March 2019 - Simply Me DIY

March 26, 2019March 31, 2019

Simple Sauerkraut

Writing an article about Simple Sauerkraut actually surprises me. I’ve never liked sauerkraut.

At least that’s what I thought.

As I get further into my DIY, I find I’m willing to try more and more things. I’m slowly realizing how much my tastes have changed as I became an adult. I’ve been an adult for a long time and still find myself afraid to try things I remember not liking in the past.

I’m making a concerted effort to change that.

What’s left from my first purple batch of sauerkraut.

What made me decide to give it a try was reading several articles that said homemade kraut is so much better than the store bought kraut. Many different people said that you couldn’t even compare the two.

How could I resist?

Start with 1 head of cabbage after pulling the outside leaves off, that aren’t so tender.

Quarter and remove the hard center core.

Add salt to the cabbage. I actually added about half again of what you see in this picture.

Mash and massage the cabbage with the salt.

The cabbage is getting transparent at this point.

Some brine at the bottom of the bowl from mashing the cabbage.

Jam pack it in the jars using a wooden spoon or something similar. If you look closely you can see the brine in the jar.

I can’t get a whole head of cabbage in 1 quart no matter how hard I try. Again look closely and you can see the brine from the mashing process.

Add water to the inside of the sandwich baggie and it acts to seal the jar and keep the cabbage submerged under the brine.

Simple Sauerkraut

Ingredients

Cabbage
Salt

Directions

Cut your cabbage in quarters and remove the core.
Thinly slice the the head of cabbage.
Sprinkle approximately 2-4 tsp of salt over the sliced cabbage.
Massage the cabbage for several minutes.
Cover your bowl with a paper towel and let set for 10-20 minutes.
Continue to message the cabbage as it becomes transparent and begins to break down and a liquid begins to form in the bottom of the bowl.
Add your cabbage to quart jars and pound it down to get as much cabbage in the jar as you can. You’d be surprised how much cabbage you can get into a quart jar.
The cabbage should be covered with the liquid from the process. *See tips below.
Cover the jar loosely & let set 14 to 21 days. *See tips below.

Tips:

Covering the Cabbage

You want to make sure the cabbage remains completely submerged in the brine solution. I’ve read several ways to do this. If you screw the lid of the jar on the jar, you must remember to “burp” the jar daily.

Or you can make the extra brine and pour it over the cabbage (2 tsp salt to 1 quart water). Or you can buy fermenting weights to set on the cabbage and hold it below the liquid or buy fermenting lids that automatically releases the gases from the fermentation process.

I found a really cool way of putting a plastic sandwich baggie over the cabbage and add water to the baggie. Make sure the bubbles (all air) has been pushed out from under the bag and you have a seal where the gases can still escape easily.

Try to get all the bubbles out from under the baggie after adding your water to the baggie.

Letting the Cabbage Sit

The first recipe I tried, I let sit for 14 days. That turned out good, but I think the batch I have going now I’ll let set for 21 days. I think it’ll be even better.

The longer you let it set the more “twang” it’ll have.

Options

The first batch I made I used a half head of red cabbage and a half head of green cabbage. I thought it would be cool to have the different colors in the jar. The red actually overtook every other color in the jar, but it was pretty.

This was really a colorful simple sauerkraut. I actually saw one article where someone covered her green cabbage with a purple cabbage leaf before letting it set and it was a really cool effect in the jar. Give it a try.

I’ve read that you can add carrots, onions, radishes as well as other veggies to add to the flavor or to make it your very own. I’m excited to try adding shredded carrots in the future.

I hope you’ll give it a try. It really is as simple as you can get and it really is good.

I hope you enjoyed this one. It surprised me that I did. Tell me about your sauerkraut, if you’d like.

If there’s something specific you’d like me to try, leave a comment and let me know what it might be. I’d love to try something new.

Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a new DIY.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

March 19, 2019March 19, 2019

How Mozzarella Became Ricotta

Today’s post was supposed to be all about how to make easy 30 minute mozzarella cheese.

I’ve had the citric acid and rennet for some time. So I got an extra gallon of milk from the store.

I didn’t want to use my good farm fresh milk, just in case something went wrong. I’m pretty sure that was a premonition.

So now I have everything I need. I’d been reading several recipes over and over again for the past week, just to make sure I had it down.

Everything you need for mozzarella, except the water.

This was the recipe I settled on. It’s kind of a combination of several different recipes and information pulled from several websites and videos.

