Lemon cheesecake

So did you try the Yogurt cheese yet???? If not.. here's another recipe to temp you to make it.
Sweet and good for you. The yogurt cheese in place of cream cheese, greatly reduces fat and calories and it's still delicious!

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 rounded Tablespoon cornstarch
1 tsp.vanilla
1 tsp. lemon extract
2 cups of yogurt cheese (made from one quart of yogurt)
1 T. of lemon juice

Strain your yogurt the night before, see post HERE

Combine all ingredients and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer till light and foamy (about 3-5 minutes).
Pour into prepared graham cracker crust in a 7" spring form pan.
Bake in a 350* over for 50 minutes, then check every five minutes till done, (center will crack just slightly and will be set around edges but center will jiggle slightly)
Remove from oven and cool on rack for one hour. Refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.
this is wonderful served with fresh fruit,  bumbleberry sauce, or our favorite, lemon curd(recipe coming soon) on top.

ENJOY!!!!!!

I remember.........................

From time to time we will be doing a feature called the " I remember series" a nostalgic look back at days gone by, a look at our yesteryears .


I love sayings and  quotes, My mother used them all the time.
I've repeated them over the years to my daughter and now my grandchildren, most of them have remained in tact, just the way she used them, but sometimes I find myself expounding on them and making them more suited to the present situation.

One of her favorites was "We'll just give it a lick and a promise" , this meant something needed a good cleaning or tidying but we didn't have time so we'd give it a quick cleaning and a 'promise' to come back later and do a better job. And we always did too.

But I've found I've gotten to the point where "A lick and a promise'' has turned into "We'll just give it a lick....with very little hope of a promise"

The adventures of Valerie & Grace..............

                                                 Eight weeks old and look how they've grown.

                                                Copper and Penny going to their new home next week,

Valerie and Grace still looking for theirs'.

Grace defends her log from Copper while Valerie looks on

and Penny says "I don't want any part of this!"

 

 

Yogurt Cheese..............

Have you ever tried Yogurt Cheese??

Yogurt cheese isn't really cheese, but more like the popular Greek yogurt you hear so much about these days. We were making yogurt cheese long before the 'Greek yogurt' fad of the past few years, so I guess we were just being 'country before country was cool' so to speak :}
You can make this with either homemade yogurt or store bought, of course homemade is going to be tastier, but when we don't have homemade we like it made with Dannon plain yogurt with active cultures.

All you need to make your Yogurt cheese is
a quart of yogurt (you can use any amount, but there is going to be a lot of shrinkage-a quart of yogurt will yield about 2 cups of yogurt cheese)
a strainer/sieve
cheesecloth or coffee filters
a large bowl
time

To make it :
line your sieve with a double layer of cheese cloth or coffee filters ( I prefer coffee filters- works great and you can just toss them after)
place sieve in a bowl, making sure there are a few inches under the sieve (it should not touch bottom of bowl)
place a small clean plate on top of the yogurt and put something heavy on top of it (another quart  container of yogurt works quite well)
Place in refrigerator overnight.

In the morning you are going to have a nice tight ball of "cheese" and a bunch of whey under it in the bowl. ((You can save this whey and use instead of buttermilk in pancakes, biscuits, cornbread  and muffins as long as you use it up in the next couple of days. ))

Peel off the coffee filters and toss, now you have a nice creamy lump of yogurt cheese.
Use as is, to dollop on fresh fruit, spread on toast or bagels. You can sweeten it with a little bit of honey or sugar if you want. We love it with fresh herbs tossed in , chives, parsley, mint, and garlic are especially good.
Mix in your favorite flavoring and keep in a covered dish in fridge for up to a week.
You can also cook with this substituting for cream cheese, sour cream, or regular yogurt.
 Will be sharing some of our favorite ways to use it with you soon .

                                                         Y'all come back soon, ye hear?

June Rain................

While today has been sunny and dry, yesterday we were still in our wet, rainy pattern, that is so common here in June.  Showers held off till mid-morning though when the goats were already out in the 'big pasture' (away from the barn )
When I went out to put them up this is what I found: Riley, Button, Valerie and Grace crowding up to the gate and letting me know it's unanimous, young or old goats don't like to be wet!

 "It's raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We don't like it, we don't like it at all."

Blueberry Yogurt Streusel Muffins

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup mashed banana
1 Lg. egg
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Dry yellow cake mix **see note**

Cream sugar and butter, add banana and egg, stir in yogurt and vanilla ,beat well.
Add flour, baking powder and soda, stir just till all combined. Gently fold in blueberries.

