Cheese!

Say cheese!

Tonight we tasted my homemade feta cheese. It was a tad salty so I rinsed it off before putting it on the pizza.

Success!

Tonight I only used up the partial jar of feta. I still have another full jar and will let that age a bit longer. I am thrilled that I was able to make cheese from a gallon of milk.

We want to attempt cheddar cheese next, which has to age for six long months. I love aged cheeses so I'm excited about the possibilities.

Cheesemaking progress

We are plowing forward in our efforts to make feta cheese. After three days of drying, the cheese was finally ready for the next step. It's a good thing I read the directions online instead of relying on the pamphlet in the kit. The pamphlet said that the cheese should dry for two days; the online directions said it could take up to three days to dry. Mine took three full days.

Close up of this beautiful but stinky cheese

Jarred and in a light brine solution. These are going in the fridge to ripen for another 7-10 days and then we'll do a taste test.

Speaking of cheese, we discovered a very happy announcement at the mall.

Beecher's is coming to our local mall! Woohoo! I adore their fresh mac&cheese but we have to visit Pike Place Market in order to partake. Soon there will be a restaurant 15 minutes from our house!

Adventures in Cheesemaking

I finally dove into my cheesemaking yesterday. I didn't mean to wait until so late in the month but stuff kept happening and I couldn't find an entire day to devote to the process.

Starting off with whole milk from Whole Foods.

Using the thermometer from the kit...

only to discover that ours works so much better!

At the end of step one, the milk was starting to change form.

I did a really messy job turning it into curds.

Draining.

Draining some more.

Starting the drying process.

Drying while covered in cheesecloth.

I started the process yesterday morning around 10. I think it was 11PM or so when it was finally ready to add the ingredients for the brine. This morning I had to get up early and lay it all out so that it could dry flat. I've been rotating the cheese every couple of hours today so that it will dry on all sides. I have to do the same tomorrow and then Sabbath morning it finally starts the ripening process. It will be another week before it's ready to eat.

What have I learned? This takes a lot of time and way more patience than I possess. I had SUCH a hard time keeping the milk at the right temperature. It was supposed to be heated indirectly so I placed the pan on top of my frying pan. The frying pan was filled with water and heated, which then heated my pan and the milk. Even with that, I couldn't get it hot enough and then I way overshot the target temperature. To be honest, I might have ruined it. It smells like cheese but it's pungent. It's supposed to ripen into feta cheese, which I know has a strong smell. But this is slightly different. I'm not sure if it's normal or if I ruined the cheese when I heated the milk too hot. We're going to wait until tomorrow to see if the smell changes and decide if we're going to keep the process going or toss it out and try again some other time.

Either way, if I end up with trash or cheese, it has definitely been a learning experience. I had no idea cheesemaking is so HARD!

Making cheese - the prep work

Tomorrow I head to the store to buy the ingredients for making feta cheese!

These directions are seriously intimidating... heat milk with indirect heat. Hold exactly at 86 degrees for an hour. Stir. Allow to set for another half hour, maintaining 86 degree temperature. Eek! Well, we shall see what happens!

May 30 Day Challenge

To help keep me busy while we wait and wait and wait for the court process, I thought it would be fun to pick a project for the month of May. There are several I could have picked from, most of which consist of finishing knitting and quilting projects that are in various stages of completion. But I thought it would be more fun to do something related to cooking - making cheese.

My mother-in-law bought me a cheesemaking kit for Christmas and I am so excited to get started!

I have two cheesemaking books. One is for dairy cheeses...

And the other is for vegan cheeses...

This weekend I will flip through both books, decide what type of cheese I want to attempt, and make a shopping list in preparation for grocery shopping on Monday. I can't wait!

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins - Vegan and delicious!

Today I made Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins. They were so good that I had to take an additional walk this evening so that I could eat another. Definitely a keeper!

Kitchen shortcuts

This afternoon I decided to try a new method of cooking pumpkin in preparation for pie.

My normal method is to cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out all of the seeds, put the two halves face down in about half an inch of water, and bake for an hour. It works great, provides an easy method of peeling off the skin, but adds a lot of extra water to the pumpkin flesh. This means that it's harder to get a good consistency in my pie.

But today I found this method which is even easier! Wash the pumpkin, stab holes in it, bake it, and then cut it open to scoop out the innards and peel off the skin. It worked great! We'll see how my pie consistency turns out after the pie cools overnight in the fridge. I'm so excited about this new method of baking a pumpkin!

Cranberry orange muffins

When my husband bought me a muffin pan last month, I was so excited! I haven't made muffins in over two years since we left our rusted metal tins back in Arizona.

