Yogurt Making Adventures

I went one step further in my food journey. I made my own yogurt. I never even knew you could do that until about 9 months ago. I think at the time I said, "I'll never do that. I'll just buy it at the store and leave that to the real farmers." I laugh at myself. If you ever here me say "never" I can guarantee I'll be doing it soon. I once said I would never marry...and here I am 5 years later and quite happy that I did in fact get married.

So you aren't here to learn about the random things in my life so let me just move on and tell you all about my yogurt making adventures. Honestly? It was EASY. I will admit I am scared beyond belief of the other yogurt making methods out there that I have come across. No matter how many picture tutorials I see...I CAN'T DO IT. I just can't get past this fear that I will fail. So, I went with what I had on hand...a crockpot...and I followed a very easy recipe. I still can't believe I made yogurt in my crockpot. I love the beast (nickname for my EXTRA LARGE crockpot). It has served me well making many soups and lately cooking whole chickens and then making homemade stock out of the bones. So imagine my surprise when I read that I could use that same contraption to make yogurt. The crockpot really is my friend. 

I used a recipe from Heartland Renaissance and loved it. Here is the yogurt cooking away...

I was so scared to open the lid when it was done. I was so sure it would end up just being milk in there, but seriously after all those hours of cooking and incubating I had real live full of probiotics yogurt!! You guys...it was the most amazing sight. We go through yogurt ridiculously fast and buying the most expensive one...usually Brown Cow Whole Milk Yogurt with the cream on top. SOOOO YUMMY! Spending almost $4 on 32 ounces of yogurt that only lasted us a couple days was just not working for me. Literally the only "start up" cost was a half gallon of milk and one cup of yogurt from the store. Next time I'll just use a 1/2 cup of yogurt from the batch I just made (which I already have hidden away in the fridge) and then my only cost will be the half gallon of milk. So for less than $2 I will have 4 pints of yogurt...amazing. 

I'm in love.

For those of you wondering...yes we do drink raw milk, but I chose not to use it for yogurt making. It's pretty much impossible to make good yogurt and keep the milk in its raw state. While the raw milk would still have the benefits coming from grass fed cows, to me it wasn't worth it at this time. We are on a TIGHT budget so we treat every bit of our milk like gold. We choose to drink the milk raw and I just went and bought regular whole milk (hormone free). We will probably sub organic milk (be sure its not ultra pasteurized!) from time to time, but for now we feel like this is one place where we can save a lot of money, and still get the benefits. We just have to pick and choose. 

Seriously, if I can make my own yogurt YOU CAN TOO. I mean it. Let me know if you have questions...this was my first attempt so I'm certainly no pro, but I love trying to help. 

If the crockpot method isn't for you, there is this updated version. 

Need more inspiration? Kitchen Stewardship just finished up some awesome tutorials.


***UPDATE:
6/8/12

I have a 6 qt. crockpot (most recipes call for a 4 qt.) and through some trial and error I landed on the perfect timing for an even thicker yogurt. While the last one tasted great, this one just looks almost perfect.

Tip #1: During the first step, let it sit on keep warm (or low if you don't have that setting) for another 10-20 minutes.

Tip #2: Let the yogurt sit 30-45 minutes longer during the second step (so 3 1/2 or so instead of just 3).

Tip #3: Don't move your crockpot! (I had an ant invasion in my kitchen...apparently they could smell it cooking from outside?!).

Tip #5: When whisking in your yogurt starter, be careful not to whisk up any bits from the bottom of the crockpot. Mine cooks extra hot so some of the milk "burns" to the bottom...be careful of those.

Tip #6: Wash your mason jars/old spaghetti jars/etc. and lids in your dishwasher. Let them dry fully and then cap tightly. I store mine in a cabinet so they are already sanitized and ready to go for my next yogurt making adventure...or fermenting...or...

So, there are some tips in there whether or not you have a 6 qt. crockpot. I just wanted to tell you what worked for me today! Honestly...I found out all of that because I kind of sort of forgot about it. We were celebrating our anniversary and well...the yogurt just wasn't a priority. WHOOPS.

