Yogurt and Mozzarella Cheese

Last night I took a community education class on making yogurt and mozzarella cheese.  I've tried making yogurt before and ended up with a quart of smelly milk but no yogurt. Epic yogurt fail.  So I learned a few things at this class and we'll see if it helps me.  She gave me a tablespoon of yogurt starter.  You need a tablespoon of yogurt to make more yogurt. Bacteria begets bacteria.  Once the milk is heated to a certain temp and then cooled to another temp, you mix in the yogurt and let it ferment for 6 or so hours.  Some people buy a yogurt maker to keep the mixture at an even 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  Or you can heat your oven to 110 degrees. Or you can, like she does, fill a good thermos with hot water for 15 minutes and empty it before putting your yogurt in.  The mixture will stay hot for 6 hours.  I bought a thermos today and tomorrow I will try to make yogurt.  I hope it works.  She showed us how to make mozzarella cheese as well.  I need some supplies to do that but now I know how to do it.  In our class our small group made cheese. It was fun to cook with 3 other women for a change.  We got to take some home.  It was really easy to do and the cheese was very tasty plus free of chemicals and preservatives.  One thing she warned us against was buying ultrapasturized milk.  Ultrapasturized milk is not labeled as such but she has found it is more common at discounted prices such as generic brands or at Aldi's.  The teacher was a good speaker and quite enthusiastic.  She also teaches classes on artisan breads and preserves.  Rather than telling us about her classes and how to enroll, she chose to give us samples of her bread and some of her preserves.  I had a taste of foccacia bread with pickled onions, carrot cake jam, and blubarb (blueberry and rhubarb jam).  She also had samples of her yogurt.  One was flavored with cumin, dried tomatoes and cilantro.  The other yogurt was flavored with rosemary and onion.  I much prefer a free sample of food than having to listen to a commercial about her classes! 

The Eagle Has Landed (I'm pretty sure)

Last week a coworker said he thought the eagles were nesting at the nest on Highway 10 just east of Main Street by Lowe's Hardware.  Exciting news!  This is the time of year for eagles to be sitting on their eggs.  The DNR has a bald eagle webcam and I've been watching that eagle sit on eggs surrounded by a ring of snow.  So I've been straining my eyes every time I pass the nest looking for a white head to show.  And until today I have not seen one.  Maybe they made the nest deeper than other years so I couldn't see it over the edge.  Today I saw an eagle standing up on the nest and rearranging itself.  Yahoo! I didn't actually see the eggs but why else would the eagle be there? Successful nesting attempt by MY eagles - meaning the nest I pass at least twice a day!  I've been worried about them. I thought someone may have disturbed the nest and they wouldn't be back.  I'm happy to be wrong about that.  Eagles sitting on the nest!  Can spring be far behind? 

A Year Ago

The cold weather and deep snow can be depressing.  So to feel better I try to go back in time.  A year ago I was in Australia where it was warm.  Some places were actually hot but I was never sure exactly how hot because I'm not so good at converting Celsius to Fahrenheit.  Some parts were dusty and dry.  Other parts were lush and green.  Green!  How my eyes ache to seen green right now.  The animals were so different there.  Some animals I had never heard of before like the echidna and the quoll.  Some I had barely heard of like the wombat.  But now that I know the wombat, I love the wombat.  And thinking about the wombat makes me feel warmer.  A year ago I held a little wombat in my arms.  Aww, it was so cuddly; like a live teddy bear!  I supported it with my left arm and with my right hand I made a fist and knocked my knuckles against it's bony backside just to hear hollow sound.  Not content to do it once or twice, I knocked the wombat's backside over and over and over again.  The poor thing didn't seem to mind.  And even though it was sprinkling a light rain on us, it was a moment to remember, me holding this wombat and knocking it on the backside.  So maybe it's deathly cold outside and the precipitation has piled up higher than the top of my car in the driveway, somewhere wombats roam. Somewhere it is tropically warm.  And even if the warmth isn't here I'm comforted to know it is warm somewhere.

Knock!  Knock!  Knock!

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Owl Omens - Good or Bad?

I have made a new friend in the past couple weeks.  She is talkative, lively, friendly, and from Romania.  We've been talking about owls.  She knew about owls in Romania where she lived in the northeast quadrant.  in the northwest quadrant was Transylvania, the home of Dracula's castle.  She said her husband wanted to tour the castle but she didn't because of the owls.  Near the castle are many owls living in the deep woods.  In Romania, the tradition is that if you hear an owl in your home at night, someone in the house will die soon.  To prevent the death someone in the house would throw bread out of the door when the owl hooted.  So the high population of owls is why my friend didn't want to visit the castle.  Now I've heard owls outside my house at night.  I've heard barred owls hooting back and forth in conversation.  I could hear them moving from tree to tree while they were talking.  And I felt blessed to hear them; not at all worried about a death in the future.  I've never heard of the owl/death legend before.  According to a BBC article I read this week, the owl/death legend isn't just for Romania. It is also known in Chile.  But they are finding the opposite is true.  In Chile some of the rats are carrying a virus that doesn't hurt the rats but can be fatal to humans.  To combat this rat born infection, one of the solutions is to encourage the owl populations that prey on the rats.  So in Chile, if you hear an owl hooting outside your house, it could be a sign that you have a greater chance of escaping the virus and living rather than dying.  In fact, other than vultures circling above me if I was staked to the ground, I really don't fear owls or birds of any kind.  If an owl hoots near my house at night, I'll get up and start hooting back at it while counting my blessings.  I gladly offer up any voles, mice and rabbits that happen to inhabit my yard to hear an owl hoot.

I Hope The Birds Appreciate This

I hope the birds appreciate the work I went to yesterday to refill the peanut feeder, the thistle feeder, the sunflower feeder and to put suet in the suet feeder. I actually had to don my snow shoes to get out there.  Just a short trip, I thought, no need to buckle my shoes on tight.  That was a mistake.  Try walking in snow shoes in hip deep snow balancing 3 feeders and a bag of suet. I fell three times.  It's not easy getting up when you have nothing to push against.  In fact, when you do push your hands against the snow you end up in deeper snow that you were before.  Normally this chore would take me 3 minutes to complete but in this weather and including the times it takes to put on snow pants and snow shoes, it took a good half hour.  My snow shoes kept coming off when I tried to pick up my foot and move forward.  So much snow collected on top of the shoe that it was hard to keep my feet in the straps.  After I collected the feeders it was much easier putting them back because the trail had been broken.  It's times like this that I am glad my back yard is a private spot and no one saw me out there.

For Your Listening Pleasure

In the mid 1970's, a group of us would get together Wednesday nights for a pot luck supper, some drinks, and to watch the Muppet Show on televison. We had  anywhere from 8 to 35 people in attendance.  Anything to avoid studying I guess.  Good times.  Good times.

I Got So Excited!I

I got so excited at work yesterday when I opened a new box of letterhead stationary and found this!  A million dollar bill!

Until I turned it over.  You're welcome - less than a million.  : (