Easy Homemade Yogurt Method!

Thought I would share this method of making yogurt that we've been using for the last month or two. I have been wanting to make yogurt for YEARS now and was slightly intimidated by it, until I realized it really is so simple! Here's what we do:

In the morning I set a dishcloth in the bottom of a pot and then fill (to a little below the screw lines) 4 pint jars with milk. Then the jars are placed in the pot and I add water to about the same level as the milk. Place it on the stove, turn it on high, add a thermometer and go about making breakfast or cleaning up from dinner last night...oops!
You are looking for the milk to reach 180 degrees.

Also a thin film will form on the top of the milk.

When up to temp remove the jars from the water to cool down to 110 degrees. You can do this by either letting them sit on the counter (it will take several hours) or setting them in the sink or dishpan and slowly adding cool water so the jars do not break!!! (Oops again!) It will only take 30 minutes or so if you are wanting to speed up the process. I let them cool for a few minutes and then set them in a dishpan and added cool water slowly and then cold water and then ice cubes. Add more ice as necessary. Do NOT set the jars directly into ice water! Not good for your jars!!!

Meanwhile, I placed the cover on the pot I used for heating the milk and left it on the burner with the heat turned off. This is going to be my heat source for keeping the yogurt warm.

When the yogurt is down to temp I added 1 tablespoon of plain good quality store yogurt (used Stonyfield) to each pint and gave it a gentle stir until the yogurt was thoroughly mixed in. Next I screwed the caps on and place the pot of water and the jars in my cooler with a towel for extra insulation. I wrap the towel over everything and close the lid. The yogurt needs 4 to 24 hours to culture. I did not time how long they were in the cooler but that night before bed I opened it up and placed the jars in the fridge.

The next morning you have yummy homemade (and easy to my surprise) yogurt that you can add any type of flavoring to! The kids and I have been loving maple syrup and granola on ours!
Love the fact that I have almost no dishes with this method too! Just the measuring spoon I used to measure out the yogurt and stir with. The pot of water I dump and dry and put away since it only had water in it. My dishcloth is now completly sterilized and clean so I hang it up to dry. I have also now started using quart jars instead of pints since the kids eat this for breakfast almost every day!!!

Diaper Cake Tutorial

After being inspired by tons and tons of pics of these cute "diaper cakes" online I brought it up to my sis and a friend and we decided it would be a fun gift for and upcoming baby shower! I built the "cake" part of it and took pics as I went! Here is how I did it:

Here is what I used to build the basic cake base:
1 box of Pampers Swaddlers size one
1 bottle of sparkling grape juice
fun ribbon
1 large platter
yarn

Start out by placing the sparkling juice in the middle of the platter. Then pull out some yarn and form a circle around the bottle about the size you want the base to be. Then start filling it with diapers by taking 3-5 at a time and fanning them in your hands and then wrap them around the bottle. Keep going until it is the size you want and is pretty firm. You may need to adjust the yarn once you get the diapers all the way around.

Then go ahead and start the next layer with the same technique. This time you will want to make the layer a little smaller to get a layered cake look.

Here the second layer is finished.

Then again do the same with the top layer making it a little smaller! We had about 10 diapers leftover and played this game at the shower! Be warned before you check out the link that it is not for those with weak stomachs!!!! It was funny to see peoples faces though!

The little blue thing in the top is a bottle brush that I jammed down into the center. Next is the fun part of decorating the cake! I started out with a couple of wide ribbons with fun patterns!

This is the very simple finished base with only a couple of gift items stuffed inside! Those are burp cloths on the top stuffed in the hole in the middle and then fluffed up a little to make it look nice.

Then my sis and friend came with all the little toys and trinkets to add on! The monkey on the top is a hooded towel, the little booties were added to the top, a great baby grooming kit from Carters were the perfect accessories to stuff in the ribbon all around the cake. Then we stuffed the little bag (from the grooming kit) with cute little onesies! We covered the bottom layer with a soft and fuzzy blanket by folding it into thirds and then pining it in the back! Then we added a couple of cute toys!!
This is the finished cake at the shower!

This is my sis Sarah and friend Crystal getting ready to carry it over to Britt (the new mom) as I took lot's of photo's!

Britt was thrilled with the "cake" she wanted to see all that we had added to it but did not want to take it apart so she could take it home to show her hubby!

We can't wait to meet the baby now! He won't be here until early next year...I wonder how long the diapers will stay in cake form???