Earlier this year ago, I wrote about my experiments in making homemade French yogurt (January 15, 2020). Since then, I have continued to make my own yogurt. Each week, I make anywhere between 20 and 48 jars of yogurt.

While making yogurt, I have continued to learn more about what works best for homemade yogurt. Here are a few tips:

1. Yogurt cultures can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days if not making yogurt each day. I have found that the four days of storage is the longest that I would recommend. After four days, the cultures do start to spoil.
2. Frozen yogurt needs to completely thaw before starting a new batch of yogurt. If not thawed, the frozen culture will take an extra 4 hours of incubation for a good outcome.
3. A small amount of sugar (1/4 tsp) added to each 8 ounce jar of yogurt prior to incubation helps tremendously in creating the creamiest yogurt I have ever tasted.
4. Homemade yogurt, strained through cheese cloth for an hour creates a very good base for tzatziki sauce as well as a good replacement for sour cream in baking recipes.

I have also found ways to use the Oui jars that I had accumulated. The most common use has been for making candles. Using glass etching, I have given candles to many friends and family. I have also made candles for each of our staff at my dental office (48 in total).

Recently, I decided to do some more glass etching to make storage for my button collection. Storing buttons in a large jar meant that each time I needed a specific color, I needed to sort through the entire jar. The last time I needed a button, I sorted all of them by color. Then I created vinyl stencils to etch several Oui jars with a label.

Having found some lids that fit these jars, I now have a well organized button collection in my sewing room.

I still have about a dozen empty Oui jars. I need to find some other projects to use these for.