Hectic Heaven

Making Cheese curds

Here is the site I used when I first started making cheese curds

http://www.cheesemaking.com//Recipe_CheeseCurds.html

I have  used a mesophilic starter(orginally heat milk to 86 instead of 96) rather then a thermophilic starter, but one could use either.  Each starter will produce a somewhat different taste... You can order the starter s from this site as well or you can use.  If you use the mesophilic starter then only heat the curds to 100 instead of 116...  

Yogurt (thermophilic) with live active cultures

Buttermilk (mesophilic)

a couple more things, you dont have to have calcium cloride, but it does help give store bought milk a cleaner break,    you do need some sort of fabric to drain them in... if you dont have the butter mulin  available to you then perhaps you could find a loose woven muslin to use...

one more thing... Mozzerella cheese is great fun to make as well:> and very easy... If you have any questions holler...

Love the feeling

of getting my house back and everything looking nice and tidy... well we are not quite to the tidy part yet but is it looking better..  in spots:>   My DD made a good will run, her car was full and if I had not run out of boxes I probably would have had more for her...    she could have always tied them to the top of her car hehehe... dont tell her I said that.. she is a good kid but I think  I would have had a mutiny on my hands....

Things I need to do today, 

Unload and load dishwasher

make cheese curds

make baguettes

make  jalapeno popper dip

vacuum living room

Load and unload dishwasher again  lol

wash some cloths....

hmmm that ought to keep me out of trouble for a few hours anyway... Have a safe and Happy New Year!

declutering

I packed Christmas away this morning.. I had so many boxes of various things...it has all been compiled into one tub.. of the things I love and cherish most.    I have been working on my kitchen the last day or so.. today I have a cupboard I want to go thru.. there are things in there that I am sure have not seen the light of day for  5 years or so...  I'm sure someone will give them a good home..

Tomorrow evening we are going to my Brothers... I am going to cut up some of the summer sausage I made and make some fresh chees curd... flavored with  garlic and some with sage.  I am going to make some  french bread.. and also I found a recipe for jalapeno popper dip on  allrecipes that really looks good... I have some fromage blanc chees I can use for it...it very similiar to cream cheese...

Well off to declutter the cupboard... gotta have a place for my pie Plates  lol... Have a great day

productive weekend

I have been breaking the grinder in... I have ground up 20 lbs of hamburger,  made  17 lbs of breakfast sausage,  a couple of pounds of  jerky, and about 8 lbs of summer sausage..  It has been raining here quite a bit so it was a good weekend to stay in and mess around... the jerky and summer sausage turned out a bit salty.. will have to rework the recipe...

This morning we went to the local bowling alley and met my sister and 3 of my nephews and Mom and Dad... Sherell and Jim bowled.. I didnt... just watched and heckled... it was fun...

Tomorrow.. I will make some cheese curds for New Years eve.. we are getting together at my brothers house.. we are a pretty tame bunch... I am also going to take down the Christmas tree and drag my spinning wheel out of the other room... I want to start spinning again.. a bit every day... Its a very calming activity and sometimes that is just what the doctor ordered..

A wonderful Cast iron Christmas

We woke up to a skiff of snow Christmas eve morning...the day was pleasant...we spent alot of it preparing for the family get together later in the day... I made stuffed eggs, and fudge and pepperoni pizza, DH made a Chocolate silk pie and stuffed celery, and DD made brownies.  Our meal had a Italian flair.. my SIL  is Italian and she hosted this weekend... It  was a great evening... we ate and visited and opened a few presents and ate and visited some more... about 8 it started to snow so  we headed home...

The next morning I got up and started the lights on the tree and made a cup of tea..  turned on some celtic Christmas carols and waited for   my family to wake up...we opened a few presents and I think everyone was happy... I got some cast iron pie plates... and a cast iron muffin tin...

Later in the day DH used our new grinder and ground up some pork and venison.. this morning I seasoned some of it for breakfast sausage and this evening I seasoned the rest of it for  summer sausage...I will pack the casings tomorrow..

