Betty, the killer, yogurt, free food and aarrggh!

 To answer a few recent comments - Donna, thank you for your kind words about my beautiful Betty, yes she is half Shar Pei, half English Bulldog.  She takes after her mother, the Shar Pei, in looks, but has her father's deep chest and strength.  She's quite aloof, a Shar Pei characteristic, but is goofy like a bulldog.

Sandi, yes the nurse baby killer says she's innocent, despite having been almost caught in the act a few times and numerous consultants and fellow nurses voicing their serious concerns about her.  Personally, I think she's a psychopath, she's certainly mentally ill of course, nobody in their right mind would do what she did.

Lola's Mum - I initially googled yogurt making, it did seem simple but quite a few recipes were fixated on exact times and testing temperatures with a thermometer - I can't be doing with that (I don't have a food thermometer anyway and wasn't going to buy one).  So I just winged it really - what did I have to lose, other than a carton of milk and one of yogurt?  I poured 2 litres of full fat milk into my slow cooker and set it to Low, for about 2 hours or possibly slightly longer, I didn't time it as such.  At the end of that time I took the lid off and stuck my (clean!) finger in the milk to check the temperature, it was fairly hot, although not boiling.  I put the lid back on, switched off the cooker and left it to cool for another couple of hours....at the end of which time the milk was warmish, certainly not hot anymore but not cold either.  I took out a couple of ladlefuls of the milk and put it in a jug, then added a 200g pot of full fat live Greek yogurt, stirring it well until no lumps visible.  Poured it all back into the slow cooker and stirred well to mix through.  Put the lid back on and covered the whole cooker with a couple of hand towels, as recommended.  Then I just left it overnight, still switched off.  In the morning, when I took the towels and lid off, I was surprised (but very pleased) to find a big potful of nice thick yogurt!  You need to think about the timing of when you do it, it's best to start the process off in the late afternoon, it needs around 2 hours heating up initially, then a couple of hours cooling down before mixing in the yogurt before you go to bed, and then leaving overnight (8-12 hours is recommended).  2 litres of milk certainly makes a lot of yogurt, I decanted it into 3 big tubs.  In future I might just use 1 litre of milk and 100g yogurt.  If you want it to be really thick, like Greek yogurt, then the recommendation is to strain it through muslin into a large jug or bowl, apparently you leave it until the whey drains out, which could take some time.  I didn't bother though, what I (or rather the slow cooker) made is plenty thick enough for me. 

I need to do the council housing application review today, so will take my laptop upstairs so I can do it in peace.  I've also got some other admin stuff to do which needs concentration, luckily, I slept fairly well last night.  Need to do a menu plan as well.

I was a bit annoyed with myself for forgetting something when we were coming home from the caravan the other day.  The park is surrounded by trees and shrubs, including blackberries, fruit and cob nut trees, we are told we can help ourselves.  Just near our van is a huge Victoria plum tree which is heavily laden with fruit, I meant to pick a bagful and bring them home.  With everything else I had to do to pack up, I completely forgot.  I wonder if there'll be any left worth picking when we go back in 10 or 12 days, or whether the birds, wasps and squirrels will have had them all?

ADDED

So much for peaceful concentration today - both our neighbours are doing DIY of various sorts today, they're both DIY fanatics.  The one attached to our house (a semi) is using power tools which are loud and making the walls and floors of our house vibrate.  The one on the other side of our drive has got scaffolding up and is doing something noisy to his roof and gutters.  And husband has just started mowing the lawns.  Think I'll put my Meatloaf album on and play it VERY LOUDLY!