Things to do with milk...

Because I own a cow, I have a lot of milk to deal with on a regular basis.
And I get tired of mozzarella and ricotta. So here is a brainstormed list of some of the other relatively useful and easy things I sometimes remember to do with the milk.
Lemon cheese
Cheddar cheese curds
Yogurt
Kefir
Cream cheese
Evaporated milk
Pudding
Hot chocolate in large quantities
Ice cream

I would like to share a new chocolate pudding recipe I developed yesterday.

Rich Chocolate-Almond Pudding
In a medium saucepan, combine:
1 C raw sugar
1 C dutch cocoa
1/4 C corn starch
Add 5 cups milk, turn heat on medium/low.
Add 2 beaten eggs by whisking in a steady stream.
Heat till bubbly and thickened, stirring almost constantly, until you can feel the spoon dragging on the bottom. Maybe 5 minutes?
Remove from heat, add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon almond extract. Pour into serving bowl to set, and serve warm or cold with fluffywhip (aka real whipped cream).

Kids will eat it, but I really made
XOXO
Joce
it for me.

Cream Cheese Recipe

I believe I have perfected my cream cheese recipe:

Recipe works with up to 2 gallons of milk.

In a stainless steel pan, bring milk (nice fatty milk- add a little extra cream if you have it) to 70 F.

Mix in 1/8 t mesophilic A and 1/8 t mesophilic M culture powder, thoroughly, stirring for about 2 minutes.

Add 1/4 rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 C cool tap water, stirring in a plunging motion for about 15 seconds.

Let it set at 70 degrees for 24 hours. I keep it in my living room on top of my entertainment center- my woodstove keeps it at about 70 degrees there.

Cut curds into 1 inch cubes, pour into fine cheesecloth (butter muslin)-lined colander. Make a bag by tying the corners of the cheesecloth together, and let the cheese hang until it stops dripping, about 6 hours.

Salt to taste, mix well, and store in fridge for up to a week.

This is a cultured, raw milk cheese. Very good for you.
Yum.

XOXO
Joce

Time marches on...

Sister cries out, from her baby bed. Brother runs in with feathers on his head. Mama's in her room learnin how to sew. Daddy's drinkin beer listenen to the radio. Hank Williams sings Kaw-Liga and Dear John. Time marches on, time marches on.

Sister's using rouge and clear complection soap. Brother's wearin beads and he smokes alot of dope. Mama is depressed barely makes a sound. Daddy's got a girlfriend in another town. Bob Dylan sings like a Rolling Stone. Time marches on, time marches on.

South moves north, North moves south. A star is born, a star burns out. The only thing that stays the same is everything changes, everything changes.

Sister calls herself a sexy grandma. Brother's on a diet for high cholesterol. Mama's out of touch with reality. Daddy's in the ground beneath the maple tree. As the Angles sing an old Hank Williams song. Time marches on, time marches on. Time marches on, time marches on. Time marches on. Time marches on.

You need some of this pumpkin bread.

It'll cure what ails you.

Jocelyn's Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

Mix together:
2 C sourdough starter
1/2 C sugar
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
1/2 C milk
1/2 C oil
16 oz. pumpkin puree
Sift together:
2 C flour
1 C vanilla pudding mix
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cloves

Mix sifted dry ingredients into the sourdough mixture until well blended, but not smooth.
Pour into two greased loaf pans and bake at 325 for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy the pumpkin-y goodness as the bread bakes and also when you get to finally eat it.

XOXO
Joce

What I've been up to....

These are not necessarily in chronological order.

1. I am proud to announce that my white bread took 1st place, my strawberry preserves took 2nd place, and my molasses cookies took 3rd at the Genesee Country Village Agricultural Society Fair.

2. We butchered pig on Columbus Day- it was a successful endeavor.

3. Our party was great. Hanna won the apple recipe with her apple cake recipe which she should post in her comments here, and Kara came in second with a caramel apple pie, the recipe for which she should post on her blog and linky up here. They both received prize bags with a loaf of the aforementioned prizewinning white bread, a jar of the preserves, and a bottle each of strawberry and peach wine.