We went to town today  we have a place here that sells to resturants and so on... we got some pork for 1.26 a lb and some beef for 1.69 a lb... we are going to make some sausage, and hamburger and I will make some formed jerky as well..  I know I cant  buy hamburger for 1.69 a lb...especially  as lean as this will be... I think this grinder will save us some dollars...

It has been snowing on and off all day...but its supposed to warm up tomorrrow... so the snow will be mostly in the hils....  we never did get more then a skiff at a time:< but its as close as we have been to a white Christmas... I love watching the big fluffy snow flakes fall..

Lazy weekend, absolutley nothing accomplishes

well not much anyway.  I did make a batch of Fromage blanc cheese, its very similiar to cream cheese just not using all the cream.. therefore somewhat lower in fat and calories.  Its pretty tasty to..and you can use it in recipes calling for cream cheese... DH likes to make a stuff celery using cream cheese, pistachios and wosteshire sauce... he will use some of it for that... I also might make a cheese cake with it...

Some of the other things I needed to do I cant do with DH hanging around...so today I will get it done because he will probably take a day or two off this week... and that would totally mess me up  lol...now I know why I am getting so grey... someone told me the other day I didnt look old enough to have a 25 year old.. if she could only see under the dye job  lol:>

The  weather here has been a bit frightful at times.. but not nearly as bad as elsewhere...hopefuly it will thaw out quick today so I can get in town..

Tomorrow our meat grinder should arrive...I am very excited about that... I have  some sausauge recipes I want to try,  I like knowing what is going into it... I also plan to make a  batch or two of summer sausage.. we have some venison in the freezer that needs to be used  up...

I was somewhat disappointed last night.. one of the ladies at work gave me a card  and in it was a tea bag.. put out by TAzO  it is called JOy... well it was probably the best tea I have every had....it is a combination of black teas, green teas, and oolong tea... as i drank it that night I thought.. mmmm need to get some of this...come to find out its only out around the holiday's and I cant seem to find it..  I will go to a local starbucks store and see if I can find a box or two of it...but probably not at this late date:<  mostly I drink herbal teas... but do enjoy a cup of black blackberry tea.. and also green tea occasionally.

I have a mountain of things to do today but here I sit...need to make a list first... so I guess I ought to get to it... Have a great safe day..

Yippee Snow day

We fInally got a snow day, and the way its looking maybe tomorrow to.. I am kind of glad.. I have been fighting with a cold/sinus something for a couple days.. so it will be nice to rest up today.   Christmas Vacation starts next week.. so I guess if we are out tomorrow we will have a New Years party when we get back..:> 

I have made a couple of batches of garlicy cheese curds or "squeaky" cheese sure it good.. my nephews loved it.. I am going to make a cheese press and am looking for an old fridge so I can make some hard cheese and age it...  I would like to try making some cheddar, parmesan, and blue cheese.. which is DH favorite.

I am pretty much ready for Christmas, I want to pick up a couple things for DH.. small things... we usually get something we both want together.. takes alot of guesswork out of the gift giving.. this year it is a meat grinder... should be here  Christmas eve day.. Im thinking a pair of wool socks and some warm slippers..and perhaps a bottle of his favorite smelly stuff.. On my list is a pair or  Cast iron pie pans I spotted a week or so ago. 

 I think I may take some cheese curds, homemade summer sausage and crackers for our New Years get together.. 

I guess I'll go make me a nice cup of hot chocolate, or tea and watch the snow fall.. have a great day.

Cheesemaking

i made the first batch of mozzerella I have made in several years and its all my brothers fault  lol he bought me a new cheesemaking book the other night:> ...

I think the mozzerella  turned out pretty good.. its tasty anyway;> 

 I love cheese curds... so this weekend I will make some..  they are  pretty easy and quick to make.

I will be kind of glad when next friday gets here... the kids are wound up tighter than a drum... they are ready for a break and so are we;>

not alot going on around here... just working and coming home.. I havent done much lately.. I keep thinking I need to do this or that.. but just never quite have the energy...

