It all started with making yogurt. I loved it! So easy and creamy and delicious!
Then we decided to make yogurt cheese, which is similar to goat or cream cheese and we added all kinds of delicious things like, kalamata olives, fresh basil and garlic.
Then.. we decided we could try making real CHEESE! (there are few things we regard with such reverence as cheese) So we made a Parmesan Reggiano cheese, which we havn't yet tasted because it takes five months to age, and a Gouda, which was lovely but a tad flat in taste and not as firm as we hoped. (The Parmesan is shown in a later picture).
Then we tried making different breads to go with our cheeses and balsamic vinegar. My brother is a pro and showed us how to make Cibatta bread which is very hard to make and takes a very long long time (like the entire day, especially if you mess up and measure the flour in cups when it tells you to weigh it.
We also made butter! Which was terribly easy.
Then this fall we began harvesting all kinds of things from our garden, like tomatoes and sunflower seeds, cucumbers, basil, beats and carrots. So we decided to make pickles! We made dill and they were delicious! We harvested our sunflower seeds, soaked them in brine, then baked them up!
This is a picture of our Parmesan, sunflower seeds, pickles and tomatoes.
Next we found out how much we love real grape juice, so we got some grapes from our neighbor and becky and made 18 quarts of grape juice.... we have already drank 1/3 of it!
Also since our trip to Italy, Kory has been perfecting his Foccacia bread recipe and making pretzels.. which have nothing to do with italy, BUT... He made these fantastic little fellows: (picture wont post.. sorry)
Snake pretzels for our upcoming halloween parties!
We also got a whole bunch of apples from our neighbor and we have been drying apples, but not faster than we can eat them. We made sugar free applesauce with the skins on and its pretty darn good too.
Well, I think that about does er.
4 comments:
yum, i'm hungry....did you get any cucumbers from your garden? ...those would have come in handy last night. Cool pictures....oh. and I want some grape juice
Hey Kory & Heather! Sorry, you guys don't know me, well Kory sort of knows me (a bit)!
Anyway... love your enthusiasm for cooking! I love cooking too...
I do bake breads as well, mostly whole grain sourdoughs.
We have dries a lot of peaches and nectarines this year and will be doing apples still I think. Right now I am making some Sun-dried tomatoes (actually dehydrator dried.)
Well, the reason I was writing is that we do also make our own yogurt and were curious about the yogurt cheese! How do you make that? Do you have a recipe or a website where you found the recipe?
We would love to make it!!! :P
Thanks a lot.
Have fun cooking
Srishti
Srishti, just put the yogurt in a cheese cloth, tie it up, squeeze as much whey out as you can and hang it until it becomes firm (usually about 2-3 days). you can flavor it however you want. It is a good idea to add salt and your flavorings while it is yogurt so that the cheese can take on the flavor of the spices rather than just carry them. My personal favorite is just salt and fresh herbs. Experiment!
-Kory
Hmm... wow! Thanks that sounds really interesting! I'll definitely try that! thanks so much :) Much healthier than cheese cheese!
Take Care
Srishti
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