Making Yogurt is Easy, Yo!

I've been making yogurt with success for quite some time and now that i'm good at it, it is just like making a pot of coffee, or something just as routine.

In principle, making yogurt involves giving a 'good' bacteria culture the ideal habitat in which to breed. In this case, they are a little colony of lactobacillus whose babies like warm milk. What baby doesn't like warm milk? So theoretically, infusing warm milk with bacteria colonies and maintaining an ideal breeding temperature for the little critters is pretty simple.

I used to make yogurt in a tupperware and then keep in in an esky/cooler packed with bottles of hot water to maintain the temp. I was finding that the results were a little irratic, depending on how diligently i was maintaining the temperature. There are lots of variations on the internet, using ovens, crockpots, piles of blankets etc.

I was originally turned off by the 'Easiyo' yogurt maker because it is actually meant to be used with prepackaged powder mixtures containing the bacterial culture and powdered milk - however these are not as cheap as just buying your own milk and reserving a little yogurt from a previous batch as a starter culture. Anyway, i invested $20 on an Easiyo yogurt maker a month or so ago - it maintains the idea temperature really well, and now that i know i can easily make yogurt without the Easiyo packets, i haven't looked back! Wow i sort of sound like an Easiyo info-mercial (except on the website they highly DO NOT recommend using milk in a DIY fashion, claiming you cannot guarantee product safety or something).

I've also read that your 'home' culture takes on a little identity of its own and is somehow better for you, but i haven't confirmed that scientifically. I do notice that if i accidentally don't save any yogurt for my next batch and have to buy a pot of yogurt it takes a few batches for the flavour to mellow. Usually the first few have quite a sharp sour flavour in comparison to yogurt made with the following 'generations' of starters.

After a day or so in the fridge i find the yogurt gets even tastier and thicker - we use it now instead of sour cream and sometimes i let it strain for a really long time and then add salt to make a kind of 'cream cheese' (quark). The best thing i think about making yogurt at home is that bea really loves it and is finally eating mainly unsweetened yogurt, which she's never liked before. . .

You really don't have to use an Easiyo maker for this 'recipe' (but you can order them online just google Easiyo). i think a really good substitute would be a thermos, cooler or 'esky' and jars or containers inside that contain the milk and culture. Then you can just add hot water straight into your cooler. I guess the problem with this might be finding a small enough cooler so you aren't filling your kettle a bunch of times to get the level high enough that it immerses the jar.

beetroot blush

I don't really wear 'blush', but this recipe for beetroot blush/lipgloss looks fun to make and fun to use. . .

Chunky Crayon Muffins

Hey!

I've been off the computer lately because my brother is visiting from Canada for the next month! He's already been here a couple of weeks. We've been having a lot of fun hanging out. The downside of Canada and Australia being so far apart is that there is not a lot of visiting happening - the upside is that when people do come to visit, they stay for a long time!

Therefore, I've been away from the computer and the sewing machine, but yesterday we did some fun things with broken crayons.



We made crayon muffins while it was too hot to go outside. We got the idea from Make and Take.

We had a marker and crayon throw out this morning - getting rid of dried up markers, we decided we don't love crayons anymore, especially decrepit broken ones. So we peeled and broke them up into little pieces and made mini muffin crayons, which was super fun! Bea loved organizing the coloured pieces into similarly coloured groups as much as she loved making random coloured muffins. . .

how to reuse your bath 'pouf'

isn't this clever? it caught my eye because a most recent bath puff only lasted a couple of months at ours, and that was after already fixing it with an elastic band on its 2nd week of life. maybe we are just really hard on our poufs? i don't know. anyways, salihan crafts has a little tutorial for 2 ways of reusing your pouf. the above image is of a knitted pot scrubber, but i think it would work equally well in the shower as a plain old body scrubber.

my thoughts lately have been on how to not buy too many new things. i was talking to fellow craft blogger kat about a blog she reads (note to self: must find out what blog it is she is actually referring to) about a woman who made a pledge not to buy ANYTHING new for an entire year! she could go to op-shops and she could buy some new things but they had to be ethical/sustainable/sweatshop free etc. it really got me thinking about how quickly i tend to rush out on a crafty whim and purchase things to make things with. it is so hard sometimes to be patient and wait until you can find the buttons in a thrift shop or consignment shop, or order and wait for ethically produced fabric to arrive in the mail. being mindful about where and why you are purchasing something takes a little more time and effort, but is so much better for both your budget and your ecological foot-print. and i definitely always feel better about things i've done that require a bit of an effort, don't you?

we did do something good over the weekend, which involved sewing new velcro on a pair of board shorts that were in good condition apart from the velcro bits, and we were quite happy with ourselves for doing that. it is so satisfying to salvage things, and definitely worth the extra time and effort.


ps: Down to Earth posted today about the hierarchy of food waste, and i can't seem to get enough of her thoughts, so for further reading see here.

making plans. . .

the reason for all these shenanigans with a light box is that i'm getting my act together to open an etsy shop. as soon as I can! it's going to be called 'la fabrica', which means 'the workshop' in spanish. i'm just waiting (rather impatiently) for a few supplies I've ordered to arrive from the states. but look at what arrived the other day...



