Two questions for the readers!

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Usually I answer Q&A submissions, but sometimes I get questions I’m not really well equipped to answer, and I’ve got two of those today.

Help me out!

I am wondering if you know of a good way to refresh the marks on a glass measuring cup. I have a quart sized glass one that is in good shape, except that I can barely read the markings. I hate to get a new one since this one is still usable, but on the other hand, it isn’t really usable if I can’t tell how much I have in there… Are there markers or paints that would stay on glass?
Thanks,

~Grace

(image from a post on Smitten Kitchen about this same issue)

This is a timely question because one of my measuring cups is almost completely marker-less at this point and I’d better take care of it soon if I want to know where the markings even go!

I think your best bet would be a glass paint marker, such as this one. I believe you have to bake the item once you’ve marked it in order to set the paint, but that should be no problem for a glass measuring cup.

To make this project more financially sensible, I’d print out a coupon from A.C. Moore or Michael’s so you can get 40% off your paint marker.

I recently made yogurt for the first time using your directions. It came out so thick and smooth and wonderful (which really is wonderful b/c my 9 month old eats the stuff like it’s nobody’s business and that ain’t cheap).

It made me feel like I could venture out into the world of other homemade-dairy-ish things and I found a recipe online for cottage cheese. I made it and it tasted like cottage cheese the 1st day, then the 2nd day it some how turned into this super stuck-together gel-y monster curd that wouldn’t break apart. Did I do something wrong? or does home-made cottage cheese only last 1 day? Any advice you could give would be wonderful.

P.S. Oh, I forgot to add what I did: I brought 1/2 gal of whole milk to 120 degrees, added 1/2 cup vinegar, stirred for about a minute while it separated, strained the curds/when through a cheese cloth, then rinsed the curds with cold water and added salt.

Hmm.   I’ve never made cottage cheese before, but the method you’re describing sounds more like the ricotta-ish cheese recipes I’ve seen online.

I did a little poking around, and it looks like more serious recipes for cottage cheese use rennet to make the curds.   Maybe that makes a difference?

Hopefully some of my readers have tried both the rennet and rennet-less versions and can give you some advice.

(By the way, I’m so glad your yogurt turned out well!)

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Alrighty, readers!   Any experience with glass markers or cottage-cheese making?

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Joshua’s 52 Project post: Bones