I apologize that I was not on the board in the last many months -- I am sure that I missed a gazillion great recipes from you great chefs. And I apologize that I cannot remember recipes posted here before I vanished. But I did go through my new recipes files (some of which I'm sure came from this forum) and I will post those that tuned out worthy of being made again. Fact is, there was at least double this amount that I would NOT make again; I just don't remember the bad ones and I don't file away those recipes. Chiles en Escabeche Tuñapple Crisp Agua de Tamarindo Easy Layered Ratatouille Roasted Root Vegetable and White Bean Cassoulet Tarte aux Pommes et au Fenouil Caramelise (Apple Tart ... with Caramelized Fennel) Acadian Apple Bread Pudding with Spiced Apple-Wine Sauce Baked Spiced Sweet Potatoes and Pears with Bourbon Cane... Syrup Glaze Fennel & Tomato Salad Siciliana Caponata Speciale Sugo Diane Country Style Vegetarian Lasagna Macedonia (Italian Macerated Fruit Salad) Mulberry and Nectarine Cobbler Creamed Cipollinis and Mushrooms Persimmon Ginger Pudding Saucy Apple Bread Pudding Stuffed Strawberries Apricot Fritters Creamy Pomegranate Parfait Frozen Feijoa Soufflé Apple Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips Roasted Eggplant And Garlic Soup Forgive me for not crediting any originators. I will do better this coming year to actually write down who posted what. Linda has put up a great post/question. I hope everyone -- including myself -- starts writing down all the recipes they try from this forum and has them ready when Linda posts this question on January 1, 2009. Joe

Grainlady, Thanks much! I don't drink much milk anymore & it's getting expensive to buy milk every week or two to keep my cultures going. 4 or 5 oz is all I need. I have Crohn's and try to eat a spoonful with my 1 meal of the day. The rest I use for fermentation starters. Great stuff! jt

I wouldn't add any sugar or butter, although I understand the grains like a little milk fat. Meanwhile, mine are happy fermenting in fat-free reconstituted powdered milk. I do occasionally add a bit of half and half if I happen to have some around after I read that information. Raw goat milk probably has the fat in it since I doubt it's been processed through a separator. If I have some milk in the refrigerator I think is about to "turn" on me, that's when I make a point of making kefir. It's going to sour anyway during the fermentation stage. I try to use the freshest milk I have when I rest them in the refrigerator, especially if I know it's going to be several days, or up to a week, before I make kefir again. What will help your grains grow is making consecutive batches - non-stop kefiring. Once your grains are acclimated, you can add them to milk and ferment for 6-8 hours and then take the grains out and add them to another batch. Leave the first batch sit for 12-24 hours TOTAL (until you achieve the thickness you like). There is more than enough good bacteria in the first batch to make nice thick kefir even without the grains in it. If you do that for a several days you should see enough growth to divide the grains within a week or two. You may also need to put the grains in more than one cup of milk as they grow. I use 2-1/2 c. of milk per quart jar + 1/4 - 1/3 c. kefir grains. What is the temperature where you are placing your kefir for fermenting? As our home gets colder (mid- to lower-60-degrees F), it takes the kefir longer to ferment, but it's also sweeter-tasting and less tart than in the summer when the house is much warmer. The kefir also ferments much quicker in the warmer temperatures. If the fermenting temperature is too warm, the kefir gets very grainy and separates, instead of a nice smooth curd. I divide the grains when they get to the size of a quarter. How to: with clean fingers (make sure there isn't any soap residue on your hands after washing them), pull them apart into 2 or 3 portions. They easily pull apart where they are the weakest. -Grainlady

Yes...(about powdered eggs). This is information I received via e-mail from Honeyville Grain just the other day. "As many of you know we have been out of stock on our #10 cans of Powdered Whole Eggs and Egg Whites for about 3 months. This has been as a result of working with the USDA on plant and label approval with new stricter requirements with respect to eggs. We've endured numerous delays and setbacks throughout the process. About a week ago we had received approval to begin Production. We did so and even had product on UPS trailers ready to be picked up. We got a call from the USDA stating that they had put us through the wrong process and we would have to start over again. We had to pull all of the outbound orders and go back into a holding pattern. At this point we are moving through the process but have no idea when we'll be back in business with the canned eggs. It is a frustrating situation with one of our best sellers and we apologize for the delay. Just as soon as we have product ready to ship we will send out an email to all of our great Honeyville Customers. We appreciate your patience." Kefir - I only use powdered milk products - period. I don't purchase store-bought milk. We use a whey-based milk substitute - Morning Moo's - for drinking and cooking. I store another brand, Country Cream, and use it for my kefir - http://www.grandmascountryfoods.com/. The Country Cream seems to work better than the whey-based product for kefir, unfortunately it's more expensive than Morning Moo's. I've never tried it with store-brand powdered milk. If you do let me know how it works - just out of curiosity. I've made it with fresh goat milk, but I don't have a source for it anymore. Do you know you can place your grains in a jar of milk and "rest" them in the refrigerator (for 7-10-days, or so)? I usually keep 1/3 to 1/2-cup of grains going, and place mine in 1-cup of milk in a pint jar and rest them for 5-7-days before making kefir. I usually have 4-6 cups of kefir in the refrigerator at any one time, and when I get that much I'll rest my grains until I need to make more. When I want to use them again I'll remove the grains from the milk and place them in 2 to 2-1/2-cups of milk in a quart jar. You can leave the pint jar of milk the grains were resting in sitting out at room temperature and it will have enough kefir in from the grains to ferment into kefir. My new favorite... I make kefir using coconut milk. I use coconut milk powder (reconstituted) but you can use canned coconut milk. You might try it when your grains get bigger and you need to divide them and have some extra grains. Once I used them in coconut milk, I store them in coconut milk and only use them with coconut milk. We love it added to pineapple/orange juice smoothie for a great pina colada taste - or just plain instead of yogurt, or topped with homemade granola. I use kefir as a replacement for buttermilk, and I use it in my bread. I never thought about it rising better because of it. But then, that's what I've always used in my bread recipe ;-) -Grainlady