Devonviolet Acres

[Mini Horses]

Yep...hair dryer, carefully use putty knife...dust pan removal of chunks. You guys can do my freezer for me!!

It's one of the smaller, chest ones. Does ice but not extreme. And old frig on back porch...has the little door inside going on. But, don't use freezer, just an egg & milk frig. Remove foods all & go for it. In house, self defrost.

 

[greybeard]

No need for a scraper....a hand held hair dryer works Great on the do-it-yourself types.........and a shop vac will suck the water out pretty well too.

Electric leaf blower will thaw one out PDQ.
My newest little shop vac turns into one in a couple of seconds and I defrosted my chest freezer with it in no time .
If the freezer is out in a garage, you can probably use a 2 cycle gas powered leaf blower.

 

[Devonviolet]

WooHoo!!! I got Mozzarella cheese today!

As soon as I filtered today's milk, I started making the first batch of Mozzarella, with 1 gallon of milk.

Previously, per instructions, I was attempting to get a decent amount of curds and whey. Last week, I called the New England Cheese Co. Cust. Service. It turned out all I need to get is tiny little clumps of curd. So, I did that today & added the Rennet, gently stirred up & down, and let it sit for 5 minutes. When I checked the pot, I had the classic gel with whey. I cut the curd, heated & stirred and it was ready to drain & stretch.
I HAD STRETCHY MOZZARELLA!!!

It worked so well, I got another gallon of milk out of the refrigerator and did it again. And it worked again!

So, from 2 gallons of milk, I ended up with 1.75lbs of yummy Mozzarella cheese!

So @Baymule, I now have whey, in a food grade, 5 gallon bucket, waiting to be filled to the top, for your pigs. I put 2 cups of Kefir in it, so it won't spoil before either you can come get it, or we can get it to you.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nice! I know that was frustrating for ya - so HAPPY that ya got it!!!

 

[Mini Horses]

FANTASTIC!!! I know that makes you happy, as it would me. A real customer service, "service". I'd call back and thank that person -- they often never find out if they helped or not.

 

[Bruce]

Woot!!!!!!!

I had heard that Mozzarella was easy to make. I guess it is .... once you know all the secrets

 

[Baymule]

WAHOO!!! YAHOO!!! YIPPEE!!! YAY!!!

BJ says fill up the bucket, bring us 2 pounds of your smokey cheese and a gallon of kiefer!! its your turn to come see us........

 

[Devonviolet]

I LOVE ginger!!!

For a number of reasons, Organic Ginger is better than the "irradiated" version that is sold in our local, Podunk food stores. Organic anything is hard to find outside a big city. I kinda get the feeling people out in the country don't "get" why you should eat organic and why it costs more. At least that has been my experience trying to sell it here in my corner of East Texas.

When we were in Dallas week before last, I bought a whole pound of organic ginger, with the intention of grating it, freezing it in ice cube trays & storing in the freezer, so I don't have to drive to Dallas when I need fresh ginger.

So, today was the day. I got my mini Cuisinart food processor out and scrubbed the ginger, with a brush, cut it into pieces, that would fit into the smaller shoot, and started grating it. Next, I put the chopping blade in and chopped it.

After all that was done, the kitchen smelled devine!

After I ran hot water over the bottom of the ice cube tray, the cubes all popped out so nice, I just had to take a photo and share it!

Each cube has 2 Tbsp of ginger, except one. Can you guess which one only has 1 Tbsp???

 

[CntryBoy777]

You do know that ya can grow your own ginger, do ya? My sister grows it as an indoor plant....

 

[Devonviolet]

I tried that when we lived in the condo in PA. That was an epic fail!!! The only South facing window was a dormer in a cubby, in our upstairs master bedroom.
Come to think of it, back then I didn't realize they irradiated most ginger, that comes into our country. I most likely got some of that, and that could be why it didn't grow well.

Now that you mention it, I think I should try it again. The next time we go to Dallas, I will buy some more organic ginger & give it a try indoors. I'm thinking it should grow well in the greenhouse, that we are planning to build, for doing aquaponics, as well.