A Real Tea Ball

After seeing pictures of a really cool looking tea flower ball thing on one of the Wire Fox Terrier blogs I follow (as Tucker, of course) I decided to try my tea flower ball. It wasn't quite as impressive, but has a very delicate white tea flavor. Here's what it looked like:

My first attempt at making mozzarella

After reading my new Hobby Farm Home magazine

I decided to try my hand at making Mozzarella cheese. Seemed easy enough, just three ingredients:

I mean, how hard could that be??? Just dissolve the citric acid and rennet in water and add to the milk.

Then heat to the right temperature, at which point the milk should now be thick like yogurt....

Well, I guess skim milk doesn't work with this recipe because it wasn't thick and the curds weren't formed enough to scoop out of the whey, so the next best thing was to try their whey ricotta...

All seemed to be okay. It even looked good hanging there draining...

Made me feel kind of productive. The end product was very dry and needed some heavy cream, so I added it to my homemade potato soup.

Now THAT was good eating!

Lesson learned? When the recipe says to use whole or 2% milk, follow the instructions!

From our house to yours, 2010 Calendar

Make a Smilebox calendar

Our Kansas winter storm

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're testing out a new dog

Since the loss of our Charmin in July we have talked about getting another dog. Seems that three would be enough, huh? Well Mike contacted a lady who has a non-profit no-kill "shelter" of sorts just outside of town. We agreed to take Kia on a trial basis to see how things go, and so far it's been a little difficult because we're used to getting dogs either as puppies, all furry and cuddly (but also pottiers and chewers) or like our Border Collie, Katie, who was so appreciative of a new home that she was all full of love. Of course Katie thinks she's a chiauwa and wants to sit on my lap all the time. Anyway, Kia is a lovely little lady, a Papillon who is 8 or 10 years old, so no spring chicken; and is VERY set in her ways. She's quite apprehensive of new hands moving towards her face and will growl, bare her teeth and even snap at you if she's not in the mood to be petted. Today she's mostly been following Mike around, but has warmed up a little to me since I've been bribing her with treats (yeah, no Dog Whisperer in this house!) We'll see how things go and might possibly add her to our loving household. Wish us luck!