IT’S HERE!

I just checked the UPS tracking site and my new yogurt maker is en route to my very doorstep!  I’m just hours away from trying my hand at duplicating the oh-so-delicious, oh-so-expensive Greek yogurt we buy at the fancy pants grocery store in Fort Worth. If you can find it, you owe it to yourself to try Fage Total. Better in black beans and rice than any sour cream. Makes the best tzatziki I’ve ever tasted.

Yes, I know it is possible to make yogurt without adding another appliance to my already crowded kitchen with no cabinet space. I watched that episode of Alton Brown and believe me, I fully intended to try it. After all, I do own a heating pad. But, I’m lazy and disorganized and it is my hope that with the machine I can get in a schedule of starting the yogurt on Sunday morning so that it’s done by Sunday night/Monday morning (I think part of the secret to the thick, creamy goodness of Greek yogurt is long cooking). Then, we’ll have fresh, homemade yogurt all week secure in the knowledge that there’s nothing IN the yogurt but milk, good flora and fauna, and any flavorings we add. No sugar that doesn’t need to be there, no thickening agents or artificial colors.

Y’see, we eat a LOT of yogurt. S uses it in his protein smoothies, which he has 2-3 times a week. Then, there’s my granola which must be consumed mixed in with yogurt. Then, there are the almost nightly bowls of frozen organic blueberries in vanilla yogurt. S has just had to get used to the idea of blue teeth being sexy because I LOVE me some frozen blueberries in yogurt. Anyway, given the amount of yogurt consumed in our house and the fact that it’s so damn hard to find yogurt in quart containers without crap added to it (necessitating many trips to the fancy pants grocery store in Fort Worth where I end up spending waaaaay more than my grocery budget because, look, they have _____!) I figured we’d recoup the cost of the yogurt maker pretty quickly.

Once I get the yogurt making part down, I’m gonna need an ice cream maker because you just know all those yummy ice cream flavor’s Stacie’s been coming up with would be just as good in frozen yogurt.

Happy dance!