Dreamy

  We have a cat that loves the bathroom. 

She LOVES the bathroom.
Her name is Dreamy.
{I named her after Dreamsicle Bars!}

She runs in there every time we need to use the restroom. 

She takes naps on the bath mat.

 She plays in the tub. 

She sits on the vanity and purrs.  

She loves it in there. 

Inspecting my work to make sure her bathroom is up to par. Shoddy work will not cut it!

It always cracks us up to see Dreamy so excited when someone
joins her in her favorite room of the house.

A cat with...personality?

Baby Day!

Saturday morning we got up nice and early to do chores. 

We had a date to go visit my daughter's puppy for the first time.

She can bring him home permanently in May.

But she was dying to meet him and give him a good cuddle asap.

I am proud to introduce Brandy.

Brandy is an English Springer Spaniel.

Alyssa was beyond thrilled with him.

Meeting her little pup was enough to make it the best day ever.

But Mother Nature had another surprise in the pasture for us when we got home.

Dear Hershey found the one wooded corner of her pasture to have her baby.

We went to work making sure Hershey had a nice big bowl of yummy nourishment so we could check the baby over and dip her umbilical cord.  We were thrilled to discover we had a baby girl.

We named her Kisses.

She nursed with a little help.

But almost immediately after we started working with Hershey we started
noticing signs of milk fever.

She was constipated.

She was not interested in food.

We checked her ears, but they were nice and warm.

Just to be on the safe side we decided to treat her for milk fever.

We moved her and her sweet baby girl up to the goat pen.

Hershey was too stirred up for us to get her temperature.

But we managed to get a tube of calcium paste into her.

 {I will create a more detailed post about milk fever in the future.

I will also explain more about the calcium paste.}

Hershey was not stumbling at all and her ears started to warm up.

We were hoping that the paste would be enough to get her through.

But early Sunday morning we went to check on her and found her resting with her
sternum on the ground {as pictured below} and stumbling when she tried to walk.

I took her temp while my husband called the vet.

It was 100.2 degrees.

I was a cold morning so my daughter had baby girl in one of her own sweatshirts.

 

An hour later, Hershey had her calcium IV and a Vitamin B shot.

Within an hour after the vet left she was not stumbling and her ears were warm again.

She was a little annoyed with us for all the poking and prodding.

When we came back to relieve a little pressure from her utter, she had forgiven us.

She stood nice and still for us to milk her a bit.

 We followed up with some more after care directions the vet left with us.

Hershey and Kisses are just fine and doing very well.

Summer Pizza

Last week we made homemade ricotta cheese.

I promised to come back and show you the summer pizza that we love eating.

Summer pizza is a cool or room temperature dish.

There is no mozzarella or pepperoni.

This is a light and fresh bite of food full of the rich flavors of pizza.

This is my daughter's favorite lunch of all time.

It's quick to make and super simple.  

She has been making this for herself for a couple of years. 

We use whatever veggies we have on hand.

Cucumber, tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, green onion and fresh herbs are all great choices for this.

Below are three different versions of summer pizza.

The first plate is on Italian bread with tomatoes and basil and a balsamic glaze drizzled over the top. 

We make platters of this for an appetizer in the summer when we have friends over.

I've always had empty platters come back to the kitchen in record time.

My daughter and I had a working lunch.  

She made this version on french bread.

It was topped with avocado slices, tomatoes and cucumber.

The tomato and cucumber was tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper.

She did not add any balsamic vinegar or glaze.

This plate is heirloom tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar. 

All plates equally delicious and you can make it however you would like. 

You'll need to gather a few ingredients.

Bread

 Homemade Ricotta

Fresh herbs if you have them.  Dry herbs work as well.

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Balsamic vinegar if you like it

Veggies of your choice.

All I have today is tomatoes.

To begin, start with the bread.

Turn your oven on to 350 degrees or start your grill.

Slice the bread into half inch or thicker pieces.

 

Put the bread on a cookie sheet in a single layer. 

Drizzle the bread with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Or sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Either grill or toast the bread until it is crusty.

Set it aside to cool.

Next, scoop some of your homemade ricotta into a bowl.

Add a pinch of salt and a bit of pepper.

Gather some herbs.

Sprinkle some dried Italian seasoning over the cheese.

If you are using fresh herbs, chop them up.

I like to stack my basil leaves up.

Then I stack the other little herb leaves on top.

Then I run my knife through the whole thing a couple of times.

Toss the herbs in and give it all a stir.

Now you need some delicious veggies for the top.
Toss your chopped veggies of choice into a bowl.

 Add some herbs if you want, I'm using fresh basil.
Rosemary, chives, oregano, parsley and thyme would all be great choices as well.
Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Next in is a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Some garlic would be great in this as well.
{This is essentially a classic tomato bruschetta topping that is going over the ricotta.}

Give it all a quick, gentle stir.

  Take a few pieces of the toasted or grilled bread...




