Every so often, I get flipped off by a cheese glove.

Not metaphorically. An actual glove.

A crusty, vaguely damp, aggressively judgmental cheese glove sitting in the cafe window giving me the middle finger at 6:12 AM.

And Reader, some mornings it make me laugh out loud. Other mornings, it feels oddly personal.

Now before you picture something cute and harmless…

This is not a dainty little oven mitt situation.

This thing is one of those super thick cut-resistant gloves you wear so you don’t accidentally grate your own knuckles into the parm.

(Which apparently is a real enough problem that someone invented protective armor for cheese.)

The glove itself used to be white.

Used to.

Now it’s more of a “haunted dishwasher beige.”

And because it gets used for grating cheese, carrots, parm, and whatever else we aggressively shred in bulk at the café… it develops a smell that can only be described as:

• wet basement meets old cheddar meets grease trap.

If we forget to wash it immediately after using it?

Game over.

The thing becomes sentient.

At that point, we have to soak it in degreaser before throwing it in the wash by itself like it’s in timeout.

Which, if you've ever seen the cheese glove, feels accurate.

Sometimes after soaking it BUT before it goes into the wash… it gets placed on top of the can of cooking spray to dry.

So the bottle of Pam suddenly looks like it has fingers. Like some horrifying little scarecrow.

And because apparently I’m mentally 11 years old… I shape the fingers into wildly inappropriate gestures.

Every single time.

So, on those 'glove-on-bottle' mornings, I pull into the parking lot and there it is:

the cheese glove.

In the window.

Flipping me off in the sunrise.

Just aggressively disrespecting me before most people have even gotten out of bed.

A beautiful start to the day, really.

And because my brain is constantly scavenging everyday nonsense for #weirdandwitty material, this whole ridiculous situation somehow got me thinking about kitchen tools and a not so clunky way to introduce a recipe you MUST try.

Because we all own a couple of specific categories of kitchen tools:

1. The ones we wish we didn’t have (cheese glove anyone?)

and

1. The ones we completely forget exist.

Like the Instant Pot.

Remember when everyone bought one?

There was a solid two-year stretch where everyone was like "look what I made in my Instapot" or "what do you mean you don't have an Instapot?".

People were making cheesecake in them.

Yogurt.

Hard boiled eggs.

Entire roasts.

Porridge.

Entire meal prep identities.

And now?

Most Instant Pots are sitting in a cupboard behind eight mismatched travel mugs and a popcorn maker from 2009.

But, here's the truth… the yogurt setting alone deserves a comeback tour.

Because homemade yogurt is stupidly easy.

Like suspiciously easy.

And WAY cheaper than buying those tiny little yogurt containers that somehow cost the same as a small vehicle payment now.

You basically add milk, a little starter yogurt, press a button, and several hours later you instantly feel like the version of Martha Stewart who owns linen aprons and says things like:

“I made this myself.” "It’s delicious." "It’s simple."

And it’s one of those small things that quietly makes eating well feel easier instead of harder.

And making homemade yogurt because your forgotten countertop appliance can literally do it while you sleep is the kind of simple I can get behind.

Because simple works and simple lasts.

And simple feels a whole lot better than overcomplicating everything.

So this week, I pulled together the homemade yogurt recipe we make every week at the cafe — and if you’ve got an Instant Pot collecting dust somewhere in your kitchen, this is your sign.

(Unlike the cheese glove, which mostly serves as a threat.)

I also may or may not be sneaking this recipe into the upcoming cookbook because it’s too good not to include.

You can grab the full recipe here: Instant Pot Homemade Yogurt​

And if your Instant Pot hasn’t seen daylight since 2018, dig it out - today might be its moment.

Nat - your mentally-11-year-old who loves a disrespectful cheese glove

P.S. No Instapot? You can still make yogurt without it but it seems infinitely more difficult and way easier to buy it. (in my highly trained "I-don't-particularly-like-the-kitchen" opinion)