Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Miscellany

Over the weekend I made cottage cheese. I was surprised at how easy it is to make. I haven't made cheese for quite a while now—for two reasons: 1. my starter is all old and I keep forgetting to buy new; and 2. we have a cow share for 4 gallons a week which doesn't usually leave enough extra for cheese (yes, the two of us do use that much).

But, Debbie was in Minnesota for a few weeks which allowed a surplus to build up, so I took a gallon and made cottage cheese. I have about 4 different recipes, but only one of them allows me to make it without any starter; it just called for a 1/4 tablet of rennet and a 1/2 hour of resting. First, I skimmed most of the cream off and saved it for later. This was the first time I had used raw milk, too; every other time it had been homogenized milk, which doesn't make as nice a curd. The curd set up very nicely and as I cooked the curd, oh so slowly, the curds shrank just as they should. I ladled the whey into quart jars to use later and then washed the curds in cold water, broke them up with my hand, added salt and then poured back about 1/2 the cream.

Wow! It was the best cottage cheese I have ever had. The curd was so fresh it squeaked and talk about tender. I gave some to Debbie to taste, the ultimate test :) She declared that from now on we make all our own cottage cheese.

I took a quart of the whey and made a pot of sauerkraut soup. Hey, it sounded interesting. I won't make again, though. It was edible, but not a keeper; Debbie said I could finish the rest of it, so you know it wasn't very good—and we both really like sauerkraut.

In other news, I transplanted my broccoli plants last night. They are doing very well and the roots were beginning to intermingle. I think in the future I will transplant directly into discrete pots. But, now you won't have to make my mistake :) I'm going to transplant the Roma tomatoes tonight as they are having the same issue.

I had to reseed all my pepper plants. The seed I used was 4 years old, so it isn't surprising. Last year I got about a 50% germination rate, so I figured it was worth a try. This year I got 0% germination. That puts the peppers behind about 4 weeks, but because I'm putting them in the hoop house, it won't matter.

Speaking of the hoop house, we had a very windy week here. I'm not sure how hard the wind was blowing, but it would have taken the hoop house down if I hadn't used the new metal clips. So, that was win. And, the radishes and lettuce are up, too. Apparently the -10º F weather we had 2 Wednesdays ago didn't hurt them. Right now I'm just picking spinach, but it looks like the diet will be more varied real soon now.

Oh, I ran across this today:

When we look at the controversy of gender-inclusive language and the use of plurals; the above principles come into play, as does the historical-grammatical approach, which means that God personally chose the time, the place, the language, and the culture into which his Word should be penned. Who are we to disrespect that because we wish to appease the modern man or woman, who may be offended? Their offense is nothing more than self-centeredness, refusing to wrap their mind around the idea that the Creator of all things chose the setting, the language and time in which his Word was to be introduced to man.

<idle musing>
Where to start! You can't leave a comment without logging in and I don't have an account, or I would put this little note here.

If he is that adamant about the setting and language, why do we translate at all? If we do translate, then we need to make it relevant to the target language, which, at least in 21st century North America, means gender-inclusive language. Or, to put it another way, God speaks to all his people, both male and female; I believe Paul said something to that effect about 2,000 years ago...what do you think?
</idle musing>

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I bought my (now) wife a cheese making kit last year, and the first thing we made was cottage cheese. We were very surprised at how quickly you could make it.

We haven't done anything since, but we have every intention!

That's my 2 cents! said...

AMEN! God does intend to speak to all people. That includes women. And why should it surprise us that God would want to speak to women? Look at the Hebrew word used when God created the first man. Then look at the Hebrew word used when God created woman. The word used for God's creation of woman give the idea of sculpting. Woman is God's artistic masterpiece.

Besides we are all, male and female, the female to Christ's masculine. We are the bride and He the husband. The greater problem is with us guys. How often have you heard male preachers going on and on about women being submissive, but never those same guys never preach about men laying down their lives, as servant leaders in their families? Didn't Christ, by laying down His life, enable us to submit to Him? Without laying down His life would we be able to have relationship with Him? If the guys want submission so much, why don't we help the women out and follow Christ's example of servant leadership???

Just sayin'

Lonnie

jps said...

Andrew,

If you do make anything else, please let me know.

Lonnie,

You are asking people—men especially!—to actually live a crucified life? That's too much to expect, sadly...would that a revival would break forth!

James