A super duper great day, and Zucchini Bread.

I woke up early this morning and have just had the best day, I got cows milked, kitchen cleaned, and floors swept and mopped by 9 AM.  Before you start to think I'm Miss Betsy Homemaker or something, note that this has never happened before and is unlikely to happen again.  Then while my kids cleaned their room, I got school stuff together, then we sat down and did our schoolwork.  (This is beginning to sound like a pleasant dream, it's actually not, I swear)  That went relatively smoothly, with not even a tear, again not the usual, Ari has a hate relationship going on with her Phonics book.  Then I chased the kids outside, nicely, no I'm not an abusive mother, and then I proceeded to make two batches of cheese, one of mozzarella, and one of paneer.  

Then I went out to the garden and picked a massive amount of basil, my plants are absolutely huge and beautiful.  Anyone need basil, or bell peppers?  I'd almost forgotten about the pepper plants as they've not really produced the last couple months, but I guess the cooler weather and rain has worked miracles, they were loaded.  Plus a very few little tomatoes and some okra. I get about that much okra every couple of days, not enough to eat, so I throw it into a gallon freezer bag in the freezer and when the bag is full I cook up a mess of yummy okra!  I've only had enough for about 4 batches this year, and it's so good, I'm planting 4 times as many plants next year.

And then I made a huge batch of pesto, yum!  I love fresh pesto and mozzarella, I just wish the tomato plants were bearing, I got a couple tomatoes, I can't decide whether to eat them or to save them for my husband.  He really likes pesto, cheese, and tomatoes, maybe I'll be nice and save them, I'm pretty stuffed right now with just snacking on the cheese as I was making it.  Next I got started on a double batch of zucchini bread, my kids have been wanting something special and I haven't made anything for ages, plus I've got a bunch of zucchini from the garden up the road.  I made some of it into Cheesy Surprises last night to eat with pork steak, from our freshly butchered pigs, oh super yummy goodness.  Speaking of pigs, I'm way past due for a post about them, I managed to not get around to doing it when they were alive, maybe I'll do one now that they're in the freezer.

And now, I'm worn out and I think it's nap time, though it's only 12:40, the kids are still outside playing so nicely.  I have such cooperative kids, they only come to the door occasionally to ask to be let back in and I just have to say "nope, no way, go away" and they are off again for another hour or so.  (I'm not actually that mean, or am I?)  I did give them peaches and a watermelon to eat to keep them happy, so I guess I'm not too terribly mean.

Here's the recipe for the zucchini bread, it was delicious.  Make sure to squeeze out the excess liquid, I grate it into a thin towel/piece of cloth, then wring it out as good as I could.  This is actually a double batch, so you can half it if you like.  I just had a ton of zucchini to use up.  And it's a good thing I did because we ate over half of it in basically one sitting.

Grain Free Zucchini Bread
1 cup almond flour
1 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
6 tbs honey
1 tsp vanilla
stevia if you think it needs it
2 cups or so of shredded zucchini,
with water squeezed out
1 cup or so chopped walnuts (opt.) (I forgot to add nuts, wish I had)

Grease a couple mini loaf pans, and/or some muffin tins, I don't have any mini pans and I ended up with one big loaf and 12 muffins.  Bake for 25 minutes for muffins, 35 for mini loaf, about 50 for full size loaf.


Most of it got eaten before I could remember to snap a picture.

The Eggmobile, and Bocconcini with Pesto

Isn't it beautiful!  It's finally done, and in use, and I LOVE it!  The egg mobile turned out great, I threw up a bunch of roosts inside that need a bit of finish work, and was in such a hurry to get it into use I used sticks for the nest box entry, but for the most part it's awesome.  I've been moving it about every three days, I don't want so much poop to build up underneath that it kills the grass.  The chickens have been staying in the pen very nicely, we do have a hawk or two and an owl or two that like to perch in the trees and panic the chickens.  I managed to find some goslings locally that hopefully will grow up fast so I can put them out with the chickens as guardians.  I hate to loose my chickens to predators.

The first few days they laid their eggs everywhere, on the floor, in their food, out in the yard, and they broke and ate several.  This made me panic a bit, it would be awful if my chickens became egg eaters from the stress of moving, but they settled down after a couple days and are now laying 100% in the next boxes, and not eating any.  I put mats into the boxes instead of straw, and go down in the afternoon after they are done laying to gather eggs and pull down netting over the boxes so they can't roost in them.  So this has completely curtailed my egg washing chores, which is wonderful.  But I do have to walk all the way down to the bottom pasture several times a day, which is a pain, and the last time is after dark to lock them up.  Last night I forgot to lock them up, and I knew I had to move the house today.  I realized this at 2:30 this morning, so I had to get up and go down there, that wasn't much fun at all.  My plan is to train the kids to go down and shut them up, I need to work on that.  Right now I'm moving it every three days, it'd probably be better every two days but it's a bit of work, especially since the grounds so dry it's hard as rock and I have to hammer each fence post in.  Oh how I wish I had enough acreage that I could dispense with the fence.  But those stupid chickens will just come right back to the house, oh how I hate them sometimes, there are four that have been getting out and hanging out up here.  I carry them down and they are back again in minutes, I don't know what to do with them, other than wring their necks, but they are worth too much for that.