Spoon into 18 greased muffin tins, and sprinkle each muffin with a scant teaspoon of dry cake mix.
Bake at 400* for 12-15 minutes. Let cool five minutes, remove from muffin pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

**NOTE: You may have noticed I use yellow cake mix in small quantities in several of my recipes, since I don't use a whole package at a time. I keep a  lidded container in the fridge with it all the time and just measure out what I need at a time. **

Spring offerings........of a different kind

Well, Clarabelle farm-dog, did it again. What ? you ask. Protected the chickens. From a SKUNK. Which led to this post:

How to de-skunk your dog......

We've all tried the tomato juice thing with varying results, right?
This is what we've found that seems to really work.
1 quart of 3-percent hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon liquid dishwashing soap
Thoroughly shampoo dog with this mixture being careful not to get it near or in their eyes. Rinse off immediately and well with lots of water and then wash with their regular shampoo, if needed.
(usually we don't need to do this step)
 

This has really worked for us, several times. Between our protective dog (Clarabelle) Our Stupid dog (Gunner) and our curious dog (Walter) we seem to use it several times a summer !

 

Spring offerings three.................

 

Now that plan "B" is in effect and we can have the morning milk we are making yogurt daily.

                                           ((See our post about weaning HERE))

There's nothing like fresh yogurt, just like anything fresh from the garden or homemade it just tastes better! we eat ours plain or topped with fresh fruit or honey

 

 Here's how I make mine. This recipe and procedure never let me down, and I have tried many other ways . I have a Salton Yogurt Maker, that has five 6 ounce cups, so these quantities are for it.

 I start by plugging it in to preheat.

Then I pasteurize 30 ounces of milk by placing it in a stainless steel bowl in a pan of hot water .Heat until thermometer reads 160 degrees. Remove bowl from hot water and let cool until temp. reaches 110.

Then beat in with whisk 1/3 cup of NON- INSTANT dry milk. Whisk thoroughly until completely dissolved, then whisk in one at a time, 4 rounded tablespoons of plain  Yogurt with ACTIVE cultures,. ( Subsequently you can use your own Yogurt as the starter. When the homemade starts to  seem less firm, buy another quart for your starter)

Next rinse your cups with hot water and pour in your Yogurt mixture.

Place in Yogurt Maker, put on cover and wrap with heavy towels or blanket.

Let sit undisturbed for 8 - 10 hours.

 Remove cups of Yogurt and immediately place in refrigerator .

Watch for  some recipes using your homemade yogurt coming soon!

                             

 Here's a picture of Mopsy helping incubate the yogurt.
Believe you me, we do not approve of this practice, but since a box and warmth is involved, and those going in and out forget to watch for her, she manages to sneak in and  "help".

Y'all come back now, ye hear??

Spring Offerings two.........................

Yesterday we were talking about all the 'spring offerings' that were coming off at our place, today a perfect recipe for this time of year, when you have an abundance of fruit all at once.
And what, you may ask is a 'Bumbleberry' ? it actually isn't a berry of any kind but a combination of three or more berries combined to make a pie, cobbler, or jam with delicious results!
                                                            Bumbleberry Cobbler

  Bumbleberry Cobbler

 

1 cup strawberries

1 cup blackberries

1 cup blueberries

1 cup raspberries

1/2 cup rhubarb chopped

1 cup sugar

1 T. lemon juice

1-2 T. rounded cornstarch

1 cup dry yellow cake mix

2 T. melted butter

Combine all fruit in saucepan, heat just till juice starts to flow, remove 1/2 cup juice, add sugar and lemon juice,
 continue to cook till fruit is heated through, about five minutes. Stir cornstarch into reserved juice, add to pan and cook one-two minutes or till thicker.

Pour into a 1.5 quart baking dish, sprinkle with dry cake mix and drizzle with butter. bake at 350* for 3o minutes.
Serve warm, wonderful with vanilla ice cream.

Spring offerings....................

June brings many thing to the farm. Snakes, mud, &  humidity, to name a few and of course one of my least favorite spring jobs, mucking out the barns, which is on today's agenda.
But it also brings many delicious  spring offerings too like:

Fresh lettuce, asparagus,  greens of all kinds, new potatoes, radishes, berries, fresh milk and eggs!!!!!! Oh my!
 
