A good blogger responds to the world with which he or she is interacting.
I like community. I like it when comments go somewhere, and bloggers actually answer them. 
It’s especially awesome when even the super-popular kids respond to their commenters. I lose interest in blogs that don’t reply to comments… which includes the *really* popular ones that “everyone” reads.
A bad blogger makes grand statements… and then abandons them.
Many moons ago, Spabettie’s Kristina asked me for the recipe for my pomegranate grapefruit cupcakes. I said “sure!” And then, months passed. 
It took forensic searching through my handwritten recipes, and some internet searching to get an answer, though it probably seemed more like just giving up on it. In the end, I could tell from the way I’d written it that I hadn’t come up with it myself. And now I know that to be true: it was inspired by this recipe, on Chokylit’s Cupcake Bakeshop Blog. I used more grapefruit juice and zest and grapefruited the frosting, too… but otherwise, she is the genius, not I.
There we have it. Promise fulfilled.
A guilty blogger is one who knows there was no real reason for not following through.
Alina asked me about yogurt cheese in November. No problem! I took some pics before I left for NZ and imagined I’d have time to put the pieces together while I was there… not so much, in the end, and while I’m sorry about the delay, you know what? I don’t regret it. There’s something to be said for living in the now.
But luckily, guilt will keep me honest:
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in a nutshell, yogurt cheese is just strained yogurt. It’s got Greek yogurt-like consistency, but in a DIY, lower fat sorta way… if you’re into that kind of thing.
Start with yogurt—I like organic, probiotic, 2% fat, ON SALE Olympic yogurt—some cheesecloth, a strainer, and a bowl / small pot to catch the drippings.
Cut a piece of cheesecloth so it fits in the strainer, with about 10cm of overhang on either side. When in doubt, more overhang is better than less. Lay the cheesecloth in the strainer, suspend it over a receptacle (this small pot is a perfect size for my strainer), and pour in the yogurt.
Action shot!
When it’s all nicely decanted, wrap the overhanging cheesecloth up and over the yogurt, so it doesn’t dry out in the fridge…
Like a hug for the yogurt! Now leave it to rest in the frigo.
Put your patient hat on, because it needs to be there at least 8 hours—an overnight—but I like it best when I can give it a full 24 hours. The whey starts draining immediately, and you can actually watch the yogurt mound shrink, leaving a little (and later a lot) of this behind:
It’s whey. No curds, though.
As for what to do about it… well… I’ve read conflicting reports. If you Google it, some sites say “add it to smoothies for extra protein and nutrients!” Others say, “whatev. Just toss it.” And in all honesty, that’s my MO: I have an aversion to overly wet foods. BUT: if anyone should try blending it / smoothie-ing it / cooking with it, please let me know how that goes!
When it’s all drained, unwrap the yogurt cheese and turn it out into a bowl…
It’s so wonderfully thick that it can almost do tricks! Now comes the fun part: dressing it up… I sometimes don’t, if I’m using it for something savoury (like a Borscht topping!), but otherwise, I dig vanilla. So I scrape a whole vanilla bean pod:
And add the seeds with around 3 tsp of pure vanilla extract and 2 tsp of maple syrup (or more, to taste, but tart yogurt cheese is divine!)…
Mix well and serve chilled (or frozen, but that’s a story for another day), garnished with PB cups!
Bliss!
January 9th, 2011 at 05:47
That looks amazing! Grrrrr, I hate my dairy intolerance, otherwise I’d immediately have to try it out! (But perhaps my mom could be interested in this? She really likes yoghurt!)
I wonder, have you ever tried to make paneer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paneer
It seems to be quite easy to make, you just have to cook up a liter of fresh milk and add some lime juice (and salt to taste) so the milk devides. You can then filter the drain the solid parts with a piece of cloth and will get fresh homemade raw milk cheese! Grrrrr, I want to try that one, too!
By the way, I totally agree with your #1: I find it almost impolite when bloggers don’t answer their comments. Well, if you have a very frequently visited and commented blog and get a lot of comments like “Great!”, “Looks yum!”, etc, you won’t perhaps have to answer every single one, but simply make a collective “Thank you!” comment or so, but many people actually write something nice and a little more substantial, and I don’t like if comments like that are just neglected. I feel the same that I lose interest in blogs of people who don’t answer their comments.
January 9th, 2011 at 18:12
mmmmm – you’re making me drool. That looks delish – thanks for sharing!
January 10th, 2011 at 06:24
YUM. that looks great. and I always love vanilla you can SEE.
I completely agree about comments, too… I like to feel like I’m having a conversation (if I leave a decent comment), and will eventually stop reading if I have NO interaction with the writer – either there or twitter or whatever. I love to reply to my commenters, even though they don’t KNOW I am… I am unable to install a comment reply thing as my blog is right now – that is changing SOOn.
January 10th, 2011 at 21:23
@ Audrey: welcome back! Good to see you!
@ Kath: I plan on making paneer—I was going to use Emily’s recipe, from Daily Garnish. Although I wouldn’t call it “raw milk cheese”, since it will still have been pasteurised. Purists wouldn’t let anything be called “raw” after that.
I’m with you on the reponses: there’s one blogger whose blog I like well enough, but EVERY. COMMENT. SHE’s EVER. MADE. is “oh my, that’s lovely” or “yum!” and I just think… what’s the point of *commenting* when you don’t have anything to say?
Sometimes, I don’t… so I don’t leave my mark. Different strokes for different folks!
January 10th, 2011 at 21:32
@ Kristina: ME TOO. Which is why I used to think Breyers was the best ice cream… then I encountered their frozen dessert. It was one of my first posts, actually… how time flies!
You’re awesome about answering comments—and I have to say, I think I’ve left some of my best on your site. And I’m still ecstatic about getting to see Friedrich von Trapp as a “teenager”. I like blue-eyed blonds.
And here you go again, improving your blog while I stand on the side and say, “you can DO that?!?”
One of these days I’m going to pay someone for help. I’m tired of the way my blog looks and it’s only 6 months old. I have 3 readers, so it’s really more about pleasing myself…
January 12th, 2011 at 19:05
Thanks for the recipes – it looks amazingly good! Where do you buy the vanilla beans? I haven’t seen them in a store before, but maybe I just haven’t been looking. And it’s easier than I imagined. Anyway, I didn’t mean to guilt you out – I knew you’d get around to it eventually and it was worth the wait
January 12th, 2011 at 19:12
Oh, and re: comments, I mostly agree with you, with one exception. I don’t usually leave “that looks good” type comments, but there are occasions when something just looks freaking delicious and I have nothing else to say except that. And most of the time I wouldn’t say anything in that case, but sometimes I comment with that anyway just because I want to see more posts like that and I feel like comments do encourage the blogger to write similar posts, if that makes sense. So it can be a way, as a reader, to influence your favorite recipe creators for more of the type of recipe you like. Which is a reason not to make shallow comments on posts you didn’t actually enjoy all that much. But anyway, sometimes I think short comments are fine. It’s situational.
January 12th, 2011 at 20:20
@ Alina: oh no, I don’t mean “sometimes you have nothing to say”, I mean that in 8 months, she and I have been reading a lot of the same blogs, and maybe only once or twice have her comments deviated from “oh my! Delish!” or “that looks great!” or “yum!”.
Yawn!
I’m apparently the comment police right now. 
January 12th, 2011 at 20:20
@ Alina: oh, I supply my own guilt.
And I get van beans either in the grocery store (2 for $8) or at Costco (10 for $13). Yay! A steal of a deal!