Easy & Homemade

A few weeks ago we bought a small share of two Jersey cows (Dolly and Harriet). They live on a small farm about 20 minutes from us and this is where we get our milk each week. The milk from a jersey cow has a high cream content which is perfect for making butter, yogurt and cheese.

A dairy workshop is held at the farm a couple of times during the year. On Saturday about a dozen of us met there to learn how to make butter, yogurt, simple cream cheese, creme fraiche, and ice cream.

Karen, one of the farm owners, showed us how to make butter the easy way, using a food processor. You simply pour the cream into the bowl of the processor, put the lid on and press the 'on' button. It only took about 10 minutes to go from cream to butter, and it was delicious!

Here is a small batch of butter that was made in our mini food processor.

The liquid that's leftover is buttermilk that can be used in baking.

She also explained how easy it is to make homemade yogurt.
We have had our Donvier electric yogurt maker for years and it works great.

But it turns out you don't need a fancy machine to make yogurt. Karen makes her yogurt by placing the cultured milk in a quart glass jar. The jar goes into a small cooler that she fills with hot tap water. The cooler is left undisturbed overnight and the next day it is delicious yogurt.

Yogurt cream cheese is made by simply draining some yogurt in a cheesecloth for a few hours (I have used a paper coffee filter instead of cheesecloth with good results). Creme Fraiche is similar to sour cream and is made by adding a culture to the cream and leaving it at room temperature for about 12 hours.

Making your own homemade ice cream allows you to have this wonderful sweet treat without the 'extra' ingredients. If you are curious what these extra ingredients are go here. Modern ice cream machines have containers that can be stored in the freezer and they don't use messy ice and salt. And, no hand cranking! We have had our Krups machine for a few years and although we only use it occasionally, it makes delicious ice cream in about 20 minutes.

Karen shared her favorite recipe for ice cream that only uses a small amount of maple syrup as the sweetener. She also shared with us her recipe for homemade vanilla.

Karens' Vanilla Ice Cream (from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon )

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1 Tb homemade vanilla
1 Tb arrowroot (can be omitted)
3 cup heavy cream

Beat egg yolks and mix with maple syrup, vanilla, arrowroot, and cream.
Put into ice cream maker and follow machine directions.
The addition of alcohol (vanilla) prevents hard freezing.
Other ingredients such as apple mint (from your garden), fruit in season, nuts, cocoa, etc. can also be added.


Karens' Homemade Vanilla Extract

Split 3 vanilla beans lengthwise. Put into a glass pint jar and fill 2/3 full with vodka ( Karen uses organic vodka ).


Let sit for at least 6 weeks before using.

A Walk To The Park

The sun was shining and temps were in the 30's this afternoon, so after Church and brunch, Molly and I took a walk over to the park.




Actually Molly doesn't care what the weather is like, she is always ready to go for a walk.

We don't live very far from the park and we walk over there almost every day. Molly knows the routine very well by now. The park pictures are from a few days ago.

The sidewalk we take to the park gets very snowy (and dirty) this time of year. Salty slush from the road gets thrown up on the sidewalk by the passing cars.

During the winter, cars aren't able to drive back into the park. The road is accessable to park employees only. Cars really aren't supposed to park in front of the gate either.

Snowy picnic tables.

Playground equipment sits idle this time of year.

This is one of the trails off of the main road.

A bridge over the creek.

Molly left her bag in the garbage can too.

After our walk we leave the park and head back up the sidewalk to go home.

Back at home, Molly is busy getting rid of those pesky snowballs that collect on her fur.

What a beautiful sunset we had tonight.

Spice It Up

When the weather outside is snowy and cold I get in the mood to make chili. I recently found a recipe on the Internet for chicken black bean chili that sounded really good but one of the ingredients it calls for is dried chipotle pepper.

I tend to use a lot of herbs and spices when I'm cooking and our cupboard is full of a wide variety of them. But no chipotle pepper. I probably could substitute something else, but I don't usually need much persuading to make a trip to my favorite spice store to get the proper ingredient.

Penzeys is a foodie's delight. They have a limited number of retail stores across the country and we just happen to have one here in our area. Can you see the big snowflakes falling...that's lake effect snow.

They sell just about any herb, spice, or seasoning you could want.

Spices don't stay fresh forever and can lose their potency after a few months so I like to buy them in small jars.

Now that I have all the ingredients I need, it's time to make the chili.

Just in time for the Super Bowl.

Dodging the Storm

We dodged another snow storm last night.

