Making my Own Yogurt - Try #3

Tonight, I am going to try to make my own crock pot yogurt.

Again.

For the third time.

If I fail (again), I am officially a yogurt flunkie.

This recipe has been floating around the internet for eons. I'm going to tweak it a bit, to try and get the desired effects...yogurt, not just smelly milk.

What you need:

1/2 gallon of whole milk

6 oz yogurt with LIVE cultures

Crockpot

1. Pour the milk into the crockpot (slow cooker).

2. Cook on LOW for 2 1/2 hours.

3. Turn off slow cooker.

4. Let milk sit until it is 110 degrees F. (About 2 - 2 1/2 hours).

5. Whisk in 6 oz. yogurt.

6. Wrap in thick towels/Down vest I had lying around.

7. Leave overnight. (About 6 hours).

8. Jump up and down, screaming like a loon because

It worked!!!

:)

It's gonna be a good Monday, ya'll!





$20 Couch Makeover

This Couch.

It's been with me since 1997.

We've moved 7 times (I think). Three dogs, three kids and a hubby have all been introduced to it.

It looks alright for being 14 years old, doesn't it?

It's just...well...not our style anymore.

The budget is also a little small for buying a new couch.

So...I went to Tar-jay (ie: Target) and found a clearance slipcover for $19.98. Cha-ching!

Here's the make-over:

1. I pulled the skirt off. Can you say A LOT of staples? Jeez!

2. Pulled all remaining staples out with pliers.

3. I stretched, pulled, tucked and tugged the slipcover on so that it best fit the couch. and, here it is!

So, for comparison's sake:

Before

After

 Now, to convince hubby-dear that we need to paint the walls and his desk that are in the same room...hmmm...

Oh! And some throw pillows!

:)

Tweet Tweet!

Hey Guys and Gals!

I think I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and join Twitter! Come Tweet me and let's follow each other!

Tweet tweet!

:)

(The Link is on the bottom Right of this-here bloggie!)

Chicken Pot Pie - In Under an Hour!

 The funk has been going around our house this week. That makes for crying, whiny Littlests, a bored Little Miss and an unhappy Mama...who still has to cook a healthy dinner. So, I adapted a recipe I had and came up with:

Chicken Pot Pie

(the Cheater's way...)

Ingredients: 

1 Large can of Veg-All (Drained)

1 container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme (Savory Garlic)

2 Deep dish pie crusts (thawed)

 1 Rotisserie Chicken

1. Pull apart the chicken and put into a pan. 

2. Add drained Veg-All and Cooking Creme.

3. Cook on Med-High until contents of pan are bubbling.

4. Pour chicken mixture into one deep dish pie crust.

5. Flop over the top crust. Pinch-seal edges. Cut venting slits into top crust.

I literally "flopped" it onto the pie...not pretty, eh?

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

7. Let sit for 5 minutes before cutting into it.

8. Enjoy! (And savor in the delicious smell of your kitchen...yummy!) 

 

 

Mama, Dada...Doctor?

The Littlests are men of few words...a whole lotta sounds, but few words.

Each and every day, I "work" with them, trying to teach them a new word here and there. I try short words like Ball, Dog, Up, etc. I try words they love like Baby, Milk, Fish, More. I get blank stares or a whole lot of "Ga Goo By Yah Yah!" (With HUGE grins).

Little Miss was at school on Friday. The Littlests were (hold your breath) actually PLAYING in the playroom. I was cleaning up the kitchen. I was also singing "Doctor, Doctor, give me the news..."

BOTH Littlests came absolutely flying into the kitchen yelling, on the top of their lungs..."Doctor, Doctor!" Perfectly. Loudly. Proudly.

I will now sing all of their lessons.

ReCycled Crayons -- Into Muffins?

This tute is an oldie, but a goodie.

Re-cycling your old, broken, nubby crayons into "new" and different ones.

1. Grab your box of broken crayons and a tiny muffin tray.

3. We took the "safe and boring" way out and matched all the like colors together (eg. reds and reds, etc)

4. Peel the paper off the crayons and break them into smaller bits so that they fit into the tiny molds. You can either do like colors or mix and match them to make rainbow-esque crayons.

5. Put the tray into a 250 degree oven and bake until the wax is all melted. It took about 20 minutes for us.

6. Allow to cool AT LEAST an hour, I found the longer the cooling time the better.

7. Pop out of the molds.

8. Have your three year old now decide they are "too pretty" to color with...and turn them into muffins for your tea party! :)

 

Felt Board - A Diaper Box Up-Cycle

I am craft-challenged, at least artistically. I can't draw, I can't paint and I can't draw a straight line.

That's tough when you have all these great ideas for things to do with your toddlers.

Today, I decided to make a felt board.

Without drawing a thing.

From a diaper box.

Enter http://www.preschoolprintables.com/

They have an awesome assortment of felt board stories to cut out.

1. Print out (or draw, if you are so inclined and talented) your pictures.

2. Cut out the pictures.

3. Glue the paper pictures onto felt. Any color.

4. Cut out the picture on the felt. (or, if you're lucky, let your incredibly good-looking hubby and princess of a daughter help you).

5. Cut off the sides of your diaper box. Make sure you include the top and bottom flaps. You will have 2 pieces when done.

6. Glue the 2 pieces together. I glued the cardboard sides facing each other...I thought they might stick together better that way.

7. Now, take a big piece of felt (they sell them at craft stores for about $2.99) and wrap it around you double-strength cardboard.

8. Glue into place.

8. Flip over and admire your handiwork.

9. Watch your darling Little Miss re-enact every song and story you have told to her today! Isn't learning amazing to watch? - you can almost see the lights turning on...

Linked to these lovely blogs: Skip to My Lou, Between Naps, DIY Showoff