Our "spring" offerings are a little late this year due to all our cool, cloudy days, but this week everything has started to come off at once it seems, we've had all of the above in varying amounts of abundance. With the hens still laying well and the baby goats weaning so we are getting more milk,  we have been using milk and eggs in (just about) everything, and the greens are coming off like they always do, (despite the cool weather other garden plants dislike), no way we can  eat them all as quickly as we pick them! So into the freezer they will go. A quick blanch in boiling water, a quick dip in cold water, drained  and packaged in a quart zip-lock they go into the freezer to await the winter time when I add them to just about every soup, or pasta sauce I make, they are a  very welcome addition to hearty winter soups (and a good way to sneak a 'green' into your supper for pickier eaters!)

 

Fresh greens boiled with a pinch of salt a pinch of sugar and

topped with a dab of butter and a splash of vinegar

Served with boiled and buttered new potatoes

Now that tastes like SPRING!

                                                            Y'all come back now, ye hear?

The Adventures & Grace.....................

Remember Valerie & Grace's discussion about the 'bottle feeding fiasco' ?
 (you can read the post HERE )
Well they found out this week that there WAS a 'plan B'

Well Val, I hate to say ' I told you so', but look at Plan B.

Locked up at night and only 2 sips of milk left we finally get to Mom for breakfast!!!!!!!

  I know, I know, Grace. I've seen that lady take it all before we get let out!

Now , I'm just  hoping  there won't be a Plan C.

Forget about that,

 see if you can find a way out!

 

 

 

 

 







Forget looking up back, Grace!  maybe if we stand here and look
reallllllllllllllllly cute she'll let us out!


Y'all come back now ye hear.
(next week we'll be sharing with you what we're doing with the
milk Valerie and Grace are 'sharing' with us.

Old Roses............

 It’s raining again today as I write this and we’ve had to get the wood stove going again even if it is June 10th! But at least these "Seven Sisters Roses" are cheering me up, even in this never ending gloomy weather.

We dug them from a county roadside before the county widened the road and the   grader removed them permanently, over 20 years ago. Now despite our goats, the neighbors cows and  one family member's attempts to remove them they still flourish, and bloom reliably every June.

 

Believed to be brought to this country from France around 1817, Seven Sisters  is a vigorous once-blooming climbing rose that is frequently found in old gardens and home sites throughout the southern United States. The effort that it took to transport them through the intervening miles, those early settlers have left their own testimony about the need for beauty in even the most rugged human existence.

 A rambler canes grow 15-20 feet long. The name origin is believed to come from the roses’ tendency to have multiple colors of flowers in a single cluster as the blooms change colors from deepest pink, to lighter pink, mauve and finally creamy white as they age,this suggested several roses growing together Hence, the name “Seven Sisters”

Y'all come back, ye hear??

 

The Adventures of Valerie & Grace.................

Today in the Adventures of Valerie & Grace, the girls discuss
the misadventures of weaning and how they got around it
(for the time being anyways....)

"Hey Val, isn't it great to be back with Mom? "
"You know,You almost cost us getting to stay with her by starting to accept that milk delivery system that lady kept putting in our mouths ---- I HEARD YOU SWALLOWING!" 
"But, Grace, I was sooooooooooo hungry."
"I know, I was too, but by my refusing she gave up, didn't she? and here we are, back with mom where we can eat any time we want!"
"I just hope she doesn't have a plan  "B" for us."

Y'all come back now ye hear?

The adventures of Valerie & Grace..................

In between raindrops and spring thunderstorms... the girls got to go out in the "big pasture'' with mom and the other goats.........knee deep in grass for the first time it didn't take them long to figure out what to do with it :)

"See how Mom does it  - open wide and pull."

Y'all come back now, ye hear!

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

 

1 quart fresh Tart Cherries

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons Cornstarch (adjust as needed, our cherries tend to be quite juicy)

2 tsp. Almond flavoring

1 box yellow cake mix

2 Tablespoons melted butter

 

Wash and pit cherries. In sauce pan combine cherries and sugar heat just till juice starts to come out of them and get half a cup of juice and set aside, continue heating for five minutes till nice and juicy. Add cornstarch to cool juice you removed, stir well. Add to cherries and  cook ,stirring, for 1 minute or till starts to thicken. Remove from heat, stir in almond flavoring, pour into a 1.5 quart Pyrex bowl. Sprinkle top with HALF (see note) of the dry cake mix and drizzle with butter. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes till bubbly and slightly browned on top.

ENJOY alone or with Vanilla ice cream on top

 

**Note**

I usually double the recipe and  make two of these at once that way I can use my whole box of cake mix. Enjoy one for supper and share the other one with friends or family

 

And the winner is.........................

Penelope agreed to help us pick a winner for our contest

 

Congratulations to SUZANNE STAMOUR SIMMONS!!!!!