On my mind: Family recipes, yard sales and homemade yogurt

Reading a book about stories of family recipes reminded me that I have a cookbook compiled by folks on my dad's side. Seemed the perfect time to recreate my beloved Aunt K's yummy eggplant casserole. Full of buttery goodness (recipe below), this casserole takes me back to the Thanksgiving spent at my aunt and uncle's...the one where someone passing the roll basket let the napkin under the rolls get a bit too close to the candle. My uncle doused the flames with his beer!

This Taste of Home recipe for Yeast Corn Bread Loaf makes a lovely textured loaf that tastes like cornbread but with a soft-bread bite.

This is my "Doing vs. Should Be Doing" pic. Here's me making a pie, instead of dealing with the tomatoes. But since I needed to bake bread, might as well get another use out of the stand mixer bowl before washing, eh? (Ended up making tomato juice to use up the tomatoes.) Incidentally, these tea towels were once a charity sale-bought tablecloth. The tablecloth had a stain but seemed the perfect weight for towels, so I bought it and the mumsy sewed it into four towels for me.

Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

Yesterday, Mom and I hit a yard sale at a senior citizens' housing tower. Mostly a bunch of junk but I found something I'd been putting off buying retail!

I've been wanting more canisters! By the time I took this pic, I'd already emptied the flour into the compost bin. As it's of unknown origins, can't bring myself to eat the sugar either, so I'll use it to make a sugar body scrub. Please let me know if you have a tried and true recipe that seems better than the one I just found!

By jove, I think I've got it...my own homemade yogurt! Love, love, LOVE my new yogurt maker! (Just 42 ounces of room temperature organic whole milk mixed thoroughly with 6 ounces of room temperature plain whole milk yogurt...no cooking involved for the thickness suitable for smoothies!)

Hubby teased that the yogurt probably just had a skim on top and was watery underneath, but this stuff is THICK! Perfect for my morning smoothies! (Made my smoothie in a jar using the immersion blender this morn.) I'd been paying $3.50 per 32 ounce container of Stonyfield Farms plain organic yogurt, and I use around 6 ounces every day. Though I did manage to get free magazine subscriptions to Organic Gardening and Martha Stewart Living with the Stonyfield reward points, seems more cost effective to make my own yogurt, buying the stuff only as needed to jumpstart my own.

Aunt K's Eggplant Casserole (my version)
1 medium to large eggplant, sliced and pan-roasted 'til cooked through
Combine:
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese--divided
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers, crushed--divided
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted--divided
Starting with the eggplant and ending with the mixture, layer cooked eggplant with the egg/milk/cheese/cracker mixture in the baking dish. Top with 1/2 cup of crumbs tossed with a couple of tablespoons of the melted butter. Then sprinkle top of casserole with 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese. Bake in a covered casserole at 350F for 30 minutes.

   I think I'll bake a cake today so something fresh will be on the table for tomorrow's cheat day! I'm thinking chocolate. ?? Maybe I'll head over to Foodgawker to get some ideas. What kind of cake sounds good to you today?

   Thanks, Rhonda at down-to-earth, for sharing this On My Mind concept. What's on your mind today? Share your link here or on down-to-earth.