The City Mouse in the Country

     I don't know what attracts me to "Amish Cheese's."  I came across a few recipes while putting about on the interwebs and was taken by them.  They do seem rather simple to make and they require little in actual work but they do require time.  While not exactly a "set it and forget it" cheese, these cheeses often used milk that has spoiled naturally over time or "Clabbered."       Which, considering the Amish lifestyle, makes perfect sense.  The Amish are not a wasteful people.        One cheese that caught my eye is called Amish Cup Cheese.   It is a soft spread where you heated the milk to room temperature first (about 72 F) then let it cool, letting the curds seperate from the whey.    Then you add a bit ingredients and again...you "rested" the cheese for 12 hours before moving on to the next step.  Then, again add some more ingredients then rest for 5 hours before moving on.  It's not hard, just time consuming.        It's

      I was thinking about something that I posted on my companion Facebook page as I drove home my brother's house in Pittsburgh the other night.   I was also thinking about how in the previous week or so I had submitted some previous things that I wrote for review with a paying publisher.        A few years ago, I wrote a short story because it demanded to be written.  I was up every day for several months at 5 AM, writing for two or 3 or 4 hours.   The short story become a novella...then a novel.  I edited it and reedited it in the months since, then a published author friend of mine gave me an "in" with her publisher.  I submitted my work.   It was  rejected, which is not that uncommon.  I took the rejection letter in stride...and took their advice to heart as well.   They pointed out a few strengths and weakness's in my writing as well as giving me the tools to improve my work.  When I resubmitted the piece, it was still rejected but my overall score was higher

    Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it o ut!     OK...I hate cliche's.  Those terms and expressions that have been so overused that they lost meaning.       As I tried to write this blog entry, I found myself using more and more of them.  That's not creative, that's not even that interesting.  There is absolutely no reason that I should be boring myself...AND I AM THE FREAKING AUTHOR!       The problem is that Susan and I got into a little bit of discussion the other day.   It was over my current hobby of making cheese.   I was planning on making an Amish cheese that required the buttermilk to basically "spoil" before using it.  The correct way to do this is to use uncultured buttermilk and "culture" for 24 hours before making the cheese.     I let me "cultured" buttermi

      A few months ago I found myself in a precarious position.  The lights had gone off for a tad more than 24 hours and I panicked.  You see, I work from home and hope to continue to work from home into the foreseeable future and to do that, I need a reliable source of power.  I am planning on NOT ever going to the Cleveland if I can help it.        My job is technically in downtown Cleveland, and we moved to Western PA to be closer to family and friends.  My mother , for example, passed shortly after we moved.  I     So I spent a few days looking for a generator that could not only keep my up and running, but could also help keep the house warm by running our pellet stove and lights.   If you want, you can read more about how I ended up with the generator I did, here .  However long story short, it was important to me that I could keep my work PC on, a few lights, the pellet stove burning and maybe a TV and phone chargers      I had also set a budget to get everything, including th

      I'm slowly but surely moving ahead with my cheese hobby. Recently I found some Facebook groups and other resources that are helpful in how to make cheese and what equipment I need,  including how to build a cheese press and make a cheese "cave."   Although I swear they are all hiring professional photographers to take pictures of their cheese!     I'm still trying to keep it simple, however after the success of the Insta Pot Paneer cheese , I could not help but wonder what other cheeses I could make in an Insta Pot.   I found three different types of cheeses actually.   Cottage Cheese, which frankly I never really liked the taste of and wasn't interested in making.  Mozzarella and Ricotta were the other two.  I picked the recipes that I did simply because they didn't require any rennet or starters like many of the other recipes I found.     I was unsure if I was ready for Mozzarella yet.       Out of all the cheese's this is probably the one that

       Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it o ut!        I have to be honest, at no time did I ever think I would want to make cheese.   My first effort , done more as an experiment than anything else, turned out very well.  So well in fact, that I wondered what else I could make.   I wanted to keep it simple. My first Cheese, misshapen and all      Keeping it simple means different things to different people of course.   I was hooked when I started to look up exactly what rennet was.  Which brings up the whole question of what the hell primitive man was thinking when they decided to put the milk back into the intestines of a dead animal or what lead to that discovery...and moving on.     The earliest cheeses are probably similar to the Farmer's cheese that I made earlier (see link above) and that got me looki

           Happy New Year!  I don't make New Year Resolutions expect for the one I actually keep, which is not to make any Resolutions in the coming year.  Because of that, this post is a bit about our plan for the year ahead.  It's more of a general outline then anything else.       As we move into this new year both Sue and I are looking forward to it.   These past few months I've joined a lot of Facebook groups and other things to learn about homesteading, gardening and 1001 simple little things.   Some things I've found to be helpful, others not so much.       I bring this up for the simple reason that "becoming a homesteader " is going to mean different things to different people. We don't really fit into any one category ourselves.      We are planning on having a garden suited to the two of us come the spring and already have the materials needed to start planting the seeds.  We are planning on canning our excess veggies; and our freezers are fil