YOGUE!

No, not Vogue, you read it right, Yogue.

I found a website that was all about slow cooking. It was her New Years resolution to use her slow cooker (crockpot) every day that year.

One of the entries was making homemade yogurt in a crockpot.

Ok, yeah right. Right? Wrong!

It works, I did it. I made yogurt in my slow cooker.

I know, you are way excited too, so here is the website.

I used a 7 qt crockpot. (There are currently only two of us, I know it is large, but I plan on there being more. Not to mention it has worked pretty well thus far.)
I did it exactly like she said. Expect it was cold last night so I plopped the whole crockpot wrapped in a towel in my oven.

At first I thought it was just sour milk. It looked kinda curdled and separated.

But I am not one to let things die without playing with it for a while...until I lose interest and throw it out.

I looked around on the internet for some information about the texture of homemade yogurt and found this.

Phew, my mind was put to rest.

I didn't like the texture, so I did what a few of the comment on both sites have suggested- I strained it!

They say to use cheese cloth or muslin (not even sure what that is exactly, I mean, what makes it different than regular cotton fabric...yeah, just looked it up. It's just a loose weave cotton.)

Anyway, didn't have any of those around. So I used a tea towel (Which is probably pretty much muslin, just a little tighter.)

I love tea towels, they're so useful in many ways...

Back to yogurt.

I also strained a little at at time in coffee filters I bought just for that reason. It helps to be able to see the texture to know when to stop.

So it just made Greek yogurt instead of cheese. I'm sure the tea towel works just as well for that...but my only clean one was being used making cheese.

Here is where I found out exactly how to make yogurt cheese. Not to mention her awesome 101 ways to serve plain yogurt.

All-in-all, I'm way stoked! And I found a recipe for frozen yogurt without an ice cream machine. I think the author got her yogurt and water quantities mixed up. It's simple enough to mess with though.

I've eaten the yogurt with a little lime jello mix (it was before I strained it, so it was grainy...which it might be anyway, but I'm gonna try it again) and honey (yummy, didn't think it would be that great, but it really was).

P.S. I did the frozen yogurt thing...yeah, it ended up like a smoothie. But, I am in the sub artic, so I got some snow from outside and put my bowl in it. After mixing it around for a while, it became a little bit thicker. It is now in the freezer, and I'll take it out every once in a while and give it a little stir.

P.P.S. The yogurt thickens up and comes together after a few days. Very nicely, I might add.

Cooking and cleaning

I love cooking. I hate cleaning dishes.

You can see where I might run into a few problems.

I have decided that the only way for me to pursue my love of cooking and not have to clean anything is to open a restaurant. That way I will be able to cook and then I can pay someone to clean the kitchen.

Problem solved.

Of heroins and brownie mix

I have just decided that I am going to be the heroin of my own story.

"Aren't you always?" They say.

Nay! Sometimes, people (myself) are silly and allow others to be the heroes/heroins of their stories. So, my life is now going through a major editing session. Basically, I am re-writing everything. The characters are currently under major renovation, and the plot is going to change dramatically. Don't worry, every thing will be essentially the same...well, as far as the word "essentially" can be stretched. Ok, you get the gist.

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Chocolate is probably the best discovery(next to the discovery of milk chocolate). Brownies are probably the noblest use of chocolate is the whole universe. Scratch that, they ARE the noblest.

New recipes rather scare me sometimes. Does it really taste as good as it says it does? Will it affect how people view my cooking if I follow the recipe and it is terrible?

You know, the basic paranoia.

This brownie mix claimed to be "easy." It was right there in the title, "Easy Brownies." I figured, "Well, I want the most chocolaty goodness with the least amount of effort. Let's give it a try."

That may one day win a spot with other famous last words. But I digress.

First I preheated the oven (it takes a while to heat up sometimes). Then, I set to work on the batter (a liquid or semi-liquid mixture, as opposed to dough: a soft, thick mixture). It was relatively easy.

The oven was preheated and the brownies were ready to be baked (to cook with a dry heat, more specific than "cook" which is to prepare by applying heat).

I opened the oven door, put the pan in, and WHAM! My eyes started to burn and my nose was hurting from the smoke.

I hate oven cleaner. It never comes all the way off the first five times wiping it out. It smells awful and is probably poisonous to normal people. Why do we use it? Because we are inherently lazy beings that do not want to do more than we have to, even at the cost of our longevity.

I grabbed the brownies out of the toxic oven when I was finally able to concentrate on something besides my burning eyes. I was very, very upset.

But, to make a long story short...er, I finished baking them at a friends house where they were received with much joy and celebration.

The End.

P.S. The new recipe is decent, not my favorite.