Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Cheese!
Yesterday my mother and I made cheese for the first time. We made Mozzarella, and the first batch turned out so well that we made two more right then! Mom made pizza for dinner with our mozzarella last night, and we had grilled cheese sandwiches with it today for lunch. It tasted delicious! I think we're hooked. :-)
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21 comments:
I gotta getta cow!
:)
Awesome! Mozzarella is easy and so so good. Did you make it with or without liapse powder? I need to make up some big batches. I have some customers who really like it.
Blessings!!
For a second I started to wonder how in the world you make cheese... do you bake it, do you boil it... what do you do?
But don't worry, I mix up the brake and the gas pedals... (actually, maybe you SHOULD worry)
I did remember how cheese is made. I imagine it's a little more complicated than this, if you want it to be civilized, (civilized cheese. Sounds yummy) but here is what it reminded me of: my uncle Bruce commented that the first cheese must have been made when some young boy forgot his bag of milk, and boy must his mother've been mad!
I hope you can make sense of that.
WOW Naddy! You and your family sure are talented! I can't even immagine myself trying to make cheese! Is it easy?
JFC- yep!
Mrs. Fuller- Our recipe wanted citric acid and rennet. Now I'm curious...is the liapse powder instead of one of those?
Deborah- Satisfying is a good word to use...the fun thing about this (instead of say, yogurt) is the quick results! :-)
Han- lol. :-) That sounds like the Mongols. I hear that they invented yogurt by carrying their mare's milk in leather bags.
Loz- Thanks...it was pretty easy! Mozzarella is one of the easy cheeses, I'm told (which is why we tried it!), so it wasn't really harder than following most recipes for the first time. :-)
Ooh... like the new layout. The picture makes me remember all of those great summers on my grandpa's farm! Except, to be really wonderful, it would have to be a field of corn. But it's very lovely as it is!
And this reminds me, what was the other picture a shot of? Whenever I'd load the page, my first thought would be "Mortar board hat!" and then I couldn't think of anything else.
Huzzah for the Master and Commander soundtrack! Huzzah for anything to do with Lucky Jack!
Thanks, Han! :-)
Mortarboard hat? *giggle*
Ok, the other picture was a sunset at the top of a huge sand dune with my journal and my chai tea. I took that picture at Bruneau Dune State Park, near Boise, Idaho, which is a very nice place indeed for watching a sunset with chai and a journal. :-)
Huzzah indeed! :-)
Naddy:
Liapse is optional for the recipe you are using. It comes in a mild form and a strong form. It just tricks the milk into thinking it is goats or sheeps milk and adds a piquant zesty Italian flavor. It is all natural and is not unlike rennet. Instead of coming from a calf's stomach, it comes from a goat or sheep stomach. (Sorry, the details are kind of disgusting. It is just a way to tweak the recipe to give it some zest. I make it both with and without. Most of our customers rave over the bland stuff. They aren't used to real cheese anymore. I really like it with a teeny tiny bit of liapse. Yum!!
BTW, it is okay to call me Christina. Makes me feel old and distant being called Mrs. Fuller. I am in denial. It works until I see a gray hair. Blessings!!
That must be so satisfying to be living off your own handiwork ... off the land ... brings memories of my own farm upbringing. You and your mother are very clever!
(BTW Thanks for the helpful suggestions re the blog-reading conundrum!)
Hi Christine, this is Naddy's Daddy taking a break from my usual lurking on this blog. My grey hairs do not disturb me since they are still in the fight whilst other hairs are missing in action, or worse, outright deserters.
It is all my fault that you are referred to as Mrs. Fuller, so I'll take the load off Naddy and 'splain it myself.
When she was a wee gnat we taught her that small people and big people were different and that the big people had eaten a lot more peanut butter and were in other ways much wiser, although some of them did not obey God. The first part did not shock the wee one, but the part about not obeying God struck her as very odd indeed. Nevertheless we taught her that honor was due those who were older and especially those whom God had given greater responsibility, like moms, dads, pastors, and even the governor of the state of Arizona, etc. People are no longer comfortable with this concept, but honoring others is not the same as making them comfortable.
