Cheese-ish

So I messed up a step in my cheese making process, so instead of having mozzarella like I intended, I simply have cottage cheese. That is ok though, my kefirs will continue to congeal milk and I will try this all over again. Until then, I need to find something tasty to make with my fresh cottage cheese.

Cheese!

About a week and half ago I was gifted with a kefir, or kefir grains as it is typically called. Kefir grains are little communities of bacteria and yeast that when place in milk, will ferment the liquid into a sort of yogurt drink. The grains resemble cauliflower, and with the proper love and caring, will continue to grow each week. I named mine, Kiefer Sutherland.

The Kiefer grains need to be placed in milk and left in a dark warm place to do their magic. This is a picture of my larger kefir, Donald Sutherland. You can see him floating at the top of the milk. It takes about 24 hours for him to congeal one full glass of milk.



Tonight I decided to try my hand at making some cheese. I won't know until tomorrow if I succeeded or not, but here is what I have accomplished so far.

I took about a cup of kefir drink and added it to four cups of regular milk and heated it up to separate the curds from the whey.



After several minutes the curds really start to form and the yellowish whey forms at the top. I wasn't sure exactly how long to keep the mixture heated, so I took it off the burner once I felt like I had enough curd to make something substantial.



Once the curd is strained from the whey, I formed it into a ball. I submerged the ball in water, but this was a mistake. The ball was not stable enough and needed to be drained first. Now the ball of cheese is currently draining in cheese cloth over a pot. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to heat the dried curd back up and make mozzarella.

Solstihanukwanzamas!

Its nearing that time again...the time for Solstihanukwanzamas! And since I have no life right now, I think I can actually get holiday cards out to everyone. Sooooo...if you want a card, post-marked from Dillingham, AK then leave me your addys!

The Freezing Rain Did Not Kill Me!

I miraculously survived the freezing rain the other day, just in case you were on the edge of your seat wondering. After I managed to get our truck stuck at the top of our very steep driveway, our landlord came out to investigate the source of all the ruckus.

Now, I am no greenhorn to Alaska. However, Fairbanks is very different beast as opposed to southwest. I am not used to freezing rain an inch thick! Give me snow and 40 below temps any day! Alas, the landlord pointed out that I need to "flip over the hub caps" for the four wheel drive to work. To this he received a blank stare from yours truly. Flip over the hub caps? Huh? Apparently with older model vehicles you have to turn a dial on the hub caps for the four wheel drive to work. No wonder the drive into town was so damn slick! The four wheel drive wasn't even on! After the hub caps were turned, I magically could escape the clutches of our driveway. Landlord got a hug. :-) He shall also receive baked goods in the near future.

I am going to start bringing my camera with me to work so I can take pictures on my breaks. The sunsets are amazing, but I am always working when the perfect picture arises. Hopefully I can capture some decent shots to share with you all. I also plan to do some reformatting of my blog and add a separate personal website soon. Stay tune for that one kids. It should be exciting!

The Woes of Weather

This fall has been unseasonably warm all throughout Alaska. I heard that PA got snow before we did. Needless to say, I began to feel quite comfortable with the weather we have been having in Dillingham the past several weeks. This time last year there was already 10 inches or more of snow on the ground in Fairbanks. In my unprepared state, I was quite vexed this morning when I woke up to bitter wind and a dimpled sheet of ice covering the truck. Freezing rain struck us hard. It makes me very sad to know that real snow won't be making an appearance until late December.

Apparently the road crews aren't the quickest on the draw. The road into town is in great need of repair which won't happen until 2012. Granted, it is difficult to get equipment here as everything has to be barged in from Anchorage or places elsewhere. However, I hear through the grapevine that not much of anything is going to be done about the icy conditions we are suffering from today. I just hope it melts off soon. I drove into town to take Matthew to work this morning and I am just a bit scared about driving back into town to start my shift at noon. The trick is to go slow and hope you don't careen off any hills.

Just a note for those who may want to get a hold of me. My cellphone is still not working and I have no clue if it will ever. I have no message machine on my home line, however weekends are a great time to call. I have run out of minutes on my phone card, so until I take care of that I won't be making many calls out (so those of you with free long distance, get your arse to calling me!).

पि!

I have been baking a lot lately. Last weekend I made some berry pies (or pi rather). The recipe I use makes enough crust for two pies, and for some reason one pie turns out quite pretty and the other is very ugly. Needless to say, I take the pretty pie to share with work or to potlucks. The ugly pie stays at home. Luckily they both taste just as sweet!

It has been a while...

I know it has been quite some time since I last updated. So much has happened in a month’s time, it is difficult to sum it all up concisely without blathering on and on. Oh well, here it goes.

I finished my job in PA on the 15th of August. I had a love/hate relationship with that job, but I am glad that I did it. I gained some great experience in banding birds, and I realize I still need a lot of practice picking birds out of mist nets. I was finally getting to a comfortable stage and then the number of birds we were banding dropped off considerably. I do, however, feel quite confident in my banding skills.

The one thing I am most grateful for is the opportunity to make some long lasting friends in Clarion. The people over at ‘The Creature Program’ are some of the most lovely, fun people I have ever met. It just sucks that they’re all the way on the other side of the country. While I went to PA for a job, it was the volunteer work I was a part of that made the whole thing worthwhile.

After the job was finished, I caught a ride with my co-worker to Chicago where I spent three days touring the city with a friend of mine from Wisconsin. I had a blast! There is so much going on in Chicago during the summertime. I could see myself spending at least a couple weeks there, enjoying all the free activities they have in Millennium Park and the other surrounding parks. I was amazed at how much they had going on in just one weekend. Free concerts practically every day, free dances, free exercise classes, even the zoo is free! Good thing too, because they charge you somewhere around $25 or more just to look out on the viewpoint at the Sears Tower (or is that Wallis now?). I did however; send some money on a ghost tour. I don’t think I’d do that again, it was a little disappointing even if we did get to see more of the city than we would have otherwise. I think our geocaching trips were far better in forcing us to see parts of the city we wouldn’t have gone. Anyway, I had a Chicago style hot dog, deep dish Chicago pizza, and tea at the Ritz. All was good.

Once we finished in Chicago, we drove up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I visited for a few days at the wildlife center I worked at last fall. It was great to see everyone…and I found I really missed it there. For some reason it felt real nice to get back to Wisconsin. I fed some squirrels, saw some animals, and ate sushi. Good times.

I flew back to Portland for a visit that lasted three weeks! Most of the time I spent with my biological (or I’ve taken to calling them the ‘bionics’) family. My bionic mother showed me how to bake pies and bread. I spent time with my siblings, doing various things like camping, and tea, and drinking beer. I also spent time at the beach with my bionic dad and his family. Matthew came down to Portland for a friend’s wedding and we both went crabbing with bionic mom and her husband. Between all of us, we caught 39 crabs! Needless to say a feast was had by all.

The wedding was nice. I think it was worth it just seeing Matthew in a tux! :-D And there are pictures, so it did happen! Ha!

Even though I had a month long vacation it really seemed to fly by. Now, I am in Dillingham working at the UAF campus here in what is deemed as Student Services. I actually like my job here. I couldn’t ask for better co-workers and I enjoy actually getting to help and converse with students. Dillingham is pretty. The leaves were all golden when I got in and now, with the wind starting to pick up and winter peeking its head around the corner, the trees are quickly losing their shape.

I think I am going to enjoy living by the bay. Already I’ve seen some amazing sunsets and when the sky is clear, the world seems to go on forever. I have been here just shy of two weeks, but I have a good feeling about the place. People seem friendly and genuine. It sure is a change of pace, but a good one indeed.