Waiting with baited breath

Heidi posted that she wanted an update on several topics: school, new hires, and the good farm milk. I shall try to satisfy her, as always! :)

School: I report tomorrow morning at 8:00 for teacher meetings. I spent the last few days since getting back from NE trying to catch up on stuff. Yesterday I spent the day with my friend Kym, we both got new haircuts, and I got some red highlights put in. We also went to Salina and ate out at Red Lobster, and then saw the new Pirates movie (which is great). Today I spent the morning at the school unpacking boxes, chasing down other teachers, and trying to communicate with as many people as possible. All in all, it felt like I didn't get anything accomplished. After going home for lunch, I felt like I didn't need to return in the afternoon...after all, it is my last day of summer. I tried to get some dishes, laundry, and small cooking chores done.

New Hires: As reported earlier in the week, 2 of my 3 paras quit on me over the summer (although, not because they didn't want to work with me!) Since school starts on Tuesday, I really needed to have people to fill those positions and fast. Evidently the principal started interviewing last Friday, but didn't offer a position to the person I requested until Tuesday. She accepted another offer for a different school on Monday. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. He also offered a position to another individual, who I think will work out nicely, but I still had a position left. Denise and I decided to move some other paras around, and one of them was moved down to take that 3rd position. There has been a bit of a mixup over the entire thing (between the principal and a possible hire) and it has turned into a pretty bad situation involving the school board, so we'll see how everything shakes out.

Good Farm Milk: Well, since I'm trying to cut out extra sweets from my diet, I decided I shouldn't make something I could ultimately eat. I decided against the Ostkaka because I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it. Instead I decided to use the milk and try to make some fresh cheese. Last year I ordered some liquid rennet off of a cheese making site, and stumbled across some interesting cheese recipes while I was there. After ordering the rennet, I also ordered some other cheese making ingredients for when I had time to play. :) I decided that today was the day I would try to make, (drum roll, please)......fresh mozzarella. It was pretty easy, and from the nibble I've already tried, it tastes excellent! I'm so excited since it is very hard (and extremely expensive when you do find it) to find fresh moz. in the area of the country I've chosen to live in. For those of you who would like to try as well, I'll include a recipe. For those of you who are currently blessed to be living in a foreign country where you can buy this, you can ignore the rest of the post!

Fresh Mozzarella
What you'll need:
*1 gallon milk, preferably fresh farm milk, but you can use store bought
*1 1/2-2 teaspoons citric acid
*1/4 tablet rennet, dissolved in 1/4 c. cold water
*salt to taste

*large (6-8qt.) stainless steel pot

*wooden spoon

*thermometer that will read from 60-120 degrees F

*2 qt. microwave safe bowl

Process:

1. Wipe down all counter and stove top surfaces with anti-bacterial spray.

2. Dissolve rennet tablet in cool water.

3. Pour milk into stainless steel pot, and add citric acid. Heat slowly to 90 degrees F. As you approach 90 degrees you will notice the milk begin to curdle.

4. When at 90 degrees add your rennet to the milk. Stir in a top to bottom motion for approx. 30 seconds, then stop.

5. Turn off the heat (it may have risen to 105 degrees or so).

6. Let the milk remain quiet for 3-5 min. The longer you let it be, the more firm it will be.

7. Cut through cheese in a checkerboard pattern, and then scoop out of whey and place in the microwave-safe bowl. Press the curd gently with your hands to get as much whey out as possible. (I did use cheese cloth for this part.)

8. Microwave the curd on high for 1 min. You will notice more whey run out of the curd. Drain this off.

9. Quickly work the curd with a spoon or your hands. (Rubber gloves might help, or I just used a rubber spatula.)

10. Microwave 2 more times for 35 seconds each time. Repeat the process of kneading the curds. Pour off as much of the whey as possible.

11. Pour it out on a clean surface (I used a cutting board) and knead as though it were bread dough until it is smooth and shiny. You can add salt at this point. At this point the cheese should be soft and pliable enough to pull like taffy.

12. Form it into a ball (I did several mini mozz. balls) and drop into ice water. Instead of putting salt in the cheese, I chose to make my water salt water, and flavor it in this manner. Cover, and put in the refrigerator.

13. Excellent in salads, sliced on pizza, or my favorite...wedges with fresh tomatoes out of the garden, fresh basil leaves, and drizzled with olive oil and balsimic vinegar and a few shakes of salt and pepper. YUMMY!