Guest Blog: Nate and Stacey's Cobblestone Cheddar

Our friends Nate and Stacey gave us a marvelous Christmas present this year, a generous wedge of their delicious homemade cheddar cheese. They made it with milk from a local dairy, Cooks Dairy to be exact, and it is aged 9 months! It is DELICIOUS!! It's creamy and tangy and wonderfully sharp! The recipe they used was inspired by the book Home Cheese Making By Ricki Carroll. Stacey was good enough to write a great description of the process and some fabulous pictures to share. ~Enjoy!

To do hard cheese you really need to devote a full day to it. The thing that amazes me, is that as far as most hard cheeses (without getting into mold cheese), Cheddar, Gouda, Parmesan, Romano, etc., The milk, rennet and enzymes are all the same. The only difference is the temperature you keep the milk at, and what duration. You really need multiple thermometers and one digital to check the milk and keep it as close to temp as possibly.




Using a hot water bath is the best way to go. We give the milk a start on the counter to get to room temp and them into the water bath. It helps hold a nice consistent temp and you can always drain and add more hot water or quickly remove the tub if it gets too hot.

 

Then we add rennet and enzymes at appropriate temps and their times depending on the recipe. This one is cheddar. You can see curds start to form. Once you have nice curds, you need to slice. I must admit I have Nate do all the slicing. The approximate size is important and you must cut them on a diagonal to get the layers all the way down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After many hours of temp regulation and cutting of curds and removing of whey and adding water you are ready to put your cheese in cheese cloth and into your mold and press. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And again, depending on the cheese, you keep adding weights and flipping and every so often so the whey drains out and a nice mold forms. Usually the last weight process is 12 hours so we try to coordinate sleeping at this point. In the morning we remove the weights and set the cheese out for a couple of days to form a rind. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we wax and age in our cheese cave. (For us, that is our regulated mini fridge kept at 50 degrees F)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild Wednesday, The Screech Owl Who Wanted to Live Like a Wood Duck

This poor confused Eastern Screech Owl has taken up residence in one of our Wood Duck houses. I'm determined to get a good photograph of him, but as soon as I go outside and get anywhere near the house, he ducks back in. He's been out there all week, with his cute little face all puffed up in the hole. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't build some owl houses.   
Click here to hear the Eastern Screech Owl call.

Community Chickens Post

Check out my 2nd December post on Community Chickens
Twenty One Egg Boxes for Around $30

Smodge Podge Week

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Santa was definitely good to us this year. It's going to be a smodge podge week with the blog I think, as I try to get back into some sort of routine. I haven't even downloaded all the photos from my camera. But we got some exciting new things things that will make for some fun blog posts. Can't wait to share!

Merry Christmas!

Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Oh Holy Night

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men." the Gospel according to Luke, (also according to Linus)

This is our Nativity Scene. My dad made the Manger and my mom colored the figures by rubbing powdered chalk into the ceramic. We put it out every year. It is my favorite Christmas tradition.

Cindy Lou Cookies

We usually make all sorts of sugar cookie shapes, Santas, Christmas trees, stars, stockings etc. The hard part about decorating that many different kind of cookie shapes is that you have to make a LOT of different colored icings. This year we tried something different with our decorated sugar cookies. I found these great ornament cookie cutters at a pastry supply store. They make a nice size cookie. I decided to go with 5 different icing colors. Deep green, lime green, red, magenta and white, it sort of reminds me of Cindy Lou Who colors. We outlined the cookies in a heavier icing, then filled them with a more liquid icing, then ran a toothpick through the colors. It made for some really different patterns and gave the cookies a fresh modern look.

Wild Wednesday, Reindeer

Today I'd like to talk about the Reindeer, also known as the Caribou. Very rare in Michigan but seen now and again especially in winter. The Michigan Reindeer is a smaller variety, resembling the White Tail Deer, but as you can see from this photo, some of the males share the same red glowing nose as their northern cousins. This adaptation allows the animal to see in dense fog or heavy snows. The Reindeer is the largest flying mammal, and is domesticated in northern regions to be a load bearing animal. To hear the Reindeer mating call click here.

Farm Meetin' Candy Making

Sunday the 17th, was the December Farm Meet'n. I've been so busy with baking, decorating, wrapping, and helping Zach blacksmith, I thought this post would never go out. But better late than never. That Sunday we got almost a foot of snow. But that didn't stop us. Everyone trudged out into the weather and it made for a great time, in fact, the party went well into the evening, and we decided to make extra candy. Each person brought a candy recipe and the ingredients to make it, then we made our candy and traded at the end. Everyone went home with a sample of the day's efforts.

Here's Ang making her delicious peanut brittle. She's quite the farm girl indeed ~ shelling all the peanuts herself. Good job Ang! (and Mike too)

We also had caramels, candy canes, chocolate covered homemade marshmallows, fudge, Amish cinnamon bread, and 4 different kinds of bark; chocolate peppermint, chocolate with mixed nuts, and orange bark with dark and white chocolate.

We also tried sour gummy candies, but they didn't set. (I have a new recipe for anyone who's interested and it works great. I made raspberry and grapefruit the other night. I'll try to post it.)

The temptation of candy making was even too great for the guys, and they had to get their fingers on some. Here's Zach and Nate trying to save a batch of candy canes that re-crystallized. For some reason it turned green!     








After the candy was made, we all sat around the fire with warm tea and coffee, pleasantly relaxing in our sugar comas.      

