Posts Tagged ‘Yum’

On the cheese-making front: Success!!!

The curd didn’t quite look like the pictures in the instructions, but it definitely worked. It’s yummy, too! I’ll have to work out why my curd looks more like cottage cheese instead of a custard. I wasn’t able to make the ricotta with the whey and I imagine that will explain the problem. Going to visit some cheese-making sites today and ask the experts.

BTW, I got the rennet from a friend. She owns a beer- and wine-making supply business in Norfolk, Virginia called HomeBrewUSA. (think I mentioned this a post or 2 ago). She had Ricki’s 30 Minute Mozzarella & Ricotta Kit
from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and she gave me the whole kit as she’s too busy to make cheese since she’s opening a second location.

As a side note: I’m looking forward to taking beer-making classes soon. I had the BEST beer ever while in Cleveland and I want to learn how to make it. I had 3 different varieties from Great Lakes Brewing and it was really just incredible. Can’t find it locally. And really too expensive for everyday drinking (not that I drink beer every day).

The milk was $2.39 for a gallon and made just over a pound. The big bag of shredded mozzarella at Sams cost $1.67 a pound. I like to keep an eye on those numbers. I’ll have to check prices on the solid cheese. Sometimes shredded is perfect, and other times it’s just not what the recipe calls for. Like today, for instance: garden fresh tomatoes and basil with sliced mozzarella. Yum! You just can’t do that with shredded.

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Wow! Three weeks in already!

I picked up some cookbooks today from a fellow freecycler. Old cookbooks… just the way I love them! A Yankee Cookbook from 1939, an Indian cookbook and a Chinese cookbook (both from the 1970s). Why do I like old cookbooks? Well, it’s usually cheaper to cook with unprocessed ingredients and there weren’t too many around back in the old days. The only drawback is when a recipe calls for something obscure and I can’t find a modern substitute, which isn’t nearly the problem is used to be before wikipedia and answers.com.

Dinner today (prepared by my hubby) was bratwurst baked in sauerkraut, served with real mashed potatoes and a mixture of corn & peas. Yum! Why does dinner always taste better when somebody else cooks it?

No shopping today, so I’m well under my budget for the week. Heading downstairs to make muffin batter for tomorrow morning.

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Another day of mooching off the in-laws. (It’s 600 miles away, so it’s not like we could go home for meals.) After a very late breakfast we all (excluding Andy) trekked out to do a bit of shopping at Walmart. I did actually spent about a buck and a half (receipt is around somewhere) on some Pocky for Andy. At home I get it at the commissary for about 85¢, but it was over a buck in Ohio. Andy has been a total trooper — not complaining AT ALL about being dragged to Ohio for a week with no other kids around. So a treat was in order.

After shopping my father in-law treated us all to ice cream. Yum! I had butter pecan, which I haven’t had in decades. There was so much to choose from that I simply picked the first thing on the list.

We went out for dinner, also compliments of my father in-law, at a Chinese restaurant. Good food. Good conversation. I think we were all savoring our last night together.

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Once again, no expenditures for the day. We were at a party hosted by my father in-law’s sister. Yum! Grilled burgers, dogs, lots of side dishes, fresh fruit and desserts.

AND some fabulous beer from the Great Lakes Brewing Co. I don’t think I’ve ever had such great tasting beer EVER. Lots of flavor. Very smooth. I had 2 ales and a lager and would rate them all “A” beers. Now I just need to find a source for something this good in Virginia. I may have to take up brewing if I can’t because I just don’t think I’ll be satisfied with anything else. (champagne tastes on a beer budget?)

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I really blew it today. I *should* have gone to the store to pick up some milk, pizza fixin’s, etc., but just couldn’t get my butt in gear, so now those items will end up in the budget for the week we’re vacationing.

We used up some produce in the fridge for dinner — my husband made stuffed bell peppers. We always have plenty of rice on hand (I buy it in 25 lb bags at the warehouse clubs for about $12), and we had the hamburger in the freezer too. The recipe he made was from a Betty Crocker cookbook from the 70s and the recipes are mostly mid-western versions of food. It called for pre-cooking the hamburger and even mixing some of the tomato sauce with it and the rice and a few spices then stuffing the par-boiled peppers. Then topping with more tomato sauce and baking, adding mozzarella cheese to the top during the last 15 minutes in the oven. Very odd, but probably the best way to go if you’ve only got regular ground beef on hand and not lean.

My normal recipe calls for mixing the raw hamburger, salt, pepper, rice, chopped onions and a tad of garlic up and stuffing that into raw peppers. Then cooking that on the stove in a mixture of tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes, seasoned with oregano, bay leaf, salt & pepper (and whatever strikes me at the moment), sometimes adding a little red wine. If you use full-fat hamburger you’ve got a bit of problem on your hands with that recipe, though if you poke holes in the bell peppers before stuffing them the fat drains out okay.

With the stuffed peppers, my husband also served corn & peas, and mashed potatoes. Yum! Nice dinner, and even better since I didn’t have to cook it.

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