I have been craving some fresh mozzarella cheese lately, and have been too busy to make any lately.  But I finally got around to it today, I had a couple gallons of milk that was getting old and needed to be used.  I also have a wealth of basil in the garden, and fresh mozzarella and basil is just too good.  First I made one gallon's worth, then ate it all by myself, so then I made a 2nd gallon and the rest of the family shared that.   I'm not going to write out the cheese recipe, Google 30 minute mozzarella, it's super easy and the best cheese you will ever eat, well, the best fresh cheese for sure.  After the cheese was done I ran up to the garden and picked a ton of basil, which of course, when all was said and done, was only about 2 cups of leaves.  And all the ripe tomatoes I had, which wasn't very many, out of almost 50 tomato plants I'm not doing very well.  I don't know what's wrong with them.  Then I ground them up with some olive oil, supposed to be 1/2 cup, I didn't measure, about 1/2 cup of pine nuts, about 1/2 cup of Parmesan, two big cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 tsp salt.  Then I sliced up the tomatoes and pigged out.  Oh my goodness it was the yummiest thing ever, as evidenced by the fact that I ate a gallons worth of cheese...  Hmm, I'm writing this thinking about the two lonely balls of leftover cheese that's sitting in the fridge, maybe those need to be eaten right now, there might be room in my stomach by now, I haven't eaten anything it at least 10 minutes.  Oh, and I'd like to give a shout out to my friends at U Pick It Farms and say thanks for the lovely veggies, I hadn't been by there in a while and one of the boys brought me down two bags full of vegetables, tomatoes, squash, fresh herbs, banana peppers, and the most delicious carrots ever.  Since I've already eaten all the tomatoes I could find in my garden, theirs will provide a lovely addition to supper!

Next up, Monterrey Jack and Cheddar

Accomplishing quality cheese making is the task I'm currently setting my sights on, we love cheese, way more than we probably should.  At least if I can make raw cheeses at home I don't have to worry about most of the unhealthy aspects of cheese.  Of the hard cheeses I've made Cheddar and Colby, unfortunately they are still curing so I don't even know yet if I'm just wasting my time.  I'm hoping and praying that they will be delicious, and I'm sure they will be, I actually followed the recipe's (for the most part, unusual for me) so they should be.  Monterrey Jack is a relatively easy cheese to make, unlike Cheddar, while Cheddar is our favorite, it's a pain to make and takes quite a bit of time hovering over the stove.  So I'm hoping we end up liking the Colby and Jack as much as the Cheddar, and I can just make them instead.  So I start out with three gallons of milk, as that's all my pot holds, I'm really wanting a bigger pot, 5 or 6 gallons would be nice, but I'm not sure where to find one.  Ah, the internet!  Yes, that would work, but I don't want to pay the $50 to $100 for one.   But I need to, it'd really make cheese making easier, I could make twice as much and save so much time.  My husband just spent some money at Uncle Sam's Outfitters on some toys so that means I'm allowed, right?  Actually, I bought him a gift cert to them for half off so it's kinda my fault he spent the money.  But I think I'm still allowed. Okay, so that was a little off topic.  Speaking of toys, I bought a new thermometer for cheese making.  It's so cool!  You can set the temp you want and it beeps when it gets there, so convenient.

  All the hard cheeses start out basically the same way, with warming the milk up to around 86 degrees, then adding your culture.  So far I've just been culturing with Mesophilic cultures, one of these days I'm going to get into thermophilic cheeses, Parmesan, Provolone, Swiss, the Italian cheeses.  After stirring in your culture you leave it sitting keeping it at 86 degrees for an hour.  Then you add rennet, which you have mixed with 1/4 cup of cool water, for what reason I don't know.  After stirring it in you let it set for another 45 minutes to an hour, the rennet curdles your milk and turns it into a solid, it looks about like custard at this stage.  When it's set you cut the curd into 1/4 inch to 2 inch cubes, depending on your recipe, then slowly heat it to around 110 degrees.  This is the PITA part, I usually do it in a sink of hot water, as your only supposed to raise the temperature 2 degrees per 5 minutes.  Having a double boiler would help, but I don't have one, so I fill the sink with 110-120 degree water and set the pot in it and do the best I can.

