Mozzarella!!!

I made mozzarella!!! I honestly did not think it would turn out, so now that it did I am super excited. It tasted so good! I guess the next cheese to try is cheddar. Cheddar needs to be pressed and aged and all sorts of new stuff, so it might be awhile before I do it.
This is a picture of the pizza I made today. For the crust I used tortillas that turned out too hard, tomato paste for the sauce, and topped it with cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, and red peppers. Oh boy, was that good!

I got the idea for the whole basil leaves from a foccacia bread Misty bought at the farmer's market yesterday. I am thinking that when I get better at this bread and cheese making I might start selling at the farmer's market. Stef is building me a very large solar oven that I could bake several loaves in at the same time.

MMM... Ice Cream

Misty and I went garage saling Saturday and found some really great stuff. I am trying to downsize, but somehow it was all MY stuff packed into Misty's car. Some of the items I can't tell you about because they are a surprise for one of my most avid readers. (you didn't think I forgot your birthday present did you Gma? You know me, no matter what the occasion you get to celebrate extra long because my gifts never make it on time).

One item I can tell you about is the $2.00 ice cream maker with rock salt! Misty talked me into it, it's her fault. It is a huge model, but I have enough milk to make large quantities at one time and I would hate to have to make ice cream two times because the maker was too small. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. Those of you who know me, know I do not have room in this house for an extra large ice cream machine, but I'm so glad I got it.

We made ice cream Saturday and it was fantastic! This batch was just vanilla. Next will be a peach ice cream with Aunt Anne's recipe then I want to try chocolate.

Also, I found a cheese I am in love with! It is just the chevre with herbs d provence. Tastes like France to me! I still don't have the creamy texture I want, but the crumbly cheeses are awesome on salads. The cranberry cinnamon sugar cheese turned out great too. WOOHOO!

Goat Cheese

I made my fifth and sixth batch of cheese today. They turned out better than the others. My first batch was okay but very dry (I squeezed out the whey, when I should have just let it drip). The second and third were rubbery and weird looking. The fourth batch was pretty good at first but got real crumbly and a bit dry. All of the above tasted good, it is just the texture I can't seem to get right. So after asking some questions on different forums I tried making sure the rennet was equally distributed in the milk and I did not let them drain very long. The fifth batch was a little better, but I think it is going to end up a bit dry even though I only let it drain 2 hours. I put french onion soup mix in it for Stef. The sixth batch turned out super soupy before I drained it. I didn't think it would turn out at all, but after 6 hours of draining it kind of looked like creamy cheese. I added some cinnamon and sugar and cranberries to this one for me. I'm letting it firm up some in the fridge then I will give it a try. I think this was my best one yet. I will try more later this week.