DIY Caramel Pudding

I love good caramel, not just any caramel, but rich, delicious (preferably homemade) caramel. This recipe for homemade caramel pudding tastes rich, but is actually quite low in sugar and fat compared to most recipes with caramel in them.

Homemade Creamy Caramel Pudding Recipe

• ½ cup sugar
• 2 cups whole milk (divided)
• 1 egg
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch

1. In a small mixing bowl, begin by stirring together ½ cup milk, egg, and cornstarch until well combined.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt sugar over medium heat, tilting and stirring the mixture frequently to prevent scourching.
3. After the sugar is all melted and caramelized (dark amber color), slowly add 1½ cups milk. This mixture will bubble and foam, and the sugar will harden.
4. Continue to stir over low heat until the sugar melts again.
5. Take a couple of big spoonfuls (¼ to ½ cup) of the warm milk mixture, and add it into the cornstarch and egg mixture. Don't skip this step. This tempers the egg and prevents it from becoming a scrambled egg when adding it into the hot milk.
6. Pour the cornstarch and egg mixture into the warm milk, and stir quickly to combine well.
7. Continue to stir over medium heat until the pudding thickens and begins to bubble.
8. You can serve this pudding warm (sounds good in the winter) or chill for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days and serve it cold.

DIY Banana Frozen Yogurt

This sweet frozen yogurt was a big hit around here. Bananas have so much natural sweetness in them that this frozen yogurt turns out well and tastes great with very little added sugar.

Homemade Banana Frozen Yogurt Recipe

• 2 large or 3 small bananas peeled
• 1/4 cup sugar (or honey)
• 3 cups plain yogurt (homemade works great!)

1. Peel bananas, and put in the blender with sugar and 1 cup yogurt.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Stir in remaining yogurt (this keeps the yogurt from getting too runny).
4. Freeze in an ice cream freezer, or follow the directions here to freezer in your regular freezer.

This recipe makes about 1 quart or liter of frozen yogurt.

DIY Pretty Plum Frozen Yogurt

Plums produce a very subtle flavor in this sweet, fruity frozen yogurt.

Plum Frozen Yogurt Recipe

• 1 cup plums
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 cups plain yogurt (homemade works great)

1. Remove the pit from the plums, and slice them. (I didn't bother to peel them because I am lazy and don't like to peel fruit when it isn't necessary.)
2. Put plums, sugar, and 1 cup yogurt in the blender, and blend until smooth. This gets all ingredients super-smooth really fast. You can't even taste the peel. You can only see small specks in the yogurt. The plum peel gives this frozen yogurt its pretty pink color since the flesh of these plums was white.
3. Stir in remaining yogurt to prevent thinning the mixture to much.
4. Freeze in an ice cream freezer, or follow these directions to freeze in your regular freezer.

Recipe makes about 1 quart or liter of frozen yogurt.

DIY Easy Lemon Marmalade

Making your own marmalade is surprisingly easy and requires very few ingredients. Lemon marmalade is a refreshing and unique twist on the classic orange marmalade. You could even use a combination of orange and lemon together for a really unusual marmalade.

Homemade Lemon Refrigerator Marmalade Recipe

• 1 extra large or 2 regular lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water

1. Wash the lemon(s) well, and cut off the top and bottom, but do not peel. This time this has nothing to do with my disdain for peeling things unnecessarily, you need the peel for the recipe to work right. The peel has natural pectin in it that will help the marmalade thicken. Without it you will have runny marmalade.
2. Cut the lemon(s) into eight or more pieces and place in the blender with the sugar and the water. Blend well.*
3. Transfer to a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
4. Boil for 15–20 minutes, until well thickened.
5. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. If you have any undesired chunks of lemon in the marmalade, you can scoop them out at this point.
6. Transfer to a glass jar, and refrigerate for storage. I have read that this type of marmalade can be kept in a cold refrigerator for up to 6 months, but I have never had it last long enough to test that myself.

*You may have noticed by now that I love my blender, as it makes so many things easier. You can make marmalade without a blender by cutting the unpeeled lemon(s) into very small pieces, boiling, and then mashing with a potato masher. This is a little more work and makes it a little chunkier, but it will still very good. I have made lots of marmalade successfully using this method, and some people even prefer chunkier marmalade.

DIY Chocolate Peanut Butter Granola Bars

These are great for snacking at home or on the go. Just wrap them individually in plastic wrap. The boys love these chocolate granola bars as much as most types of cookies.

Homemade Chocolate Granola Bars Recipe

• ½ cup peanut butter
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cocoa powder
• 1½ cups oatmeal
• ½ additions (raisins, other dried fruit, seeds, chocolate chips, or just more oatmeal)

1. Melt peanut butter in a medium saucepan on the stove.
2. Stir in honey and cocoa powder.
3. Add oats, and stir until well coated. Add additions (unless using chocolate chips, and then wait until the mixture cools), and stir well.
4. Spread into a greased 9x9 pan, and bake at 350 F for 15–20 minutes.
5. Remove from oven, and allow to cool 10–15 minutes before cutting into bars.

Family Fridays: Open House Garden Tour

Mother's Day 2011 by the pond

I already showed you the inside and outside of our apartment here, but I thought I'd do one more quick photo tour of the gardens and parks in our apartment complex. We are very blessed to live in a complex with nice grounds, as it makes it easier to live in such a big city. Especially, living here with two very busy and active little boys.