Now Naddy is all grown up but her station in life does not involve great responsibility yet, for although she is a milkmaid like you, she does not see herself as a peer with those who occupy the important offices of wife and mother.
The Kansas Milkmaid is an honored personage hereabouts, and although in the blogworld I think it is appropriate to use blognames, using someones real name communicates more affection and friendship, which is what Naddy is doing. So, Mrs. Fuller, you will just have to get used to it, and it's good to have you as a friend.
Oh Drat, Gnat! I was afeard it was something like that. Around our parts we consider the feelings/wishes of the elder person to be worthy of great respect and honor too. So we do a half way between and refer to those who prefer it as Miss or Mr. "insert first name". So, please by all means, call me Miss Chris. In fact, we received such great rebuke from most of the children's elders that it has become common place to call them Miss or Mr. "insert first name". It is a Kansas thing, I guess. ;) I am honored to be have such affection and friendship. Many thanks and blessings sent your way!
Hey Natalie. Just commenting cuz I feel guilty for not saying anything on here, but now I am.
So you made cheese huh? You couldn't even make a mudball out here, it's so dry. However the cicadas are buzzing and Monsoon season is on it's way. Thank God for the occasional multi-cell thunderstorm right? Speaking of cicadas, do you have any of those critters up there?
see ya for now.
Thanks, Chiefbiscuit! :-) We're trying, one step at a time. (You're quite welcome on the BTW! :-)
Yes, ma'am, Miss Chris, Pappy gave the OK. ;-)
Hey, David. :-) Yeah, we have cicadas right now. We also have storm clouds at the moment... hope you get some soon too.
I ordered rennet last week so we can start making cheese - I'm trying feta first since I'm wild about it, but I also want to try a spreadable Chevre. Mmm, can't wait.
I've heard mozeralla is fun to make, but I haven't read a recipe for it yet. Don't you pull it like taffy to make it stringy?
Badgermum:
It is just like pulling taffy. I have a link on my how to make cheese page that will take you to a step by step pictorial of Ricki Carroll's cheese making page. It shows that taffy pull and all.
Good luck!!
The link is here for the Mozzarella directions. Those are the instructions which we were given by a friend (although not with the spiffy pictures... thanks, Miss Chris!) and we have made nine batches with no failures! :-)
[edit: halfway through writing this, a younger sibling cut himself with scissors and I got up to help with the first aid. On my way back from that, I noticed that my 11 year old brother's batch, his 7th today, looks like ricotta. So as soon as I said it... ;-) All his other batches turned out great, though.]
And yes, it is very fun to make! It was the first one we made, and now I've also made Queso Blanco.
Hahah, I just tried to visit your page, but I typed "daddy.blogspot" instead of "naddy". I wonder what blog that would bring me to...
Naddy,
So nice seeing you again! You still owe me money, but I forgive you.
Delightful dancing with you, etc., do come again! I couldn't say that you have a standing invitation, but we'd never kick you out.
God bless and hope to see you soon!
Oh, and Naddy, even if I'm not your friend, I am your aquaintance.
*Cough* Ladies shouldn't listen to Switchfoot. Or something. If eyerolls could be loud, this one is: *eyeroll*
Sarie,
It was wonderful seeing you too!
Yes, I know, I haven't paid you for the privilege of being Han's twin. Perhaps we can still work something out, but I insist that I don't always get referred to as the "evil twin". I think that the label of "evil twin" should be shared equally between the two of us. ;-)
You are quite correct that you are an aquaintance, and I would even say a friend... although you might try to deny it. :-) The sidebar has been updated accordingly.
LOL. I think that was sleep deprivation speaking when that was said. Because I don't see why classic rock is fine but Switchfoot isn't!
Oh, and have fun with Algebra. :-)
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