Easy cheese recipes you can make at home with the children

Baby Update:

Everything is great. I’ve been drinking my goat feed concoction of raspberry leaf and alfalfa tea, 4 cups religiously every morning. It definitely works. I went to see Ann(my miwife) yesterday and for once in my life the little babe was head down and facing anterior. Ann knelt down and whispered for her to stay there now until the end. It’s a nice thought. I tried to persuade Ann into letting me wait another month for my next appointment but she said no, 2 weeks…then I insisted just 1 more month and she granted me 3 weeks. After that, she decides. ;) I do not like having to drive into B-ham. The only concerning news is that I am 32 weeks along and measuring 36, a bit bigger than my norm. **************************************************************

If you do not want to buy the rennet or starter, you only have to look as far as your fridge. Because these are both high heat cheeses, the left over whey will not have ricotta left to extract. Use the whey to make breads, in place of water in many recipes or an excellent nutritious lemonade served ice cold.

Lemon Cheese

Lemon Cheese has a summery lemony flavor that spreads well on crackers.

1/2 gallon Whole Milk (not ultra-pasteurized)

Juice of 2-3 large lemons(approx 1/4 C)

Cheese salt(or un-iodized salt)

Herbs(opt)

1. Heat the milk to 185-195 degrees over direct heat. Stir in the juice of lemons.

2. Let the milk set covered for 15minutes. The curds and the whey will separate, if you do not have a clear separation after 15 minutes, add a little more lemon juice and repeat process.

3. Pour the curds into a muslin cloth lined colander. Tie the corners of the muslin and hang the bag to drain for 1.5 hours.

4. Turn the cheese out into a bowl and add salt and herbs to taste. Mix in with hands.

5.  Store covered in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Yield: About 1 lb cheese

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Queso Blanco (white cheese)

This is an excellent soup cheese. It does not melt and remains in thick chewy chunks in hot soup…delish! It can be deep-fried or used in many different recipes where you want your cheese to remain firm.

1 gallon Whole Milk(not ultra-pasteurized)

1/4 C Vinegar (I use Braggs apple cider)

1. Heat the milk to 185-190 degrees over direct heat, stirring often.

2. Add the vinegar a Tablespoon at a time until the curds separate from the whey. Usually 1/4 C vinegar will work, if it does now up your temperature to 200 degrees instead of using more vinegar. Do NOT boil or it will give it a cooked taste. 

3. Ladle the curds into a muslin cloth lined colander. Tie the corners of the muslin and hang the bag to drain for several hours, or until it is the consistency you’d like. I like it at about 5-6 hours. 

4. Remove cheese from muslin cloth and store covered in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Yield: About 1.5-2 lbs cheese

************************************************

This poor little guy was forgotten in the incubator. I missed his due date and never took his egg out to hatch in the hatcher. This morning I awoke to peeps and when I looked in, he was sitting on the egg turner, still in his egg with the top popped open like some space module.

Mak’in Homemade Cheddar – Day 1

Monday Laundry Day also turned into Cheddar Mak’in Day. Because I am at home all day doing laundry, and making cheese demands just that, I thought they’d go hand in hand. For eight weeks now I have been making a 2 or 3lb loaf of cheddar on Mondays. They age for 1-6 months. We have now sampled our first loaf of cheese and to my surprise it tasted….like…cheddar! For some reason I wasn’t expecting that. At four weeks our cheddar is a little dryer and a little sharper than our store bought mild cheddar, which I loooove.

 

Here we go. Empty 3 gallons worth of fresh raw goat’s milk into a large stainless pot. Each gallon of whole milk yields 1 lb of cheese. Heat the milk to 85 degrees…slowly, in a double boiler. I take a water bath canner, put three rocks in the bottom to make my DB.

 

Once at 85, remove and inoculate with mesophillic starter. Cover with a lid and towels to allow the milk to ripen for 30 minutes.

