Beet Pickle

Sugar & Vinegar pickles with garden & farmers market beets.  I'm most excited for the Mennonite beet pickled eggs that I can make after we finish most of the beets! 

Yog 2

Bulgarian Yogourt Starter. Our last batch was a little runny, so decided to try real starter. It's supposed to be thick and tangy.

After heating the milk, it must be cooled before adding starter.  That's our dinner in the back,  EE is making corn chowder!

ACTION SHOT: preparing the starter, it's mixed so that is get distributed evenly in the pot.

Thicker and a little tangier then we were expecting... Might need to mix in some jam to sweeten it.

Plum Jam / Crumble

New Book!

We enjoyed making the mozzarella so much we bought a new book: Home Cheese Making by Ricki Caroll. Maybe we'll have home made brie soon... First I need to read it. 

Mozzarella

1 Gallon of heated milk, plus citric acid and liquid rennet

Curds and whey!  Strain curds then start kneading.

Reheat the cheese as you knead, should be shiny and stretchy when finished.

Homemade mozzarella!

Yogurt

yes, we have a yogurt maker

adding the starter

Might as well make some homemade yogurt to go with the homemade granola!  Yogurt is really easy to do if you have a yogurt maker.  It is just heated milk with a yogurt starter (they sell packaged yogurt starters, or you can just use a tablespoon of commercial or homemade plain yogurt).  You mix the milk and starter, pour into cups, and then turn on the machine to keep it at the right temperature for 10-20 hours (depending on the consistency you want).  This batch ran for about 20 hours but was still rather runny, we're going to play with the starter next time- our Trader Joe's low fat greek yogurt didn't seem to get the culture going very strongly this time.

Crock

I bought this 2 gallon crock today. I plan on making some sauerkraut to go with the bratwurst I'm going to try making. If you are interested, they are cheap ($20) at the Brooklyn Kitchen.