Day 60 Making Neufchatel Cheese

We finished 25 pounds of dried milk, 50 pounds of wheat and 25 pounds of all purpose flour in the last month. That did not include making cream cheeses, hard cheeses nor mixing milk as often as we could have. This last month I am curious to see how much faster we use the dried milk if we make cheese. This first batch of Neufchatel was not as difficult as I thought. I have had the rennet in my cupboard for probably a half a decade waiting for the "may be someday." Thank goodness for this blog or I might die waiting to learn how to do these things. Thank goodness my mother made cheese when the milk cow was giving gallons of extra milk . I'm a little familiar with the process.

The directions for making cheeses and ice cream comes in the box of rennet tablets. Generally the process requires bringing the milk to between 65 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit depending of the type of cheese, adding a culture of buttermilk or yogurt, add 1/4 to 1/2 tablet of rennet again depending on the hardness of cheese desired, letting the culture set for 12 hours, cut the curd then drain the whey, add salt, and press the cheese. After making this cream cheese, I am not nearly as intimidated. This can be done regularly. (Hopefully the cheddar cheese will go smoothly too.)

Breakfast: Leftover rice and taco meat from the Mexican buffet

Snack: Annie's popcorn (corn syrup, sugar and butter heated and poured over popcorn and miniature marshmallows)

Lunch: Leftovers. The refrigerator is full of one to two servings of rice, black beans, Mexican rice, and bread and butter. Time to eat what e have.

Dinner: I lost part of my security today. I discovered that 2 of the 3 remaining celery stalks are rotten. Two and a half pounds of carrots are moldy. So for dinner we made a huge vegetable stew with carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, and beef bullion. The children added canned roast beef to the soup as they liked. Dessert was a gift of cookies from friends.