A major storm went just to the south of us and we only received a dusting of snow. Enough to coat the trees. Beautiful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE

Today is our daughter Michelle's birthday. She lives in Portland ,Oregon and we don't get to see her nearly as often as we would like to.

We hope you have a wonderful day Michelle.
We LOVE you.

The Cottage Cheese Challenge

Yes, I made cottage cheese.

It looks like cottage cheese, it tastes like cottage cheese.

I did it. And the best part is it wasn't hard.

The mere thought of making homemade cheese was intimidating to me. I assumed it was complicated and required lots of fancy equipment. Mostly though, I was afraid it wouldn't turn out.
Many of us have never been around anyone, or watched anyone, make their own cheese.
I know I haven't.

Ricki Carroll says in her book Home Cheese Making, Recipes For 75 Homemade Cheeses

"... there are few mothers indeed who can be counted on to hand down the techniques of cheese making to the next generation."

Now, I'm not picking on my Mother. She never learned either.

So with the attitude of 'if it doesn't turn out I'll try again' I took on the challenge.

One large pot, one gallon of milk, a package of mesophilic starter, a few drops of liquid rennet, a thermometer, and I was ready to begin.

After adding the rennet and starter, the milk needed to set for
4-6 hours until it began to curdle.



I then followed Ricki Carrolls' instructions and less than an hour later I had real cottage cheese.

Way cool.

Mozzarella, your next.

MOLLIE'S SNOWY SUNDAY

 
 
 
 

Continuing East

This morning,after a quick breakfast,we pulled out of the rv park in Evanston, Wyoming around 8am, spent 30 minutes in a truck stop waiting and fueling and then hit the road.

This afternoon we pulled into the Cabela's RV Park in Sidney, Nebraska. Sidney is home to Cabela's headquarters and the RV Park is located next door to their store. We are in a nice pull through site and it's not a bad price. They also have a boon dock area here for those that don't want hookups.

The mountains are now behind us and from here on we will be driving across the flat plain until we reach Michigan. We will miss their beauty.

Our plan is to drive to Des Moines tomorrow. Then on Thursday morning make the short drive over to the Amana Colonies and spend the day there.

Should be back in Michigan by Saturday.

A Wedding, Some water and a Lighthouse

It hardly seems possible that we are already heading back to Michigan. We haven't done a very good job blogging, so this will be a brief overview of the last two weeks. We arrived in Portland on Thursday September 18th.

The next week was filled with last minute errands and wedding plans. Before we knew it the big day was here. The weather was perfect. The wedding was held in downtown Portland on the top of the Eco trust building. The reception was one floor below. We had a great time and it was over before we knew it. Sunday morning,family and friends gathered for a brunch for Julie and Jeremy, so they could open their gifts.




Sunday afternoon we drove over to Multnomah Falls with Michelle,Ian,Nemo,Mia,Melissa and Emma.




Monday morning we played taxi service getting first Julie and Jeremy to the airport for their trip to Spain, then Melissa and Emma to the airport for their trip back to Michigan. Jonathan and Laura had flown back to New York City early Sunday morning.

After picking Mollie up from her weekend stay at Noah's Arf, we headed back to the motor home for a little down time. Tuesday evening, Michelle and Ian treated us to a Japanese dinner and after hugs and goodbyes we headed back to the RV to get packed up.

Wednesday morning we left Portland and headed down the coast and taking our time going south on 101. We spent the night at Beverly Beach State Park just north of Newport.



Thursday morning we continued south to Winchester Bay to meet up with our friends Bob and Linda who are volunteering at the Umpqua River Light House.

That afternoon they took us to the processing plant for Umqua River Oysters.


Linda bought some freshly shucked oysters and we then headed to a local seafood market for some freshly caught tuna. That evening Bob grilled the tuna and Linda fried up the Oysters. What a meal!!! Fresh seafood with Peach Salsa, asparagus, caprese salad, coleslaw, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. Friday we got to see the pictures from Bob and Linda's recent trip to Europe, and Bob gave us a private tour of the lighthouse.






Then it was time for dinner. They took us to the WaterFront Depot, a wonderful little seafood restaurant a few miles north in the town of Florence. Another great seafood meal. When we returned to Winchester Bay, we went up to the lighthouse again for a spectacular night time view.


All too soon, it was time to say good bye to Bob and Linda.

It was a very rainy, windy night and still soggy when we got ready to leave this morning. First we made a quick trip back to the market for some more fresh tuna to freeze and take home with us.

Then we hooked up the Jeep to the motor home and headed East over the Cascade mountain range. We are spending the evening at Camp Walmart in Bend Oregon. On to southern Idaho in the morning.

