no-knead bread recipe update

There are various recipes for no-knead bread available and I started with the one published in a mother earth article last year or so. But, the bread was pretty dense, tasted a lot like sour dough, and did not really rise very well. I tweaked the recipe and came up with a slightly different but just as easy a version that does rise well, has a good crust and nice air pockets throughout - and still needs no kneading :-)

5 cups all purpose (or white) flour
1.5 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups lukewarm whey (or water)
2 teaspoons of herbed salt
2 teaspoons of granulated yeast soaked in warm water with
1 teaspoon sugar

soak the yeast in a little warm water, whisk well
add teaspoon of sugar for food
add flour and salt to bowl
use dough hook, add whey and yeast
knead until ball forms and dough does not stick to sides
leave in bowl, cover with damp towel for about 1-2 hours
remove from bowl, split in two (with floured hands) and pat into bread pans

the two major differences are:
presoak the yeast, and do not refrigerate the dough.

I like to make one long cut in the middle, it makes for a nice split top. A little flour on top looks good as well. It also does real nice as a pizza crust.

And how do I know it's a good tweak? Cause my hubbie told me this morning not to buy the Heidelberg bread anymore, he definitely preferred this new version...

Same with my small herbed chevres... I gave one to a good friend of mine and she told me later she still could not believe I actually made it myself, and she sure was not sharing with her roommates! This from a person who grows carrots and sweet potatoes as big as baseball bats!

firm goat yoghurt recipe

... with a little help from my gelatin friends :-)

Initially I used a recipe from an article out of countryside magazine, but it did not stiffen correctly. I kinda wondered about that anyway (plus, it used sugar) cause the way I use gelatin for cheesecake sure is different. I retried the recipe but followed the gelatin directions this time and the yogurt looks great!

Heat milk to 185 degrees and hold there for 5 minutes (kills off competing cultures).
Cool milk rapidly in sink of cold water to about 115 degrees.
Add two table spoon fulls of yogurt live culture.
Sprinkle 1 packet of gelatin in some cold water, let sit for 1 minute.
Add milk with yogurt to dissolved gelatin, whisk very well.
Pour into yogurt maker jars, let incubate for 12 hours.
(the longer the incubation the more bitter the taste)
Refrigerate, which stops incubation and sets gelatin.

like I said, it's yogurt for dummies!

very easy hard cheese recipe

A new recipe I found in the Barnyard in your Backyard book Goat section page 225... I made a batch today and have the curds setting in the (home made) molds in the fridge... we'll see about the claim it's a grateable cheese in about 2 and a half hours!

Heat one gallon of raw goat milk to 185 degrees F and keep there for 5 minutes.
Add 1/2 cup of lemon juice to separate the curds.
Drain the whey and stir in a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Press the drained curds into molds and set the molds in a strainer to drain further.
In about 2 hours you should have about 1.5 lbs of mild tasting hard cheese to grate...
Wrap the cheese in plastic wrap and keep in fridge for up to two weeks!

I made the molds from butter containers (food grade plastic) by melting holes with a heated piece of metal about 1/16th of an inch thick (piece of galvanized fencing).

Very curious to see what it will become!

>>>Tried the recipe, two times, once with my new cheese press, and the cheese does not get hard... It's more like panir; not soft cheese, but not hard either. Does not grate but does crumble. I use panir for curry since it does not melt like chevre - but it definitely is not grateable hard cheese :-( The resulting whey is great though!

I started to herb, salt and shape the chevre (2 gallons makes about 7 herbed cones) which I then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for the rest of the year until milking resumes in spring. I also made cream cheese by whisking not too dry chevre in the kitchenaid (very good!). If only I could make a decent hard cheese :-)

Thirteen goes on a date!

My first time, though it seemed like nothing special to Thirteen :-) Which is why I got the two older does, they've done all this stuff before!

Here's Thirteen meeting Octavian, the 120lbs 1,5 year old full Boer.

"well, hello there!"

"you smell sooo good..."

"my, you're a big boy!"

'I luvvv you!!!"

"I like you too..."

And that six times in the couple minutes Michael and I watched! She'll be there the rest of the afternoon - they seemed to have a good time - and Mountain Goat will have a nice easy day without hormonal bullying from her herd queen!

And now we have to wait five months...

from rain to snow...

from one day to the next! It really is too bad, the two cold nights we've had killed all the flowers including the dahlia, cosmos and marigolds which were all still going on strong! Most of the nasturtium in the veggie garden gave the ghost as well and the pepper plants in the uncovered window boxes were toast and served a nice, hot snack for the goats this afternoon.

First year we've had a flower garden and I must say it sure was a success! I'll be looking for flower seeds at the seed savers this year as well, to make my own seed shaker mixes.

goats like apples...

... they sure are something to smile about!

my patchwork privy

After two years of slowly digging away at the pit, I finally was able to quit and start building my privy! And good timing too, as our two+ year old started potty training and while playing in the yard did not want to go all the way back up to the house to pee... Which is where this two holer, toddler size version comes from.

Since I knew for quite a few years I wanted to build a privy I was able to collect materials for quite a while. After the build of our timberframe garage / workshop we had a lot of scraps left over and combined with the old basement shelving (5" cherry tongue and groove boards) and a whole stack of lake house paneling (5" pine tongue and groove) I found one day alongside route 34 it seemed time to start.

We also had a couple 2x6" rough cut left overs stored behind the shed I could rip into 2x3"s for the main structure, combined with some rough cut dollar 1x4" planks and ripped scrap packing wood from lowe's for the less than 40" long boards I did not have to go out and specifically buy anything but the door hinges! Oh, and two ventilation panels I kinda forgot to install I just realised (after sitting on a wet seat from ground condensation)!

Oh, the roof are two pieces of (new) left over metal roofing panels used to protect the timberframe roof when it got shipped. And I also had two old but working louvre shutters I cut down short and installed as windows and ventilation. Initially, they were also the main source of light, but since the inauguration bonfire party showed that nobody uses an unlit privy on a dark night I did install a pull cord light fixture inside (also a leftover...) which can be plugged into an extension cord. No point in going thru all the effort if it does not get used :-)

For more pics on the project - though I did not take many pics as I was too wrapped up in the actual build - you can check my patchwork privy on Picasa.