Culinary adventures

I've tried quite a few recipes/techniques lately, but because I'm sat on the sofa with the two kids, half watching Topsy and Tim, and blogging on my phone, you'll have to wait a day or two for actual links. But in the meantime I can tell a bit about what I've tried and you can wait in excited anticipation for links and photos. (If you're friends with me on facebook you may have seen photos or read statuses about some of them, so bear with me!)

Easiyog- this is a yoghurt maker kindly passed on to me from a friend. They're designed to be used with their branded sachets of powder, and I was given several of the sachets, but unfortunately they were past their best before dates and the good bacteria in them had obviously died. We had success with one of them by using a couple of spoons of live plain yoghurt to the mix, so that was fun, but yesterday I made a batch of yoghurt from scratch using some bought plain yoghurt as a starter, and skimmed milk powder and water. The first batch turned out tasty but quite thick, and I've made a few adjustments and a second batch is on the go. You have to let it sit for eight hours so I won't find out until bedtime tonight how it's turned out.

Slow cooker - we had almost two weeks without a working oven so I used it as a good excuse to cook a number of dishes in the slow cooker, savoury and sweet. More info to follow about banana cake, a dense brownie fudge cake, steak, chicken and bolognaise. I've been really pleased with how things have turned out, although I admit it helps if you read the recipe properly - I cooked the chocolate fudge cake thing on high the first time and it was meant to be on low!