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.

What is that smell?

One of the worst smells in the world is raw chicken. It's just nasty.

I love chicken, hate it's smell.

One of the best creations in the world- garbage disposals. They are just wonderful.

Peeling potatoes. no worries, down they go.

Left over food you would rather not touch- turn on the water, rinse it out, disposal does the rest.

Wonderful, truly wonderful.

That said--Never put raw chicken skin down the garbage disposal...it doesn't dispose.

Instead, the chicken skin just goes for a ride around the blades.

"WHEEEEEEE! I love this ride. I'm never getting off! Even when I am old and stinky! NEVER!"

Word from the wise- unless you want the gentle smell of decomposing chicken wafting from your sink, don't put it down your disposal.

It's not like I've done it...multiple times...or anything.

P.S. Wise people are just stupid people who learn from their mistakes...eventually

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.

Almost a year...

It's been almost a year since my last post, and no, nothing really special has happened.

I definitely didn't get proposed to in the EPCOT parking lot.

Nor did I get married in the Orlando Temple.

And, since those things did not happen, I did not have to move to married housing. I am most certainly not loving having a home of my own with my awesome husband.

And, I also did not stay in Rexburg with an internship while my husband goes to school, and I do not look up articles and call places and read books for my mentor.

Nope. Nu-huh. None of that has happened. The year just went by slowly and uneventfully.

Thank goodness, I don't know if I could have handled all those changes.