The very first batch of muffins I made was an old favorite, Cranberry Orange. This recipe is fantastic. It's a little bit more work than a boxed muffin mix but so worth the effort. I especially love adding the fresh orange zest. We only have two muffins left and I can't wait to make another dozen!

Pumkin season has begun!

I am so excited that pumpkin season is here! Last week I bought two pie pumpkins; today my husband bought me two more. I have a very long list of pumpkin dishes that I want to try this fall. Last week I asked my husband what he wanted me to make first. "Pumpkin pie, of course!"

My beautiful pumpkin

Scooping the seeds

Ready to bake

Pie ready for the oven

Ta-Da! First pie of the year

Beautiful pumpkin pie!
This was the very best vegan pumpkin pie I've ever baked. I love that the recipe did not use tofu. Quite honestly, I usually have issues with the consistency of vegan pumpkin pies. However, this one was already firming up an hour after I pulled it out of the oven. Leaving it in the refrigerator overnight gave it an even better texture.

I want to play around with the recipe to see if I can reduce the sugar. 3/4 of a cup is a lot! Any ideas? I also think it needs more cinnamon. I'm looking forward to making a second pie soon. Does anybody want to come over and help us eat it?

Busy week and a new recipe

This week was busy enough that I forgot to blog. Oops! I spent a few hours this week doing some deep spring organizing. I still have a few areas around the house where our belongings are not organized, just stacked into piles or shoved into corners. I want our house to look intentional! I'm still working through the last stack of papers and will then start sorting through our pantry.

No real adoption news this week, just some random shopping to decorate our home. I hope to post pictures once I finish the organizing.

I made a new Chinese recipe this week, Sexy Spiced ‘n ‘Ginger-ed Veg, Rice Noodles & Crispy Tofu. Whew! What a long recipe name. It was really good the first night but did not reheat well. We preferred the Lo Mein recipe from last week. However, we will definitely use the idea of including jiaozi (dumplings) in future stir-fry recipes. That was the best part!

I haven't picked out a recipe for next week but want to find something Taiwanese. Maybe a side dish instead of an entree. I'll have to search around and find a website with Taiwanese recipes. Happy cooking!

Speaking my love language

My love language is overwhelmingly Gifts. I love to give and I love to receive. It's not the cost that matters, only the thought behind the gift.

My husband loves me!

Tonight he came home with this lovely wok. Since we're going to be cooking more Chinese and Taiwanese dishes, he thought it best for me to have the correct kitchen tools.

I'll be using it tomorrow night to try out another new recipe!

I forgot to post the link to yesterday's delicious dish - Pork Lo Mein. We just subbed tofu for the pork. And if anyone has any favorite recipes to share, please do! I'm always on the lookout for more.

Project: New recipes

I have a new project. Each week, I am going to learn how to cook one new Chinese or Taiwanese meal. I'm hoping that by the time Zhi Zhi comes home, we'll have a binder of recipes to cook for her, ones that she might be familiar with and that will taste like her birth country. I know that when I am out of town, I eventually long for homecooked meals, recipes that I am familiar with and love. I'm sure Zhi Zhi will have the same challenge as she transitions into our family.

Today's new recipe was Pork Lo Mein. Of course, since we are vegetarian, we subbed tofu for the pork. It was delicious!

We're going to take pictures of the food so that we can send them to her in our next care package. I hope she recognizes how much we already love her!

Smoothie time!

This morning I made the first smoothie of the season. Four bananas, a carton of strawberries, and a splash of water to make blending easier. It was delicious! A smoothie is not the best selection for a cold morning but the bananas were ripe and the strawberries were perfect. I split the smoothie with my husband and then toasted an English muffin. It was a great breakfast.

Today I finished a rather funny novel, The Homeschool Experiment by Charity Hawkins. It's about a Christian woman who decides to homeschool her three young children and all the misadventures they have over the course of a school year. I wouldn't classify it as Great Literature but it was a delightful read.

Culinary Adventures

Friday was White Day in Japan. I completely forgot about it, but my husband remembered! He surprised me with this positively delightful raw vegan chocolate pie from Whole Foods. YUM!

On Sunday, I made my own Chocolate Greek Yogurt Pie. I want to try different brands of vegan yogurt until we find one that we like to eat straight from the carton. This recipe will be good, I can tell, if we find a brand of vegan yogurt that we like. Even though we were disappointed, our meat-eating friend devoured his slice and took two home!

I also tried another Orange Tofu recipe. I love orange "chicken" and had a favorite recipe but wanted to find something healthier. My old recipe contained 3/4 cup of sugar, whereas this one contains only tablespoons. We'll be making this recipe again because it was fantastic!

Have you tried anything new recently?

Two new meals

I've been trying to break out of my cooking rut this week. We tried two new meals.

