The Holidays are Upon Us Nov 21,2012

It's that time of year again there is a crispness in the air, the trees are changing colors as the days grow shorter. I'm starting to make list so that I might get everything done. Every year it seems my list grow longer.

I have been baking all week to get ready for all the holiday gatherings. I have several recipes that freeze well and lead themselves to being made ahead; so far 6 pumpkin rolls, Italian Cream Cake and several different truffles recipes.

I have to tell you about a moment that I shared with Jacob this week. I buy Powder Sugar at Costco so it's industrial size. The powder sugar was on the top shelf; I got the step stool and reached for the bag and by accident put my nails through the bag as I'm bring it down and sugar flies everywhere. I started cleaning it up and went to rinse my rag and when I returned Jacob was licking the floor. Needless to say I told him not to lick the floor. He looked up and was dead serious and said SUGAR; then went back to licking the floor. I wished I had taken a picture.

Last week getting ready for Christmas Baraaz - November 13, 2012

Last week I spent getting ready for the Christmas Bazaar I decided to have on December 8. I didn't think I would ever decorate for Christmas this early. Decorated 3 trees, my grandson really helped me out with this small task. I put the ornaments on the tree and he took them off. I so glad he really helped me out. He comes in every morning and stand in front of the trees and tell me lights. I now know this only assisted him in removing the ornaments. Guess he has his own vision for the trees.

I still have two more trees have to be decorated. Mantel is done, still need the bookcase decorated. Not sure at the present that I will get to the rest of the house before the Bazaar.

I will be spending the rest of the month finishing a few items for the Bazaar.

Making Cheese

This is a little late,  as they say better late than never.  Jerrell and I recently attended a class on making soft cheeses at The Ploughshare and absolutely had a wonderful time.  They presented a lot of information in a short amount of time.  We skimming cream from the raw milk and some of the cream we make it into butter.

Let me tell you I vote for progress and doing this by machine.  We put the cream in jars and then started shaking the jars.  This process required a lot of arm power and worked on the old lady upper arm jiggle.  I found this process should come with a warning to move away from your spouse or should I say behind him.

 Yummy!  We ate it on hot Cinnamon Raisin Bread

 

Next came Sour Cream and Cream Cheese, after you mix the cream and cultured buttermilk together we made a cheese cloth bag and hung it for 12 hours. After we finished all the hard work we got to eat some the teacher made earlier in the week.

 

Lip Smackin French Onion Dip  (I love Onion Dip)

 

Among other things we made cottage cheese, herbed cheese logs, feta, ricotta, yogurt, and labneh. 

 

plain yogurt with fresh strawberries

 

Ending our day with 30 minute mozzarella. 

 

 

As you can tell by now I forgot to take pictures of everything.

Update:
We went to a dairy on Friday and got 4 gallons of raw milk to try our hand at making cheese on our own.  Wish us luck!