There are quite a few recipes out there for making your own mozzarella. I don't remember which one we used, but I don't think it's terribly critical, since it was wrong. :-)

Basically we added some rennet, (found at grocery store), citric acid (found at health food store), and milk together in a pot, and heated it up. The instructions that I found bookmarked on my phone (best guess as any, but I think we ended up combining several recipes) say to combine 1 gallon milk and 2 tsp citric acid and heat to 88 degrees F. Then, add 1/2 tablet of rennet (dissolved in 1/4 cup chlorine-free water), and heat it up to 105 degrees F. The directions then said to turn off the heat and large curds would appear in a sea of clear-greenish whey. This did happen for us, but we had to wait several hours before the curd was firm (slice-able), and the whey was clearish.


Now the fun begins! We drained the whey off, and pressed the curd to get as much whey out as possible. (it was hot!)


(I saw a recipe on the insert that came with the rennet that said you can make a different type of cheese out of just whey...so you can always save it! My thought was you could maybe sub for liquid in bread... could be sourdough-y?) At this point, we followed the recipe to microwave for 30-second or so increments, pressing and draining the whey out in between.


After about 3 of these, we could start kneading the curds. It was tough going at first with the kneading, as the curds really didn't want to stick together, but we kept at it.


The curds actually got rather bouncy, like pizza dough. (we had to reheat the whole mess several times to keep kneading--otherwise the curds stopped sticking to each other).


When it felt and looked like a ball of mozzarella, we figured we were done.


We formed the ball of curd (now cheese) into two balls, put them in a container of salt water (later we learned that a little goes a long way and mozzarella soaks up whatever you keep it in--note if you go too far with the salt just soak it in plain water for a while) and stored them in the refrigerator. According to what I read, the fresh cheese will only keep about a week.


I promise I'll take more reliable notes next time! (cheese-making is messy)

So a few weeks ago, we made our characteristic pizzas (this time one on sunday and one on friday)...but there was something different....


Are those slices of fresh mozzarella? They are. (but that's not the best part...)


You want to know the REALLY special part? (I feel like I have to leak it, since I haven't gotten that post written yet........) We made it. :-) Yummy. Home-made. Mozzarella. (Post to come...I promise)

Several weeks ago, S. and I had a craving for homemade pizza. We had everything we needed: tomato sauce, toppings, and mozzarella (this is usually the ingredient we forget about...) The only thing we neglected to check....was yeast.

So, what about a flatbread pizza? It's flat. It doesn't use yeast, does it?? Um, yeah. Turns out it does. Leafing through a cookbook, it turns out most "flat" breads do, in fact. Ok...... how about google? Success!

After reading several recipes, and several more recipe reviews, this is the one we settled on. The dough was definitely different to work with, but not too weird. (We had nightmares of pizza on crackers at this point). And it baked up pretty stinkin' well.


This wouldn't be my pizza dough of choice, but I think we'd definitely give it another go if we were out of yeast. It was a little crisper, and a little drier than I prefer, but it was pretty good.

A few weeks ago, we decided to stray from our regular breakfast options (crumpets, bagels, etc.) Instead, we decided to give the many (many) eggs in our refrigerator a try....egg sandwich style.

First we toasted some english muffins, and put a pat of butter on each. Then, we put a fried egg in the middle.


See that cool ring the egg is in? S. unbent a cookie cutter to make that. Brilliant! (and it works perfectly).


Then we put some bacon on top, and some muenster cheese......and into the freezer they went.


5 minutes in the microwave, and these things make a delicious breakfast on-the-go.

Last weekend we made this Terribly Terrific Toffee from A Southern Grace. I won't re-post her already well-written instructions....but I'll show you what we did, and what we changed....

First we greased the pan really really well (our cookie sheet doesn't have edges, so we used a lasagne pan) and started to lay out saltines (we used store brand) edge to edge on the bottom.


It took about 45 to fit the entire pan (slightly more than that I think, actually...)


Then we combined the brown sugar and butter and started to heat it up...it combined and started to get silky and frothy...


Next, we poured the toffee over the crackers...


...and put the whole shebang into the oven for a few minutes until it got all bubbly.

When we took the pan out of the oven, we let it cool for a few seconds and spread one entire bag of chocolate chips over it. Then let it sit for a bit to soften the chocolate. Once it was softened, we used some silicone spatulas to spread the chocolate out.


Then it went onto the table to cool (we put some into the refrigerator too--they hardened a bit better) And voila!


And voila!

See the original Pizza Friday post

Today is normally Pizza Friday here on Five Wooded Acres. That's been temporarily suspended due to crazy amounts of eggs in our fridge....any takers? Seriously, we've been getting 4-5 eggs a day for the past 4 days and it's starting to catch up to us....help! (That one on the left was laid today--somebody took a peck out of it)


So today we decided to make something using eggs for dinner. Pretty simple really. First you saute some peppers, onions, and crumbled prosciutto (ham would be good too, I'm sure) in some olive oil. Add whatever seasonings suit your fancy.....


Then you beat 6 eggs, and 1 cup of milk together in a bowl.


Add the sauteed veggies to a pie plate (make sure to drain the oil off first!), then pour the egg mixture over it. We added some parmesan cheese to the top too.


Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 30-40 minutes, or until the center is puffed and a knife inserted one inch from the center (not exactly the center--that's supposed to still be soft) comes out clean.

Just look at those homegrown tomatoes....

Zucchini, olives and bell peppers:


Oh, and were you wondering what we did with all of those corn husks? We mulched part of the herb garden!

Last Thursday (I know, a whole week ago? What's wrong with me?) we made some yummy fajitas that I wanted to share. During the week we usually make meatless meals, which can mean tofu, seitan, tempeh, or other various meat substitutes. These fajitas use a ground beef substitute--I can't remember the name of it just now, but it basically means add Worcestershire saue and liquid smoke. Seasonings aren't included in this post, 'cause I can't keep up with S's fast hands....he's the executor behind the meal, although fajitas were my idea :-)


Try it some time! With either beef or imitation meat, it'd be yummy, I'm sure.