Hair and Hockey Go Together like Henrik and Daniel, Coffee and Bailey's, Babies and Diapers.

I have fine memories of hockey... and hair... together.  Saturday Nights were hockey nights in our house, and it was also the nights us kids took regular baths.  My hair was past my bottom and in an Ontario winter, I could not go to bed with it wet.  My dad would blow-dry my hair and watch the hockey game that was on.  The other thing that made it pretty special was that it was the one night of the week that we were allowed to eat chips and have half a pop.  I found myself re-creating old memories the other night during Vancouver's Game 4 against the Sharks.

Twirling Kaelyn's hair while the Vancouver Canucks played Game 4 of their series with the San Jose Sharks.

Dave and Wes were out running errands.

Kaelyn and I watched the game... and did our hair.

Luongo under seige.

Our attempt at trying to create curly hair. I did not blow-dry it though... I can't even imagine the noise intrusion during a game... I'm sure my brothers resented my hair and were pretty happy when I cut it just before hockey season when I was in grade 3.

Bringing my girls up right!!!  The curly hair was a disaster, but the Canucks won 4-2!!!

Canuck Overtime Totally killed my Yogurt

I used to make yogurt in my oven. I had a gas stove and so the pilot light in the oven was always on. Perfect for making your own yogurt. There isn't anything easier to make. Take some milk, whisk in some plain yogurt and let it sit in the oven with only the heat from the pilot light for 8 hours and TA DA!! Homemade Yogurt.

My friend (life-saver) Marie came over this morning so that I could go to the Mother's Day Tea with Wesley at Garden Gate Preschool. She brought with her 2 Litres of Raw milk from her newly acquired dairy farm. I was thrilled, but I had just bought about 8 Litres of milk (because my kids only have the option of milk or water at home), so I knew right away that I HAD to try making yogurt with my crock-pot. I found a crock-pot yogurt recipe about a year ago and hadn't tried it yet.

I got out my meat thermometer, because I knew I would have to keep an eye on the temperature. I meant to follow the directions. But I thought I knew better. After all, I'm a VETERAN YOGURT MAKER. Just a little out of practice. I did follow MOST of them... until.... I took the temperature of the fermenting yogurt mixture and it was less than 110 degrees. Yogurt has to be incubated between 110 and 120 degrees to be just right. (perfect gas oven pilot light temperature). So in a moment of thoughtless panic, I thought I'd plug in my crock-pot just to warm it up just a tiny bit. Wellll.... then I got caught up in Canuck overtime and completely forgot about the yogurt on the counter in the crock-pot that was PLUGGED IN!!! WHAT THE VEGT?!?!? At 10:45 into overtime Ryan Kesler scored the winning goal for Vancouver and I.... remembered my yogurt.

I killed it. Murdered all those lovely yogurt cultures... the Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bifidus and Lactobacillus casei... all of them.... dead. The yogurt was supposed to sit all night in the UNPLUGGED crock pot insulated to set.... and Canuck overtime totally killed my yogurt. 10 minutes was all it took for my yogurt to get to 140 degrees. 20 Degrees over the maximum. I could tell right away. GLOP. Total Glop. Clear runny liquid separated from all the thick DEAD glop on the bottom. My 'What the Vegt' debut story, humiliated.... and perfect all the same; a fitting illustration of my life, my blog title, and my rookie hobby farm owner. To top it off, I feel completely guilty and mortified and heartbroken that I totally (wait, I'm blaming the Canucks aren't I? If you boys could just win one in regulation time my cooking, blogging and life would be so much better).... I feel totally wretched that I wasted and ruined my lovely gift of raw milk. Sorry Marie. The Canucks will be so sorry.

Determined to try again.

Here's the CrockPot Yogurt Recipe....