Homemade Cottage Cheese and My Raw Milk Obsession

I love cheese. Truthfully I love most things dairy. The problem is I, along with my hubby and kids are lactose intolerant. Let me rephrase that. We are anything that has been homogenized and cooked to death intolerant. For example: If I ate a big bowl of cereal with store bought "conventional" milk I would get sick along with my nursing son. However if I eat the same cereal with raw milk we are just fine with no nasty side effects. It's not just me either, my husband, children, and my dad can all drink raw milk with no discomfort afterwards. So whats this have to do with homemade cottage cheese?

Once a week Bart and I go pick up 3 gallons of beautiful cream on top raw milk from a farm outside of town. My milk comes from some of the prettiest Jersey Cows I have ever seen. It is wonderfully sweet and resembles nothing in the grocery store. I trust drinking the raw milk I get because I am allowed to see the process from utter to cup. I am not worried about getting sick because the facility is clean. Besides the fact that people have been drinking raw milk from animals since the beginning of civilization. Ok I am going to cut myself off here. The industrialization of food is a touchy subject for me and I could go on for sometime about it. I recommend doing your own research. Start with the documentary Food Inc, it is on netflix.

Back to the cottage cheese. I don't always go through 3 gallons of milk a week. So how do I not waste this liquid gold? Sometimes I just give it to our dogs. They love it and lap it up in no time, also with no intolerance. Occasionally my husband and I make mozzarella cheese, but its kinda stressful. So this past week I decided to make a family favorite that we usually buy at the store. It was so easy I feel a little foolish waiting so long to try it out.

Here's how:

Gather Ingredients:

1 gallon of raw or non ultra pasteurised milk

3/4 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup cream

Special Kitchen Tools:

Thermometer

Tea Towel or any thin kitchen towel

Heat milk over low to medium low heat. Stirring frequently so you don't scorch your milk.

Once it reaches 120 degrees take it off the heat and gently stir in vinegar.

Continue to stir for a minute or two as curds form. 

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Line a colander with tea towel drain curds from the whey (leftover liquid)

Gently squish out whey while rinsing under cold water

Wrap and hang curds over a dish to catch extra whey.

Use a medium mixing bowl to break apart curd into desired size and add in salt to taste.

Eat right away by adding cream or refrigerate curd and add cream as you eat it.

Lasts for about a week in the fridge.

It was really yummy added to spinach kinda like paneer.

Also good on burritos and quesadillas!

Love,

Ashley B.

Joyful Noise.

If you read my Easter post you will know I want a change in the Church. When I say Church I just dont mean mine. I have been to plenty of them and the vast majority have the same problem, lack luster Worship.... It is soo frustrating. My husband gets downright angry about it. So whats going to change it? Well, I can keep blaming the worship leaders and the people who have the say so in the church, or I can take charge of my worship.

I will be the first to say I groan a little bit when it is worship time on sunday mornings. It is so s...l...o...w. The words are for the most part great, but most are really old hymnals with some funny words in them. Yeah I admit it, sometimes the old phrases make me giggle a little bit.. No one around me really sings either, I am pretty sure they feel the same as me. What can I do to get more out of sunday worship?

I have to get guts! When I want to groan and make grumpy faces I need to stop and remember the purpose of worship. I need to make a JOYFUL noise unto the Lord. It doesnt have to be pretty just Joyful.

God is constantly telling me its about the heart not the pace of the music. Its not about if I am a beautiful singer (I'm not) but about if I have beautiful heart. I am called to make a joyful noise to the Lord and to break forth into joyful songs of praise! Psalm 98:4 So maybe I just joyfully sing along on Sunday mornings, focusing on the words and my heart. I will not let my brain dictate how I should worship, no matter how awful I sound or off beat my clapping is! I will have the heart to let it go up to the Lord as a joyful noise not a grumble grumble or care what others may think. Iwill turn on my Spotify at home and worship to my hearts content. I will encourage those around me to do the same. Thats what I can and will do.

Love ,

Ashley B

Easter is coming and it is a Big Deal!!!

Easter is advertised as a cutsie holiday. All the boppin bunnies and chirpy chicks make it easy for the world to forget what Easter is all about. It makes it easy for us believers to get distracted! As Christians this should be a Huge holiday. I mean, after all  it is the day Jesus rose from the grave!! He died for our sins and enabled our broken sinful selves to get into heaven. This is when we celebrate that our debt is paid. I really cant say this enough, Easter is a Big deal and we should treat it as such.

Let us take back Easter! Not just from the world but from religion. What I want is for the Church's to rock and rumble in celebratory passion and praise. I do not want a bunch of dressed up people quietly getting through service watching the clock in anticipation of getting home. How do we break free of our lackluster Easter rut? What will it take for us to change the "rules" of the traditional Easter Service?

Honestly I don't know and that frustrates me beyond belief. All I can do is pray for things to change, hearts to be softened and religious restrictions to fade away. Don't get me wrong, I love the family time of coloring eggs and watching my children run like crazy through a field for eggs filled with candy. There is just more than that to Easter.

Can you imagine the sheer joy of Mary Magdalene? She watched Jesus die, dressed his dead body, and then saw Him alive in front of her?

I feel that the common Easter Service in most Churches here in America are to quiet. Nothing wrong with being reverent and thinking about the pain and torture Jesus did in fact go through , I just think it is used to guilt people into becoming Christians on maybe the one day they come to church. Jesus saved our souls! It is an amazing joyous fabulous thing!! Get up and dance!! Praise Him and make a joyful noise!!!  Isn't that far more attractive then a sanctuary of sad Christians? What would you choose?  I know what I want to be around and show people!

Thank you Jesus for rising from the dead. My sins are forgiven!!!

Love,
Ashley B

Autism Awareness Day!

Hi everyone. Today is World Autism Awareness day and seeing as I have an autistic son, I thought I would write a little something up. Here goes nothing....

This is not a topic that I really like to so publicly talk about. It is not because I am embarrassed or ashamed of my son, but because people get mean. Like laugh at you, call you names , and say your crazy, mean... those are the nice ones. Some of the population believe special needs children are useless and should be euthanized. Needless to say those are flood gates I do not care to open.

So what is Autism?

I believe it is an overly used diagnoses. It is the fastest growing development disability in the US with 1 in 68 children being diagnosed.( source ) No one really knows what causes it. The only thing they think they know is it isn't caused by vaccines (bull). There is no one way to help cure autism. Most in the medical Field say there is no cure. I agree that there is no "cure" for it because it is so many different things being placed in the spectrum of Autism. If your child is "weird" now it's called Autism. Socially awkward, Slow learner, developmental delays? You are on the spectrum.

Whats my point? If you have a child in your life that has been diagnosed, whether severely disabled or on the mild side, follow what you feel in your heart is right for your child. DO NOT follow an "expert" with blind trust. Please do your own research and try everything you can! One thing may work for one child while not at all for another. You will get your hopes up only to be punched in the gut to learn something is not right for your child. Reach out and find someone to share with, a shoulder to cry on or to shake silly in frustration. You are not alone at all!!! Email me or Facebook me and we will talk. And above all do not read negative comments on any website because there is no good fruit from that!! Your child is still just as much a blessing as a "normal" child.

This is my Ethan, who happens to have Autism. He is a precious gift from God and such a blessing. As you can see he enjoys an active life. There are good days and bad days as with any child. His are just different from others. I don't treat him any different then is siblings. He is expected to behave in public and respect others. Ethan has daily chores that he does, better then his siblings I might add. We have a great community here so he gets to enjoy things like youth group at church and has friends at school. Ok Ok i cold go on and on........

Love,
Ashley B.