He said it'll be quick up and back...

and six hours later we drove in the driveway:> needless to say the turkey didnt get cooked and the big football game we were going to watch wasnt even aired locally lol

It has been pretty foggy here the last few days so it was nice to escape it even for a few hours...the sun was shining and it was warm enough on the hill ,we didnt even need sweatshirts...we had a great time.. we came home with a tree that is about 3 feet to tall, (we did pretty good usually it is much more off.. funny how everything looks so much smaller out in the great outdoors), a craftsman wrench (found on the side of the dirt road we were bouncing down) and quite a few shaggy mane mushrooms, and a batch of fried chicken mushrooms...they were tasty:>

its cold and foggy back in the valley and the fog is so thick I am very thankful we are all tucked in for the night...we brought the tree in for the night so it wouldnt freeze but I think tomorrow we will be getting a new Christmas tree stand...we have been limping by with this one too long... we will make a dump run tomorrow...

The trip tip roast  Dad marinates in a mesquite marinade...once its grilled he slices it... very good!  

A  trick I like to use to make it really good is to add a ounce or two of  tequilla in with the mesquite marinade it gives  it a nice little zing....

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.. not the traditional fare... in fact quite the opposite.. we had trip-tip roast grilled on the BBQ, scalloped potatoes, salad, stuffed celery, deviled eggs, rolls, and the usual pumkin, and berry pie. It was so yummy...

Yesterday, we did go shopping for a short while AFTER the morning mess.. but early enough to get a few  good deals... bought DH 2 pairs of pants for a couple more dollars then the price off one pair.   A few nice DVD's for the kids for Christmas at 2 dollars a piece, and some airborne for me.. fighting with a cold. We also went out for breakfast.  When we got home I stared pulling all the Christmas decorations out of the closet, and DH started cleaning out the closet,  while i went thru the decoration.. so last night when i finally went to bed I had three stacks..  one to keep, one to give away and one to throw away. I have two tubs and after Christmas it will all fit back into those or I will downsize a bit more...It will be nice to have all the boxes combined and know what we have...

Today, I am going to roast a turkey, and we are going to get up in the hills and get our tree...and watch a football game... its the big civil war game, between oregon beavers and the ducks... we need to make a dump run and a goodwill run.. so we might do the tree tomorrow...

Its white here to... but its not snow:< its fog 

Making a smaller footprint

Christmas trees

Now I know its still before Thanksgiving, but I am curious, what type of tree do you put up (hodge-ornaments the kids have made you over the last 20 years) or a themed tree (all one color, all santa type ornaments).  When do you put your tree up? Take it down?

I like to trade off years.. some years I do a hodge podge tree and others I like to make a themed tree... This year I am leaning towards a themed tree.... I am leaning towards either old fashion santa's or snow men....One year I did gingebread men... I made a bunch of cinnamon dough men, dried them and then decorated them with googly eye and puffy paint..... I tied together 3 hard candys and made  ornaments from them...with a bead garland... it sure was a cute tree... I have also done angel trees...

This year whatever I decide on I am going to make the balls,  I will buy small napkins, with cute santa's or snow men and  some styrofoam balls... you cut the picture out and using watered down glue cover the ball with the napkin then you roll it in angel dust glitter and top off with a pretty ribbon held in place with a pretty pin... these are fun family activities to do...

I like to put my tree up VERY soon after Thanksgiving, and it comes down the day after Christmas.. I bought a artificial tree one year.. I like it very much..But DH likes the real thing... so on years we can get high in the mountains... we go get a tree...my favorite tree grows at very high elevations...This year I think, unless it storms in the next week, we may get a fresh one....

