How to make yogurt. Speedy date night

Last Saturday night Nick and I had the fastest dinner ever in the story of our relationship. Exactly, 40 minutes. The reason? The wonderful joy of parenthood. Or not too wonderful.

Every beginning of December we try to save a night for a special dinner so while we are eating delicious food and drinking nice red wine, we can plan and organise Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve (and sometimes we talk about our goals for the following year). 

It is our way to celebrate the spirit of Christmas before we are both too busy with Christmas parties, work events, school functions, shopping, cooking and who knows what else. Besides, many people are away from Manila during the "winter" break from the 13 of December, so we should add farewells to the list of entertainment.

This year we left the dinner booking for too late and for this reason it was hard to get a table in the new Spanish restaurant Donosti. But there was finally a table available at 6.30pm because no one eats at that time in Manila unless you have young babies at home and need to be in bed by 9pm.

On Saturday night Aurelia had a friend for a sleep over. She was eager to be alone with her. I notice a certain increase of independence from our little, but not so little anymore, girl. It is sad to accept that your children are slightly flying from the nest, as I did ( but I actually flew to the other side of the world! too far! ).

I went with Aurelia to get the "midnight feast" for the sleepover in the morning. This feast is the most exciting part of spending the night at your friend's house, Aure insists. It means that the girls wake up around 1am to eat sugary snacks, sometimes they brush their teeth after and unintentionally wake up one of the parents. It is around 2am when they go back to sleep. They end having a broken night but lots of secret fun.

It was 6pm when I was getting ready and transforming my appearance from mum to woman.  In a few years time, when my children are a bit older, this transition will become mentally natural, I hope. 

At the same time I was adding a bit of colour to my pale and tired face, I was thinking of the succulent pollo al ajillo  I wanted to try to check whether it had the same taste that my dad's one. Hummm, I was building up my appetite opposite to the mirror.

The big mistake of the night was to leave the house with a sleep baby Juanan who usually goes to bed around 9pm. I did try to wake him up for a last feed, but he did NOT open his lips so there was nothing I could do but crossing my fingers that he wouldn't wake up while we were away. Of course he did.

We got to the restaurant  at 6.25pm and we were the first costumers. I saw the manager in a meeting with the staff when we sat down in our "reserved" table. They were going to have a very busy night ahead.

We ordered a sangria and a cerveza de grifo to start the night. The sangria was divine and for 10 minutes I was transported to one of the terrazas de verano in Madrid. My dream was radically cut off with the first text of my yaya saying : "ma'am, try to feed baby, he crying". 

"Oh, no, this is not promising" I thought.  I ignored the message and drank my second sangria even faster. You might think I was a bad mum but I thought I was a good wife!.

Making the story short, we gobbled up the pintxo de tortilla, the tapa of huevos estrellados, the lamb liver ( I swallowed a whole piece of liver ) and by the time the fritura de setas with alioli arrived to the table, I received 4 texts from my desperate yaya urging me to settle the baby as he was starving. A few tears wouldn't do any harm ( I say it now after having three children ).

It was 7.13pm when we paid the bill and went back to the car. I think we were still chewing the pollo al ajillo driving home. 

I have started to make yogurt at home from scratch ( I don't mean the easy- yo powder you get in the supermarkets, which is totally delicious by the way ) as I used in Solomon Islands in 2005. Once you begin your homemade yogurt, you will become addicted to have it for breakfast, snack, merienda or dessert and of course, for baking cakes ( instead of buttermilk). You can also experiment with flavours.

If your kitchen is cool, place the yogurt in warm water and change the water when it gets cold again. It is important to maintain a warm temperature so the yogurt gets settled. 

Homemade made plain yogurt

• 4 1/2 cups of pasteurized milk
• 1/2 cup greek yogurt or any plain unsweetened full-fat yogurt.

1. Add the milk to a big pot and heat over medium heat until a candy thermometer reaches 180C.
2. Remove the pot from the heat and let the milk cool to 110C.
3. Add the yogurt to the milk and whisk until slightly foamy.
4. Fill a large and a small jar with the mixture and screw on the lids. Warp the jars in a towel to keep them warm and place them in an insulated cooler. It takes around 9 hours. Better to make it before dinner and leave it outside until next morning.
5. Note: 
1. if it is too runny, you can add a bit of non fat milk powder to the yogurt before mixing it to the milk.
2. Make sure to use sterilised glass jars.
3. Makes 1 big jar and one little, 5 cups in total. It lasts 4 days in the fridge. Keep a little for the next batch or simply buy greek yogurt and start again.