. . .these beautiful pieces of 100% wool felt in gorgeous colours came from feltonthefly on etsy. thank you Janet! and look at how beautiful her packaging is - something you don't see from commercial sellers.

i am actually a little reticent about cutting into it! the colours are s beautiful and the felt is SO nice to the touch. infinitely nicer than the acrylic felt from the craft shop. i'm also waiting for some 'ecospun' felt to arrive in the mail from feltorama, which is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. i'm excited to see what this material is like to work with as i want to keep my made things as eco-friendly etc. as possible by using renewable, reused, and thrifted components. there are some great op-shops around our place and a funny little haberdashery with unused old-stock trims, buttons, zips etc. something about having a look around for bits and pieces sort of satisfies the hunter gatherer in me and makes pieces more special.

so to celebrate, i used some scraps of my old icky felt to make this miniature bunting flag. it looks cute, i think. one could go on a bit of a mini bunting binge and fix them onto windows, across wardrobes and along corkboards. it took just minutes to baste the triangles onto some thread. . .

yippee!!!

i've been searching newsagents for awhile for this magazine! i finally found it the other day around the corner from my office. better late than never (would have been good to have before christmas as this issue#4 is fairly geared towards the festive season). the focus is on local, ethical/green/sustainable products with a strong crafty/fashion/artsy slant. right up my alley really, and probably yours too. if you haven't cast your peepers on this little gem of a publication yet, you really should!

lauded as a green fashion magazine, every page is a feast for the eyes and the mind - it gives a positive and inspirational slant on being more mindful consumers, and has just the right balance of frivolity and seriousness, (as in, it took me a while to read it as there is actual writing in it and not just glossy photos). in fact, the photos are not at all glossy (in a good way) as they are printed on crisp, FSC certified pages that do in fact make you feel as though you are treating yourself to something that is both delicious and packed with nutrients!

also, it is a brisbane publication! hooray for that! i'm thinking about getting myself a subscription - it is definitely worth its weight in inspiration.

peppermintmag.com

how to make simple cheese

i've recently been on a dairy product making bender - mainly yogurt making but over the holidays i heard that you can make a ricotta-like cheese from milk and vinegar! i think i just really like using cheesecloth and having the smell of milk on my hands.

the cheese turned out really well - we used some on pizza the other night and it even browned up nice and golden! it's not true cheese or even true ricotta, as it doesn't use a culture or rennet and true ricotta is made from curds formed with whey (apparently). but it is quite tasty and quite fun to do.

because this was just an experiment i only used a liter of milk - i used the coles organic full-cream long life variety (it is just under $2 per liter). this yielded about 300 grams of cheese.

after the cheese is made you can mix in herbs and salt or honey/sugar, depending on what you want to use the cheese for. i ended up adding a bit of salt.

1 liter of organic full-cream milk
1/8 cup of white vinegar

and a large square of muslin, cheese cloth, or thin cotton. wash this with a bit of bleach or vinegar before using.

• heat the milk until it is steaming (to the point just before it starts to boil). turn off the heat but leave the pot on the element.

• add the vinegar in a slow stream and gently stir. the milk will begin to curdle and separate. cover with a tea towel and allow it to settle and cool for about 2 hours

• dampen the muslin cloth and put it in a sieve, then pour in the milk and allow the liquid to drain through

• tie up the muslin to allow the liquid to drain away from the curds and into the bowl. save the resulting liquid in the fridge (i think it is butter milk as opposed to whey in this case but i'm not sure) and use it in baking instead of milk or for soaking beans and grains to add extra flavor

• once most of the liquid had drained, untied the elastic and just fold over the edges of the muslin to give the curds a nice shape. use a plate and a heavy jar to press the rest of the liquid from the cheese

• leave the weight in place for a couple of hours, and then peel back the muslin and voila! a lovely looking soft cheese, mild and ready to be used however you see fit. the most yummy thing we tried was spreading it on toast with tomato, salt and pepper.

there is something so satisfying about making things from scratch, isn't there? you generally save money and use less packaged goods, therefore creating less waste. an added bonus is knowing exactly what went into the food you and your family are consuming. not to mention the idea that you are developing a variety of skills that make you more reliant on your own abilities and less on just being another consumer.

the other day i read a great little post from one of my favourite Queensland blogs, Down to Earth, on this very topic. how life affirming and inspiring to relearn lost skills and have the ability to be self-sustaining! i often feel that crafting and creating things with your own hands is so enjoyable because of the satisfaction derived in knowing that you were able to make something out of nothing. don't we all love that feeling?