Cottage Cheese

Thanks to Ramont (and now sometimes Anna) milking Susie every morning, we are awash in milk - usually 1.5 to 2 gallons a day. Of course we drink a lot and use it for oatmeal, rice pudding, all-out pudding, soups, smoothies, and so on. And we also "get rid of" a number of gallons per week to family and friends. But every few days it begins to stockpile in the fridge. Then I make some higher-milk-volume items like...well, I'm going to be sharing some of these recipes and processes from time to time. Today it's cottage cheese. Because is there any better way to make verenike (or these or these) than with tangy homemade glums? (No) And actually, it's the easiest thing to do with a glut of milk, especially if it's a few days old. So here goes...

Cottage Cheese

1. Pour skimmed milk into a large pot, and let sit on the counter for a few days until it thickens. The final consistency should be similar to yogurt (see photo above). Our house is approx. 68 degrees and it takes exactly two days to get a good thickness.

2. Skim off the top, gummy layer of creamy skin. Pulling it off by hand is easiest (and oddly satisfying).

3. Once thick, set the pot of thick milk on a medium-low burner (I use level 5), stirring every 5 minutes or so, until it begins to curdle. This can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.

4. It is done when the little curds are separated from the clear-ish whey. At that point you can reach in for a handful, give it a squeeze, and see if it resembles cottage cheese. (Yes)

5. Then figure out a system to separate the curds from the whey. My Bolivian cousins just reach in and grab the curds by the handful, squeeze, and put them in a colander. I've also tried to strain them through a sieve lined with a cheesecloth (actually, a tea towel or clean t-shirt scrap). That's a bit slow, but it is a good way to get the last bits at the bottom.

6. Then you need to find yourself a kitchen helper, preferably someone with a thick mat of bedhead, who can take everything out of the drawers, organize them, and put them back in slightly differently.

7. You can also at this point start a batch of bread and use the whey in place of water. Very nutritious, I assume. The whey is also good as soup stock or smoothie liquid.

8. When you've squeezed out the water to your desired level of cottage cheese dryness, add some salt and squish it in well with your hands.

And that's it! You don't even have to do steps 6 and 7, so it's really very simple.

This particular batch made about 3 cups (or 1.5 lbs) from 1.5 gallons of milk. It freezes well in simple plastic bags or other containers, and it's also good fresh.

Happy cheese-making!

The last hurrah

Yesterday was the last round of celebrating Jonathan's birthday. For him it was probably the best, as it included his very favorite non-family people (and actually, these best friends of his are his third cousins).

It also involved a piñata (made by Sara) - something he's wanted his entire, very short life.

It took quite a few swings...

...with some fiercely determined expressions on the faces of the whackers...

...till finally it broke apart. We've only seen piñatas done in Bolivia, so we were expecting a mad, crazy scramble for the goods. Not here. It was actually quite orderly.

 Some mustaches were included in the goodies.

OK, a lot of mustaches.

So one last time, happy 4th birthday to Jonathan!

Four years old

Four years ago in a hot, dusty Chaco town, our little Jonathan was born. From the start his eyes have been wide open, taking everything in. From about two years ago, his mouth has also been wide open, bubbling forth with all his many, many, many observations.

At four Jonathan is, shall we say, exuberant. I just asked Ramont for a one word description and he said "enthusiastic." Jonathan's walk has a skip in it, and often an all-out jump or two. For someone who likes people so much, he spends a surprising amount of time in his head as well, often whispering narration of what he's playing.

He's still nuts about tractors, of course. Last year already he ordered a sprayer cake for this birthday (this is the best I could come up with).

And who would he be without his little sister? Though she's often adoring and remarkably accommodating of his constant elaborate scenarios, she also makes some strong demands on him and will increasingly let him have it if he oversteps.

At four Jonathan is fully fluent in Low German (I think still his preference, certainly at home) and English. At pre-school screening last week we learned about some things that he isn't much interested in: drawing, the alphabet and higher numbers, hopping four times on one foot, and playing little games with the given instructions.

He's moving up on the growth chart...from 5 or so % to fully 15% for height and almost that for weight.

:)

But while he can't hop on one foot, he's still very much into jumping.

There's so much to say about this little boy, but I'll stop bragging already and hope that you can come visit him/us soon!

On another note, winter continues. This week Ramont bravely took both kids to the Jackson sale barn to sell a few bales and pick up a trailer. While it makes for cute photos, it sounds like he won't be doing it again soon (or ever).

We took my folks to the airport on Tuesday for their trip to Bolivia and Paraguay. As we were leaving, we almost couldn't understand why we hadn't made arrangements to go along...it would have been soo good to visit while Willmar and Hannah are still there (for one more month). And then it started to snow on the way home. And snowed all night. And blew all the next day. And then again two days later.

Ramont's been blowing snow almost like a full-time job. So yes, why didn't we hop on the plane south?

Well, there will be more and hopefully better opportunities in the future. And honestly, I do like winter.

Triumverate reunited

Anna and I got to spend this morning with my two best friends from high school - Sonya and Susan! Here we are today, age 36...

...and here we were almost  twenty years ago (Aug 1994), looking much sportier, less pastey, and well, younger.

p.s. Happy birthday, Susan!

Early birthday party

Jonathan will hit four years old on the 9th, and my dad turns 65 on the 13th, so we decided to have a joint, early party before my parents leave for a month-long trip to Bolivia and Paraguay.

There were some gifts, of course.

Lucky boy, gets to celebrate with grand and great!
 

And share a cake with Opa.

The play-doh from Uncle Charles was/is a big hit, starting before breakfast,

and lasting all throughout the day.

Anna, are you ready?

I found this in the archives, taken a year ago when Jonathan had just turned three and Anna was almost 1.5 years old. Pretty well depicts life this year as well.

Middle of winter in MN

We've had a lot of snow this winter. Yesterday, just when it had begun to melt and was looking very dirty, more - lots more - of it fell and then blew around all night.

So this morning we had a bit of a winter wonderland (with varying degrees of enthusiasm).

Jonathan touches up a snowperson that Ramont helped him build last night.

We went out to get the mail this morning,

all bundled up,

and ended up playing out in the field for a looong time.

Almost looks like we're at the south pole.

This was the first time making snow angels and tasting snow (something I just assumed all kids did naturally, but these evidently don't).

For those of you planning to come visit next summer, this is the sign to look for (sans snow).

Afterwards we warmed up, as usual, with hot chocolate, picnic-style.

No one is allowed to tell them that the hot chocolate is actually just milk (Susie's, of course) warmed up a bit in the microwave.

And that was our nice morning.

Oops...forgot this one of Jonathan tasting snow for the first time.

On an unrelated note: I've written much here about Anna waking up so early and thus being super active (hyper) in the mornings. The rest of the story is that after she's crashed in the evenings, Jonathan's energy level is just ramping up. Sometimes we have him jump as hard and fast as he can on his bed before reading a story, just to get some of the wiggles out.

One of the things he does particularly well - esp. in the evenings - is jump. All kinds of jumps: hops, double-footed, knees up, twirls in the air, landing with legs crossed, you name it.

Here Ramont tried to capture some of the energy.

Yes, that pretty well illustrates it.

And on a final unrelated note, here are two photos of Anna taken by my mom when our kids stayed there for almost a week. In this one, she had set up her little reading moment all by herself, complete with two little friends.

And, very very seriously prettied up and ready to go to church with Oma and Opa.