Frugal Christmas a challenge of sorts

This year money is tight as  I suspect it is with alot of folks... I am challenging myself to cut down drastically on what I spend for gifts...I am leaing towards making most of  the gifts on my list... Here is a challenge if you wish to take it...  Look around your house.. in your craft closet, fabric stashes, fiber stashes,  what gifts  could you make using what you have or without buying much. What I found

Several skeins of  sugar n cream yarn... each one will make three scrubby style dish rags

a couple yards of  pretty denim material... a couple of reusable grocery bags...

pretty calico prints,  pot holder batting,  some pretty potholders.. I have a neat pattern that  kind of looks like a lady bug... aprons, rendezvous shirts

weaving supplies... I could make dish towels,  guitar straps,  sashes, hat bands,

hand spun  yarn,   shawls, scarves , since I dont knit I am kind of limited here...

polar fleece,  some slippers... not much on hand. enough for 3 pair 

masa, beef, chicken,   homemade tamales

I cant think of any thing else...whats in your closet ?    and if you have other thoughts using what I posted.. please leave the ideas in the comments section... :>

Plans and cutting back

I have been doing alot of thinking the last few days about Christmas... I think this year we will dramatically cut back, by at least half.. at least the kids will probably think its dramatic..lol... I have 5 nephews.. usually I spend about  20 each.. I will cut that to ten... DD and stepson the budget will be about 100 and DH and I discussed buying a meat grinder instead of exchanging gifts.. I will be making some of the things... most of which I already have supplies.. so that will help some to... I have the week of Thanksgiving off so I will  make most of it between now and then .. finishing up during that week..  I had thought about getting each nephew a nice pair of wool sock.. maybe next year I can even knit them  lol.. One nephew has several pairs I found out... so I may weave a guitar strap for him... 

 DD and SS I will buy one thing, and the rest I am planning on making...  I would like to spend less time during the actual season trying to look for the right gift and spend more time with family and enjoying holiday traditions..

The garden is totally gone now and the wild canaries are going from weed to weed eating the seeds.. I enjoy watching these small birds quite alot...

After I posted the last time something got a couple more of the chickens.. so until the outside run can be rebuilt they are penned up... :<  we have 3 of the 7 new ones left.. and 3 of the 7 old ones left.. which need to be put in the freeezer...

I have started mediatating most every day...which I beleive is helping my anxiety.. I am still however having heart palpitations..  I had an EKG the other day and will be going in for a echocardiogram on friday.. I will then wear a monitor for 24 hours to see whats up...hopefully nothing serious... they upped my thyroid and I am feeling some better...energy wise... I'm wondering if what I am dealing with might be the starting of menopause... sweats for no reason.. although I do not feel hot.. anxiety levels thru the roof at times for no good reason.. heart palpitations...and other things are not quite as regular as they once were...so if the heart thing comes back ok.. I will persue it some more and see of the hormone levels are dropping more... I am about 47 so it sure could be that..

Work is going great.. I love what I am doing this year...the kids although challenging are little darlins... and I love working with each of them..  I guess I should go and get ready for work.. It had just been quite some time since I last posted... I look in almost daily but quite often don't really feel I have any "news" to post... Have a great day.. and  keep our wonderful Veterans and soldiers in mind.. especially tomorrow...

Predators and chickens

The Chicken killing we had experienced stopped awhile back and I thought the killer had moved on... but yesterday it was back, it got the little pullet that was always getting out...and that met me at the feed bucket to let her back in:<   But she was NOT out when it got her... and now I know what it is .......a CAT!  A regular everday housecat kind... I never thought a cat would kill chickens...  There was brush back around the back side of the run and I had let it grow up to give the chickens some shade... but its gone now... I found where the cat was getting in, well I know it got out there anyway.. so its all closed up.. It must have been hungry because the only thing we found was feathers and the breast bone... We also found broken egg shells, I think  she must have been laying under that tree back there.

DH shot at it and it ran out the back and around to the neighbors..  we will be watching for it...

DH went deer hunting early this morning, so I will have most of the day to myself...

 I really need to work at getting the walls pushed back up.. It seems during the week when I get home the mess so overwhelms me I dont get anything done...and then on the weekend I just want to rest...  We have been sick so the mess is even a bit more daunting then usual. 

