A friend of mine once described a family he knows as follows: "they are such hippies they make their own yogurt." To which I whole-heartedly agreed, "wow, total hippies."
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when we made yogurt for the first time. Or maybe "grew" is a better word than "made". In any case, it was a cinch and the yogurt was delicious. We sweetened the plain yogurt with honey and vanilla—so yummy.
I found the recipe in Kathy Farrell-Kingsley's book The Home Creamery, a gorgeous book that has inspired me to even try making cheese again. (I tried my hand at making mozzarella once—I put it on a pizza and, long story short, we had takeout for dinner that night. )
The blueberry recipe? Blueberry yogurt, of course (it's not so much a recipe as a suggestion, I suppose). Processing fresh blueberries into this yogurt gave it a seasonal zing, tangy and sweet. I should mention that the blueberries did make the yogurt a bit thinner.
If you're not up for making your own yogurt, simply blending (or food-processing) the berries into plain or vanilla yogurt would work just as well. Store-bought blueberry yogurt does not compare to the freshness of adding your own berries.
Homemade yogurt has now made its way into our regular kitchen routine. So this begs the question, does that make us "hippies"?
{note: the recipe for making yogurt is available if you follow the link above to Amazon.com, then click on the "search inside this book" link on the left}
Ha! Now you're the hippies! I want to try it. Hey can you strain the yogurt to make it thicker? I know that before that thick Greek yogurt was available, Middle Eastern recipes that called for yogurt would suggest straining regular yogurt overnight.
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