This week is the 5th lesson in my 16-week Cultured Dairy and Cheesemaking e-Course that I am taking. I learned how to make clabbered milk and clabbered cheese. What is "clabber" you say? Well, let me tell you, since I am now enlightened. Clabber is soured milk. It is allowed to sour under its own power without the aid of…

I make room temperature cultured yogurt two ways… 1)direct-set which requires a starter for each batch and 2)propagating a mother culture which can be used for subsequent batches.   Here's the direct-set method. Add 1/16th-1/8 tsp Danisco Mesophilic Feta Culture from Homesteader Supply to 1 quart milk straight from the fridge. I prefer to use raw milk or low-temperature pasteurized milk that has…

I had just a little raw milk that I hadn't used before it turned sour. It's not so tasty on hot cereal, but for muffins… a perfect substitute for buttermilk or yogurt. These bran muffins, a recipe from Jane Kinderlehrer's Smart Muffins Cookbook, are super moist yet contain only 1 tbsp oil for 12 muffins. Unlike traditional bran muffin…

O.K., so this is the third week in my 16-week Cultured Dairy and Basic Cheese eCourse taught by Wardeh Harmon. The lesson this week? Cultured Butter. What is the difference between butter and cultured butter? The culturing process introduces probiotics… healthy stuff that is in yogurt and kefir, for example, to improve the balance of…

With the exception of a few that come and go sporadically, Dick's and my swim class at the Y consists of a core group. It's amazing how rapidly a group of strangers, brought together for a common purpose, become bonded. I love the water exercise but, just as much, I look forward to the people that create the comforting rhythm…

I'm in my second week of a 16-week long online Cultured Dairy and Cheesemaking Course. Throughout the course, I will be sharing photos of what I am learning. However, I will not be explaining the process out of respect for Wardeh Harmon who has invested endless hours creating detailed lessons in her GNOWFGLINS eCourses that include…

This morning, I made hot cereal from the smallest grain in the world. This seed is so small that it takes 150 seeds to equal 1 kernel of wheat! The century-old grain is called teff. The texture and flavor reminded me of the farina (aka cream of wheat) that my mom prepared in the wintertime for my siblings…

In my daughter Heather's blog post precious paper petals, she speaks of her home being peacefully melodic. "A quiet rustle of my tidying. A faintly perceptible 'snip, snip' of child-size shears cuts construction paper in two rosy hues. Sounds of content occupation." It caused me to contemplate Dick's and my day to day rhythm. We…

Simple advance preparation is required as a first step in making the Raspberry Fool that I featured in a post two weeks ago. The recipe calls for draining the yogurt for several hours or overnight to separate the whey (watery liquid) so that the end product will have a thicker consistency. In this photo, you can see that there is a substantial amount of whey in the 1 1/2…

You wouldn't think that adding shredded apple to oatmeal would make a noticeable difference, but it really changes things up a bit. The original title of this recipe from Eat Right America is Blueberry Nut Oatmeal, but the apples add an important element so I elevated them to star status by renaming the recipe Apple Blueberry Nut…