This first dish is a vegetarian eel that we bought from the Asian market. Yes, vegetarian eel. It tasted rather fishy and my husband loved it. I thought it was so so, which is not surprising because I didn't like fish even when I ate meat. We'll probably eat it again, though, because hubs liked it so much.

Vegetarian Eel
The second new recipe is Cold Spicy Ramen Noodles with Tofu and Kimchi. Yum! I wasn't sure what to think of kimchi with ramen but we really, really liked it. It helps that we love kimchi and eat it on a regular basis! I will definitely be playing around with this recipe to make it perfect for our tastes. Neither of us liked the carrots but we loved the green onions and the kimchi and the tofu. Definitely a keeper!

Ramen with Kimchi
Next week I am hoping to try Spicy Orange Tofu and Peppers. I think it looks delicious!

Creativity in the kitchen

I've already tried two new recipes this week and can recommend both.

Today I made Smoky Roasted Portobello Sushi. We weren't big fans of the heart of palm but really, really liked the mushrooms. I want to try adding the mushrooms to our regular sushi rolls and see how they taste.

Yesterday I made Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal. This was my first attempt at baking oatmeal and I will be baking it again! It was incredibly good. Too bad my husband didn't get to eat any. I took it to Bible study and there wasn't any left when I came home.

I'm not trying any other new recipes this week. The rest of our meals are tried and true favorites: green curry, fajitas, garlic sesame soba noodles, and pizza.

A taste of home

We're hoping that our daughter will want to embrace both American culture and her own. I've read that a lot of older adopted kids reject their home culture but I'm hoping our daughter will want to hold onto hers.

In an effort to help her ease into our family, I'm finding recipes that will hopefully taste somewhat familiar. No forcing her to eat pizza on day 1!

This is my first attempt at a green bean stir fry. The store didn't have snow peas so I doubled the green beans. Hopefully next time we'll be able to use both green beans and snow peas. I also think mushrooms would be a good addition.

The recipe called for vegetable broth. Instead of using a can, I found a package of hot pot seasoning and made broth out of that. There was a lot of broth left, so I made ramen today with the broth, peas, and some soba noodles.

Both dishes turned out well! Hopefully our daughter will like at least one of them. Next week I'll try another new recipe.

Thai Green Curry

Now that I've cooked this recipe several times, I thought it'd be a good idea to type it out and share it. My husband and I absolutely love green curry. I make this dish once every two weeks or so and it lasts for several meals. It even reheats well if you store the sauce separately from the rice and tofu!

Rice
1 package extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
2 14 oz cans coconut milk
4 T. green curry paste
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. soy sauce
1/4 t. salt, if needed
fresh lime juice, to taste
1 serrano pepper, seeded and diced
Favorite vegetables
fresh basil, to taste

Cook rice.
Sauté diced tofu in a frying pan.
While the tofu is cooking, combine coconut milk, green curry paste, brown sugar, soy sauce, and salt in a saucepan. Taste and add salt or a touch more of any of the sauce ingredients, if desired. Add lime juice.
Stir in chopped vegetables and serrano pepper. Simmer until vegetables are cooked (6-8 minutes).
Dish up rice in a bowl. Add tofu and sauce. Sprinkle with fresh basil.

Notes:
I use Japanese white rice, the same type of rice that's used in sushi.
We like 1 tablespoon of lime juice, sometimes more if the lime isn't very strong.
My favorite vegetables for green curry are broccoli, onion, bell pepper, and canned pineapple.
私たちは食べましょう！ Let's eat!

Mondays - Kitchen Day

Today was Kitchen Day. Every Monday I spent time doing tasks like cleaning out the fridge and mopping the floor. I tend to make a mess in the kitchen over the weekend and it feels good to start the week with a newly sparkling kitchen.

I also spent some time learning more about and experimenting with my VitaMix. I used the dry container to make flour out of wheat berries. Very cool!




I used the flour to make banana bread in the toaster oven. It was browning very quickly and seemed cooked all the way through so I pulled it out seven minutes early. Hopefully it turns out alright! I guess we'll know during breakfast tomorrow.


It's been a very productive day. I hope everyone else has had a great Monday!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I don't know if these are the world's healthiest chocolate chip cookies but they sure are good!




My husband bought me one of these lovelies last week.


A box for me?


No, silly! A box within a box!



So far I love it! I've used it to make toast, garlic bread, homemade cookies, frozen pie, frozen vegan mac&cheese, and spring rolls. Next week, I hope to attempt a loaf of bread in the toaster oven. I'm hoping it will save money over the long run and keep the kitchen cooler this summer. I love Washington but we have no air conditioning for those rare 90 degree days!

Have you used a toaster oven to cook anything unusual?