 

After 30 minutes the milk looks the same. Add rennet. Rennet is the liquid that makes all milk curdle in the belly of baby mammals, in this case, I use calf rennet. I was grossed out at first when I learned this, but it is how it works.

 

Cheese was discovered near the beginning of time by storing milk in a bag made of the intestine of a calf. The rennet miraculously caused the milk to curdle and with aging, caused cheese!

 

See it curdling? After adding the rennet I stir in an up and down motion, make sure we are still at 85 degrees, then wrap her all up in towels again and let sit for 1 hour.

 

The fun part! Remove the pot lid and hope and pray that the you can cut curd! If you can’t, you just ruined a pot of cheese, if you can, you are ready to make cheddar.

 

Ooo, oooo, the curd cut. See that nice cut? Perfecto.

Cutting the curd takes time. You cut it this way, then that, then sideways, then reverse until the whole pot is cut in 1/2 inch pieces. Place the lid back and on let it sit for 10minutes. We are allowing the whey to escape the curds. Miss Muffet, where are you?

Then the curds are gradually heated again to 98 degrees this time, no more than two degrees every 5 minutes. Hold the temp(wrap the pot back up) and let sit for 45 minutes.

Place butter muslin over a colander and strain the curd, preserving the whey for later. Beautiful curd!

 

Gently stir in 3 t Real Salt or an un-iodized salt.

 

Line the cheese press with butter muslin or a high quality cheese cloth. place the curds in the mold. Set up and press at 20lbs of pressure for 15 minutes. Take it out, flip the cheese over, redress it and press at 30lbs pressure for 1 hour. Take it out, flip it, redress and now do a final press of 50lbs for 12 hours. Jessie called me on the phone to let me know I’ll be take my cheese out of the press at 3am. I really need to plan better.

 

Hunk-O-Cheese

 

Now Jessie’s favorite part. After the cheddar is in final press, pour aaaaaall your whey back in the pot. Since the temp of our milk never went over 98 degrees there is still cheese left in the whey. Now we are going to heat up the whey to 200 degrees and force out the ricotta.

 

At 190 ricotta starts to form and bubble to the surface. Oh the joy! Grab the salt shaker and a spoon.

 

The yield was about 3C of blessed ricotta. Had we not already taken cheese from the milk and used whole milk our yield would have been 3lbs.

I keep 2 qrt of my whey and use it in place of water in bread baking(I let it ferment a smidge). I am learning to ferment raw whey for 1 month to culture my own mozzarella instead of having to buy a culture, we’ll see how that goes. Fermenting raw milk products is safe, whereas pasteurized milk just rots, stinks and becomes poisonous.

This is Day 1. It will now take two days of salting and drying the cheddar to build a rind. After the rind is thick and the cheese stops sweating whey, we’ll brush it with a good 1/16” coat of cheesewax.  On Day 3, we will label and put it in the cheese fridge to age for at least 4-6wks.

You can make your own cheese with a gallon of whole milk and vinegar or lemon juice, anyone interested in a recipe?

Resurrection Cookies

I lost my recipe and had to hunt another down so I thought I blog it. This one is taken from here. Thought I’d share. My children all LOVE this family tradition.

Resurrection Story Cookies - A Real Recipe

What a wonderful recipe to share with the children. These cookies are made the evening before celebrating the Resurrection, and are cooked in a warm oven overnight so they will be ready on Easter morning.
You need to preheat the oven to 300 degrees (this is important--don't wait until you are half done with the recipe!)

3 egg whites                        A Ziploc baggie
1 cup whole pecans              A wooden spoon
1 tsp. Vinegar                       tape
A pinch salt                          Bible
1 cup sugar

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1cup sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.
Read Matt. 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Resurrection morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Resurrection, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matt. 28:1-

A glimpse of summer…

I was showing a customer puppies this afternoon when I saw a flash of a child run across the lawn with a life vest and soaking wet clothing. I took a deep breath. It IS a nice sunny day, but the fact remains, it IS 54 degrees out…and the water in our pond was colder than that. 