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Cloth Diapering: The Good, The Bad, the Downright Ugly

This is just the post I know you all have been waiting for. Well, alright, maybe just the handful of people that actually care, but I find it an important enough subject to put up on this ole blog. What is it that we are going to be talking about? Poo poo. Yep, you heard it right, we are talking potty talk today. 

Now let's get down and dirty and talk about our adventures in cloth diapering!

Aren't these just the prettiest? The colors just make me swoon each and every time I open up the drawer. We started Eden on cloth diapers one month ago, and honestly have loved every minute of it. Have there been some drawbacks? You betcha. I will get to those in a minute, but first lets talk about the details. 

We ended up ordering Eden's cloth diapers from Squishy Tushy (haha...that name never ceases to make me giggle). Why did we choose them? Well, we had trouble finding a local shop that had them in stock, we were using an American Express gift card so we needed to find a place that accepted them, and we LOVED their policies. See, cloth diapering is a fairly large investment and the greatest thing about Squishy Tushy was that they actually had a return policy on the diapers...honestly this was amazing since you rarely find that with cloth diapers companies (or at least that was our experience). The owner was extremely nice and accommodating and we highly recommend the company. In summary, Squishy Tushy, you rock our diapers off!

How did we choose the type of diapers? Well, the true answer is that we are lazy and completely new to the whole cloth diapering extravaganza so we wanted something easy. Our stipulations were: snaps (most are velcro and we hear they wear out quicker), organic, and no stuffing required. Well, we really only found one option that fit those needs (and had great reviews to boot), the BumGenius Elemental. So far they are everything we had hoped for. You can tell they are very well made and should hold up all through Eden's diaper wearing years as well as any future baby Crain's. In short, we LOVE them. Is it normal to love a cloth diaper? Hmm, well, moving right along...

(Hey look! There is a cloth diaper peeking out of there...)

Alright, let's get down and dirty. The number one question we get relates to the cleaning process. Yes, this is where some difficulties lie, but honestly we haven't minded it one bit. We chose to buy a diaper sprayer to wash off the ones that, well, are dirtier than the others...you know the ones. We purchased a cute white pail from Ikea which holds our diapers until we are ready to put them all into the wash. There have been no hints of smell that come out of the pail which is quite fantastic. In the pail we also added a laundry bag that fits right over the pail and then when we are ready to wash we just pull on the handles, place it in the wash, and unzip the bottom for a mess free process. Seriously, no poo poo on the hands! 

We are still experimenting with our wash routine (we actually had our first case of diaper rash with cloth diapers, BOOOOO), but I think we have almost perfected it. In case you are curious here is the routine that we have found to work with our LG HE washer and dryer: 1 scoop Rockin' Green, Cotton/Towels setting, Hot/Cold, Extra Rinse, Heavy Soil, and then we toss in a soaking wet bath towel (to trick the washer into adding more water). We then dry the diapers on warm for 1 hour. The whole process takes 2 hours and 42 minutes and we start a load when Eden has one diaper left. Right now we are having to wash them everyday which is fine now that I am a stay at home mom, but we definitely recommend buying 18 versus the 12 that we bought. I think 18 is the magic number. 

Okay, as I mentioned we did have a case...or two...of diaper rash when we switched to cloth diapers. Yes, I had a sad moment over this because here we were trying to do something great for our baby and now she has an icky looking rash on her bum. Not awesome. The biggest suggestion we have to everyone is to persevere and try different wash routines. We are still happy with our choice of Rockin' Green and love their customer service. We chose the Classic Rock Smashing Watermelons, but I think I should have gone with my gut and chose Soft Rock Bare Naked Babies. We will definitely be using the latter when it is time to make our next purchase. Oh and we ordered them from a local company so it didn't have to travel far (it can even be picked up for free in the store, sweeeet!). We actually also believe that part of our problem was in the cloth wipes we were using. We loved the idea of using cloth wipes so that they could be tossed right into the wash with the diapers, but I hadn't yet perfected a wash for the wipes. We just started back up on the cloth wipes again (filled a spray bottle with water, added 2 drops of baby oil, a few drops of Dr. Bronner's, and a small drip of baby wash). Time to cross our fingers that this is a good solution that won't hurt our baby. Honestly the rash situation is much better and we just make it a point to let her "air it out" on occasion. This is her favorite time of day. Weirdo.

