretty smooth. Mostly we're trying to work out what the "rules" are. If the goal is to skip commercially packaged stuff, then can we buy things like cheese and bread from the farmer's market? As long as the people selling said items are actually the ones making them?



The reality is that unless I want to spend literally every spare second in the kitchen with the stand mixer and food processor on high alert, we probably will need to supplement our homemade things a bit. Especially because I have work that needs to be tended too and projects other than our urban pioneer life experiment.

But I have been giving it a fair go! In the last week and a half I've made bread 3 times, see?



(Ends stored in these glass containers from Crate & Barrel. Highly recommend them as an alternative to ziplock bags.)

The sandwich bread was good, but the loaves too small for the pans I have. Next time, same recipe but only one loaf so they're not so short. The rustic Italian peasant bread... left something to be desired. BUT I did make croutons using some of it and they were delish. The ciabatta was a wild success. Definitely making it again tomorrow (but must start the sponge today) for leftover soup.

I spent pretty much all day in the kitchen on Sunday making... ready?

Hummus (I will share my recipe eventually because I think I've honed in on a perfect version)



Tuscan white bean soup with kale (Should also share this recipe, because it is delicious)



Peach jam (We have a giant jar in the fridge and a few processed jars on the shelf for later)
Baby food (Pluots!)



Cesaer salad with charmoula tofu (tofu is NOT on the list, but it was a legacy block in the fridge and we couldn't very well let it go bad. But I did make the croutons and the dressing)

Ciabatta sponge

And that's just enough for two dinners and some miscellany. Those pioneer ladies, they really worked hard. So yeah, we're in the process of evaluating our rules. And then last night we had 7 people for dinner. So we ordered pizza. Oops. But we don't have a dishwasher! And while making quinoa burgers sounded good, the amount of clean up sounded bad. I did make a big chopped salad to go along with our pies. So, you know, we split the difference.

Some of you asked what we're using instead of disposables in the kitchen. I will definitely do a post on our alternatives soon.

weekend brunch

...To inspire you for the weekend. If you're in LA, you should most definitely consider Gjelina for brunch this weekend. We were there last Sunday and it was so delicious I could barely breathe. I know I've posted on their foods before, but nobody ever tires of delicious food shots, do they?



Lemon ricotta pancakes with chestnut flour. OMG.



Beet salad with avo and orange. I don't know what they do to their beets, but they are amazing.



Poached eggs with polenta and tuscan kale.



And a mostly devoured okra masterpiece that I'm planning to recreate this weekend if all goes well.



Oh, and then there's the cutest baby in the whole world. He was there too.

Hope your weekend includes a delicious meal. I'll be back next week with an update on our project.

a less impact project

Perhaps experiment is a better word for what's coming up around our house starting this week. But it's definitely a project too.

Here's the very quick backstory. On the way up to Yosemite, my parents and I (Brock came up a few days later), listened to No Impact Man. Have you heard of it? I saw an article about him in The New York Times a while back, but we just now got around to the book. On iPod. The only way to road trip, really. Anyway, he and his family spent a year making virtually no ecological footprint. In New York City. Which means, among many things, no paper products (toilet paper included), no non-human powered travel (including subways and buses), a worm composting bin in their apartment, and all sorts of other things that you have to be a real champ to endure. But it had me thinking about something that I've always wanted to try, but never do because, well, I don't know why. I've just never gotten around to committing to it. So here's the project:



We're going to spend the next month with no disposable things in the kitchen, and no commercially packaged food. Of course we'll be buying flour and essential ingredients... I haven't found a way around that. We're not milling our own wheat, after all.

But it means no store-bought bread, crackers, tortillas, canned beans, hummus from whole foods. I can only buy whole ingredients. Everything else we will be making at home. Exceptions include booze, coffee, and perhaps a bit of aged cheese if the meal REQUIRES it.

It sounds sort of silly when I see it written down, but it's an extension of that Deborah Madison quote I posted a few weeks ago. It's an effort to slow down when it comes to the kitchen. To only buy what we mean to consume and to really appreciate what it is we're having for dinner. And to waste less. So much waste happens in the kitchen, doesn't it? Paper napkins and towels, plastic baggies, shopping bags, uneaten food. It's like No Impact Kitchen. Ish. Okay, LOW Impact Kitchen. Plus I'm secretly hoping it will make me magically lose the rest of my pregnancy weight (no chips and crackers, after all), and it might even save some monies. (No filling the cart at Whole Foods with all sorts of delicious pre-made treats.)

Plus it's a fun way to force myself to try making things I rarely, if ever, do. Like baking bread, making crackers, maybe even making cheese? I hear fresh mozzarella isn't that hard. And butter. Shoot. I forgot about butter. For baking and cooking I think we're going to make an exception, but perhaps for eating on bread I will try making my own.

