Mozzarella and butter

Two gallons for Mozzarella, plus some cream for butter

Well, in addition to my list, I forgot I also had to make Mozzarella and butter, my "milk frig" is so full I can't fit in any more milk so I have to use up some of it.  So I got working on that, the last couple times I made mozz it didn't turn out right, way too dry and tasteless, so I was determined to follow the recipe super close instead of winging it as usual.  Well, this only worked until I realized I was short of citric acid, but I had almost enough so I went for it.  It turned out ok, not great, but definitely edible.  

Stirring and heating the curd

Draining the curd

Ball of mozzarella in the brine

While making the cheese I also made a couple batches of butter, making butter in the blender is very simple, if you keep a close eye on it and don't overblend.  I usually dump it in, turn it on and go to work on something else, while keeping an ear on the blender.

What it looks like at the grainy stage

When I hear it change sounds, it's then "whipped cream" and I run back to it and pulse it until it turns grainy and starts to separate, I quit then, blending too long is a bad bad thing.  Then I dump it into a cloth lined bowl, and squeeze out the buttermilk.

Next I put the ball of butter into a pan of ice water and massage and squeeze and massage and squeeze over and over again until the buttermilk is all squeezed out and I have a beautiful shiny ball of butter.  This time I added a bit of salt and worked that in, it does help to keep the butter fresh longer.

Finally done and chilling

My butter bell, a great way to keep it fresh and soft at room temperature

  And now it's lunch time!  Time to use up some of that mozzarella and make pizza.  I had been saving 1/2 a head of cauliflower for this purpose, so I chopped it up and threw it in the food processor to "rice" it, I also shredded the mozzarella with the food processor as that's infinitely easier than by hand.  Throw in a couple eggs and some spices and you've got a super healthy, nutritious, and tasty pizza crust!

Crust before baking

Crust after baking

Yum!!!  It was a little juicy, I should have drained the sauce a bit first

I ate half of the pizza myself (or more), kids got the rest, it was delicious!  Unfortunately we were short on toppings, I chopped up a bit of unprocessed ham and some onions, hopefully we will have our own bell peppers, jalapeno's and fresh tomatoes soon and the next pizza will be quite a bit more loaded.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust
2 cups riced cauliflower
2 egg
2 cups mozzarella cheese
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp parsley

Mix all together, press into a very well greased pan or parchment paper.  Bake at 400 for about 15
minutes.


So now it's almost 2:00 and nothing's done on the list, well, besides dishes washed... Ahhhhh, I'm tired and don't want to work anymore, time for coffee, that'll help, putting kids down for naps will help too!

As of 3:30 I've got the car cleaned and am starting on folding clothes!  Yay!  That coffee helped, plus I told the kids it was quiet time and they had to stay in their room, normally that means after 5 minutes they start up with "can we come out now"...  This time I said they could play in their room as long as they liked, but they couldn't come out until it was clean, they said "we'll stay in all day".  Ha!  Fine by me :)  So I've got peace and quiet and they are in there having a ball playing, it's still a mess but it'll get done eventually, probably once they start getting hungry.  Is that bad parenting?  I'm not sure...  Ok, back to work.

Well, now it's 6 and all the clothes are folded, house is picked up, the kids finally picked up their room, they needed a bit more incentive.  Supper is in the oven, I forgot to take pics but I went out to the garden, picked a mess of kale, collards, spinach, and turnip greens, sauteed onions in the butter I made this morning, and then added the greens.  Threw some eggs and milk and salt in the blender, crumbled some feta that I'd made a couple weeks ago, dumped it all together in a baking dish, threw some cheddar curds that I made a week ago and threw it in the oven.  Yay for semi-quick and easy supper, especially when I forgot to start until my poor starving husband gets home.  How just have to wait 30 minutes til it's cooked.

All done, time to stuff your face!

To Die For Spinach Quiche
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spinach-Quiche/Detail.aspx

1/2 cup butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
10-16oz spinach, thawed and drained (if you use frozen) or chopped fresh
1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained OR fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 (6 ounce) package herb and garlic feta, crumbled OR regular feta OR skip if you don’t have
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk or kefir or cream
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2.In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion and mushrooms if your using fresh in butter until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Stir in spinach, mushrooms (if your using canned), feta and half of the Cheddar cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
3.In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Mix spinach stuff and egg stuff together and put in baking dish.
4. Sprinkle top with remaining Cheddar cheese, and bake 30-40 minutes, until set in center. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving if you can handle waiting that long.