Making Cheese

I once read that a real woman makes her own cheese.

I don't know about the validity of that statement, but I am happy to say that I have entered the cheese-making arena.

I ordered a little kit from the amazing Ricki the Cheese Queen this past summer and the girls and I tried our hands at the creation of some soft cheeses.  We made cow mozarella and goat chevre.  Yum!  We knew what went into it, and it all tasted so good!

We are going to make some mozarella today, and in that spirit, here are a few photos from our first foray into cheese-land this past summer, at Ganni and Poppa's house:

Heating the milk

After we add the culture, the curds begin to form

Our cheesecloth, ready and waiting!

Ladling the cheese curds into the colander

Kutuh comes to help!

Gathering the cheesecloth

Ready to hang!

Olivia helps to "milk" it

Ta-dah!

Elsie wants to poke it, too...

Our chevre, hanging over the sink.

Getting ready for batch #2

It's Kutuh's turn

Ladling.

Olivia takes a break for a jump.

Draining the whey from the curd

More draining.

Olivia sneaks some dripping whey.

Jessica doesn't even try to sneak.

Notice the whey dripping from the bottom.

You are going to be so good!

Whey to go...