In the photo above Eden is wearing a "clementine" diaper. Seriously, I know I already said it, but I am IN LOVE with the colors. It is so fun to pick colors to coordinate with her outfits. When we ordered ours we just asked for a variety and specified no pink (so that we could use it on a boy later). The colors we received were: 

1 Twilight

2 Butternut

2 Ribbit

2 White

1 Sweet

2 Moonbeam

1 Grasshopper

1 Clementine

Hopefully I covered everything for those of you that are curious about cloth diapering. Honestly, we are so happy with our choice to cloth diaper. We cannot believe how much we are saving already! We do buy some disposables, but this is only for vacations or moments of desperation. I actually get upset when I have to use a disposable. The cost is quite high when buying cloth diapers, but we like to think of it as an investment. We can use these for years to come, as opposed to disposable diapers that just get tossed in the garbage. It is also refreshing to know that we are not contributing as much to landfills. It was kind of sickening to see how many were being dumped. We also have noticed that cloth diapers are quite bulky, but for us it was a good thing because Eden needed a little help holding her pants up and these do the trick. 

Cloth diapering is definitely a decision that has to be made with careful consideration, but I am so thankful that we were able to make it happen. If you have questions, ask away in the comments or email us at thecrainsnest[at]gmail[dot]com. I think I secretly get a thrill talking about poo.

*Nobody paid us to be nice about their products. We bought each item with our own hard earned money and just really like to brag about products that we love. Mmmmkay?

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Safety First

The Bachelor Update: 
Fun news! Burger a.k.a The Bachelor left a comment for Bella on the last post! HOORAY! Let me tell you, Bella was dancing all over the place when we read it to her. Yes, my dog can read...but it was much more fun to read it to her as we all danced around in excitement. Ok, well the dancing was semi hilarious considering my stomach and throat were in a whole lot of pain after my whole experience at the hospital and Josh came down with the flu...but it was dancing nonetheless. Anyway, the latest is that there were over 100 submissions and Burger is picking the semi-finalists this week. Keep your fingers...or paws..crossed!!

On to regularly scheduled programming:
So not to be a totally crazy stalker or anything, but the rest of this post also has a bit to do with Young House Love. Yes, I love their blog...and yes I do believe they should be an inspiration to you all as well. Well, let me move on to what I was trying to say and then explain what they have to do with it.

Livearth.org

Joshua and I have been striving to be "green" since we got married. Once we have our house we hope to add in a lot of great eco-friendly elements that should help the earth along with our pockets. We would LOVE to do compost since it is a great way to use up all of our scraps and yard clippings and it also means great nutrient rich soil for the vegetable and fruit garden that I have already been planning. Since we do not have our house yet we have been implementing other things in our daily lives. The biggest one is household chemicals and cleaners. We have slowly been making the switch to "green" cleaners and it has definitely been trial and error. Most people know I can be what they call a GERMIPHOBE. Yes, I admit it and I am gosh darn proud of it. However, a lot of the items that disinfect are the most toxic chemicals in our house (i.e. bleach). This has been our biggest struggle as I try to find something that cleans well, but also gets rid of the flu and cold germs that lurk around our house during this time of year. Even so, we had already made it a personal goal to rid ourselves of all toxic chemicals before we started our family. Babies are a big deal to us and once we are ready to have our own we want to make sure our house is as safe as we are able to make it. We realize how many things are out there that we can't shield our baby from, that's what our Father is for, BUT there are things we can do to help. So, we started scratching our heads to try to figure out what to do about this problem. I didn't mind making up my own cleaners, especially since it would save us money, but most of the items that people would list were things I had never heard of. That bothered me.

Enter Young House Love. Today they featured a smart guy who really knew his stuff about going green. He had great recipes for creating your own cleaners...out of stuff I actually knew! Amazing I know. We plan to start trying stuff out (once we have used up the brand new bottle of cleaner we picked up at the store) and we will let you know what we think. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't, but we can't let this one pass us up! Good luck to those of you out there who try it!

XoXo,
J&M

P.S. This is our favorite way to get our dishes clean without being unsafe for our bodies. It is available at Target. Please note that the packaging has now changed and it is now in a resealable bag. 

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