Mozzarella Cheese

1-1/4 cup water
1 gallon of milk
1-1/2 teaspoon Citric Acid
1/4 tablet Rennet tablets or liquid

Directions:

Measure 1 cup of water and add the citric acid to it and let it dissolve.
Measure the remaining 1/4 cup of water and add the 1/4 rennet tablet to it and allow it to dissolve.
Pour your milk into a stainless steel stock pot and stir in your citric acid mixture.
Heat the milk over medium/high heat to 90 degrees, stirring gently.
Once the milk reaches 90 degrees, remove from heat and gently stir in the rennet solution. Stir to the count of 30. Then stop, cover the pot and let it sit completely undisturbed for 5 to 15 min.
After 5 to 15 min the curds should be set to the consistency of a real soft tofu. If it’s not there yet, let it sit a bit longer.
Once it’s set, cut the curd into a grid pattern, top to bottom and left to right, cutting all the way to the bottom of the pot.
Now return it to the stove, medium heat. and warm it back to 105 degrees. Stir slowly trying not to break up the curds too bad. They should begin to clump together and separate more completely from the whey.
Once it reaches 105 degrees, remove it from the heat and continue stirring gently for another 5 min.
Ladle the curds into a micro-safe bowl using a slotted spoon.
Microwave for 1 minute and drain any additional whey off.
Begin to fold the curds over onto themselves. You’ll probably want to use rubber gloves. A new set of yellow kitchen gloves is what was recommended most, to protect your hands from the hot cheese.
Continue to microwave in 30 second increments and continue stretching. Using the microwave is actually about separating out more whey.
Stretch it until it takes on a glossy sheen. Overworking it can make it stiff and it might not melt as well as it could, so don’t over-do it.
You can add a bit of salt now if you want and store it for about a week in some cooled whey in the refrigerator.

It’s not a hard one.

I read over and over that if you are using vegetable rennet, you have to use more than you would if you’re using animal rennet.

I looked over my rennet and didn’t find anything on the label that said one way or another. So I went for it.

I was wrong.

At that point, I went back to Amazon and looked up my previous rennet order. Note to self….ALWAYS check FIRST. Yep, it was vegetable rennet. Instead, I should have used about 2 whole tablets instead of just 1/4 of a tablet.

Not a Complete Fail

Okay, time to step back and punt. So, what can you do with a failed mozzarella. I wasn’t sure yet, but I wasn’t ready to throw it out just yet, either.

I strained it in a tight weave cheese cloth and hung it while I worked at figuring out what I was going to do next.

Then, I started thinking about what I’d read before about making ricotta cheese and I started looking it up.

I’d tried it before with the whey I get from the yogurt I make, but it hadn’t worked.

But this whey was different.

How Mozzarella Becomes Ricotta

I started looking for different recipes for ricotta. What I found out was, there really isn’t a recipe, just a process.

Just gently heat the whey until it reaches about 180 degrees. You don’t want it to come to a oil.

Now you can strain the whey in a fine cheese cloth and let it drain. I tied mine up and hung it overnight.

It came out a beautiful crumbly ricotta cheese. It’s going to be lasagna soon.

The Mozzarella That Wasn’t Mozzarella

My original batch of “not mozzarella” that I strained anyway, turned into a very thick Greek-like type of soft cheese.

It could have easily had some herbs added to it and be used as a spread for crackers.

But, I’ve actually been using it as a breakfast with some granola and honey. It’s yummy.

Because it didn’t work like you thought doesn’t mean it’s a fail, you just have to look at it in a different way.

Let me know about one of your saves, something good that came from a perceived fail. I’d love to hear about it.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

March 10, 2019March 10, 2019

Homemade Butter

Who doesn’t love homemade butter? Well, truthfully, I didn’t think I did up until just several years back.

The only thing I thought real butter was good for was for popping pop corn. Although, real butter makes popcorn taste awesome, I can’t imagine now, how I ever thought such a thing.

These days I can’t imagine NOT liking homemade sweet cream butter. And in my opinion, it makes everything taste better.

Making butter really is easy, although it can sometimes be a bit messy.

It’s the one recipe I know of where you actually start with 1 ingredient and finish with 2 products. How can you beat that??!!

Your ONE ingredient…Cream.

I get my milk from a neighbor, straight from the cow.

When I get it, there is usually about a cup of cream on top that I dip off and put in a pint mason jar before using the milk.

I’ll generally save this up until I get 1-1/2 or 2 pints.

I have used whole milk before and it worked just fine. It tasted good too. But the butter from actual sweet cream from the top of your milk is just…….sweet.

I’ve found it doesn’t take as long if you let the cream come to room temperature first.

Getting started….

You’ll need a standing mixer. The first time I made butter I used my hand mixer. Mostly, because it was all I had. It worked, but I almost ruined my mixer. The butter just gets too stiff for something that small.

So a standing mixer, that’s your best bet.

I poured all the cream in the picture above in the bowl for this.

You’ll want to start slow so you don’t slosh cream all over. Slowly, increase your speed as the cream begins to turn into something more like whipped cream.

Start on low and slowly speed up as you go to prevent a mess.

I cover my mixer and bowl with plastic wrap to keep from making a mess. You can see why here.

This is why you cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It can get messy.