I am also dealing with anxiety attacks again..which drains me of most energy I might have left... I guess I  need to make an appointment with the doc and see if there is anything we can do... I can't seem to tolerate most anti depressant that they like to use for  anxiety.

well off to work...

Todays list:

Kitchen , and laundry.

I need to make some kind of soup as well, for lunches during the week

Thankfully fall has arrived.

The weather is much cooler and we have had a couple of days of  good rain showers.. so the smokey air from the forest fires is a sad summer memory.. The leaves on the trees are starting to change colors... I love this time of year..its still pretty nice out most of the time... so we dont need the heater but its cooler so we dont use the A/C anymore, we pretty much only use it when the weather gets over 100. 

Almost all of my young pullets are laying now... its pr etty intersting and funny the shapes and sizes their eggs are coming in  lol... but it will be nice to have eggs over the winter... they are pretty spendy around here...

We are getting a few tomatoes still but the deer found the garden a few weeks ago and so they have slowed way down, next year we will have to make some changes...but this year its not worth the fight...so we share.

I am looking forward to the winter weather to begin spinning again... I did some this summer but there is just to much to do outdoors to keep at it much...

Work is going well.. I love my job and have been working on getting a dress up station together,  I stil need a few things for the boys, didnt realize they would be so into it either....  I have been hitting garage sales and bought some books and puzzles as well... the teacher is new the district and fairly new to teaching  and has not taught this young of group before.. so we are gathering things as we go... but is sure has been enjoyable helping to get the room set up...

I am a bit concerned as our district still has not settled the contract so there is a  very real possibility that there may be a strike,  this will set  us back financially if it happens... so I am praying and hoping the  negotiators will come to a fair compromise(sp)  Oh and did I say  both DH and I work for the district..  :<

I am also beginning to think about Christmas ideas for family,  I talked to one of my SIL yesterday and got some good ideas for two of my nephews... two I had ideas for already so that just leaves one to figure out.... DD will be hard this year... SS needs everything so that shouldnt be easy....  The last couple of years DH and I have been buying a together gift  instead of each of us spending so much... Im thinking maybe something for our  primitive camp... we will talk about it later... I need to get started so I am not trying to take it all out of one months paychecks...  I have threee paydays left before Christmas.. we get paid once a month..

I guess thats about all thats going on in my neck of the woods...

A busy time around here

Last I wrote we were getting ready to go crabbing with my folks.  We had such a nice time over there with Mom and Dad we went back the next weekend... 4 days the first weekend and 3 the second...just what my soul needed... we didnt do great the first weekend crabbing  we got enough to get a good taste... the second weekend we did better an brought quite a few home... we had a crab feed  Labor day for the whole family....

The sunday we got home the first weekend DH decided the beets needed to be picked...I wasnt quite ready but I made pickled beets that next day....

I went back to work on Sept. 2 I had to take a restraint training class, I learned lots of good ideas for helping to de escelate situations at school... on wens.. I spent most of the day helping get the room ready for the kiddos to come... and on Thurs was the first day of school...because its a combined 1st /kindergarten class just the 1st graders were there last week... they sure are cute... Tomorrow we will have everyone in class...I'm not sure what to expect...but should be interesting...

Right now I am listening to celtic music, I am going to take a few DVD's so we can play them during free choice hoping it will help keep the kiddos  a bit mellower.  Time to hang some clothes out... Have a great week.

Plans, they are a changin!

We had been planning on going to the mountains for a camping trip, but my Mom and Dad called last night and invited us to go to the coast crabbing with them...and who could turn that down..

It will cost us a bit more then we had planned, but I think it will be worth it... I love the coast... and if my family were not all here, I would move back there in a heart beat... So after tomorrow morning I will be out of touch until Sunday evening... Now lets see... pack suitcases, plan food... so much to do  lol.... See you later

cleaning up the cast iron

I was pulling out the dutch ovens I want to take camping with us this weekend and noticed that  they are rancid:<  I have not used them for quite awhile,   so now I am preparing to reseason them..   I use our gas BBQ to do all my burning off and reseasoning, it doesnt stink up the house that way...

