On the subject of yogurt

 I posted instructions here for making yogurt from a starter.
Usually I make my yogurt using commercial yogurt as a starter. I'll do two batches. One from the original starter and when that's down to a half cup of plain yogurt, I start a second batch. Going too many generations can lead to a manky taste in yogurt. Look for plain yogurt that's milk and cultures only. I get a larger thing of it and package it up into half cup size portions I keep in my freezer for the next batch so out of one thing of yogurt I can culture an awful lot of fresh plain yogurt. I put it reusable containers and always flavor some, we use it in smoothies and make savory yogurts that can be strained to make labneh which is just marvelous as a sandwich spread. In the summer I puree it with fruit and a bit of honey and pop it in frozen pop molds to make frozen pops for my children. Just like my mom used to do for me!  You'd use a half cup of commercial plain yogurt in place of the starter, and increase the powdered milk to 3/4 c. because otherwise it won't get quite as thick. Runny yogurt works well in biscuits, smoothies and bread. If you don't want to buy half cup containers to freeze the starter, just put it in an ice cube tray and after it's frozen put the yogurt cubes in a bag in the freezer, then pull out 2 or 3 to use as a starter. That's how mom did it!
My children are wild for vanilla yogurt sweetened with maple sugar or honey.
If you have a dehydrator, you can make your own yogurt covered raisins. Flavor and sweeten your yogurt then strain it as for labneh which mean line a strainer with a coffee filter or cheese cloth and put in the yogurt. Put that over a bowl and cover it up with a plate and put it some place cool (fridge works) for 24 hours. A lot of the liquid comes out of it making a gorgeous thick cheese. Coat your raisins with that and put them in the dehydrator for a few hours. You'll want to keep these in the fridge because they aren't shelf stable but they do just fine in lunch/bento boxes, snack boxes for long car trips. The store bought kind have waxes and such in them, these taste a whole lot better and are probably better for you.

But you know? I still hate carob.

Book Review- The Hippie Handbook

The Hippie Handbook by Chelsea Cain, Illustrated by Lia Miternique
I have kind of mixed feelings about this book.
The author who grew up on a commune wrote a humorous and sweet book with some little snippets of autobiographical anecdotes and a lot of overviews of hippie type crafts and recipes. I laughed out loud at some parts remembering my own upbringing and seeing how my current lifestyle does reflect growing up the daughter of a hippie.
The projects include a macramé belt, how to tie dye, how to organize a political protest as well as several "How to cook like a hippie" recipes such as how to make tempeh and a recipe for a vegan chocolate cake. I was a little disappointed that the sprouting jars and homemade yogurt of my youth weren't in the book.
It's very basic, the illustrations are lovely and fun, and it is kind of funny. It's more a book for "daytrippers" than for people who really want to try living a hippie lifestyle, but she does include a good bibliography if you are really interested in the philosophy and lifestyle.

Every time she mentioned Native Americans I flinched though. I know that influence was strong in the hippie counterculture and with people who consider themselves hippies now but at the same time, the stereotypical images, like on the page giving ideas for murals "blissfully content Native Americans" just made cringe.

Did this review help you?

Books I liked more on similar subjects:
Virginia Gleser's Tie Dye- The How To Book. You can read my review here
The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book by Joan Wiener Bordow and Sharon Rosenberg. Don't be fooled by the clean cut girl on the cover. The original version had a completely different cover and it's a wonderful hippie clothes making book. You can read my review of that here and get some embroidery patterns inspired by this wonderful book.
Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living- no review because I'm not done reading it yet. This thing is huge with tons of information on how to live off the grid.
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Bunker Box for boys

 The miniature painting mistakes are my fault. No undo button with paint, and I wanted to get the photos and didn't take the time to scrape off the paint spills with my craft knife.

Like I mentioned before, my teenage son is very into all sorts of games including miniature games which inspired this box for boys. It uses the fancy box template I've been using for stained glass effect boxes. Click on the images for the full sized versions. I think this would be fun with plastic toy soldiers as well.

 

 

You can get the blank template from My etsy shop.

Valentine stained glass box

Another stained glass effect gift box. These boxes take 2 sheets of cardstock, scissors, glue or tape, a ruler and something to score the box to assemble. It's one of my favorite templates.

The base is 3 inches, the lid is 4 inches. Make sure you print both the top and the bottom at the same dpi settings. If you print "fit to page" the lid winds up being too big for the box. 

Click on the images for the full sized version.

 

 

You can buy the blank template at my Etsy store for $1.60 if you'd like the blank to decorate.