I finished up, grabbed some towels and reluctantly walked down to our pond. Sure enough. My five oldest were full on swimming in the mucky yucky freezing water like it was July. They had the knee board in there and floaties, as they kicked their feet, dark chocolate water gushed up behind them. It was gross. They were ecstatic. Yips and yells, chattering teeth and all. I took pictures, but then found the card I used was corrupt so you will have to imagine.

Kids…I tell ya.

Washington has SUN!!

No time for blogging, get out there and enjoy it!

Taking a few days off blogging…

We are doing our school testing this week, lost Riley(our big dumb dog <sniff>) yesterday to a truck, coming down with a cold and I think that pregnancy thing it kicking it, lol. I am feeling tired instead of wired. As well as I am working on taxes before that nasty deadline comes Friday and preparing for the all anticipated Christian Heritage Homeschooling Conference!!  I wonder what the chances are of our Principle taking me out for dinner tonight….hmm….

Houston…we have an addict.

I got up this morning thinking about making a batch of soap. Then I went to my soap storage rack, which are all the racks taken from an old freezer and screwed to my bedroom wall. I looked upon my soap, then it hit me “Jennifer, you have a problem”. I counted over 150 bars. I am leaving the realm of “benefitting my family” and entering the “obsession with soaping”. I think it is time to step back. 

You might be a soap addict if...

• You disdain any soap you didn't make yourself.
• You have more fragrance oils than you do spices.
• Your cupboards are full of oils to be used for soapmaking.
• You use the stockpot to make soap.
• You have more "soap" utensils than you do "cooking" ones.
• You own a stick blender, and use it.
• Your children have learned NOT to taste that interesting stuff in the casserole dish!
• You get excited when lye goes on sale.
• You've bought olive oil in the one gallon container.
• Your house always smells like you've swiped the inventory from "The Body Shop".
• You carry free samples of soap in your purse, your briefcase and your car, just in case.
• You try writing off your "work cupboard" as a home business tax expense.
• You denude your lavender bushes before they're ready so that your lavender soap looks right.
• Kitchen? what kitchen? YOU have a test laboratory.
• You know the difference between M&P, CP and HP.
• You don't have friends, you have test markets.
• You see products in stores and recognize which companies sold the molds.
• The UPS guy rolls his eyes every time he lugs a box to your house.
• You look at all storage containers, candy molds and ice cubes trays at the thrift store as possible soap molds.
• You know the difference between EO and FO.
• You throw in the towel after stirring that meringue topping after 30 minutes, but you would never EVER give up on a batch of castile.
• You call the spices in your spice cupboard - botanicals.

Dressing Warm

…and off the the Youth Fair! Emma can hardly contain herself. She packed her listed items over a week ago. Jessica is  a teen leader and spent yesterday and last night packing wheel barrow after wheel barrow load of shavings into horse stalls…the boys can’t stop talking about it either. I get to spend two days managing walkie-talkies, hungry stomachs calls and potty breaks with little ones. It’s just a hoot.

Wordless Wednesday

 

  

Auction Barn Monday

My sweet blessings and I got up Monday morning with a bee in our bonnet to go to the Everson Auction Market and experience our first auction. We’ve attempted this in the past only to get there, have the baby poop his diaper, be out of diapers, one child slip and fall headlong in the mud and get in there only to freeze our pockets off. So we came home before ever seeing the auction.

This time I came prepared . Camera, money, winter coats and hats, large dog crate in the back of the van, just in case Mamma’s soft heart wants to rescue an animal. 

We got there and looked the animals over. Nothing we were interested in…o.k. nothing I was interested in. We would have come home with a new barnyard full of animals had the children had their way. We signed up and got our little bidding card and plopped ourselves down on the bleachers.

It was the small animal day so there were bunnies, chickens, roosters, a duck, goats, a sheep(Emma called it a walking haybale) and chicks. Jacob bid on the duck, but $7 is too much to pay for one duck dinner.  Jess bid on a bunny or two for the experience. It was crazy what some ladies were paying for an auction barn rabbit, I mean, really. You do not know how old they are, diseases, reason for selling…all you know is they’re cute. It was crazy people. Sorry Charlie, not good enough for me.  

