Say Cheese!

Hello again!
And a huge apology for the enormous gap since I last posted. Life with 2 tots at home seems to be a lot busier than I had anticipated, and finding the time for a proper sit down to write has gotten harder and harder!
But here I am, and I have a ridiculous backlog of things to write and share so I'll just get started!

Starting off with cheese!

Over the Christmas period, my family traveled down and stayed with us, and so my mum and I used this as a good excuse to go poking our noses around our local Palmers Garden world on Boxing Day. The two of us adore wandering round garden centres and will jump at any chance to meander around at leisure (preferably husband and child free of course! ;) ). So on this particular visit as we were having a good sticky beak in the gifty section, we came across some cheese making kits!
Randomest thing to find in a garden centre, but non the less, there it was. Both Mum and I have talked about attempting to make our own cheese at home on several occasions but never really knew where to start or got round to finding out.
So within about 3 seconds of looking at the kit, it ended up in Mums shopping basket, and home we went with it!

I was rather eager to give it a go, so as soon as we got home I was busily investigating the instruction booklet.
It was the Italian Cheese kit from Mad Millie, I forget exactly how much it was but I think it was roughly $35. Which with the equipment provided yields 6 kg's of cheese, (but you buy your own milk on top of that).
Several recipes in the booklet provided, ranging from easy to difficult and varying in time to make + aging time.
Recipes included are:
Fresh Italian Mozzarella and Bocconcini (approx 600g/batch),
Ricotta (approx 400g/batch), 
Ricotta Salata (approx 100g/batch),
Burrata
Mascarpone (approx 700g/batch).

Included in the kit is:  Small Ricotta Mould with Draining Container,Vegetarian Rennet Tablets (10), Cheese Salt, Cheese Cloth, Citric Acid, Pipette, Calcium Chloride, Steriliser, Stainless Steel Thermometer, Kit Instructions and Recipes.

 I am rather impatient at the best of times, so I ran to the supermarket, bought 4L of silver top (full cream) milk and got to work making the quickest of them all Mozzarella. No aging time required and best eaten fresh! So that was a win win for me.
Pretty simple process, and a bit of fun for an afternoon, but to be honest at the end of it all, it works out more expensive to buy a ball of mozzarella from the supermarket, buuuut not sure I would be bothered with all the faff of making it myself again haha. Bit of a novelty once, even twice...but probably not again. Keen to try out some other recipes though!

Maybe i just didnt do it properly (first attempt so quite possible) but it didn't taste allllll that amazing. I know Mozzarella is a fairly bland tasting cheese, but this was very very bland. Hubby didn't care for it raw (not that you usually eat it raw).

The batch made about 8 balls this size, which is pretty darn good value for money seeing as it can be about $10-$14 per ball at the supermarket, let alone a proper cheese shop!

Cooked a delish creamy tomato & chicken pasta bake (with left over chicken from the Christmas roast chook) that night with the fresh mozzarella all gooey, stringy and melty on top! Much more tasty once it was cooked! Yummo!

I will be back soon to catch up on other projects I've been up to, including DIY wedding invitations, healthy recipes im addicted to currently and kids wall art! But for now, it's time to catch up on my Downton Abbey addiction!

So for now, get cheeeeesy and stay beautiful! x