"Cooking" the curd in a sink full of hot water

You are supposed to stir frequently at this point to keep the curds from matting at the bottom, I tend to decide at this point to go out and water my garden for 5 minutes, which ends up being an hour, and totally forget about it.  Not the best thing to do, but following recipes isn't my strong point.  Then your supposed to hold it at that temperature for another hour or so, of course the sink water keeps cooling down which is a pain.  But I figure close enough is good enough, I hope.
  At that point the different cheeses will diverge, what you do at this stage makes them what they are, or something like that.

"Cheddaring" the curd

Cheddar you get to mess with for another couple of hours, what a pain, Colby and Jack are a bit easier and shorter.  You have to hold cheddar curds at a certain temp for an hour or so, flipping them often, that gives them the "cheddar" flavor. Then you get to shovel your curds into the press and squish them for 12-24 hours.  It's so neat taking your cheese out of the press, it actually kinda looks like cheese!  Then it gets to sit out on a rack and dry over the next day or two, in preparation for waxing, just don't forget it, it's rather depressing to find it covered in mold.  You also have to turn it twice a day to help it to dry out evenly.

Cheddar in the press, and Monterrey Jack air drying before waxing.  I have to increase the pressure on the Cheddar over the next 24 hours, starting at 10 pounds and ending up at 50.  I'm thankful for all the weights we have, they're in the way most of the time but work great for my homemade cheese press.  Unfortunately, the only free space I seem to have for this is on top of my chest freezer, it's a pain when I need to get into it during cheese pressing time.  I need more counter space, and a bigger house!




I decided to hold back some of the cheddar curds to munch on, and they are delicious.  I ate a bunch fresh, then sprinkled some garlic powder and fresh basil on the rest, and ate a bunch more.  This was after eating a big bowl of chicken soup for lunch, now I look three months pregnant, but dang was it good!  This is what's left, I saved some for my husband, I'm so generous.  Actually, I decided to make another batch and to make it all into cheddar curds, then I can bring some for snacks tomorrow as it's my "in town" day.  Unfortunately, that means I've got another 4 hours worth of cheese making, and it's already 3:00, oh well, obviously I've got plenty of extra time, else I wouldn't be wasting it on this computer.  Shame on me, there's clothes to fold and put away and floors to be cleaned and diapers to be sewn, ah well, back to the drudgery that is my life.  Just kidding, I love my life :)

My lovely cows

    I drag myself out of bed at 6am to milk, again, as I have for the past 400 plus days since I started milking.  It's completely worth it, except when I don't feel like it, and then it still is!  My cows decided this morning to make me come get them, instead of coming up to the gate, so now my feet are wet from the dew.  Sweet lovely cows...

Meet Sage, this is her 2nd lactation, Cherry is her calf from this year.  She's a pretty sweet cow, for the most part, well, for a cow.  She still kicks occasionally, and hits me in the face with her tail, but I guess that's just what cows do.

And here's CBC, wanna know what her name means?  Ha!  It stands for Crazy B*itch Cow, and she's earned it.  Thankfully she's settled down a lot in the last two years but when I started milking her she kicked me over and over and over again, I had to tie her to the wall to get milking done.  And that was when I hand milked so it meant she'd kick the bucket over numerous times as well.  Oh well, now she's almost my favorite cow, she definitely the best milker, she gives more milk and more cream than Sage, and she milks out twice as fast.  She rarely kicks me anymore, thankfully, though when she does she kicks hard and fast.  I love my milking stand, it protects me from getting kicked, before my husband and I built it I would have to jump when I felt them twitch, now I just laugh, "ha ha, you can't get me".

And then I get to carry the heavy tank, full of 5+ gallons of milk, into the house, sometimes it weighs as much as #60, no fun at all.  I do love having the milker, before hand it was so hard to keep the milk clean, an open bucket underneath a cow is just a bad thing, they aren't the cleanest animal's in the world, and don't even get me started about the flies.  Now I end up with pristine milk every time, and no carpel tunnel from hand milking, it's a win win situation!  I do strain the milk into the jars, just in case, I like to be doubly sure it's perfectly clean, and then I stick it into my freezer, which is dialed down as low as possible.  The thermometer this morning said -6 F, which is great as to have Grade A milk in a commercial dairy you need to be able to cool the milk to 40 degrees F in 2 hours.  I usually can accomplish that, or get very close, which helps the milk stay fresh longer. 

