One family member, my son's mil, Anita, is always so supportive of our blog.  She is so talented and always has ideas and inspiration for our blog!  This past Christmas, she sent me a yogurt strainer.  She showed me her results of making yogurt in her Instant Pot and where she found the recipe. I got so excited thinking about all of the things that I can use this strainer for and for all of the things that I can do with the yogurt.  Unfortunately, I discovered that my Instant Pot Lux does not have the yogurt setting.  But, I knew that before there were Instant Pots, people still made yogurt.  So, my search began for a way that I could make yogurt without an Instant Pot.  I found many ways!  I used a combination of those ideas and experimented on my own, as is my way. 

     Guess what!  My very first experiment was a great success and it was so easy that I can't believe that I haven't been making my own yogurt all along! 

      I made a video of myself making my very first batch of homemade yogurt!  Watch it, and then I will list some highlights to help you make your own yogurt without an Instant Pot as well!      

     Whelp, now you know how I look in the morning. 
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Here are a few highlights to remember:

• You can use any fat content of milk.  I used whole milk this time, but low-fat or non-fat will also make great yogurt.
• Heat the milk in a large pot to 180 degrees F.  then, cool it to 110 degrees before adding the yogurt culture.
• Use plain yogurt of any type or brand that you prefer as your culture.  It can be Greek or regular, it will definitely influence the taste of your yogurt, so choose the type that you like. 
• I have seen people use from 1 Tablespoon to 1/2 cup of the yogurt culture.  I used 1 1/2 Tablespoons and it worked great. 
• After your milk comes to 110 degrees, you may add the culture.  When you stir it in, remember not to scrape the bottom of the pan, which may have scorched milk on it. 
• Put your milk and yogurt mixture into a warm, not hot crockpot.  Wrap it with a towel and let it sit, unplugged, for 8-12 hours.  I let mine sit around 9 hours.  It is so amazing to see that it is thickened into yogurt when you open it up! 
• Drain off the whey, taking about 2-3 hours to allow it to drain.  If you don't have a yogurt strainer, you can use flour sack cloth or coffee filters in a mesh strainer over a bowl.  You can save the whey to make ricotta cheese, as a stock in soups, in smoothies, to amend acidity in soil and so many other things!
• After straining the yogurt, you are ready to add flavoring and sweeteners as desired.  So far, we have loved 1/2 cup of honey and a teaspoon of vanilla in the basic yogurt.  Later, we add jam, granola, fresh or canned fruit or whatever we want.  It is so delicious. 

     In a few days, I'll share the recipe for my lemon blackberry cheesecake that I made with this homemade yogurt!  There will be a few other things to come as well!  
      Here is a shoutout to Anita for getting me excited about making yogurt!  It is such a satisfying feeling to make something that is successful, delicious, versatile and money saving! Let me know if you give it a try. 
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     I don't know if you are like me, but after I get all of the trappings of Christmas taken down and put away, I still have a pile of Christmas cards to deal with.  Many of them are so beautiful, I hate to throw them away, and in the spirit of living a little greener, I like to try to recycle them.  So, today, we will share some of our favorite ways!  If you have any ideas to add, please let us know, we are always looking for new ideas! 

1.    For years, one of my favorite things to do with the Christmas Cards we receive is to make gift tags for next year.  It is fun to cut out the cute motifs and the handmade cards are especially cute to use on packages.  Just remember to put them in a place where you will find them next Christmas! 

2.     Of course, if we receive photo cards of family and loved ones, I like to put them in a photo album.  It is fun to see how the families have grown year after year. 

3.   One year, on Everyday Reading, I found this really cute banner idea.  Janssen used the photo cards she received to make a Valentine Banner.  It was so cute.  Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to cut the photo cards, but there were a lot of really cute cards that I used instead. I used a thicker version of baker's twine to make the banner. 

I used two different sizes of heart cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. 

4.   A really awesome gift for young kids next Christmas, or a way to add to the Spirit of Christmas around the house,  would be a book using the pictures from the cards.  One year I made a Christmas ABC Book using Christmas Cards.  It can be tricky coming up with a picture for every letter, but my friend had a poem that she shared with me to help me out.  Unfortunately for this post, I gave that book away.  But I got to thinking that it would be really cool to use the song "C is for the Christ Child" by Jim Reeves as the text for the book.  If you have enough Christmas cards, you can make more than one!  I put together a free printable of ideas for making this book. 

Here is the PDF file to make printing easier: 

    It would be awesome to include the CD of the song with the book as well! 
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     So, hopefully you can find a way to recycle those Christmas cards and get the last vestiges of Christmas put away.  And, won't it be great knowing that you have a gift for the little ones, gift tags to use when wrapping and something to decorate with for Valentine's Day!  Now that is thinking ahead! 

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     Our family was so blessed this Christmas to have all of us together for a little over a week.  Lindsey and her family  and my son Tyler and his family hosted everyone.  It was chaotic, but wonderful.  

    One of the things we love to do as a family when we get together is play games!  Every year, there are new games given as gifts and then we have a ton of fun trying them all out.  Here is a list of our favorites this year:

*Azul:  This was a gift from Alicia and her husband, who are really good at choosing good games, to my husband and I.  Azul is a beautiful game with pieces based on Portuguese tiles.  It requires strategy to win and seems a little complicated at first, but once you catch on, you will love it!  

*Blokus:  Blokus is another addictive strategy game that even the youngest players can catch on to.  My 4 year old granddaughter did great at it.  (Of course, she is unusually intelligent, if I do say so myself!) Young ones may need a little guidance towards the end of the round when the board becomes more crowded.  Unlike Azul, this game seems at first to be quite simple, but you soon find out that you must be strategic about placing those blocks on the board! 

*Blockbuster:  At first glance, this game looks kind of lame with its plastic VHS case and old Blockbuster Video Store logo.  But, we hade more fun with this game as we tested how many movies we could name in certain genres or categories, such as "Movies With Snakes."  There are opportunities to give clues to your team using just one word, a catch phrase from the movie or to act it out.  Blockbuster is a great party game for a large group of all ages. This game was a gift to Alicia's family from some friends and I am going to miss it until I see them again! Maybe I will have to get my own! 

*Chameleon:  Another great group game! It is no wonder that this is an award winning game because it is really a lot of fun! In this game, one person is the chameleon who has to pretend to know the secret word in order not to be found out by the rest of the players.  If he can really guess the secret word in the end, he can save himself.  The trick to being successful in this game is to give good clues that are just vague enough to keep the Chameleon from figuring out the word but not so vague that you sound suspicious.  And, if you are the Chameleon, you have to be able to fake out your opponents by blending in. 

     If you have a party coming up or any kind of gathering where games are in order, these games are for you! 
     If you have missed any of our other game suggestion posts, click on these links for more ideas for family/friends fun! 

• Trivia Truths
• Favorite Card Games
• 2 Person Games
• 10 Great Party Games
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