Little Miss Heidi...

Tried to stay tidy,

While eating her

CURDS AND WHEY.

I am SUPER excited about an awesome technique I just learned. I can now make my own whey and my own cream cheese (curds)!!!

There are a few ways to do this depending on what dairy product is being used, but I learned to do it through separating the curds and whey from Whole, Organic, Plain Yogurt.

Here's the first picture I took of the process (sidenote: I went out to Tuesday Morning and bought this awesome wire sieve after work)


To get the whey out of the yogurt, you put a thin towel (I found the perfect one today!) and use it to line the wire mesh strainer. The strainer goes over the container that catches the whey. Then, pour the yogurt into the towel. The whey will slowly start to drip into the container below.


This is a picture of the yogurt that has already started to release some of the whey.

You can let this process occur all day, but I only had the afternoon. To finish the process, you tie the ends of the towel across a long spoon and let the towel full of the yogurt hang into a long, wide-mouthed container (a vase is suggested.) Then you put it in the fridge overnight and pour the rest of the whey into the whey jar. The solids left in the towel are used as cream cheese or sour cream; it has the ability to taste like either item depending on the setting. It is SO delicious.



This is what the last step looks like before it goes in the fridge. Do you see that glass jar full of the clear, yellowish liquid? That's the whey! Tomorrow morning I will pour the rest into that jar and then I am planning on reusing the yogurt container to store the cream cheese.

What, you may ask, are the practical uses for whey?

The most important use is Digestion. Taking a straight spoon or two of the whey a day is an excellent way to improve your digestion; it is rich with enzymes.

It is also used to ferment foods and beverages. Sauerkraut and pickles are the next two recipes I want to try and both those recipes call for whey.

So, my friends, as you can see, I am quite excited about this new style of cooking.
I still have so much to learn and I really want to properly introduce you to my new cookbook (which is more like a life-transformer tool) but that will have to wait for another day.

Oh, and I promise I've been thinking about lots of spiritual stuff lately too.

Mainly, Contentment.

But I just had to share my excitement of these cooking ventures with you all.

Deeper posts to come soon :-)


*ps - did you all get the literary nursery rhyme reference at the beginning of this post?

Just checkin'

;-)

Contentment. Awwwww…….

After a long evening of cooking, I am settled in on my couch, letting my hair drip dry from my shower over the edge of the cushions.

My body is tired but not exhausted.

My brain is alert but calm and quiet.

My heart is content and satisfied.

There were lots of things on my roster for what I wanted to accomplish today after work. Lots of those things didn’t get done. (i.e. progress on painting my walls, vacuuming, folding the basket of clean laundry, cleaning my patio and watering all my plants)

But there were lots of things that DID get done. I just didn’t realize how long it would take to do them.

But do you know what I am excited about???

I am excited that I am not stressed out about what I didn’t do and that I am more excited about what I DID do! THAT is an accomplishment for me. Like I wrote about here, I am really learning to slow down and embrace each day, even if the day has a ton packed into it!

I want my heart to be content and my spirit to be calm, even if my pace of life does not slow down.

So, partly because I want to prove that I actually did something tonight and more because I am just really excited about a bunch of new recipes I am learning and my new focus on cooking in my life, I have decided to show you pictures. (taken with my iPhone of course!)




Above is the remainder of my Homeade Chicken Stock. Some stock was used to prepare the Cream of Mushroom Soup.



Above is Homeade Cream of Mushroom Soup. Made with the chicken stock and homeade cream cheese!



Above is a full jar of fresh chicken salad and then a bowl of remaining chicken waiting to be used in another recipe.

I also hardboiled a bunch of eggs for an easy snack, sliced up some cantaloup, and made a quinoa salad with some yummy fresh ingredients.

I'm having so much fun learning to cook in a new and healthy and old-fashioned way. I am sure sometime in the near future I will introduce you to my new cookbook that I got at my friends house over the past weekend, and I am sure I will write about all that I am learning about our American food products. But for now, I have much to learn and I am simply excited to share the photo's of my process :-)


What about you? Is there anything that your heart is finding contentment in?