7 Quick Takes Friday
1. 
We made cheese. And it tastes awesome. I have to say, I love simple cheese. And if I can make it at home, even better 🙂 Recipe is simple –
1L Whole Milk
1.5 tbsp acid (like vinegar or lemon juice; we used lemon juice, the kind from the bottle)
3/4 tsp salt
That’s it.
Directions – heat milk up in a double boiler to about 180 degrees (when it gets the foamy/frothy look), add acid, stir as curds form, remove from heat, drain into a cheesecloth of some type and let hang/drain for about 30 minutes. Hang for longer if you want it to be a little nicer. I think I let ours hang for about 8 hours. Add salt and stir well. Ta-da! Homemade cheese!
I think ours made about 200g of cheese…I had already been eating a few spoonfuls before remembering to weigh it. I’m looking forward to using it on eggs, to mixing herbs in with it, to adding it to … well … nearly everything! The milk cost $1.99, so if we want to make bigger quantities, it’ll be cheaper. This time it cost us just over $4/lb, which is about what we get our ‘cheap’ cheese for at the store.
2.
Minestrone. I made it. We ate it. I loosely followed Jamie Oliver‘s recipe, and mainly just looked around our kitchen to see what I could throw in. I loved it. It was awesome. Though I think I’ll use less pasta next time. It just keeps expanding and expanding.
He actually hardly ate any at all. He was a pickle.
3.
So I might have a bit of an inflated ego right now – a picture of mine on this site was pinned to pintrest. It was from my Yarn Along – the one with the book. Yeah. My only claim to fame in life. Flaunted.
4.
From said picture, I had started a cute little tweed stitch skirt for Cassia…that was promptly un-needled and slightly unraveled by her older brother not 5 hours later. And I’m still bitter about it, though I’ve forgiven him (100 stitches I had to cast on! in the round!). So I haven’t yet re-cast on that project. Instead I started his sweater (after going out and buying another set of size 6 needles…they seem to be popular with these books). I finished the one mitt for Kate, and will start the next one once I get a good headway on Spencer’s sweater.
Cutie sleeping. Currently wailing.
5.
It seems we will be helping friends drywall tomorrow. I’m looking forward to spending time with them again (it’s been awhile), and it should prove an interesting adventure, as they also have a little girl about a month older than Cassia. They’ve promised pizza and coffee though. Anything can happen with pizza and coffee.
6.
I found the perfect cake for Spencer for his birthday. Or at least I’d like to believe that I have. Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cake! Courtesy of Food Network Magazine. Over his short 2.5 years of eating solids, we have found he doesn’t have an appetite for cake. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know where we went wrong. But he does love peanut butter and jam (or jammit, as he says) sandwiches. How clever is this idea?! Hopefully I’ll remember to take photos and chronicle it and the like.
7.
I’m sad that Christmas is nearly over! I love the liturgical seasons! 5 weeks now until Lent starts…ooooh, I’ve got some great ideas for Lent this year. And yes, they primarily revolve around food. Did you have to ask?
