Free Homemaking Lessons

This wonderful (and very useful) handbook used to be available only in hard copy, but the lessons are now also online FREE of charge. What a blessing. Thank you Laurie Latour of Future Christian Homemakers.

Homemaker Edification

This wonderful little download is sure to put a spring in your domestic step! Be happy and content at home, for it is God's plan.

A List of Attainments

This is the list of homemaking skills I decided upon for Allie's high school "Domestic Science" course. We will cover these topics over four years. They are not necessarily in order, although the last two will be reserved for her senior year :O)

Most skills will be taught in the realm of real life. There will of course be special projects to show mastery. I'm sure we will blog these as they come along.

Just in case you are assuming that I have mastered all of these skills (HAH!), I assure you I have not and will be learning more than a thing or two.

A List of Homemaking Skills

Homemade Frozen Yogurt

Making yogurt into a semi-healthy dessert seemed to be the next logical step after learning to make this oh-so-good-for-me dairy product. So after Christie tried it with success, I thought I'd give it a go. It worked beautifully and was very yummy to boot! Now, will the kids ever eat it the regular way again?


The experiment begins.


20 minutes later...WOO HOO!

Yogurt Perfection

I have been playing with three yogurt recipes/methods for the last 10 days and have finally perfected it for our family. I needed the yogurt to be a bit thicker for my son who has "texture issues" and it had to be easy for me :O)

Well, the crock pot method is definitely the easiest way I found to accomplish yogurt making. Here is what worked best for us.

Ingredients:
8 cups of milk (I used skim)
1/3 cup of dry milk
1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup of plain organic Greek style yogurt (I used Stoneyfield Farm)

Directions:
Pour 8 cups of milk into your crock pot. Add the dry milk powder and the gelatin and mix with a whisk until combined. Put the lid on your crock pot and turn it on low for 2 1/2 hours. When 2 1/2 hours have passed, unplug your crock pot, leave the lid on, and let it cool slightly for 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove 2 cups of the warmish milk mixture and place it in a bowl. Add the 1/2 cup of yogurt starter and whisk gently until combined. Put this mixture back into the crock pot, stir gently to combine, and replace the lid. Now, wrap your crock pot with a big bath towel and leave it alone for 8-10 hours. Voila! You now have yogurt that is ready to be put into containers in your fridge. It will keep about 10 days. Make sure you save 1/2 cup of yogurt to be your starter for next time.

I start my yogurt-making process at about 4:00 in the afternoon, because then it sits wrapped in the towel while I sleep.

Here is the finished product.



I get 5 pints (10 cups) of yogurt from this recipe. We simply flavor it individually with honey, fruit, and/or granola. It is very cost effective. I calculated that it cost $3.00 total to make the first batch, and subsequent batches will only be $2.12 because I will have my own yogurt starter.

New Yogurt Experiment

I've been talking yogurt with the folks over at my favorite homeschooling forum, Simply Charlotte Mason, and Doug gave me a new method to try. He thinks it may address the runny factor. Here is the way his family makes yogurt.

"We've been making yogurt a lot lately too and I've worked out a procedure that has been consistently producing nice thick and flavorful yogurt.

I make it in a large roaster oven so I can load it full of pint jars. Ours roaster easily holds eight to twelve jars.

The key is to get the temperature just right. I use a digital thermometer with a probe and an alarm. Heather, you mentioned yours being a bit runny and that may be a temperature issue. A crock pot on low actually gets too hot for the yogurt bacteria and can kill them. The ideal is between 110 and 120 degrees F.

We started with a good quality Greek yogurt that didn't have a bunch of extras in the ingredients. Greek yogurt usually contains five cultures instead of just L. Acidophilus. It has a creamier texture and less tartness. Of course, we just use our own yogurt as a starter now.

Each jar gets filled with skim milk and maybe a quarter cup of yogurt as a starter. I put lids on them, load them into the roaster, and fill the pan with water to help keep the temperature steady. I crank up the heat and set my alarm for 110 degrees. When it reaches that temperature I turn off the heat because it will continue to climb a bit. I then set my alarm for 118 just in case it climbs too high. If it does, I just dip out some of the warm water and replace it with cool.

It usually takes about four hours but I let it go longer if the yogurt isn't as thick as I'd like. I do check now and then to see if the temperature drops below
110. If it does I just apply a little more heat as before." -Doug

Well, I have a super neat digital thermometer from Pampered Chef, and my sweet husband stopped for a roaster oven and greek style yogurt last night at the local Wal-Mart. The roaster oven was only $30, and it is HUGE! Even if it doesn't work for yogurt, I am set for making ham, turkey, or soup for a crowd!!! Money well spent.



I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Yogurt in a Crockpot?

YES! Another homeschooling mom posted about yogurt making on her blog and I was inspired. Yesterday, I gave it a try. It was so easy, and best of all.....it worked! I tried using an envelope of unflavored geletin instead of milk powder for a thickener. It is still pretty runny, maybe next time I'll try two envelopes. OR, maybe I'll just "get over" the thinner texture and get excited about REAL food for my family!

I enjoyed mine this morning with a drizzle of honey, blueberries, and homemade granola. YUM!

Have you heard of this?

I ordered The Big Cook Cookbook a few weeks ago and today I did my first mini-session. What Fun! I now have 10 fresh -ready to go dinners in my freezer.

I know, I know, I am home everyday, and making dinner shouldn't be a *huge* deal, but some days I'm just plain tired. I look forward to being able to put together a "Sunday" quality meal on Tuesday. Click here for a sample recipe.

My favorite part is that the meals are fresh, unlike other freezer cooking methods where you pre-cook everything. You just put you ingredients in a baggie, label, and freeze.
Easy!

I wonder....

Is it mean to make your daughter clean the bathroom while you finish your quilt top?
I think not.


I am making this quilt for our living room. As you can tell (by the uneven rectangles and mismatched corners) I am not a professional quilter by any stretch of the imagination. Fortunately, I like them scrappy.