things I've done today

Early this morning I made cottage cheese, following directions carefully.  This time I succeeded in making cottage cheese that is very similar to store-bought in taste and consistency.  
A month or so ago, I tried my hand at making hard cheese; this was before I bought a dairy thermometer, and there was quite a bit of guesswork involved.  Nevertheless, I followed instructions as best I could, using a cheese press made from a pineapple can.  I used an NIV Bible atop a drinking glass as the weight that forced fluid out of the cheese, wrapped the block of cheese in a clean handkerchief, replaced the hanky a couple times, and forgot about it.  Once a rind had formed, I was supposed to seal the cheese in melted paraffin and let it age for a month or so.  But because there was so much guesswork that went into this particular cheese, I assumed it wouldn't be very good, and I hated to waste the paraffin.    

Yesterday I decided to see what things looked like inside that rind.  It was a very tough rind, let me tell you; it took all I could do to get a knife into it.  But once I cut one end off, I found cheese.
  

It tasted and looked  like any cheese, although perhaps a little dryer than it should have been.  I was amazed.  I salvaged what I could, what with the thick rind and all.  Believe me, I am anxious to try my hand at this again, now that I'm more knowledgeable and own a dairy thermometer.  Next time I'll use Bonnie's whole milk instead of skim milk and see how that works. 

It ought to be very rich, since Bonnie's milk is about 1/3 cream.  The cream line is where my finger is.  I've never seen a cow give this high a percentage of cream.  It's really unfortunate, because what are we going to do with all that cream?  


I sat down at the computer and glanced on my sidebar:  Five Dollar Dinners was telling me it's time to plant garlic!  As luck would have it, I bought four huge heads of garlic Monday, so I took the big outside cloves off and went out to prepare a spot in the garden.  

I used the tiller for awhile, then came inside to make dinner, bringing the last two cabbages in with me.  

I got some green tomatoes ready to fry.  Not healthy fare, I know, once those slices have been coated with corn meal.  But we hadn't had any since spring; it's a rare treat.  I made some slaw with part of a cabbage and heated up some leftover stuffed peppers.  I forgot all about the cottage cheese, I'm sorry to say: I was so anxious to see what Cliff thought of it.  Maybe tomorrow. 
I've had a creative day, and a fun one, too.