...and slather them with the ricotta mixture.




Put your bread onto a plate or platter.

 Spoon the veggies over the top.
{Look at that juice running over the edge and soaking into the crisp bread!}

You can add a sprinkle of more fresh herbs if you like to make it super pretty.
But this is it!

Let's recap!
1.  Summer pizza is like a light fresh version of pizza. 
2.  Homemade Ricotta is the bomb!
3. Get creative with your herbs and veggies.
4. This makes a great snack, light lunch, or appetizer.
5. Enjoy!

Spring Renewal

Spring

Taking a simple walk to the barn could easily overwhelm me as I take note of the many spring chores on the work list.  However, instead of being overwhelmed I am filled with a sense of excitement, hope and energy to get the work done.  I cannot wait to help reveal the beauty that can be found in nature and a clean orderly barnyard.  I know that many days will end with all of us sporting sore and tired muscles and a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.  A reward for those long hard work days will be moments of laughter, spending my evenings with the people I love and the ability to get up and start all over in the morning.  The flowers will begin to pop up, the trees will bud out, the spring farm babies will arrive and grow, and our daily chores will increase.  But excitement and hope is what I feel most strongly.     

Sammy and Dreamy

 Forget Throwback Thursday, how about Cute Kitty Thursday?

They are cuddly.

 They purr.

 They are beautiful creatures.

 They are warm in the winter.

They catch mice!

Pretty and talented!  

The kittens love the nest Joe left for them 

My husband is known for taking his pants off and dropping them on the floor as is.
 I never thought there was anything cute about that until now. 
Kitties can make anything adorable...even pants left on the floor.
A few minutes after they discovered Joe's pants they were napping.

 

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

 One of the things that thrilled me about this property was the restored cook stove.
We are still working on getting it approved for use with our insurance company.
But in the meantime, it is beautiful and a little extra counter space.
Today I am using the stove as counter space while I make my homemade ricotta cheese.

I have also gathered the ingredients to make my lunch. :-)
This is what we call summer pizza.
I'll show you how to make it next week.
Summer pizza is the main reason we make a lot of homemade ricotta cheese.

But back to the cheese...
I am well aware that you can buy ricotta cheese in the store.  I have bought it plenty of times.  But once you have homemade ricotta you will wonder what in the heck you were buying.  There is a huge difference between homemade and store bought ricotta.  

The good news is that you do not need a cow in your back yard to whip up a batch of this amazing ricotta.  You can use store bought, pasteurized milk to make this cheese and it will be amazing.  

You will need a gallon of milk, a splash of cream, citric acid and salt.  

I bought a cheese making kit that contained a bit of several different cheese making ingredients.  But you can easily pick up food grade citric acid on line if you cannot find it in a store.  My local grocery store pharmacy will order it for me.

 

The equipment you will need to have to make this recipe is a large heavy bottom pot so the milk does not scorch and burn, a stainless steel spoon or ladle, a silicon spatula, a basic thermometer, and either a fine mesh sieve or a colander lined with cheesecloth that fits over a bowl to catch the whey.  

Start by pouring your milk and a half cup of cream into the pot. 

Put the pot over a medium burner.

The trick to good cheese is to raise the milk temperature slowly.
On medium heat it took me roughly forty minutes to get the milk up to temperature.

Sprinkle your salt and citric acid over the milk, one teaspoon of each.

Gently agitate the milk about four times in the following manner.

With the spoon at the surface of the milk, push the spoon down in a straight line to the bottom of the pan and then bring the spoon back up.  Do this slowly.  This is how you stir milk during cheese making.  

You may begin to notice tiny little curds forming and clinging to your spoon.

That's the good stuff!

 

You will want to use the rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of your pan.

If you do not, the milk may stick and burn.

You will notice curds starting to form and float on the surface of the milk.

As the temperature goes up, the curd number and size will increase.
Around 170 degrees you will notice it looks like there is cottage cheese floating in your pot.

Once you reach 184 degrees, remove the pot from the heat, cover it and let it sit for 15 minutes.  

After the 15 minutes, you will be amazed at all the curds in your pot.

Gently slide the curds and whey into the fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth lined colander.

Do not pour the curds and whey into the strainer.

The force of the rushing whey will push tender curds through the strainer.

You do not want to loose any of  your ricotta.

Keep scooping.

Once all your whey is strained, let the ricotta sit in the strainer for awhile.

You'll want to strain your cheese for a bit longer to make it more firm.

If you forget about the cheese and let it strain for too long you will get very stiff cheese.

I know because I have done that...often.

I just stick the cheese in the fridge to continue draining. 

Once your cheese has drained flip it into a bowl.
You can add a splash of milk now if your cheese is too stiff.

Add one teaspoon of salt and mix it in.

This is now the best food on the planet.

Store the cheese in a glass container.

You should wind up with a couple cups of ricotta and 3/4 of a gallon of whey.

We give our whey to the chickens for a special treat.