Butterkase
I think that I am in love.
Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but I just discovered Butterkase (probably butter-cheese in German). It is fairly mild in flavor, very soft, very smooth, and it melts pretty well too. My next cheese making attempt will probably be Butterkase.
Sara, Andrea, and Alison were all sick over the weekend. It made for a tiring weekend for me (Sara was having a hard time breathing, so I stayed up most of the night Saturday making sure that she was OK.)
I have re-colored my Polynesia card image files, and am going to make another partial printing of the cards to see if my color changes brought the cards into alignment with what I thought that they should look like. I will also make another pass over the rules to make sure that they are all current.
For Sunday dinner I made four cheese pasta with shells (three of the cheeses were home made: parmesan for saltiness, derby for the flavor & meltability, and ricotta as faux 'meatballs'). The ricotta cheeseballs were an interesting addition. I salted the ricotta lightly, and then rolled it into balls. I toasted the balls in the toaster oven till they were fairly firm and then we tossed them into the three cheese sauce with the noodles to complete the dinner.
I waxed a Parmesan this weekend, and I have been thinking about making a cheese cave. Cheese needs to be kept at a stable (and relatively cool) temperature and humidity level. If Alison and I add on to our house we will probably add rooms on to the front of the house (I am not too fond of front yards anyway - they are just a waste of space.) when that happens I would like to add on a partial basement to act as a storage area, a cheese cave, and probably play space as well.
Having a cheese cave would allow me to not have to wax my cheeses since I would be able to more easily keep it at 80% humidity, and 50 or so degrees. The problem that I see is coming up with a way to make sure that the humidity (and temperature) of that room remain correct. I imagine that someone sells a device that would allow you to turn on a humidifier if the humidity drops below a certain percentage, but I can only find one, and it is $50. Johnson Controls (hey, Dad) makes a device that turns on and off a outlet based on temperature, though it is also ~$50. I suppose that I could just bite the bullet (hypothetically speaking, of course - I have no room to turn into a cave anyway) and pay $100 to get both devices set up to auto condition my room for cheese ageing. If anyone comes up with a better idea, please tell me.
If no one does, perhaps I will have to see what it takes to build a small embedded system that controls my outlets based on info that it receives from a camera, and then point the camera at a small thermo/hygrometer. perhaps that would be cheaper.
On Satuday I was drilling a hole in the kitchen wall to mount more pots and pans and I drilled into a electrical wire. Everyone (and everything) is OK - the drill bit got a little pitting from the arc of electricity, but the circuit breaker shut it off before it caught fire or anything. I had to open up the wall and patch up the wire before the fan/light to the stove hood would work again. There probably is a way to prevent such things from happening in the future, but I don't know what they are.
We also found a new treasure chest at the DI. I put all of my plastic coins into it (and some glass beads for flavor). I am completely going to be uncle pirate mike.
Since I have bragged about these pancakes a few times, here is the recipe:
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
3 Tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
Pinch of salt (optional)
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup white grape juice concentrate, honey, or sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons canola oil
1. Place the whole wheat flour, white flour, flaxseed, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg and/or salt, if using, in a medium-sized bowl and stir to combine.
2. Place the buttermilk, milk, grape juice concentrate, eggs, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of oil in another bowl and whisk to mix. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and beat just until smooth. If possible, let the batter rest for up to 30 minutes at room temperature before cooking the pancakes.
3. Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a 9-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the pancakes two at a time, using 1/4 cup of batter per pancake, until the batter bubbles on top and the pancakes are firm on the bottom, about 3 minutes. Turn the pancakes over and continue cooking until the second side is brown, about 3 minutes. (They will look darker than most pancakes.) Repeat with the remaining batter.
4. Serve the pancakes warm. (We serve them with fruit jam mixed with frozen berries and microwaved until runny. Add lemon juice if necessary.) The pancakes can be frozen for up to 2 weeks. Let them cool completely, then wrap them in a single layer or individually in aluminum foil. To reheat, unwrap a pancake and microwave it on high power for 2 minutes or heat it in a 350F oven for 10 minutes.
One final note: if I really do sell these cards, I will (probably) have to set up my own company (for tax reasons as well as to prevent me from being sued and losing my house I suppose) If anyone has ever set up a company before, send me an email if you found any gotchas.
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