4. We bought a new-to-us mini van. A 2005 Toyota Sienna. This is a nice little story about trusting God and waiting on the Lord, so I will share it. Last year, we wanted a mini van. So we tried to sell our Jeep. No one wanted to buy the Jeep. We found a nice little Honda Odyssey in our price range- still no one wanted to buy our Jeep. Now, we could have erred on the side of excess and bought the van anyway. But, instead, we took it as God saying, "wait." And so we did. A couple of weeks ago, we thought that it might be time for us to have a van now that our family is about to expand. We put our Jeep on craigslist, sold it almost immediately, and found a mini on craigslist that we were able to buy the same day! And- they that wait upon Lord shall have power doors, leather interior, and heated seats.

5. MOPS convention. It was great, but I was grumpy from sitting on my butt for long periods of time and then walking like four miles to get from place to place INSIDE the resort. Yes, resort. That was cool. It was the Gaylord Opryland, and I would recommend it. Highly.
And, God had things to say to me even through my airplane induced swollenlegandfeet grump I had on.

6. Hats. I have crocheted two super cute earflap hats for my kids. Check out the links section here and go to the earflap hat pattern link and see the hat pattern I used. I will post pics of my own at a later date.

7. We started using our woodstove in the last week. I really love our woodstove. Oh! And remember all the smoke troubles we had last year? Well, we added about 8 feet of pipe to the roof and so far, so good. We ordered 7 cords of wood, and have seven more on the way.

8. Our first was this week- October 11th. I pulled all the onions and peppers and pumpkins that were left in the garden, and still have beets, parsnips, carrots, broccoli, and brussel sprouts out there. I'll let you know how those fair.

9. And last night, I did a cheesemaking workshop at the LeRoy Library- and it was awesome! We made lemon cheese and mozz.

10. I forgot my best friend's birthday- twice. How do you even do that? Well, her birthday was on Monday and I forgot that, so she said if it would make me feel better I could pretend that Friday was her birthday. Well, today's Thursday and I so have not sent out a card or gift yet. S0 I suck. So.....sorry Kara that I suck as a BFF.

Well, that's all I can think of for now, I may add to this post as I think of things of interest.

XOXO
Joce

PS I am looking for two things: local sweet potatoes, and a cast iron tea kettle to put on my woodstove to humidify my home.

Winds-day, or a rather blustery day today.

I need to have a pity party, so consider yourself warned. There is no pep here today. Not being able to drink these last 7 months has really sucked. There have just been too many days when I really c ould use a drink or 7, and I can have what...2 ounces of red wine? It's not cutting it folks. Not that I need alcohol to drown out my sorrow, but it sure would be helpful today.
It's my mom's birthday. I am just sad today. Tears are just behind my eyeballs every second. It's giving me a headache.
I have a plan though- we are having a birthday party today. With from-a-box Funfetti cake complete with from-a-can pink vanilla Funfetti frosting along with some from-a-carton peanut butter swirl vanilla ice cream. Brilyn helped me shop yesterday. My kids have a great attitude about celebrating Gramma Janet's birthday even though she can't come because she's in heaven. Their joy at celebrating her birthday is helpful in keeping me from wallowing in tears all day.
But my eyes are still sad and want to cry.
I also have a sucky job today.
My brother gave me my mom's cell phone (that's a super secret, don't ask for the number, I don't like cell phones ( I think they're the devil), but since I could have a baby at any second, I thought it was a good idea, also, my brother and dad and sister can call me from their cell phones for free, so I took the cell phone.) to use and guess what? Her voice is still in there. She says, "You have reached Janet's cell phone," or something like that. And so I have the responsibility of changing that message. And I don't want to. So I said I would do it the night of her birthday, just in case anyone wanted to call it one last time and hear her voice during the day.
I need a few shots to be able to do that I think. And The Maker's Mark is off limits to me.

Even Solomon knows:
Proverbs 31:4-6
"It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts."

So, I will make a cake and eat some ice cream and make my morning coffee like this:
4 ice cubes
1 cup half and half
2 t instant coffee
2 t dutch cocoa
2 t raw sugar
1 t vanilla
generous amount of Irish Cream
Blended till smooth.

Talk about a slightly different take on becoming a Proverbs 31 woman. LOL. Ooops- that's a joke and I am supposed to be having a pity party. Well, a bit of humor is probably a good thing today, even if it doesn't fit the theme.

Well, I feel a bit better after having taken the time to give full awareness to just how sad I am.

XOXO
Joce