If you’ve ever made whipped cream, that is all you’re doing, except after it gets to the whipped cream state, keep going.

Here it’s beginning to separate. You can tell by the way it starts to clean the side of the bowl as it mixes.

It won’t take long until the butter fat separates from the butter milk.

Keep going.

Soon you will have what sounds like a watery mess. That means you’re done.

That watery substance is buttermilk. Before to keep that for pancakes, biscuits or anything else you might make with buttermilk. My granddaughter loves buttermilk pancakes.

This is the buttermilk I got from this batch of butter.

Now separate the buttermilk from the butter and wash your butter in cold water.

You can always mark your buttermilk and freeze it until you’re ready to use it.

Now, you’ll wash your butter under cold water until the water runs clear. This can take several minutes. The cleaner you can get your butter, meaning the more buttermilk you wash out the longer your butter will last.

It’s better, but not ready yet. Keep washing.

Now, if you use real butter, you’ll know that it’s much harder than margarine. Your homemade sweet cream butter is no different.

Using this right out of the fridge is not going to spread on bread or biscuits real easy. But if you toast your bread or pull your biscuits out of the oven and put your butter on it and let it slowly melt, oooh yum, it’s heaven.

Now would be the time to add salt if you wanted salted butter.

You want you can add herbs to your homemade butter, making a great herbed butter for more savory uses. It easiest to do this right after your wash it and before putting it into the fridge since it’s not real hard at this point yet.

If you don’t need more butter in the fridge, you can wrap it tight and put it in the freezer. I’m not real sure how long it will last in the freezer, because frankly, it’s never had to stay in there very long. But it’s a good way to keep it for a while. Although, I’ve found that homemade butter lasts a long time in the fridge too.

I’ve always wanted to try adding honey to it too, but just haven’t done that yet. I always loved honey-butter when I was a kid.

If you’ve tried that, let me know how it worked out in the comments below.

I hope you find this useful. if you do, please let me know.

If you try it, I’d also love to hear how it turned out.

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a DIY.

Until next time….

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

March 5, 2019February 26, 2019

Homemade Shampoo

Shampoo….a necessity of life. But store bought can be expensive and have all kinds of unnecessary stuff in it. Not only is homemade shampoo really inexpensive and easy to make, now you’ll know what you’re putting on your hair.

You do need a few ingredients that you may not have in your cabinets as a regular basis, but once you buy the few ingredients you need, you can make so many batches the cost really is minimal.

What do you Need

Here’s a list of the things I use in my shampoo. You can find many different recipes with different ingredients. Be sure to look at several of them to find what works best for you.

My hair and scalp is naturally dry. So this shampoo leans toward dry skin.

Organic liquid soap. I use Dr. Bonner unscented. You may have something different you like better, and that’s fine.
Fractionated coconut oil
Aloa vera gel. You can also use vegetable glycerine if you’d like.
Essential oil. Whatever you like best will work.
An empty bottle. I used an empty 8 oz Witch Hazel bottle.

Putting It All Together

I’ll tell you up-front, I’m horrible with using actual measurements. It’s a rare occasion that I actually measure the ingredients when I make shampoo (or pretty much everything else), but I worked hard at using measurements for this post. Your welcome.

First, you need to know that the container I’m using is about an 8 oz container. So I first filled the container about a 1/4 of the way full with the liquid soap.
Next add about 3/4 to 1 tablespoon of both fractionated coconut oil and aloa vera gel (or vegetable glycerine).
Add about 1/4 teaspoon of vitamin E oil.
And finally add about 30 drops of essential oils. I used grapefruit just because I love the smell of it the first thing in the morning. (Interestingly enough, I can’t stand the taste of grapefruit though).
To finish up just add water to fill your container.
Shake your shampoo a couple shakes before each use.

Fill a quarter of your container with your liquid soap. I use the unscented soap so I can add my own scent.

About about 3/4 to 1 tablespoon of aloa vera gel and franctionated coconut oil.

Please know this recipe is a basic recipe. These measurements are approximates depending on what you want or need. You can adjust the ingredients to make it your own, to fit your hair and scalp type.

I find this mixture works for me, but you may want to try a different type of oil or you may not want to use the vitamin E oil or use a different type of essential oil. The beauty is you can make it your own.

So, as you can see, this is just a basic starting point. This recipe pretty much gives you a place to start or to work from and then customize for your hair and scalp type and your individual taste.

You can always make a bigger batch, but I’ve just not seen the need. It’s so easy to make, I just don’t feel the need to make large batches.

Now if I could only find a recipe I like for conditioner. Let me know if you have an idea. I’d lover to hear.

Let me know how you used this recipe and how you changed it. If you have a different recipe, feel free to share.

I hope you enjoyed your visit and this post. Please subscribe so you don’t miss an article. Every week is different and I try to cover a variety of topics.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey