I read
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and while I didn't agree with every single thing in her book, I did agree with a lot of it - and it really got me thinking about what we eat and where it comes from. In the book, she talks about making her own cheese and directs the reader (me in this case) to the
Cheese Queen (hmmm, now I need to figure out how to make that link to the Cheese Queen's web page. I'll try. But if it doesn't work, just google Cheese Queen). I bought the 30 minute mozzarella kit and talked Todd into making it with me. We gave it our first attempt the other day, but it didn't work. We learned that one of the most important steps is choosing the milk. Kroger's milk did not work. The milk to make cheese cannot be ultra-pasteurized or even heated to almost ultra-pasteurized (which I think was the case with Kroger's milk). So for our second attempt we bought Snowville Creamery milk. We felt pretty confident thanks to their box that states "our fresh milk is pasteurized below 170 for less than 20 seconds". Sounded like a winner. So we followed the directions for dissolving our rennet tablet and our citric acid in water (we used distilled water) and then added our citric acid to our gallon of milk and stirred, and then the rennet tablet mixture and stirred some more:
Then you wait 5 minutes or so to see if the curd forms. I'm not going to lie. I was nervous. This was the step where it failed last time (if it starts to look like cottage cheese instead of being able to cut it into cubes, it didn't work). But this time we were able to cut it in cubes that stayed together:
Then there is more stirring and waiting and heating it all up, and eventually you get to the point where you are pulling the super hot cheese like taffy. And you have to work fast because when the cheese starts to cool it is harder to pull. We don't have any pictures of this step because neither of us had a free hand. We made a ball of cheese and then attempted some string cheese. We didn't think it was too bad for our first try.
Now we'll have to see if the boys will eat it. :)
I'm posting this picture of me and the boys only to keep you up to date on my latest hair style. 
Then you wait 5 minutes or so to see if the curd forms. I'm not going to lie. I was nervous. This was the step where it failed last time (if it starts to look like cottage cheese instead of being able to cut it into cubes, it didn't work). But this time we were able to cut it in cubes that stayed together:
Then there is more stirring and waiting and heating it all up, and eventually you get to the point where you are pulling the super hot cheese like taffy. And you have to work fast because when the cheese starts to cool it is harder to pull. We don't have any pictures of this step because neither of us had a free hand. We made a ball of cheese and then attempted some string cheese. We didn't think it was too bad for our first try. 
Now we'll have to see if the boys will eat it. :)
In case you were wondering, his basketball uniform was in the wash. 
And she was so happy to come too. Doesn't it look as if she is smiling? 
We then ran some errands, including a stop to get a new blender. Mine broke and I couldn't imagine life without green smoothies (just kidding, but I still wanted to replace it). :)
