Mozzarella Cheese making..

Have to have rennet tablets..

and citric acid

get ready!!

it'll start to get thick and kind of gooey and curdled

THEN is starts to look like Mozzarella! The whey and cheese start to separate

then you drain off the whey and squeeeeeze it.

then you microwave it for a few min and a half and squeeze it some more

Microwave again and, again, squeeze!

again, squeeze and strech

Then it looks like this!

I made two smaller balls and then this is the cheese in cold water, cooling.

Later we shredded it and....

Had PIZZA!!!

"Eat Cheese or Die"

Making Feta Cheese

This is after I've done the heating up of the milk and then let it sit over night. All curdled!

Then I put it in a cheese cloth and let the whey drain off for a few hours. I actually left it for a long while and still had to squeeze some more whey out.

After it's drained I put the curd into a bowl. Put a little salt w/ it and I added garlic and a little garlic salt. So my feta will be garlic feta.

Wrap it in a cloth and put it into a "mold," that being a tin can:)

put the top back on (sort of) and then put a weight on it and put it in the fridge

You save some of the whey to make a brine out of, that's what that is on the left. And then my cheese ready to come out of the mold

there it is, before I take the towel off

and then after I unwrap it and am ready to cut it

All cut up and ready to go into my brine for a few days

Into this big jar and then.....

And then in the brine and ready to do it's thing. They say the longer it sits the more dry and crumbly it'll be.

My kitchen helper. Pretty boy!!!

ApPlEs, apples and more APPLES!

The guy I work with every day has access to some apple trees.

He was kind enough to get me FIVE 5 gallons pails of apples.

So what else but to take the day off and do apple things with all those apples!!

This is Q helping! He was loving the peeler!

Lots of apple sauce for Raychel's family:)

and a lot of pie filling!

The other night I tried to make cottage cheese. I did make cottage cheese. But, I have a cheese connoisseur of a husband. It wasn't just right. When it comes right down to it, it didn't taste like exactly what he's use to. That was a sad no go. I could save lots of money if I could make some of all the cheese my man eats in a week! Sour cream and Feta cheese next. I have to find rennet though. I hardly know what it is much less where to find it.

There are five of us woman that have started a freezer meal club. It has been amazingly wonderful! It's so nice to have a whole meal just ready to go when you only have an hour or two to get dinner ready and eat before leaving again. We have been VERY busy lately and it's been wonderful! The great part is that the meals are kind of a nice surprise that you didn't have to cook. If you're like me, sometimes by the time you have cooked it and spent a lot of time on it, you are tired of smelling and seeing it and don't even want to eat it anymore. It's been great.

We've been taking a "NITCH" class at church. It's to find out what your personality is and what your spiritual gifts are. This is all so that you can find where you are best suited to serve. It's been really interesting so far. Both Matt and I are doing it. It's a good, small group of people. It's a good way to get to know people you normally wouldn't talk to or meet.

Anyway. I will post some pictures of our septic soon. Once I get the "after" pictures taken. But, don't get too excited. The "after" is pretty ugly. Three septic covers, seven vent pipes sticking out, one electrical box and a LOT of mud.

Is this little girl cute, or what!?!?

It's ME:)

My mommy sends all of her children a weekly post card of funny pictures, or old pictures from when we were growing up. This was mine for the week. I have underwear on my head here. *chuckles*

This was my great coupon deal of the evening. These are regularly $1.99 They were on sale for $1.29 and I had 6 $1.00 off 1 coupons. I paid $1.78 for all of these!!! Yep, I paid less for all of these then I would have paid for one normally! Pretty sweet. I also love having three laptops that I can print them from.

This soup also looks AMAZING!

I also LOVE the pictures that go with the

recipes here...

Broccoli Soup

6-8 cups broccoli, chopped
4 medium sized potatoes, cut into chunks
1-2 leeks, sliced
1 onion (red), peeled and cut into chunks
1/3 cup heavy cream
water or stock
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper

Place broccoli, potatoes, leeks, salt and onion in a soup pot. Fill with water (or stock) until everything is just barely covered. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, until broccoli is very tender.

Puree until smooth. Add desired amount of cream. Add pepper. Adjust salt, if necessary.

Doesn't this look yummy? I haven't tried it yet, but I have everything but the actual broccoli so it'll be a cheap meal... and oh how I love soup in the Fall, oh how I love FALL:) I might also add some cheese (Matt will like it better that way, too;-) Tell me your favorite Fall soups!

The grill that my husband surprised me with. I just wanted a really simple gas grill. I was so tired of waiting for charcoal. And getting it to stay lit. Ugh. I kept taking him past them and saying, "lets just get one!" And he'd him and haw so we didn't get one. Then the other day he came home with one!!! I am thrilled that you can light it and then 30 seconds later put something on it! He's awesome!

The big Hibiscus bushes, trees... flowers..

Easily as big as your head! Matt loves these. All the City Council members were jealous and wanted us to split it up so that they could have some. They are pretty impressive.

Allium..

the pink version. It's a little bit smaller, but not much!

So big!! The funny thing is that these bloom and then die the same day. One flower that it. It only lasts about a day. The dead ones are laying all over like it was raining them!

I was impressed with my little camera and these next two pictures (click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see what I mean).. it's he pretty!? Some ppl think there isn't a GOD!?!? Are you kidding me!? So, you think this exploded out of a glob of snot? He let me take three pictures (you can see his big eye watching me) and then he was freaked out by me and hopped away (hop, is that what they do!?).

Hollyhock..

Brown Eyed Susan's