Tuesday At Last - Milk Project

Much colder today at around 37° and very cloudy; slight chance of rain or snow.  We need rain.

Tuesday, at last because Monday was MIL's doctor appointment and the first time I went  with her and went into the exam room.  I doubt I will be  doing that  again.  Enough said.  I don't want you to think I am a mean person (but I am often!).

She got a good report with no more changes made in her medicines.

We (Max) has been milking Jewel every other day so we were getting a considerable accumulation of milk.  This morning I worked up 2 gallons.  First thing I did was skim most of the cream from all.  This gave me slightly over 1 quart of heavy cream.

This left me with a full gallon for making mozzarella and a quart plus for buttermilk.  It is a messy process as you can see.

I made another 12 oz. of beautiful dark yellow butter which I will freeze.  I used the mixer this time and it is not nearly as quick as using the food processor.  I was afraid I would overload the processor but it would have been faster to just split the amount and made two batches.

From 2016-02-23

The mozzarella is at the curds ripening stage and I will finish it off in the morning.

I combined the left over milk from the butter with the quart of whole milk and it is setting in the kitchen to curdle and ripen like grandma made clabber milk.  No additives of any kind.

Most of the mess is cleaned up and I am resting at the computer!

This is for Kris.

The texture of the Oatmeal bread.  Please note it is not the true recipe because of my using too much liquid and the 'sort of' correcting it.  It didn't hurt the flavor at all.  The whitish pieces are the bits of  steel cut oats I added plus the rolled  oats.

Note it is a little to holey in the center.  I think that is due to adding a little too much yeast on the correction.  I know that last rise was almost instantaneous and I had to be careful putting it into the oven so as not to deflate it.
Also I had to cut the loaf in half and then slice the halfs so it would fit a toaster and be easier for sandwiches.  This is actually half a slice.  See what I mean.....

Cross Pollination, new bread and new blooms

Sometimes  this is a good thing and sometimes it is not!

In the case of my Dame's Rocket it is a good thing.  I started with these:



Then one year I had some white ones.  Since I hadn't  any whites to cross with the purples I am thinking these were self-seeded and the white genes were in the plants.



Now I have some that look like these:



They are all fragrant in the early morning before the sun is up good, probably at night to but I am not out there then to check!  (I am early to bed/early to rise).

 I have been sticking  to the l-2 hours a day trimming until the showers began yesterday and today.
So far, we have just had about 1/2  inch.  We need several inches.

Finally the recommended  Contractor responded with a feasible bid to screen in the dining room porch, lay tile flooring and build a custom screen door. He said it will be about 3 weeks....in the meantime, we will clear cut the honeysuckle vine in his way. It needed to go anyway.  I am very excited about this project.  Now we can enjoy the outdoors without cats and puppies and wasps and other flying creatures and no maple seedlings to sweep up.  I will take before and after pictures.  We will leave the house siding as is in case.......it is just a screened in porch; not another room.

I am delighted. I plan to get a bid on enclosing the very small entrance porch that one person has used in 23 years! I want to make this my tiny computer office. It will be about 4.5x6 and is right off the living room.

Dont know yet if I will have a door to the outside.

5/7/15

I trimmed the garage wall and the east end garden, l hour, put my tools away (DH will be delighted not to have to do that later in the day......) Came in and have a new recipe of oatmeal bread going. Interestingly it calls for a teaspoon of cinnamon to 5.5 cups of flour. I don't think the taste will be significant. The dough looks good and is now in the l hour raising period.

It turned out great; just a faint taste of cinnamon.  The only negative is that loaf is dense right at the bottom crust.  I don't know what causes that.

From 2015-05-08

Each day something new  blooms:

Clematis by old chicken house with Blueberry Bliss iris:  I Think the clematis is 'The President'

My red iris:

Do iris cross pollinate on their own?:  This didn't have the edging before and it is near Wabash:

This was moved from cellar bed where it was buried from view:

 

and iris 'Swingtown' in the wellhouse bed:

The bed is a little bedraggled after the rain:

Lilies will be here shortly.  I see the clematis behind the pony has dropped down.....need to do something about that.

I should have lots of self-seeded poppies later:

This clematis H.F. Young by the garage and near the garden gate

Please note the wall of the garage bed.....this had weeds three feet tall a few days ago.  

 

 

First Day of Winter Storm

DH and I were both up very early.  The cold has arrived and with it 3-4 inches of very fine snow.  It is made worse with the wind.  Tonight will be ever colder....down around zero.  I know this must set a record for this early in the year.  It is currently 17°, snowing with 8mph wind.




I didn't milk yesterday but did this morning.  Willow was down a half gallon which is expected with the cold and wind. 

DH took all the clean canning jars out to the barn yesterday after noon.  We unloaded some attached  shelving that had leftover  things  from the  dairy that we just pitched.  I have shelf space left.  I will need to attach a plastic curtain over them to keep feed from filtering down from the attic where we store the bulk cattle feed.  We need to do some more cleaning and elimination of old paint and dairy things from another set of shelves and  then I will have even more space.