Mother's Day 2011 in front of bamboo

Andrew walking around the complex

On a bridge over the pond

Mother's Day 2011 by the palm trees in front of the pond

Father's Day 2011 throwing sticks

Playing in the meadow

"Rock climbing"

More "rock climbing"

Complex park

Little friend

Getting dirty

In the sand

Vroom

Playing with little friends outside

Throwing flowers by the exercise park

DIY Easy Orange Marmalade

Making your own marmalade is surprisingly easy and requires very few ingredients. I used 1 large navel orange for this batch but look forward to making it again when the small sweet mandarin oranges comeback in season as well. Do you think it is funny that Walmart has Sunkist navel oranges here? I sure do.

Homemade Orange Refrigerator Marmalade

• 1 large or 2 small oranges
• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup water

1. Wash the orange(s) well, and cut off the top and bottom, but do not peel. This actually has nothing to do with my disdain for peeling things unnecessarily, you need the peel for the recipe to work right. The peel has natural pectin in it that will help the marmalade thicken. Without it you will have runny marmalade.
2. Cut orange into eight or more pieces, and place in the blender with the sugar and the water. Blend well.*
3. Transfer to a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
4. Boil for 15–20 minutes until well thickened.
5. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. If you have any undesired chunks of orange in the marmalade, you can scoop them out at this point.
6. Transfer to a glass jar, and refrigerate for storage. I have read that this type of marmalade can be kept in a cold refrigerator for up to 6 months, but I have never had it last long enough to test that myself.

*You may have noticed by now that I love my blender, as it makes so many things easier. You can make marmalade without a blender by cutting the unpeeled orange into very small pieces, boiling, and then mashing with a potato masher. This is a little more work and makes it a little chunkier, but it will still very good. I have made lots of marmalade successfully using this method, and some people even prefer chunkier marmalade.

DIY Caramelized Pear Frozen Yogurt

This frozen yogurt has the great combination of caramel balanced with naturally sweet fruit in a tangy yogurt base. My husband even liked this light fruit filled frozen yogurt better than rich caramel ice cream.

Homemade Caramel Pear Frozen Yogurt

• 1 large or 2 small pears finely diced
• 1/2 cup sugar (divided)
• 3 cups plain yogurt (homemade works great!)

1. After you finely diced the pears, put them in a small saucepan with 1/4 cup of sugar. Saute over low heat to caramelize the sugar. It may take a while to cook out the excess liquid from the pear to allow the sugar to thicken and caramelize.
2. Remove from heat, and allow the caramelized pear to cool.
3. Stir 1/4 cup of sugar into the yogurt.
4. Add the cooled pear pieces and stir to distribute evenly.
5. Freeze in an ice cream freezer, or follow these instructions to freeze in your regular freezer.

This recipe make about 1 quart or liter of frozen yogurt.

DIY Dreamsicle Frozen Yogurt

This light citrusy frozen yogurt is refreshing and great for a warm summer day. It also provides a little extra vitamin C to help boost your immune system anytime of the year.

Homemade Orange Frozen Yogurt Recipe

• 1 large or 2 small oranges peeled
• 1/2 cup sugar (or honey)
• 3 cups plain yogurt (homemade works great!)
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

1. Pull apart or cut 1 or 2 orange into segments, and put in the blender with sugar, 1 cup yogurt, and vanilla (if desired).
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Stir in remaining yogurt (this keeps the yogurt from getting too runny).
4. Freeze in an ice cream freezer or follow the directions here to freezer in your regular freezer.

This recipe makes about 1 quart or liter of frozen yogurt.

Mandarin Mondays: 天气

Something that a lot of people seem curious about is what the weather (tiān qì, 天气) is like here in Kunming (昆明). Kunming's weather is one of the mildest climates around. It is far enough south that it rarely gets too cold (tài lěng, 太冷), and its high altitude (1,900 m above sea level) keeps it from getting very hot (hěn rè, 很热). In fact, it is often called the "Spring City" or the "Green City" because of its mild weather and lush vegetation.

Right now in summer (xià tiān, 夏天), it is warm, not hot, with average highs about 75 F and average lows about 62 F. Summer is the rainy season, and it does rain a lot: 7–8 inches a month on average. It can get quite chilly here when it rains (yǔ, 雨). In fact they have a saying here: "It's winter when it rains." But it warms back up when the sun shines, and this keeps it from ever getting too hot here. Apparently the record high was 90 F.

The rains begin to taper off in September (jiǔ yuè, 九月). September (jiǔ yuè, 九月) and October (shí yuè, 十月) are supposed to be still very nice with most days still in the low 70s. Fall (qiū tiān, 秋天) is very mild here.

In November (shí yī yuè, 十一月), the average highs begin to drop to the 60's, and the rains slow to almost nothing. In winter (dōng tiān, 冬天), the average highs are about 60 F, and the average lows about 36 F. The weather can be a little crazy at times, and occasionally there are freak snows (xià xuě, 下雪). We actually experienced one in March (sān yuè, 三月), but this is quite rare. The record low was 18 F.


In spring (chūn tiān, 春天), the temperature climbs back up to 70–75 F for highs and 45–60 F for lows. Usually in May (wǔ yuè, 五月), the rains begin again.

This climate is great for agriculture and gardening. Kunming is famous for it's horticulture. It produces a lot of different fruits (shuǐ guǒ, 水果) and vegetables (shū cài, 蔬菜), and much of China's flowers (huā, 花) are exported from this area.