Deer Lodge Mt.

We are spending the night at a nice small rv park in Deer Lodge Mt. We have been listening all day to the fox news channel on our Sirius Radio. The Texas hurricane and the L.A. train wreck seem to be the topic of conversation. I had to smile when I heard about all the gas price increases. When we filled up this morning on the North Dakota Montana border we paid 3.92 for diesel. That's the cheapest for us in several months. Today started out windy and rainy but by noon it was a nice day out. We started seeing the mountains this afternoon and crossed the continental divide at about 6800 feet.

We plan to have a short driving day on Sunday. We are going to stop in northern Idaho, in the Coeur D'Alene area. Monday we should be in the Seattle area. Thursday we will drive to Portland and start in on last minute wedding details.

That's all for now.

On the Road again

We hooked up the Jeep and headed west this morning. We are going to Portland via a few detours. Chicago was it's normal pain and tolls are almost 20.00 just to get to the n.w. side. We had rain this afternoon but it's nice now. As I write this we are parked at the Super Walmart in Eau Claire Wi. On to North Dakota tomorrow.

Back in Michigan

After 4+ months traveling thousands of miles over this great country of ours we are back in West Michigan once again. We feel very blessed and grateful that we had this opportunity to spend time with family in Oregon, meet up with friends, explore areas of the US we had never seen before, and take a day trip into Mexico. We did it without having any trouble while on the road and for that we are very thankful.

We are staying at the Hidden Ridge RV park just a few miles south of Grand Rapids. We will be here (mostly just for sleeping)for the next week while Jonathan, Melissa, Todd, Emma, and Ella are here in town. That way Jonathan can use our condo's downstairs level and Melissa, Todd, and the girls can use the upstairs. To be honest we really don't mind because for the last 4 months the rv has been our home and we're not sure we are ready to change that.

Stay tuned!!

Heading North

Saturday and Sunday we stayed at a small rural campground near Tupelo, MS. just off the Natchez Trace Parkway. An area so rural that we weren't able to connect to the internet. No emails and no blogs, but we survived. We were very close to the Tombigbee Waterway which brought back memories of our boating trips on this river.

Monday we drove to nearby Red Bay, Alabama to go on a tour of the Tiffin RV factory. We and about 30 other people observed the production line of some beautiful motorhomes. The 2009 coaches are already in production. This factory produces 11 coaches every day. Two of those 11 rv's go to the Lazy Days dealership in Florida! After the 2 hour tour we drove north a few hours and spent the night, along with 5-6 other rv's, in the Flying J truck stop parking lot in Franklin,Kentucky.

Today we left the truck stop at 7am and drove all day, arriving in Nappanee, Indiana. Nappanee is home to Amish Acres and the Newmar RV factory. We ate 'lupper' at Amish Acres this afternoon and tomorrow we plan to go on the morning tour at Newmar.

Roast Chicken with a side of hail

Today we had an uneventful drive from Hobbs,New Mexico to Hudson Oaks,Texas which is about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. It was a boring drive but we made up for it tonight.

We were parked at the Super WalMart where we planned to spend the night in their parking lot. We decided that a roast chicken sounded good for supper, so we went inside to ask permission to spend the night and to buy chicken and a few other things.

When we came out of the store we noticed the sky looked very dark to the West so we turned the TV on to watch the weather reports while fixing supper. We had just started eating when a tornado warning was issued for the area just to the west of us and it was headed directly our way. So we decided we needed to move the motorhome.

We quickly put things away and began driving back to the Southwest on I-20 to see if we could avoid the worst of the storm. We had gone about 2 miles when John remembered we forgot to lower the tv antennae. Judy got out of her seat and tried to get it cranked down but with the strong winds and rain it wouldn't budge. So we quickly pulled over to the side of the expressway and John got it down. As we pulled back onto the road it began hailing so we pulled over once again and sat under an overpass for a few minutes. Crazy!!!!!!

We stopped to fuel up at a truck stop and let the storm pass then headed back towards the WalMart. We were shocked to see what at first appeared to be inches of snow along the highway. We soon realized it was hail. The area around the WalMart parking lot was peppered with hail and there were a few overturned shopping carts.

The pictures don't really do it justice. We just saw a news clip showing footage of blown out windshields at a car dealership near here. Reports are that this area had hail from dime size to golf ball size. We feel very fortunate and blessed that we are safe and had no damage to our home on wheels.

Tomorrow we move on towards Alabama, hopefully with better weather.