I am still  working on re-organizing the kitchen.  DH said he has already gotten used to the new setup for coffee (he is the coffee chef in my kitchen).  I did get the food pantry cleaned and organized.  Next I will do the center section  where I keep cooking things like cake and pie pans and small appliances.

Cooking

I took  time in between the cleaning to make a loaf of banana bread a small blackberry cobbler.   I have to eat to keep up my strength ........

I was not happy with my last bread.  I made two loaves of oatmeal using a Quaker Oatmeal recipe.....bad choice. I didn't even like it as French Toast this morning.  It wasn't  awful just not what I like, too heavy and dense and not sweet enough. It occurs to me I don't really need a recipe anymore....will give that a try next.

I need to put out birdseed today!  I see Cardinals and even a house wren flitting around the feeding area.  I know I still have seeds in the smokehouse.  They will need it tonight.

Another Week on the Farm

Fall has arrived here.

After the hard freeze and the following 2 inch rain, the leaves are coming down.........we  love looking out the window at  the 'raining' leaves....they will remain on the ground.............unless I get a chance to mow.  I do not rake leaves!!!!



The top of the white oak is just beginning; that is the rejuvenated Pin Oak behind it.  It has the best color I can remember.



This is the Pin Oak, west yard.



I was just coming from the Milk Parlor and loved the changing colors, the shrub to the right  is spirea prunifolia; you can see the top of the Pin Oak in the west yard.  This view is looking southwest.


Back to the front yard.  This is the Limelight hydrangea,

and the Oakleaf hydrangea,



I think this may be millet dropped  from the bird feeder.  I don't know why I am not seeing birds feeding on it....maybe they will come later,

From fall 2013

We had weekend company again.  Very enjoyable and easy to have.  I just did my standard crock-pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I had a very late picking of haricort vert (which I will discuss later).  Dessert was chocolate cake which turned out nicely.  Bread was the French bread I had made earlier in the week.  I also made our son's favorite Scotch Shortbread Cookies.....and sent them home  with him (also all the left over cake).

Speaking of bread; I am getting more adventurous with bread making.  I am not following recipes closely some days.  This time made Oatmeal bread but substituted some white whole wheat flour for regular, no bread flour (I was out), potato water (left from Sunday dinner's mashed potato cooking) instead of milk....results were great.  DH loved it.  I want to broaden his tastes a little from plain white bread.  He just said this morning that it toasted really well.

I made rustic loaves just for fun,



I also made us a pineapple upside down cake.  I hadn't made one in years.  I like the size for the two of us.
I need to try some variations.

I didn't like the texture of the cake...sort of grainy.  Next time I will use another cake recipe.

FARM

I finally found a recent picture of my Jersey heifer, Jewel who I hope will be calving soon.

Trials on Oatmeal Bread

Up at 3AM.  Rains are gone and it is in the 30's. 

Well, I began the trial baking on oatmeal bread yesterday. The first one I did was called Grandma's Oatmeal bread.  Here are  some various pictures.
It looks beautiful.....until I show you the other side.


As you can see it exploded.  Now I would rather I get a nice tall rise than not, but this is overdone!  I may not have had the sealed part on the bottom enough.   Or maybe the pinch of ginger helped the yeast a bit much.
But we have decided we  don't care.  It was just an excellent bread, very fine textured and soft and should make for some great sandwiches.  We find whole wheat breaks a little to much for good sandwiches, especially after a few days.


This one is well worth trying.

Grandma's Oatmeal Bread

From Blue Ribbon Breads by Hodgson Mills

Dough:

2 pkg yeast

½ cup 115° water

1-1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal (I have just chopped up regular in the food processor before)

½ cup light molasses (or honey)

½ vegetable oil

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

6 to 6-1/2 cups unbleached flour (you may mix with whole wheat- I did)

2 eggs beaten

solid shortening to coat bowl and two 9x5x3 loaf pans

Coating:

1 egg white

¼ cup oatmeal

1 T. water

Add yeast to ½ cup warm water and let stand 10 minutes (this is proofing the yeast)

Combine boiling water, oatmeal, molasses or honey, oil and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Stir in 2 cups flour. Mix well.

Add 2 whole eggs and yeast mixture. Mix well. Add remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 10 minutes by hand or 4 in mixer. Put in a greased bowl, rotate to coat top. Cover with a damp towel and let rise about 1-1/2 hours. Knead down and let rise a second time until doubled, about l hour.

Divide into two equal portions form into loaves and place in greased pans and let rise about one hour.

While dough is rising preheat oven to 375°.

Brush loaves with the egg white coating mixture and sprinkle with oatmeal.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes until top is golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and let cool on racks.

Makes 2 loaves.

Note:  I added 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

I used half honey and half molasses since my molasses was dark

I used half olive oil and half canola oil.

All else exactly the same.

I told you it is hard for me to follow bread directions to the letter!

Random Cat Picture

Our granddaughter took this one.  It appeals to me.