They gave 5 gallons this morning, that's about average, sometimes it's up around 6, depending on how lush the section of pasture is that they're on.  It hasn't rained in a couple weeks, so the pasture is suffering.  I'm trying to go 100% grass-fed, the cows get a handful of grain at milking, only because they wouldn't put their head in the stanchion if I didn't give them some.  Once I run out of grain, which is taking a while at a handful at a time, I'm going to use alfalfa pellets, then they'll be 100%, which is awesome, better milk quality, healthier cows.  Cows aren't designed to eat grain, they have four stomachs for a reason, to digest grass, eating grain messes up the pH in their rumen, and messes up their digestion.  Obviously a handful isn't going to affect much of anything, but think about cattle in feedlots, they are fed so much grain that they have to be butchered around 15 months of age, or they will die of liver failure.  Twenty five percent of feedlot cattle have liver abscesses, but what's great, according to the Beef Council, is that only severe abscesses affect cattle performance, and only about 6.5% have severe abscesses.  So no big deal that 25% of the beef in the store is from a sick animal, as long as it continues to grow quickly and produce as much meat as possible in the shortest period of time, it's perfectly ok!   Vote with your food dollars, that's the only way change will happen.  If you are looking for a good source for grass-fed small farm raised beef, contact me and I'll give you the info for a friend of mine who butchers and sells wonderful meat.

Okay, so I kind of got off on a tangent there, sorry about that :)

So next on the list of things I need to do today is to make another batch of Mozzarella, I bought some more citric acid yesterday, it's in the canning section at the grocery store, if your needing any.  To save on jar washing, I strained last night's milk right into my three gallon pot and stuck the whole thing in the frig, as I knew I was going to make some sort of cheese today.

And it turned out GREAT!!!  The last 3-4 times I made Mozzarella it just didn't turn out right, it would end up being hard and dry and rubbery.  This turned out super soft and stretchy and delicious!  I taste tested it several times :)  Yum, now I just wish I had fresh tomatoes in my garden to eat it with...  It won't be long.

Chickens, Cows, and Cheese

Wow, life has been busy and I haven't had much time with my computer.  We spent Mother's Day spread out between the three Mom's my husband and I have between us :)  So that meant Monday was "work your backside off day" to make up for having the day off Sunday.  My husband got a bunch done on the chicken house, it's got all the walls and roof framed out, I'm so excited, just wishing it was done.  I finally got sick of having a disgusting yard and locked the chickens up, they have a large grassy pen but still cluster around the door begging to be released to run free.   This picture also shows the shack they live in, I tacked it together without any help as it was supposed to be replaced quickly, unfortunately, it's taken much longer than that.  They don't seem to mind much though, it works.

Hopefully this next weekend we'll get the egg mobile finished and them out where their supposed to be.











The calves came up and wanted their picture taken so I obliged, actually, they wanted their bottle.  The one with the heart on her head was a couple days after Valentine's Day so she was named Valentine.  The other calf still doesn't really have a name, I decided since we couldn't think of a new name to just give her a previous calf's name, one that we sold a while back.  The kids don't agree, but I think it's fine, so I say her name is Cherry.

My Colby is ready to be waxed today, I made it two days ago, completely forgot to take pictures or blog about that...  But I'll document the waxing process at least.  I bought a pan at the thrift store for melting wax, as the pan isn't usable for anything but that for the future.  So when I was done with the cheddar, I just let the wax cool in the pan and stuck it in the cupboard for next time.  

Now I'm reheating it to dip the Colby in. Colby is a washed curd cheese that is simpler to make than Cheddar, and only has to cure 4-6 weeks, instead of the 2-12 months for Cheddar.  And I like Colby so I hope this turns out!  It looks kind of funny as it's got little pimples all over where the holes were in the mold, next time maybe I should leave the cheesecloth on the whole time, but I didn't want the wrinkles the cheesecloth left.  I guess I can't win.  I'm sure it'll still be edible.  I just wish my root cellar was finished, it's too hot to age at room temperature, and the frig is too cold, and I don't have enough extra room in my frig anyway.  But that's where it will go for now, until I come up with a better plan, or my root cellar gets done.  But I'm not holding my breath!  

Ready to age!  My lovely daughter made me the label, now we just have to be patient for another month.  Now I think I'll go make some Mozzarella, I'm ready for some instant gratification, I hate wait!(Princess Bride quote if you didn't notice)  I can't wait for my multitudes of Basil plants to get bigger, I made some Bocconcini, little mozzarella balls, marinated in pesto last year and it was to die for, except my dad stole it and ate it all.  Though I have to admit it was my fault, I accidentally left it at his house.  Oh well, I should have plenty of Basil this year and I'll make a bunch!

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.