Doesn't it sound like fun? I will be reporting in throughout the month with our progress.

Hope you all had a glorious weekend. We were prepping food for the week. AND someone got to leave for most of the day on Saturday to have lunch with her girlfriends. For the first time since February. Pretty big things happening around here. It only took six months, but my baby will finally take a bottle on occasion. Hallelujah.

the afternoon harvest

Which led directly into last evening's dinner. Quite satisfying if I do say so me-self. Most of the beets were a bit small, but their tops had started to look sad and I think the weather has turned inhospitable to our lovely red friends. I pulled them all out and figured we'd start again in the fall. Which judging by our current weather patterns, should be sometime in December. (WHEN IS SUMMER GOING TO GET HERE???)



In making last night's din, I was reminded of a favorite Deborah Madison quote from Local Flavors (one of my favorite cookbooks, btw):

"When food is cheap we tend to treat it carelessly and wastefully. But when it’s dear, when it costs what it’s actually worth, we tend to pay closer attention to it. In this sense, good food can sharply focus our world.”

I grew those darn beet tops and one way or another (even if it took me nearly an hour to wash all the dirt and bird poop and aphids off of them), I was going to enjoy every last leafy morsel. When I buy my beets at the market, I often ask for the tops off, even though I do love them, because I sometimes can't deal with the cleaning and trimming and preparing. But when you grow your own food, it becomes so precious that you can't help but put in the extra effort in the kitchen.

Hence, sauteed beans and greens with garlic and butter + roasted beet and carrot salad with avo and lime + quinoa (of course) + and a teeny pile of chickpeas for protein.



You should see Brock's face when I concoct a dinner like this. He's like, "We're having what exactly?" You'd think I'd offered him a plate of cheeze whiz and noodles. (Just kidding, my love. Sort of.)



(Look familiar?)

But he does his best to enjoy. And I always say, "But aren't you IMPRESSED that I GREW all of this????" He is. He'd just prefer it if I grew margarita pizzas and everything bagels. But I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

I'm leaving on Sunday for Yosemite for the week with my whole family, so posts might be light, or lighter than usual. But I may pop in with some photos. Ahh vacation. Or as my family likes to call it "Death by Vacation." I'm sure some of you out there can relate. But we always have a big time.

Have a most excellent weekend.

Those pickles

So, the pickle recipe isn't actually printed online anywhere (that I could see). There is a pickle recipe on Jamie's site that I'm sure is plenty good, but I haven't tried it myself so I can't vouch for sure. Though as we all know, everything Jamie makes is delicious.



This recipe is from Jamie at Home and it's pretty darn divine. I will say that I read it and then kind of improvised with what I had so bear with me as I try to remember what I did.

Pickles from the garden

(I think I made a half recipe, actually. But this is the full.)

for the pickling liquid
1 quart cider or white wine vinegar (I used plain vinegar)
1 quart water
2 T salt

for the pickling marinade
2 cups extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and chopped (I used a jalapeño because that's what I'm growing at the moment)

for the veg, choose one of the following

*I used cukes, mint, thyme, parsley, and chives



but Jamie recommends either

2 pounds mixed mushrooms and a few springs of fresh thyme, rosemary and sage

2 pounds firm eggplant and 2 T dried oregano

2 pounds firm zucchini and 6 springs fresh mint

2 pounds fennel bulbs and their herby tops

2 pounds small onions and 4 bay leaves

2 pounds red and yellow peppers and a few springs fresh thyme


To make:

If you're going to can, make sure you have some small sterilized jars ready to go. Though I haven't canned this recipe yet so again, can't vouch, but I'm sure it's fine.

Bring pickling liquid ingredients to a boil in a big pan. Put the pickling marinade ingredients into a large bowl with your chosen herbs and mix well. Slice up your chosen vegetables any way you like (I used a mandoline for the cukes), but if it's a larger vegetable try to get the thickness around 1/2 inch. This way the flavors and liquid will penetrate sufficiently and evenly.

Place sliced veg in the boiling pickling liquid and leave for 3 minutes or so - the veg might rise to the surface so keep pushing them down with a wooden spoon. Lift the pieces out with a slotted spoon and place them in your bowl of pickling marinade. Toss them together.

Straightaway, put the hot veg and pickling marinade into your sterilized jars. If you're just making one big jar to store in the fridge, you just need one jar. Which is what I did. Fill to the very top. Cover the veg completely with the marinade. I acutally added a lot of the vinegar mixture as well because I wanted them to taste more picklely. But if you do this, I think you would have to actually boil the finished jars to ensure sterilization? I like to err on the side of caution.

