Jordy Blog

Homemade Cheeseballs

My brother Aaron posted on Facebook about us making homemade cheeseballs for our Christmas vacation. I thought it was well written and had good pictures, so I’m ripping it of here, slightly edited. This is basically a recipe for soft, fresh farmer’s cheese with flavors mixed in (thus making them cheeseballs).

You didn’t know it was possible, did you?! Well, its true: you can make homemade cheeseballs for any occasion!

My brother, Jordan, is a bonified cheeseball making fool (expert). During our stay at the family cabin this past weekend, he taught me the simple, yet time-consuming process of making the wonderful balls of cheesy delight!

[Jordy adds: It's really only time consuming if you make a whole bunch of flavors. One flavor is easy, and making them with a food processor would have been even easier.]

Step One: Heat whole milk to 175 degrees. Slowly stir in any acidic liquid to make the curd separate from the whey (we used 1/2 cup [white] vinegar [for each gallon of milk]. [Mix very lightly. Be careful not to over stir so you don't break up the curds. Once the vinegar is stirred in, remove the mixture from the heat.])

Step Two: Let mixture sit for about 15-20 mins, then remove the curd [with a slotted spoon] and place it in a cheesecloth [over a colander]. Allow the moisture to drain out of the cheese, [but leave some in or add it back in if you want a softer cheese]. Cool cheese in the refrigerator for 30 mins or longer.

Step Three: Make up whatever combination of spices/ingredients to mix in! We made five different flavors: sun-dried tomato and basil, jalapeño, hot mustard, shrimp cocktail, and dried red pepper. Simply grab a chunk of the cheese and roll it into a ball with the spices and mix-ins. Sample throughout, assuring that a sufficient amount of flavor has been added. You will need to add quite a bit of salt to bring out the cheese flavor. Enjoy!

This type of cheese can also be eaten by itself before the flavors are added. Just mix in a little salt to the strained cheese, mold in a small pudding dishes, and try it drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and freshly ground pepper.

I’ve also used it crumbled over lasagna, and tonight I melted it with a little milk to make a cheese sauce for fresh pasta. It can also be used for cheesecakes, stuffing for ravioli or stuffed shells –you name it. I’ve even tried it with reduced pineapple to make a delicious fruity cheese spread.

You can also make it with lower-fat milk as well but expect a different flavor and texture. Fat is a fairly good bonding agent, so if you cut it out you may way want to consider leaving in a little bit more of the whey or beating it a food processor to make it a little more sticky, depending on the texture you’re looking for.

This cheese lasts about 1 week if refrigerated properly.

(Expect more cheesemaking recipes as well as post about other homemade goods. Home cooking is a hobby of mine that will be nurtured further by a brand-new book I got myself for Christmas.) :)

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Food Storage Christmas

This Christmas our family gift is a years’ supply of food storage –and I’m thrilled to have it.

I decided I’ll also be giving the gift of food storage to my family and friends. No I’m not buying it (although I think a box or a bucket of wheat makes a tremendous gift idea), but I do offer my time as a resource in food planning and food packing. (For anyone who has canned their own food, you know this has potential to be a major time commitment.) The offer is good until next Christmas, but please give me a call right away so we can get you started today.

For those of you who are not my family and friends, I’d still like to help you with your food storage planning; basically determining what food items you’ll need and where you can buy them. I’ll point to a few resources in case you want to do it yourself, but please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or just need help getting started. I was relieved to have a great friend who talked me through it, and I’d like to pass the favor along.

For anyone who wants to get started on there own emergency food storage, you should check out he following resources:

StockUpFood.com is a free food storage calculator that helps you determine your emergency food planning needs based on family size and how much food storage you would like, whether you want enough for just 1-month or 2 years. StockUpFood.com also helps you track what food storage items you buy (and use) so you can keep a running total of what you need to purchase –plus it gives you a “percentage completed” to help you track progress toward your goal. Very cool –especially for people that want to ease their way into emergency food storage.

The LDS church also has some great resources their provident living website. By far the most useful resource there (for me) was an order form for the dry-packed food products, which are purchasable in bulk sized bags or by the can. It’s easy to fill out out (using the food storage calculator I linked to above), and you can just bring it along to at any Family Home Food Storage location. There you can buy the vast majority of your food storage in large bags, and you can get them at a pretty great price. And if you want your emergency food canned (for longer storage and easy rotation) you can dry-pack can it right on location and just take home the items you need. This is a lot of work, but if you’re doing canned food (instead of bags or buckets) it’s by far the most convenient way to go. You can also buy it pre-canned, (which is even more convenient) but you’ll end up paying more.

The Lindon LDS Family Home Food Storage is only open on Tuesdays and Thursday, but you’ll want to call to check availability in your location. They also lend dry-pack canning equipment out, in case you’ve already purchased food in bags but want it canned.

I should mention that many grocery stores (at least in Utah) have foods like dry wheat and beans by the bucket and the bag. Selection is fairly sparse, and buying a full years’ worth of food would take up several grocery carts; but it can be done. I bought a lot of bulk food stuff at Macey’s, a local grocery chain which has pretty good prices. I wish I’d held off on some of the bagged food I got there since I still want to dry-pack can most of it anyway, but the buckets are a great way to get a little at a time if you need to stretch out your food storage purchases over several paychecks. You can also get large water basins, wheat grinders, empty buckets, and other equipment there as well.

Lastly, if you live in Utah and are (or would like to become) an emergency preparedness junkie, check out UtahPreppers. It’s new, but judging by the people who run it, I think it will probably be a pretty great resource.