Tuesday Twister – June 16, 2009

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My Tuesday Twister posts are my weekly round-up of what’s going on in my kitchen and our lives, as it pertains to food. So here we go – I’ll catch you up on what’s twisting in the kitchen this week!

• Feta Cheese – I finally built up enough extra milk to make a first attempt at feta cheese (recipe from Fias Co Farm). I started with 2 gallons of raw goat milk! The picture shows you what I rigged up to hang the cheese. Haniya fetched a 2-inch circumference stick that was long enough to span between the tops of the cabinets on either side of the sink. Paracord is strung around that and hangs the bag over a colander/pot set up. The leftover whey can be used to make ricotta cheese… very exciting! I’ll try to give that a go today. If not today, then Thursday. As for the feta, it will be done hanging this afternoon, at which point I’ll cut it up and put in a gallon size jar with brine to age. Do you notice the pretty pink color of the cheesecloth? It was white, but I put it in the washing machine on the XXTRA Sanitary cycle (very, very hot) and a reddish towel bled from the heat and dyed my cheesecloth. Oh, well. It still works!
• Grass-Fed Beef – We are raising our own steer with friends, but we have also ordered additional beef from the ranch that’s provided our grass-fed beef for the last four years (Santa Cruz Ranch in Sutherlin, OR). Whoever he is will be ready in two weeks. The freezer is low on beef, but we have some odds and ends to finish up to free up some space. So oddly enough, we’re going to be eating high on the beef for the next two weeks to clear it out.
• My Dishwasher Doesn’t Clean the Top Rack – Anyone else with this problem? The water simply does not get there. I’ve checked the spray arms; they’re not clogged. From reading on the internet, it seems the next step to take is to take apart the whole bottom spray arm to get underneath it and check for clogs or a broken food chopper. Problem is, there are some funny looking screws preventing me from getting into it – and I’ve not the right tool to undo them. I really don’t want to pay someone else to open that all up and clean it out, if the solution is only a simple cleaning (ha, ha, not so simple if I can’t unscrew it!). In the meantime, we are hand-washing the dishes. This is not so bad. After pulling dirty dishes out of the dishwasher day after day, I feel super satisfied with the clean dishes that result from our hand washings.
• Clutter and Behindness – My house, my kitchen, and my mind are stuffed. I am behind. I am cluttered. But God is good. He sustains. In the last couple weeks, just about every day, I have forgotten something when I pack Jeff’s lunch. On different days, he has gone without: silverware, napkins, snacks, and salad dressing. The day I forgot the salad dressing, he called and said, “Do you think I’m a goat?” I do spend most of my time in the barn these days with fifteen lovable goats, but no, I do NOT think he is a goat.

What’s twisting in your kitchen? I would love to hear!