Jacob took one picture and my newly recharged batteries gave up the ghost. So this is it. A little pigmy(ack) doe. It gave me the heebie geebies to walk by goats with diarrhea and bring that back to my barn so I had to disinfect myself and the children upon arrival home(that disclaimer is only inserted so Mindy will still be my friend). We did get a little auction fever though, and think we’ll go back and try it again. Elijah and Gracie sat through the whole thing(45m) and looooooved it. 

 

If you are looking for family entertainment, we’d recommend this one. There are clean bathrooms, a small downhome eatery, good seating and it was cheap fun entertainment for ages 2 to 36yrs. Every Monday is now small animal day, auction starting at 12:30, preview before that. Everson Auction Market 966-3271

Fruitful Friday

 

Daddy normally works 4 – 10 hour days and is off at 10:30am every Friday. It is nice to have him home so much on the weekends, but that is about to change again. He was just told they are going to 5 10’s AND Saturdays are opt, but encouraged, as they are so busy. Thank you Lord for the hours and employment.

 

Paul purposed to get caught up on some thingsbeing this his last full weekend and that included getting my greenhouse finished with his boys. I was so excited!

 

 

I love the colored sunset coming through. It was noticeably warmer within an hour of closing the door! Now, what am I going to grow in it?

  

Being Friday and all assignments turned in accomplished(whew), this weeks reward was dirt buckets at the Fairway Cafe. It sure makes the work get turned in!

 

Jacob built three new panels to extend our turkey pen. Daniel skinned them with chicken wire and all this was  done while Daddy worked on the greenhouse. What a blessing those boys are becoming around here in their knowledge of building. All those extra hours taken by Daddy to teach his boys is really starting to pay off.

 

Jacob even built me some great greenhouse workbenches out of dismantled pallet boards and gathered all my tools to set it up just how he thought his Mamma would like it. What a sweetie. I LOVE those benches.

 

Mommy and Elijah hiding from the pouring rain and hail.

See? See? A peach blossom!! Time to throw out the high winter boots and put on the Birks. Thank you Lord for that lift given to the heart when we see your handiwork coming to life! Thank you Lord that in the presence of so much sickness and death in the world around us we see Your mercies and love in nature springing to life again around us. Spring returns, bound by the laws of Your nature, just as Your mercies and love shine through out of dark days. Great is thy faithfulness!

Hos 10:12  Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Every blossoming flower warns you that it is time to seek the Lord; be not out of tune with nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires.

~ C. Spurgeon

Barbecue Beef Sandwiches

Last, but not least…not just your average crockpot roast beef and a bottle of BBQ sauce, this one gets everyone excited for hours before dinner smelling the delicious aroma throughout the house. These sandwiches are always fun because I let the children pick out the type of bun they would like it served on, I know, yippee ding-dong, but really they LOVE picking it out. We’ve tried everything from the bakery from mini hamburger buns to foccacia to flat bread to tortillas(ack). Serves 10ish.

• 2-2.5lb roast, cooked in the crockpot until tender, then shredded
• 3 celery ribs, sliced thin
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 C ketchup
• 6 oz tomato paste
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/4 C Bragg’s apple cider vinegar
• 3 T chili seasoning
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T molasses
• 2 t salt(opt)
• 1 T Worcestershire
• 2 t dry mustard
• 2 C cooked rice as filler(opt)
• 12 rolls of your choice

After roast is cooked and shredded, place back in crockpot and add remaining ingredients(except rolls;). Heat on high for 30 min, then low 30. Broil open faced rolls on low until crispy, spoon on roast beef. Serve with homemade broiled organic potatoes wedges. Mmmmm….Makes great leftovers for Daddy’s lunchbox.

If your man is extra hungry after a strenuous day around the place, or at work, add a fried egg on top.