My Sister is Engaged to a Chef

Yes, that's the name of my new hit reality t.v. series. Jealous? You should be. Forget the fact that we totally love Richard and everything about him, not to mention the fact that he is an amazing chef. How has this affected me? Well, for one, my life has changed so that every now and then, when I least expect it, a magical chef fairy (actually, Richard hates fairies. Let's call him a wizard instead) swoops into my house and in hours, puts an absolutely gorgeous (as cousin Phil would say) meal on my table. It's unbelievable! Just the other night, I was going through my normal Sunday routine, minding my own business, when, all of a sudden, Hannah and Richard barged in for family night and whipped up this fantastic Ethiopian spread. No joke, it was amazing. Kevin loved it, and Sapphie too. And, they wouldn't take any leftovers so we enjoyed it for lunch the next day! Then, a few days later, they showed up with Mexican and blew our minds with black bean soup and outrageous tacos (get this - Richard fills the tacos with meat and cheese, then puts them in the oven so the cheese melts and stays hot even when you put the cold fillings on - genius!). It's almost like a fantasy. It gives me an idea of what it would be like to have my own personal chef. Pretty amazing.
The second way this has influenced my life is that if I want to make something from scratch, Richard encourages me and gives me the confidence to do it. My most recent task: to make my own yogurt. Sound scary? Well I'm telling you I was scared. I kept putting it off. Then, when I finally went for it, I realized it's so easy it's laughable! How much money I've spent on yogurt, oh God I don't even want to think about it! And, my yogurt came out so yummy!! Here I will share with you Richard's tried and true method for making your own yogurt:
Ingredients
-1 gallon whole milk (Hood milk seems to make better yogurt than Monument. Richard isn't sure why but I'm going to figure it out somehow).
-1/2 cup dry milk powder (you can get this in bulk at City Market, very cheap)
-2 packets of yogurt starter OR, 1/4 cup live plain yogurt (I used Butterworks. You just want to get plain, and a good brand that you know is fresh so the cultures are good).

Directions
1. Pour the milk into a large pot that has been freshly rinsed with water (to remove soap residue), add the powdered milk, and put the pot on the stove. Cook on medium high until a nice froth forms at the top, or the temperature reaches 180 degrees. Don't let the milk boil or burn!
2. Remove from heat and let it slowly cool to 116 degrees, or when it's cool enough that you can put your pinky in and count to ten without burning yourself.
3. Add the yogurt or starter culture, stir
4. Keep it at 116 degrees, covered, for at least 6 hours.
5. After at least 6 hours, the yogurt will be ready! It should be a nice thick consistency, like yogurt. If it's still too runny for you, you can strain it (I did because I love Greek yogurt). Simply pour the yogurt over a colander lined with a clean white dishtowel, place on top of a mixing bowl so the fluid can drip down into the bowl, and let it sit for 1-2 hours.

Depending on how thick you like it, this recipe will make you 3-4 quarts of yogurt. I used yogurt as my starter culture, instead of spending money on the packets.

What I did is cook the yogurt in the late morning, then put the pot on the warming burner of my stove for the rest of the day, then bottled it up before I went to bed. If you don't have a warming burner, you can either put it in your oven on warm (although my "warm" is 170 degrees), or put it in a sunny spot, or next to a heater.

That's it! If you are a fan of yogurt, you must try this. It's so easy and inexpensive, and you'll be so proud to serve your own homemade yogurt to friends and family. We've been eating ours with lemon curd mixed in, or maple syrup depending on our mood. Sapphie likes hers plain too. Thank you uncle Richard! I can't wait to try and make more of my favorite foods from scratch. xo