If you follow Jamie's recipe exactly, you would just "put the jars to one side" (not sure if this means lay them on their side or just put them aside?), wipe the jars clean and label them as you like. Store in a cool, dark place and if possible wait at least 2 weeks to open. Though he also says this is close to impossible due to their deliciousness. I started eating mine right away because they were just in the fridge, tempting me.

He says they'll last up to three months.

Try them. The herbs and garlic and chilli combo is very yum.

(ps. I will report back if I make them with just the oil).

Yummy Tummy baby food

Saw this at the Venice farmer's market on Friday:



Super fresh organic baby food! This is really only a good post if you live here because as far as I can tell, you can't buy it anywhere else so far. But I was mostly inspired by her pretty jars full of bright food. Her site has a list of some of her flavors, which might good to reference if you're into making your own.

I cannot WAIT to make baby food in all sorts of delicious combinations. We're getting close, but I have to say I'm not sure if I'm ready, weirdly. That will mean my baby is so big! Of course the lure of better sleep with baby cereal is tempting.

Also learned one v. interesting bit of information. She makes young coconut baby food, which is totally delicious. I tasted it. But more importantly it has a nutrient (I forget what it is) that is only found in young coconuts and breast milk. Isn't that cool? So if you are feeding your baby formula for one reason or another, you could supplement them with a bit of pureed coconut too.

My friend Ami recommended Super Baby Food as a good reference for making your own. So far it seems to have lots of great info. Ami, btw, makes insanely delicious sounding food for her daughter Lila. Like sweet potatoes with cumin and ginger. I would totally eat that.

Rifle does a recipe box

Which I very badly need. Want is not the appropriate word. Need.



And she of course makes pretty recipe cards too. I already sent the link to Brock. Like, um, dear husband? If you were perchance looking to buy me a gift in the the near future? This would be the one.

holiday weekend... sans summer

Can someone please tell me what happened to our budding summer? It was mostly grey and sad all weekend and this morning it's raining. Come on! This is July, universe. Pls send warm weather soon.

Some things we did:



Plucked radishes for salad




Took the baby to First Friday's on Abbot Kinney, where we attempted to get a drink at The Tasting Kitchen. They have delicious drinks, btw, with all sorts of yummy ingredients.




We ended up enjoying our libations in the entry, while Dashiell played in the corks.




Walked to our local farmer's market for dinner supplies... this is why you have a stroller apparently.






And had 4th of July dinner with Melanie and Sky in the backyard. Tequila cocktails and quinoa burgers. I can't drink tequila due to an old drinking injury from college and my quinoa burger recipe needs work. But it was delicious and fun any way.

Need sunshine now. Need.

green things and the baby

All weekends should be three days long, that much we've established as fact. I of course have 3 day weekends whenever I want them at this point, but it's not really a weekend if Brock isn't home too. Which made this weekend way too short.



We did finally get our crib! The one we wanted was sold out everywhere until August or September, which just wouldn't do. But Brock found a floor model at Giggle in Pasadena and we got it for 30% off. Which we were well happy about.

Still waiting on the mattress however. I only ordered it three weeks ago. Is this not 2010? Don't things come in three days or less no matter what?? Apparently they make these mattresses to order or something. Supposed to be here this week. Baby is literally spilling out of his bassinet/stroller.


See:



Okay maybe not quite. But he's just discovered his feet and also that he can decide not to nap, but instead play with them.




Radish sprouts are coming up everywhere. I love radishes straight out of the dirt.




And for dinner, baby turnips and their greens. Yumm.


And I desperately wanted to make it to Lily's show in Silverlake, but alas, the non-napping but very talkative baby had other plans.

Oh, and. Biggest news of the year.

He giggled for the first time last night. Like a real giggle. Ms. Lamott was right (as always); it sounded like bells.

long weekend around the house

Shockingly we did nothing exciting for our long weekend. But I took some pictures of the nothing to share:

Cooking from the computer... which is always how I do it these days. Don't I need an iPad? I do. I could get a nifty stand (or the cheap version) and prop it up on the counter. It would be so modern and lovely.



That's Sprouted Kitchen I'm using for a variation on her peanut sauce.



We had stir fry



With kind of a Thai-ish peanut sauce. Which was DEEEE-licious. I never make a real sauce, but now I will. Gone are the simple days of soy, white wine, garlic and ginger.





We're on our second batch of peonies. GAAAAAHHH they are insane. They are way more beautiful when they're open. Have you seen peonies truly open? They are like 10 inches across and they fade to a pretty cream.



And while I was out back planting our veggies, Brock and Dashiell took a tour of the yard. They were so cute, I had to stage a dirty-handed photoshoot. I mean come on with the little camo hat. It's from Gap in case you need one.

roasted carrot salad

I'm into roasted carrots at the moment, have you noticed? They're non-gassy and acceptable for baby who seems to be sensitive to many things. I came up with this salad last month and have made it approximately 7 times since then. It's actually become a go to dinner recipe as of late. Paired with quinoa of course.