They are currently in the BBQ burnging off which means I have it as high  as I can get it to burn off the old seasoning, that will take about an hour,  Once that is complete I will let them cool and then I will reseason them.. I will spread a fresh  coat of oil on them and  bake them again...    A couple of the things I plan on doing this weekend are  chicken pot pie,  biscuits for a B&G breakfast one morning , monkey bread,  maybe a pizza,  and very likely a pot of chile verde.   

The heat wave has finally passed and it is a comfortable day, in fact they are calling for rain tomorrow.. OH I do hope it rains... I LOVE the smell after a rain in the summer.. everything smells so fresh. 

I better get some laundry going.. have a wonderful day!

Planning for the camping trip. Reliving another

DH and I are planning for our camping trip this coming weekend.. we are both excited... this is somewhat different then the camping we normally do... we are going to go to a state campground, we havent done it in several years....I am going to take along one or two of my camp dutch ovens to cook with.. hopefully we will be right along the river so DH can drop a line whenever the desire strikes him..  We will take some cards with us, but I'm sure it will be quite different then what we are used to lol

We normally only camp at rendezvous... which involves using one of two tents.. we have a canvas wall tent (used for longer or cooler rondys, it has a stove hole:>)  or a large  wedge also known as an a frame for shorter warmer rondys... we have aother piece of cavas that extends out beyond the tents to make a nice fly  protection from the sun and rain.  These are what is refered to as primitive camps,  in which you try to keep everything  pre1840's looking... now I dont kid myself for a minute that the mountain men carried all the stuff around that we do..but the idea is to keep the 21st century look out (ice chests and water contrainers are covered, I do like to sleep on an air mattress , covered with wool blankets of course lol... once camp is set up I usually change into a long skirt and chemise with a long apron,  I do wear moccasins which are extremely comfortable.  

Mostly I cook over and open fire.. using cast iron pans and dutch ovens.. At night is it usually very pretty down in the primitive area.. there are usally camp fires here and there.. along with oil or candle lanterns that cast of a soft warm glow.   You can here people talking and visting and  during these weekends you spend alot of time visiting other folks in their camps... you come to look forward to seeing these folks from year to year...having no other contact with them other then this campout or maybe meeting up at another rondy.

There is much to do around the area.. usually many different contests... some hold dutch oven cookoffs,  all have  shooting trails, for rifles and pistols, there is usually a hawk and knife trail somewhere if your handy at throwing..  I dont usually shoot the pistol trail but do enjoy shooting the rifle trail... I have a 50 caliber Issac Haines rifle that has a swamp barrel. 

 I built this gun  between 04-05, It took about a year for me to make her.  I named her Sarah because  she is plain and tall (the moving  Sarah plain and tall)   but beautiful, the stock is maple with some beautiful curl up the forearm.  I stained her with a stain I made using steel wool disolved into vinegar, it took about 2 months for the concoction to brew... once stained I  rubbed her down with boiled linseed oil.   Whats a swamp barrel you ask?  Its a barrel they shaved some of the extra metal out of the middle... makes it not quite so hard to hold up.. in fact I could hold her up all day... she is only 7 lbs... and is almost as tall as I am  lol , so I am usually loading her up around chin level.   She is a dream to shoot... but I am sidetraced now.. back to camping

There are usually several traders around as well..its always fun to see what they have for sale... I usually take a spinning wheel or some type of weaving with me for the quiet times.   My whole family is very involved in this.. but most of them camp in the tin tipee section.  I have one brother that camps primitive with us usually...his wife and I usually do alot of our cooking together..  We have been doing this for 5+ years now...

What else is up around here... I am halfway thru weaving a shawl on the triangle loom I just finished building  the worst part was all the nails...  each side has 155  lol