Hobby to Lifestyle Change Looking back, it is easy to see how I went from cheese making to a goat milking lifestyle.  I can, sort of explain it to most open-minded people.  It made sense (really?) to get goats to milk.  When we decided to make cheese, the natural progression was to make cheese we need milk.  To make goat cheese, we need goat milk.  Goat milk comes from goats.  We should get goats to milk. But the addition of the goats meant that a cheese making quickly went from a lark hobby to full-on lifestyle. Once upon a time I said I wanted to make cheese.  Our favorite cheeses…

Plans Are Like Swiss Cheese… Some have holes in them.  Certainly, my cheese making journey had plenty of holes.  If you want to know how many holes, check out this blog post.  If I were going to begin the cheese journey again, I think I would focus on making the soft cheeses that are ready in a week or two and leave the aged cheeses to the professionals.  And yes, there would be lots of my favorites that would be left off my cheese making list.  However, there are several soft cheeses that will keep us satisfied for a lifetime.  Here are our top five cheeses that are perfect for…

Hobby or Major Time Commitment? Cheese making as a hobby is a pretty cool choice.  We are a cheese crazy family.  We love nibbling on all different types of cheese.  Indeed, we have spent a fortune at cheese counters around the world purchasing our favorites and trying out new cheeses.  It appeared to me that cheese making was a logical thing to learn.  But not all cheese is created equally as I quickly learned.  Cheese making can be a serious time commitment if you let it.  The time requirements vary greatly for different kinds of cheeses.  Some take months, some just a few days.   Some you drain the curds, salt…

New Gadget or Must Have? I love a new kitchen gadget.  I bought one of those things that peels, cores, and spiral slices an apple about twenty years ago.  I have used it about five times.  It works great, but I just don’t need to peel, core and spiral slice apples all that often.  I have some other things that have ended up in the bottom of a drawer, taking up space.  Jerry has been trained to question my need of a new gadget because I love them, and then I leave them…in the drawer. That was probably his first thought when I said I needed an Instant Pot.  “You…

I’ve Said This Before, But… A great recipe is a thing of joy.  Scallops in a lemon, anchovy and basil reduction is one of our favorites and for good reason.  It is easy to make and puts any restaurant meal to shame.  The lemons give a bright burst of citrus acidity to the scallops.  The anchovies provide an earthy saltiness.  The basil give the dish a bit of color and a nice herbal punch. We have altered it over the years to suit our tastes.  Don’t be afraid of the anchovies.  They make the meal.  Be sure to have all the ingredients prepped prior to beginning.  This meal cooks too…

Bread Making Tradition Nana made yeast bread most Sundays and every holiday meal.  Her Parker House Roll recipe (pictured above) was especially delicious.  Buttery brown tops that were just the right mixture of soft and chewy.  So good in fact, that my mother would grab another roll with honey instead of dessert.  I took it for granted that, like other things she made, that I would be genetically blessed with her ability.  Nope. Suddenly, I was grown, and living far away from home for my first Thanksgiving as a married woman.  To make things more interesting, my in-laws came to celebrate that holiday with us in our one-bedroom apartment.  The…