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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:

  1. Measure 1 cup of water and add the citric acid to it and let it dissolve.
  2. Measure the remaining 1/4 cup of water and add the 1/4 rennet tablet to it and allow it to dissolve.
  3. Pour your milk into a stainless steel stock pot and stir in your citric acid mixture.
  4. Heat the milk over medium/high heat to 90 degrees, stirring gently.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Once it reaches 105 degrees, remove it from the heat and continue stirring gently for another 5 min.
  10. Ladle the curds into a micro-safe bowl using a slotted spoon.
  11. Microwave for 1 minute and drain any additional whey off.
  12. 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.
  13. Continue to microwave in 30 second increments and continue stretching. Using the microwave is actually about separating out more whey.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.

The whey left from the cheese fail.

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.

Ricotta Cheese

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

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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.

Finished Sweet Cream Butter

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.

This is cream from a gallon of 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.

Pour your cream in the bowl.

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.

Butter and buttermilk.

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.

Still cloudy, keep going.
It’s better, but not ready yet. Keep washing.
This is clean and ready to use.

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.

Finished homemade butter.

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

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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.

Everything you need.

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.

  1. Organic liquid soap. I use Dr. Bonner unscented. You may have something different you like better, and that’s fine.
  2. Fractionated coconut oil
  3. Aloa vera gel. You can also use vegetable glycerine if you’d like.
  4. Essential oil. Whatever you like best will work.
  5. 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.
About a 1/4 teaspoon of vitamin E oil.
Fill your container with water.

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.

Finished shampoo.

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

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Making A Corn Dolly

What is a corn dolly? It’s been several years since I first heard of a corn dolly.

After I started seeing them I looking into them because I thought they were cute. I also thought it might be a good teaching moment for my grandkids and a fun afternoon making one.

A Quick History of the Corn Dolly

In olden days, and I mean very olden days, like the 4th century, give or take a few centuries, when the farmers harvested their grain, they thought the spirit of the grain had no where to go.

Therefore, Corn dollies were made to give that spirit a place to reside after the harvest. The following spring when the farmer would again sew his grain, the spirits could then go back out into the fields where they would stay during the growing season.

In those days corn was more of a catch all term for grain and the word for “dollie” loosely meant spirit. Therefore, a corn dolly was equated to a Spirit of the Grain.

Since the farmers wanted the grain spirit to be happy, to ensure a successful crop for the next year, the corn dolly was well tended during the cold and dark months of the year.

In some clans or tribes the oldest woman of the clan would make the corn dolly. In others it was the youngest woman of the clan. Either way the dolly was always well cared for and placed in a safe and honored place until the following planting season.

Not all dollies looked like dolls. They were made in all shapes and sizes and configurations. They were, as a general rule, made from corn husks, wheat stalks or combinations thereof.

Today, corn dollies are made mostly for fun. Some still make them as a tribute to a specific season. Some make them for spring and others for the end of fall.

Whatever your reason, they are fun and easy to make with the kiddos and even funner to decorate. The creativity that can go into making these dollies is endless.

Here’s what you need

The supplies you need to make your corn dolly are simple.
  • 4-6 dried corn husks. How many you use depends on how full of a skirt you would like. I bought my husks in the ethnic section as the grocery store. I originally bought these for making corn tamales, but never used them all.
  • Spray bottle with water. Some people soak them in water, but that seemed like it would be really messy to me. It would probably be okay if you’re working outside. But for inside, I prefer a spray bottle.
  • String or twine of some sort.
  • Scissors
  • Ribbons and other embellishments of your choice.

First, spray the corn husks with water and massage it in a bit to make them pliable so they don’t tear or rip while your working with them.

Spray your husks so they don’t tear or rip while you work with them.

Next, you’ll want to stack them so the small edges are together at the top and tie them with string.

Begin by tying the top of your bundle with string or twine.

After you tie the bundle a the top, find somewhere close to the middle and fold them over the knot. Then you’ll tie a string around that to make the head.

Fold them over the knot you just made at the top of your bundle.
Then tie around that bundle to make a head.

There are several ways to make the arms. I’ve seen some people who tear the husks into smaller strips, then braid the strips to make the arms.

I like the puffy sleeve look, because I think it goes well with the full skirt. So, I sprayed down a few more corn husks and set them opposite on top of each other and rolled them together. Then I tied strings at each end creating a ruffled effect where the hands would be.

Sitting the husks on top of each other in opposite directions for a full puffy sleeve look.
Tie the arms at each end.

Then you’ll want to find the middle of your husks again and put your arms in the middle and up towards the head.

Finding the middle of the husks.
Sliding the arms in.

Now you can tie a string around what is her waist. Now your skirt starts just below the arms.

At this point you can decorate her any way you want. You can make an apron around her waist or a tunic that slides over he head and ties at the waist, or tie a favorite colored ribbon around her waist, like I did.

The green ribbon seemed appropriate to me.

I also made the knots at her wrists into bows to look a bit more finished. You can do this with all kinds of different twines or ribbons, adding all kinds of color and textures.

I’ve seen people use wheat heads added to the head to make a head dress of sorts. I think these look really cool, but I didn’t have any when I made mine.

My granddaughter used dry erase markers to make her’s beautiful.

Be creative, embellish her and make her your own. Post her picture in the comments for all of us to see. I’d love to see what you came up with.

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Next week I’ll be making homemade shampoo. it’s way more inexpensive and great for your hair. I look forward to seeing you next week.

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss anything.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessing ~ Tracey

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Homemade Vanilla Extract

I love using homemade vanilla extract when I cook. The flavor and aroma of homemade vanilla is incredible.

I’ll take homemade vanilla over chocolate any day of the week.

Vanilla

A vanilla bean is actually a fruit from an orchid. And it’s the second most expensive spice after saffron.

This recipe only takes 2 ingredients. It just can’t get any easier than this.

I try to always use organic beans.

Jars

Since you get to choose, choose jars that you like. I don’t know about you but I have a collection of jars of all shapes and sizes. I liked these.

Use some cool looking jars that you really like.

I had 5 beans left, so I divided them evenly. I’ll just let it sit longer than I usually do before I begin to use it.

I generally like to use 4 beans per bottle. But I’ve used 2 to 3 before too.

Add your vanilla beans.

You can use bottom shelf vodka for this, but use the highest proof you can get. I think this was 80 proof. I would have preferred 90, but…

Make sure you fill to cover your beans. Then put in a dark place and let it sit for at least 6 weeks.

Cover your beans with high proof vodka.

This is my current bottle. You can pull your beans when it gets to the flavor you like. But I leave them because I don’t think you can ever have too much vanilla.

Finished vanilla.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Ingredients

  • 2-4 Vanilla Beans
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups (about a pint) of vodka

Instructions

  • Add beans to a glass jar
  • Fill the jar with vodka, enough to cover the beans
  • Sit in a dark place for at least 6 weeks.

I think the longer it sits the better it is.

Try using your new vanilla extract in a batch of lavender cookies from last week

I really hope you’ll give it a try. If you do, let me know how it turns out. If you have a different recipe, feel free to share in the comments below.

I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine’s Day.

Next week I’ll show you how to make a corn dollie. A fun craft for you and your kids or grandkids.

Until next time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey