Easy Ricotta Cheese

A big conundrum in my house is how to get through a gallon of milk every week.  Some weeks we finish the whole thing no issues.  We live 45 minutes outside of town, and I carpool to work so smaller quantities don't often work for us. I was on the hunt for something to do with milk that is just past it's expiry.  I had dabbled in making mozzarella cheese a few times, but it is honestly a lot of work, so I save that for times when I am really feeling ambitious. 

I found a super easy recipe for Ricotta Cheese which looked quick, and I had all of the ingredients in house.  I tried it with a 1/2 gallon of milk and it turned out really well. 

Ingredients

1 L of Milk (a couple of days after expiry is fine)
1 TBSP White Vinegar
1 tsp Salt

• Over medium heat, pour milk and salt into a large dutch oven size pot like this one from Amazon.
• Heat until it reaches 160 degrees.  I use a candy thermometer.  I actually just purchased this one from Amazon.  
• Once it reaches temperature, pour in the vinegar and stir for about 30 seconds.  You will notice the curds start to come away from the whey.

•  Move pot to the counter (on a heat proof trivet like this) and let sit for 5 minutes, untouched.
• Find a container that will be big enough to hold a cup or so of cheese.  I find that tall yogurt containers work well, but for this round I used a plastic measuring cup like this one.
• Cut a piece of cheesecloth about a foot square, doubled over.  Cheesecloth can be found at any dollar store.

• You will need either a large elastic or some clothes pins to secure the cheese cloth to the container.  I bought a pack of clothes pins and I keep some of them in my kitchen.

• The curds will now be separated fully from the whey.  

• With a slotted spoon, carefully spoon the curds into the cheese cloth.  You will notice that the whey starts running through the cheesecloth right away.  You may have to adjust the cloth so that it is tighter if the curds are sittin in the whey.  You can also just pour some of the whey off.

• You will be able to see the texture of the Ricotta form within a couple of minutes of letting it drain.  After about an hour, all of the whey should be drained, and you should have nice soft Ricotta.

• You can store the Ricotta in the fridge for about a week.  I use sour cream or smaller yogurt containers for storage and just write Ricotta on it.  
• If you won't use within the week, freeze it for the next time you are making lasagna, or something else that calls for a soft cheese.
• Don't throw that whey away (haha).  I strain it through a tightly weaved strainer and then freeze the whey to use in pancakes, muffins, and anything that calls for buttermilk.  The dog also loves it.
• PS you can quadruple the recipe for a gallon!

Give this a try, it is super easy and a great way to use up left over milk!

The Kitchen Tools I Can't Live Without

There are some things I just can't live without in my kitchen.  One of those things is my knife block. When my husband and I first started dating, he had asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  We were only going together for 3 months.  I told him that I wanted a good knife for the kitchen.  Apparently he was really trying to impress me because he bought me a whole set of J.A. Henckel Knives...a professional quality set.  I was thrilled!  That set of knives is now 15 years old.  Funny story, the next Christmas he bought me the meat cleaver to go with that set, and then the Christmas after he bought me an electric knife.  He always jokes that he must trust me, otherwise he wouldn't have bought me so many knives.

After being heavily used for 15 years, the knives have developed some issues, one has cracked in half, and three of them have a rattle in the handle.  They have to go in for warranty for 6-8 weeks and I am so sad!  They are like extensions of my hands when I am in the kitchen.  I bought a cheapy knife set (for $15 on Boxing Day) to hopefully get me through.  This got me thinking about what else in my kitchen that I can't live without.

Obviously my knives.  The set I have are not made anymore, but this one is of similar quality.  The imperative thing with knives is to keep them sharp.  I let my husband do this because, well, I am clumsy and am afraid I will slice my hand off. I am a big fan of J.A. Henckels knives.  They are easy to work with, fit nicely in my hand, and are not super heavy.

The next thing on my list of must haves is a stand mixer.  I have been through two in my adult life, one being a regular Kitchen Aid which was gifted to me by my husband's family.  It lasted me a good 5 years before it had to be replaced, mostly due to the fact that I wanted a more powerful one.  I gifted it to a friend of mine.  I am pretty sure it is still going, 15 years later.

The 6-Qt KitchenAid was the next, which is what I currently use in my kitchen.  I bought it when it was on sale at Costco for around $300.  The unit actually ended up having a warranty issue, and KitchenAid sent me a new one. That one is still going today.  I can't even recall all of the things I have used this for baking and cooking, but it is a must have for anyone who mixes a lot.

The next must have is a good set of measuring cups and measuring spoons.  I must admin, I don't have enough of either.  I have 1 and a half sets of each (from things going missing).  So if anyone needs a gift idea....just kidding.  I prefer metal cups and spoons for dry stuff, and glass for liquids (with the exception of my Pampered Chef Measuring thingy).  I love that metal and glass wash up so well.  I find plastic ones end up getting stained and kind of gunky from our hard water.

The measuring cups and spoons that I have are very similar to these ones.  I am pretty sure I bought mine from a direct sales company about 15 years ago.

I love the glass measuring cups from Pyrex or Anchor Hocking.  You can often find these at Canadian Tire when they have kitchen deals for a really great price.

Another thing that I use religiously are these pinch bowls.  My little brother bought them for me for Christmas one year and I have since bought a second set.  They are also a measuring cup.  I love that you can pinch and pour from them.  I use these in a lot of my prep.

Last item for today's list is a great cutting board.  I have gone through so many cutting boards that I can't even remember all the ones I have had.  My favorite ones have the little ridge around them to catch any juices, and grips on the bottom.  These ones are very very similar to the ones I had that were my favorite.  That reminds me I need to get another package.

Thanks for reading this week's favorite things list!  I will be back in two weeks for another list!

Jen

These are a few of my favorite things: Baking Home Made Bread Edition

If you know me at all, you know that I love Baking!  I would spend all day in the kitchen if I didn't have a job to go to.  Cleaning the kitchen on the other hand is not my favorite. Thank goodness for the dishwasher.  As promised, I am going to try and write a weekly favorite product post for kitchen items.  They may not be the exact items that I use, but they are super similar.

Today I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen making a batch of Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread.  The recipe I used can be found here: Molasses Raisin Bread.  My Mom used to make a very similar Raisin Bread when we were all at home.  Her recipe makes way more than one person can eat, so I went searching for a smaller recipe.  This one turns out great every time.  Makes about 4 loaves.  The 12 cups of flour were a bit too much for my Kitchen Aid, so I decided to do it by hand!

When making Raisin Bread, here are some of the kitchen tools that I used that I love and a bit about why I love them. I love using glass bread pans. In my opinion the bread comes out easier from them, and they are easier to clean. I had to throw out my metal ones because they kept getting water under the little lip which made them rusty. I really like Anchor Hocking ones like these ones. Canadian Tire sometimes has a great price on them.


 

I also recently purchased a Dutch Oven which is really great for baking round loaves of bread.  I purchased mine at Superstore over the Christmas season when they were on sale, but this one looks almost the same, and around the same price retail.



I love mixing my dough in a Thatsa Bowl from Tupperware. The 32 cup one works really well for a large batch of dough. Check out your local Tupperware dealer for one. You won't be disappointed.

 

When mixing dough by hand, I love using my Spurtle. It makes it so easy to mix the wet and dry together. You may be asking yourself, what is a Spurtle. A Spurtle is a Scottish Oatmeal Stirring Utensil. It is a wooden dowel which is shaped at each end. It makes stirring pretty much everything easier. I am in love with mine.

 

 If you are not into mixing dough by hand, you could mix it up in a KitchenAid mixer. You would need to be careful the flour doesn't fly all over the place. Use the dough hook and keep an eye on the dough coming up the hook. You may have to manually push it down a couple of times (make sure you turn if off before you do this...I shouldn't have to tell folks not to stick their hands in the mixer...but you never know).

 

That is all she wrote for now! Thanks for reading and I hope you liked my recommendations!

 Happy Baking Jen