I’m building a cabin in the woods on my land in north central Tennessee. In a few years I’m retiring to a quieter life. Part of that life is making cheese. My cellar will be a root/cheese/storm cellar.

I got every weekend but this weekend I didn’t. My wife didn’t feel well so we took a weekend off.

A short while back Green Cheese Maker suggested that I make Lactic cheese when one of my batches of Fromage Blanc went south. I did so, and found a good use for my reculturable Mesophillic starter. The Lactic tasted a lot like the Fromage with a slightly different texture. I liked it.

I was wandering around the store and saw Half & Half for 75 cents a quart. That’s less than the cost of milk! I bought the last 8 quarts they had and figured that since I’m home I’d try something a little different. I have a recipe for a dip that is a big hit at home. It’s basically cream cheese, sour cream, Campbells dry vegetable dip/soup and pimentos. So I thought I would try that. Here’s what I did.

I made the cheese by the lactic cheese recipe except that I used half and half. I let it sit for 12 hours. Normally when I make lactic or fromage there is about a quarter inch of whey around the curds. This time there was NO whey around it. The curds were a lot firmer. Much thicker than yogurt. I mixed in two small bottles of pimentos, a half cup of Splenda (we don’t use sugar here), and two packets of Campbells vegetable soup. I carefully mixed it and hung it up in my shower to drain.

12 hours later I have a fabulous spread. I tried it on Ritz crackers and my family went nuts.

While the vegetable lactic was draining I made another batch. This one will be without any seasoning. We’ll use it for cheese blintzes using my wife’s home made apple butter (from the apples on the farm).

Sounds great ! I found the more cream, the thicker it gets.

Rik:

Congrats on the impending retirement!  What kind of cabin are you building?  Log?  We built a log cabin eight years ago on a densely wooded acreage on a dead-end road.  We love the country life.  No cars, no people, no noise.  Will you have a vegetable garden?  Sounds like your wife already does some canning with the apple butter, so the transition into vegetables would be easy, if she’s not already doing it.  We have a large garden and I put up as much as I can each year, both by freezing and canning.  My husband is retired, but teaches in an adjunct capacity a few days a week, but I am still working.  My job doesn’t require my attendance on a daily basis; I do a lot of work at home, but do have quite a bit of free time.  To make a short story long, we love it in the country and being quasi retired, and I’m sure you will also.

Jeanne:

Thanks for the kind words. our farm is a little more than a couple hundred acres. Some of it is cultivated but most is not. I will be having some livestock, two cows, a goat and some chickens. The cows and goat are for cheese. I’ll also build a store for country store along highway 70 which will sell my woodworks, venison, turkey, my wife’s canning and surplus groceries from liquidators.

My wife cans pear preserves, apple butter, apple/pear butter, and apple jelly.

The cabin we are building is going to be cordwood construction. A lot in common with log but we don’t have to deal with those big logs. We cut them down.

My veggie-cheese dip is an amazing success everywhere we take it. I guess it’s a keeper.

Rik

Sounds great your being self sufficient ! Realy wish I could get some land.

Rik:

Wow!  200 acres would wear us out.  Our little 35 keeps us hopping.  I also make an apple butter and pear butter, and would love to compare recipes with your wife sometime.  One of my favorite things to snack on is apple butter and peanut butter mixed together.  Yum!

I’ll give your veggie-cheese dip a try.  Sounds delish!

Jeanne:

I use one batch or lactic cheese from one gallon of millk or half and half (2 pounds or so?). One envelope of the dry vegetable soup/dip, two small glass containers of pimentos and about a tablespoon of Splenda. Adjust as you see fit.

I’ll see if I can get the recipe from my wife for the apple/pear preserves.

Rik, since you’re into the Fromage Blanc so much I thought I’d let you in on my latest mistake.  I whipped up a batch one evening, but it turned out to be too late in the evening.  So when I left for work at 4:30 the next morning, it hadn’t had enough time to form a proper curd.  Added to this was the fact that I have not yet turned on my furnace for the winter, so it was rather chilly in the kitchen - much lower than the suggested 72 F.  So, I let it set until I got home from work that evening.  It ended up being about 21 hours.  Then, when I awoke the next morning to go to work, it had only been draining for about 9 hours; but I figured it would be too dry if I left it til evening.  So I put it in a bowl and added some onion powder and dried celery leaves from the garden.  Turned out to be the best Fromage I’ve yet made.  The earlier batches were somewhat grainy in texture, but this was quite smooth.  Another instance of learning by mistake.

Amazing. I just made a horrible mistake. I took my mesophillic starter and put it in the microwave to thaw it out rather than just throwing the cubes in the 86 degree milk and stirring.

That didn’t work at all, no, not at all

RikBrooks - 10 November 2008 10:07 PM

Amazing. I just made a horrible mistake. I took my mesophillic starter and put it in the microwave to thaw it out rather than just throwing the cubes in the 86 degree milk and stirring.

That didn’t work at all, no, not at all

Cooked cultures, that will taste good LOL
best cheeses are sometimes from mistakes

RikBrooks - 10 November 2008 10:07 PM

Amazing. I just made a horrible mistake. I took my mesophillic starter and put it in the microwave to thaw it out rather than just throwing the cubes in the 86 degree milk and stirring.

That didn’t work at all, no, not at all

Hope you had some more cubes around and didn’t ruin the last of your prepared starter!

Yup, just about to make more prepared starter this weekend.