Wild Winter Wednesday

Mother Nature and Jack Frost have been working their magic in Michigan. We received just under a foot of snow on Sunday, and we are now at a balmy 7 degrees. I'm not complaining though, truth is, I love it! The woods are beautiful.

Jack Frost was painting on the chicken coupe window.

The woods were an eerie gray color. And so silent. Only the muffled sound of snow and my own breathing echoing under my hat.

Crossing T's, Words From the Blacksmith's Wife

I knew it would be inevitable that I would find my way out into the garage, black under my finger nails and my hand cracking open across the knuckles~ chapped. Don't feel sorry for me, that's how I am, always have been, probably always will be. Zach would let me sit inside, warm and cozy, sipping tea, but I'm too nosy, to strong headed to not go see what's going on with all the clanging and grinding and pounding. (For a quiet guy, Zach sure makes a lot of noise.)

And then I want to "help". Zach takes a deep breath, I picture him patting me on the head. "Run along little girl and play with your dolls...pat, pat" But he doesn't, and he let's me "help". We usually start out with me insisting that "this time" I can hammer right along with him, whip those bottle openers out no problemo! You have to be tough to be a blacksmith, and while I think I'm tough, blacksmithing always seems to put me in my place. I'm like our little Bantam Rooster, he has no idea he's half the size of the other chickens. I can hammer, you see, but my arm tires out and I loose control of where the hammer strikes. It amazes me that something as strong as steel, something that seems so indestructible, I can still manage to ruin. "pat, pat". And, I'm scared of the grinder! Ok, there I said it, I'm scared of it! It's a flesh grabber, and it shoots a shower of sharp, flaming sparks of metal at you. So while you're making sure your leg's not catching on fire, you have to concentrate on not getting your skin ripped off.  I've seen what it does to Zach's hands, and he has skin like a hide resembling the scales of a prehistoric dinosaur. But he does have a pretty mean right arm, his hammer arm, that I'm rather fond of. (He'll be embarrassed when he reads this ~he he...)

Lately, I've been helping Zach with non-forge work. For example, he makes an anchor necklace for a company in New York and it has a crossed "T". I helped him measure, mark, punch and drill the hole that the little "T" sits on. The problem with non-forge work in the winter, is that without the 2000 degree forge running it's cold. Cold, cold, cold! And steel is cold. (hence the phrase "cold as steel") So my fingers go numb and I have to bend them now and again so they don't stop working, and you can't wear gloves, so my skin cracks open and bleeds, thank you very much. I watch as one by one, the little "T"s get fitted over the other half, and it seems like the pile will never go down.
Then I start to think about all the hours of hammer work that Zach has put into them, pounding the hot steel. And I look around the garage at all the tools he's made, and the hundreds of bottle openers and other works of art that he's sent out just this season, and I start to think that maybe the marking and the punching and the drilling really aren't so bad and I start to enjoy the time we're together in the garage, and the little time I'm saving so we can be together later.
Then, after a while, Zach will say in his gentle voice, not much louder than the drill, "last one!" That's my cue. I can run inside, run my hands under warm water, blow the black out of my nose, and cozy up with a cup of decaf. I bring him one too, extra sugar. (At least my coffee is stronger than his...wink!)

CC Post: Maran, The Chocolate Egg Layer

Check out my first December post on Community Chickens, Maran, The Chocolate Egg Layer.

Wild Wednesday, Muskrat

The Muskrat looks like a baby beaver. (We had a Beaver on the pond, click here to read about it.)We always have a few Muskrats gliding along the surface of our pond. They are cute little animals, like an otter, always dragging bits of grass or reed along as they swim, like they're boasting a flag. They are in the rodent family, semi-aquatic. And are so named because of a "musky odor" that they emit. Click here to hear their sound.

Dark Chocolate Expresso Cookies

These cookies should be illegal!

Even if you're not a coffee fan don't let the espresso part scare you away. You can't really taste "coffee", just intense chocolaty richness. Let me say it again, intense chocolaty richness. The outsides are flaky and a little crisp, and the insides are chewy, gooey, creamy, chocolate wonderfulness! I'm not even sure if wonderfulness is a word, but it should be. I highly recommend popping them in the microwave for 30 seconds to get the warm, fresh from the oven feel back. But they're delicious either way. 

Get the recipe from Epicurious.com  

Chop the dark, unsweetened baker's chocolate

Melt the butter, and the chocolate, and the chocolate chips over a double boiler...this can't be bad...

...until it looks like this. I highly recommend tasting it at this point. Try to resist drinking it with a straw. Don't burn yourself, but I think you'll agree, the blisters would be worth it!

 Then add some other stuff...like sugar...

and eggs, and coffee. Beat for 3 minutes.

Then mix it all together. And add some more chocolate, what the heck, live a little!

Then toast your walnuts, because they just taste better that way. Heat them over medium heat until you can smell them. Then they're ready.

Mix those in too.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto a Silpat lines cookies sheet. I use a mini ice cream scoop. And bake until they look like...

...this! 350 degrees, about 8 minutes. ~Therapy!~

Kathy's Knitting

My Mother-in Law, Kathy, is an incredibly talented knitter and crocheter. I though I would share some of her latest projects. She made an adorable little mouse set for a soon to be, baby boy. Here's the hat...

Matching sweater...

and matching blanket. So cute!

She also made this beautiful creme blanket.

So much time and patience goes into each of these items. She does fabulous work. Great job Mom!