homemade yogies

I had been meaning to try homemade yogurt for maybe a year or so, because we eat a lot of it around here and the good stuff -- the greek stuff! -- is expensive. It is unbelievably easy and you don't need a fancy yogurt maker.. just a crock pot.

to start - you need one cup of plain yogurt with live active cultures, and one half gallon of milk. my first try, I used regular vitamin d milk. you know, the kind in the front of veg-mans (I say that with a heavy german accent all of the time). I've read the less pasteurized and the more whole the betta.

if you start this at 4pm-ish, you can leave it overnight and wake up to morning yogurt numminess. put your milk in your pot de la crock and turn it on LOW for 2.5 hours. after that, shut the crockpot off and leave it, covered, for another 3 hours. after the 3 hours, stir in the cup of yogurt (once you have some made you can use that as the starter) until there's no more lumpies in your lovely lady humps. unplug your CP -- swaddle it in a large towel (to help it maintain as much heat as possible overnight) and leave it alone for 8ish hours. I put it in my oven so that nothing would disturb it overnight, such as a random cat or a ninja. hey, just playing it safe, you never know.

in the morning, you will have thick yummy yogurt! if you like it thicker (insert inappropriate weiner comment), let it strain in the fridge for the day. line a strainer with cheesecloth or coffee filters (<-- classy) and put it in a bowl and the whey will drain out after a few hours.

we've been mixing it with a spoonfuls of strawberry or blackberry jam and honey, but I want to whip up some lemon curd so I can mix that with some blueberries frozen from the summer!