It's easy and delicious and as you all know I'm not one for exact recipes, especially if I've made them up me-self. But here's an approximation:





Roasted carrot salad with chickpeas and fennel

A LOT of carrots. Like 3 big bunches from the supermarket or a big bag full if you're buying them from the farmer's market

2 or 3 small fennel bulbs, or 1-2 large (save some of the fennel fronds for flavor)

cumin seeds

1 can chickpeas

I bunch cilantro

feta (I'm using sheep's milk at the moment, but the other is fine too)

lime

salt, pepper, olive oil


Heat oven to 375. Peel and slice the carrots on the diagonal, so you have nice oblong pieces, not too thick and not too thin. Trim fennel bulbs, cut in half from top to bottom and then into thin wedges. Toss carrots and fennel with cumin seeds and a nice bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Line a cookie sheet with foil, dump carrots and fennel onto it, and slide into the oven and roast for as long as it takes the edges of the carrots to crisp a bit and the centers to be cooked through. Make sure you let some become nice and done so you get the crispy, caramelly taste every few bites.

While carrots are roasting, chop cilantro roughly. You might not need or want an entire bunch in your salad. I LOVE cilantro and believe it could almost be used as a salad green, which means I like a lot in this dish. But you can adjust the amount as you see fit. And you don't need pick the leaves off the stalks. Cilantro stems are just as delicious as the leaves. Pick a little pile of fennel tips off the fronds and set aside with the cilantro.

When the veggies are done, dump them into a large bowl. I usually heat the chickpeas in a saucepan first so they're nice and soft, but you certainly don't have too. Add chickpeas to the bowl, along with the cilantro and fennel tips. Drizzle a generous bit of olive oil over the top and mix everything up well. Add juice of one lime or so, depending on how limey you like it, and salt & pep to taste. Crumble feta over the top and eat. Out of the bowl is fine, but less civilized than actually heaping it on a plate.

I like to eat this with mixed greens and quinoa. But it's delish by itself or rolled in a toasted tortilla with avocado slices.

rhubarb jam for moms

Saturday was an out of control kitchen day for me. I think I was trying to make up for the last few months all in the space of one afternoon. After a nice morning of spinning (Yay! I can go to an adult workout class!) and then a stroll with the family around the farmer's market, I came back to our house and proceeded to turn the kitchen upside down. For no good reason at all, except that I was apparently desperate to make things.



One of those things being jam for our moms for Mother's day. (Hi Mom! If you're reading this I spoiled part of your pressie.) I love making jam. It's so simple and so charmingly old fashioned. I have a bunch of jars on the shelf in our service porch (read laundry room, extra pantry, seed storage, etc), but instead of eating those, I continue to make more. Ah well. When a woman needs to create, she needs to create.



This time, Strawberry-Rhubarb. I love rhubarb. One day I will have my own plant, but I think I'll wait until we buy a house (or our house?) because the plants are perennials and last for decades. Neat.

This recipe is crazy simple. I found it through the magic of google on the most random site: rhubarbinfo.com. If you're looking for rhubarb recipes, this is a good place to start, though can't vouch for any of them .

Here it is:

2 pounds strawberries (4 cups, mashed)
2 pounds rhubarb (8 cups, cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
6 cups sugar

Cover cut rhubarb with half of the sugar and let stand 1 to 2 hours. Crush berries and mix with remaining sugar and combine with rhubarb. Place mixture over low heat until sugar is dissolved, then boil rapidly, stirring frequently to prevent burning. Cook until thick.

I turned my batch on and off 3 times to tend to baby and definitely burned it a titch. I don't recommend this technique, but it's still pretty good. If you DON'T mess around with the timing and burning, I'm sure it's delicious.

UPDATE:

The jars are Weck, which are entirely superior in design to any other canning jars out there. You can buy them from a few different places, but the only one I can think of at the moment sans google search is Heath.

And, I did actually "can" the jam so it can be wrapped properly as a present. It's so super easy. Don't be afraid. Especially with something like jam that isn't known to grow botulism or anything fatal. It's the green beans you need to worry about. Or other things without enough salt, acid, or sugar to properly preserve whatever you've made.

new food love

One good thing has come out of eliminating cow's milk from my diet. I discovered the sublime deliciousness of Bellwether Farms sheep's milk yogurt. Vanilla. I've always WANTED to buy it because I like the farm's name and the little container is cute, but sheep's milk yogurt? I love sheep's milk cheese, but I was afraid the yogurt would taste like a barnyard.





It's pretty amazing. And do you see the actual little flecks of vanilla bean in there? It's rich and a little sour, almost like creme fraiche in a way, but then sweet and vanilla-y too. You must try.