How on Earth Did I do THAT? a cheesy, cheesy story.

Friday night I wanted to make spinach calzones.  I pulled out the leftover kefir cheese that Joey had made, only to find it less than desireable.  Bummer.  I was going to use it like Ricotta.

Oh wait!  I know how to MAKE ricotta.  AND I had almost 2 gallons of older, raw milk that I needed to use up pronto.  So I pulled out my nice, big enameled cast iron pot, and double checked the directions online one last time, and set to work doing what I knew to be super easy.  I lost my dairy thermometer to the chickens (yeah.... probably shouldn't ask about that one) but no biggie!  I have my handy-dandy finger, which can generally tell when the temperature is right.  It's never lied to me before!

Step one, put milk in the pot.

Step two, heat milk until my finger says it's between 165-185 degrees.  Usually that means I can just barely keep it in while I whisk it quickly around the circumference of the pot once.  My mom could probably take a bath in that temperature, but I'm a lot more susceptible to heat, and she's the crazy woman who takes pans out of the oven with her bare hands and stuff.  Oh, and she also fights off bears on regular occasions.  Yes, multiple.  Yes, I'm related to super woman.

(love you Mom!)

My wonderful, beautiful Mama playing "train" with 3 of her grand kids on her latest visit to Colorado.

Anyway, back to Step 3.  Add an acid.  Lemon juice, white vinegar, butter milk, etc.  I used white vinegar, even though I usually use lemon juice, because the website I checked (here) said it gave it better flavor.  For the record, I DID NOT use the microwave method he suggests.  It was just the first website to load, and I only needed the basics reminded to me, right?

Step 4- a quick stir  just to make sure it's all mixed together and wait for the curds..... Wait a minute.  No, really, wait a minute, that's not curds....that's mozzerella!

I have no idea how I did it, or why it happened, but yup.  I totally made mozzarella.  Tasted, looked, acted, sounded, etc, etc, JUST LIKE mozzarella.

By the way, Mozzarella was a much better choice than Ricotta for our calzones anyway. :) 

Oh, and in case you're curious, here's how your SUPPOSED to make Mozzarella cheese.  Don't try my method and expect it to work.  The Mozzarella fairy just liked me a lot that day, I suppose.