Freemotion's food journal: Expanding the gardens, pics p 53

[Javamama]

I don't really get stinky cheese either. Did anyone else read that as St. MANURE? I am still not sure I'm going to like anything goat. I have only had pasteurized goat cheese and it was nasty to me.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

DH absolutely loves stinky cheeses. I'm more a fan of the creamy smooth ones.
BBH, so you ARE the Sally on free's conf. class I'm loving it! Learned a lot already.

So Free, just to let you know, I really have a hard time picking the "one" thing I learned for my homework

 

[freemotion]

Ha-ha! List a bunch if you want. It really helps me to see what people got out of it.

Sometimes when I teach, 2-3 people will write something that they learned and it will be slightly incorrect, then I will think about how I worded things to get the wrong idea across and will adjust in future classes.

Using this quick exercise of writing "one thing I learned" in my massage therapy teaching has been helpful in a measurable way. Exam grades have gone up in general over the years in the classes I teach, since I am able to adjust how I word things.

This past class was pretty packed with info, wasn't it? I edited so much out, too!

 

[freemotion]

Today was a busy day in the kitchen with the rain outside. I started with boiled peanuts for breakfast, along with a pint of fresh goat's milk, chocolate. For lunch, a plate of tortilla chips with melted cheese and lots of grape tomatoes from the garden....super sweet!

Still canning peanuts around suppertime and washing and puree'ing tomatoes for tomorrow's sauce (got almost two gallons from a garden I thought had no tomatoes! There might be more this week, too!) so I made my version of "instant chicken soup." I opened a quart of homemade chicken broth, added a spoonful of fermented diced garlic and a big handful of chopped garden scallions and a tsp of rosemary from last year. Some parsley, swiss chard with the stems, too, and half of the last of the precious turkey we raised. I also had some of last year's pumpkin puree left, so I added a cup, and some storebought carrots, salt and pepper. Took less than ten minutes to put together, and it was delish!

We had the last of the peaches in a peach pie with stevia and with a top crust only, made with butter and egg and freshly ground white wheat. I AM STUFFED!

I have to go babysit the last canner load, and clean up the kitchen. I have to do something with the rest of the swiss chard I picked, and the St. Maure cheese that has been draining needs to get unmolded and put into the aging fridge for three months until it is good and moldy and stinky. And sort through the grape tomatoes, put the cracked ones in Mya's feed tub that lives in the corner of my kitchen, waiting for veggie trim.

I still have cukes and peppers to deal with, and cabbages to make sauerkraut with, but that can wait until tomorrow!

 

[big brown horse]

DH absolutely loves stinky cheeses. I'm more a fan of the creamy smooth ones.
BBH, so you ARE the Sally on free's conf. class I'm loving it! Learned a lot already.

So Free, just to let you know, I really have a hard time picking the "one" thing I learned for my homework

Yep, that is me!

I love the class too!!

 

[Blackbird]

The class sounds really cool, I might have to take it some day.

Monique, do you think you could post your St. Maure recipe.. Pretty please?

 

[freemotion]

It is the one on the fiascofarm.com site......scroll down in the chevre recipe, and it is basically the same, but you add some mold powder, penicillum candida, neige, I think it is. I aged my last batch for about three months in a ziploc in the fridge. It was very well received, but since I never tasted it, I can't tell you!

This latest batch is much bigger, I used three gallons of milk instead of one, and used the same three molds, so they are much thicker. I am aging two of them in a plastic storage tote, shoebox size, with a couple of layers of "icecube tray" plastic grid that is made to go on flourescent light fixtures, and on top of that I put a piece of plastic needlepoint canvas. It is not food grade, but what-the-heck. I'll get it figured out eventually. It will weep whey for a while, and it needs to be kept above it, and the mold needs to be contained, hopefully! The third wheel is in a glass bowl with a lid that I bought for this purpose.

The mold powder in the recipe is not the best kind for goat's milk cheese, though, and I recently read which one is better but now I can't find it! I want to order the right kind. The one I used will cause "slip skin" in goat's cheese, where the soft center of the cheese runs out of the rind when you cut it. It needs to be a bit firmer and more adhered to the rind. It still tastes fantastic, or so I am told! My expert taster said to eat it with a baguette so that you can capture all the runny center.

eta: I may add some lipase powder to my next batch to see if the flavor gets even stronger!

 

[big brown horse]

Didn't know where else to put this info. Freemotion inspired me so I am going to put it here.

I try to buy 50% of my groceries as organic. We spent about $120. per week for a family of three.

Today I bought 100% of my fresh meat and veggies as organic and my bill only went up about $15. I spent $135 today at the grocery store. (I even bought 2 loaves of my frozen, organic sprouted bread b/c I think I might share it.)

I found bison meat (thanks for the tip freemotion!) and organic free range chickens. I also found some organic chicken sausages in the freezer section. I think I am going to have enough food to last almost 2 weeks for 3 people all together. (I have free eggs and potatoes etc in the garden...plus I traded some potatoes for cucumbers and onions with my neighbor.)

I love corn and was a bit afraid to stop buying it, so I bought the frozen organic corn...is that bad?

The point is that buying organic wasn't too much more than I thought it would be. It is so worth it too in the long run. I can stretch the organic meats and veggies by making yummy soups and omeletts and serve them alongside veggie stuffed salads.

 

[freemotion]

Awesome! It is wonderful that so much more is available as organic. Even if it is big organic, it is still better.

Enjoy your corn. I love corn and buy it fresh every summer. DH struggles with his weight, so I don't buy it throughout the year, we just have it fresh on the cob in season. Usually as corn salad, occasionally as corn on the cob, and this year, I made the zucchini/corn fritters twice. If you are worried about weight, just remember what a serving size is, and that it is a VERY high GI carb, and don't count it as a veggie....clue: it is a seed. And enjoy it anyways.

 

[freemotion]

Well, this is not a food thing, but about my Poo-poo-dog.....(poodley-doodley) who had to go to the vet's today after 3 days of diarrhea that rice and broth and kefir weren't really helping....then this afternoon, his butt started to expland....and expland.....and expland.....I've had enough explosions in my kitchen lately, and I could not get an appointment for him today, only tomorrow.

So I packed him and dh into the car and drove to the vet's office and walked up to the receptionist's desk. I picked him up and showed her his butt and said, "I have an appointment for 10 tomorrow morning, but I don't think this will wait. I think he needs to be admitted. What do you think?" She said, "Oh, my!" and got me in with a vet. The vet said it was a badly infected anal gland (my first dog, mind you, and at eight years old, never had any anal gland issues) and he was surprised it didn't rupture in the car....he said it would've been messy!

So he is out of surgery and coming out of anesthesia now. The amount of pus, apparently, was amazing for a little guy (29 lbs of muscle.) His other gland was getting funky, too. This is his first time staying away from home by himself since his surgeries as a puppy (PDA and cryptorchid, at 6 and 9 months.) I did ok, only used two tissues!!!

I am making a batch of organic popcorn, slathering it with fresh goat butter, and making a vodka collins with a fresh lemon. Yup. Don't you dare come near my popcorn! MINE!