Monday, November 5, 2012

The Making of Yogurt

You might recall, a few months ago, I bought the book The Homemade Pantry. It is not only inspiring, but also chalk full of great recipes. My plan was to make everything in it at least once before the baby arrived, however, that did not happen.
So far I've made the granola (which I never did post about - I'll get around to it. I make it twice a month because it's so darn good), the 'OREO' cookies and now the yogurt. You may also recall that I received a yogurt maker for mother's day and I finally put it to work.
My apologies for not sharing the recipe for the yogurt here as I'm unsure about copyright laws and such. Plus, I really think you'd love this book - so just go and treat yourself to one. And no, I'm not getting paid or receiving anything from the publisher or author of this book. I just like it.
The recipe for yogurt is simple. Milk (I used whole milk), a yogurt starter (I used plain yogurt that I had on hand, you can also buy starter that I think comes in powder form but plain yogurt works just as well), a candy thermometer and any flavouring that you'd like to add. I really, really, really love anything vanilla so I scraped the seeds from two vanilla beans and added those plus the beans themselves to the milk while it was heating up. When the milk was cooled to the right temperature, I removed the bean pods. That was the only variation that I made with this recipe. For the rest, I just followed the directions, set the timer and waited. This morning, I tried some and it was really yummy. It had the tang of plain yogurt but with a hint of vanilla. If you like it sweeter, you can add honey to it - I just may have to try that too.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Crafty Sunday - Onesie edition

I've taken the plunge and I feel like if all works well, I may have a little problem after and no fabric will be safe.

I bought these three onesies ages ago thinking that I'd add an appliqué or something. BUT - then I saw this tutorial over on MADE. I have never dyed fabric before as I find the whole concept TERRIFYING, but really - what is the worst thing that could happen?
   
I got some RIT dye from Michaels. The package said to dissolve the dye in 500ml of water, however, the tutorial says to completely cover the fabric in the water so I just kept adding water until they were covered. The package also said to add 250g of salt to the dye bath which, thanks to Google I found out was 1 cup. HOWEVER, the tutorial at MADE said 1tbsp (which I read after adding the cup of salt - I have no idea which advice was right). I left the onesies in the dye bath for 6 hours. Not really by choice, it's just that I had a nap (not a 6 hour nap!!). When I finally did take them out and rinse them, I really thought that the colour was just going to rinse away, but alas, it didn't! The next step was to put them in the washing machine. Again, I was pretty sure that I'd have stark white onesies after the cycle was done, and yet again, I was surprised to see that the beautiful teal colour was still there.
After they dried, I noticed that the colour wasn't completely even but if you ask me, perfection is overrated.

I created the stencils using freezer paper. Have you heard of freezer paper stencils before? Tons of tutorials online and they work great. Cut it out, iron it on, paint, remove stencil and let dry. I used a hairdryer because I'm impatient like that.

p.s sorry about the colour in some of the shots. I just don't know what I'm doing when holding a camera.
p.p.s - this Crafty Sunday edition was completed MONTHS ago. I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. Two of the onesies were sent to a friend with twin girls and one of the transformer ones adorned our little lady for about a week before she grew out of it. Must. Make. More.










Thursday, November 1, 2012

Hallowe'en 2012

Hallowe'en is beginning to be my favourite 'holiday' of the year. Seriously, I can't get enough. The costume making (and the midnight/morning mad dash to finish said costumes...), the decorations and the anticipation are just so much fun!

Gage got to choose our theme this year. And surprise, surprise.....Angry Birds for all!
Luckily, I found this tutorial online. My sewing machine got a work out and I found some amazing fabric glue to pull this all off.

Lets hope these birds don't mind getting rained on. And I also hope that someone doesn't take all our candy from the 'help yourself' bucket.