Free & Cheesey

Friday Freebies

Since it's Friday, which means of course that there is good reason to celebrate, I thought I'd give you lovely followers a 'Friday Freebie'.  OK, two Friday Freebies. 

These two designs were made for 4"x2" labels, but you can do whatever you'd like with them.

I've already used the pink one, as you can see, on my Bates Mercantile Co. file. And the label even matches my toes. Sweet!

Just click right on the label designs below to save the image to your computer. 

How cute would this be to label things in a little girl's room?

And I think this gray one would look super in a pantry. 

But they're yours to do as you wish. Just a little thanks for being here.


A Day Without Cheese.........You're kidding, right?

Monday morning, after we'd been away for three days, I went to get milk for my tea only to find it was a little sour smelling.  Bummer. Wait, not a bummer. I remembered that I had read this recipe for making cheese from sour milk on LeVoyageCreatif.

Straight from Marie's typing hands to my mouth. Gar and I declare it good stuff. I thank her for sharing this recipe on her blog.

How to make the cheese:

Ingredients

Sour milk or kefir

Herbs

Salt

Pepper

Garlic

How to:

Pour the amount of kefir or milk in a pot and heat it up slowly.

You don’t need to stir.

(Marie is right, you really don't need to stir. It just does it's own thing.)

When it boils ever so slightly let it simmer till the cheese curds has separated from the milk water.

When the cheese curds are all gathered at the top of the milk water, pour the content over a sifter and let the curds lump up while draining the milk water.

(See how the curds all gathered and left the milk water at the bottom of the pot?

Cool, right?)

(Sorry this is blurry, I was interrupted by a lost doggie. I found his owner and walked him back home, but in the flurry of excitement, missed getting a decent picture)

When left with only cheese curds pour it over in a bowl and mix it with whatever spices or herbs you like.

(I used oregano, chives, thyme and lemon balm from the garden, and of course some sea salt and crushed pepper for good measure.)

Mix well and store with a lid in the fridge.

How's this for my first try? Looking and tasting mighty fine if I do say so myself. Thanks again to Marie for the recipe. Check out the little crock/bowl Marge also scored at the yard sale.....cute and perfect for my first batch of homemade cheese.

The cheese is fairly mild. Marie says after a few days it takes on a more mature flavor. Ready to have some for our usual Friday Night Appetizer Fest.

I hope you have a great weekend where you are. Got any plans? Tonight we're thinking campfire out back in the fire pit, and tomorrow we're gonna dance the night away at our friend Pearl's 50th birthday pah-TEE. Whoop Whoop!! I do LOVE to dance! 

This Could Be The Start of Something Good

The Perfect Summer Celebration in a Glass

Go ahead, guess.........

Yup. You guys are smart. Sangria.  Someone had left a biggo bottle of white zinfandel at the 4th of July, and somehow, it was still unopened. It was hot last weekend and I thought it was the perfect type of day for a batch of Sangria.

Found fruit in the fridge.......nectarine, lemon and lime. Cut it up and threw it in the pitcher.  Poured the wine in. Checked liquor cabinet for brandy. Yes, hennessy vsop. Perfect.  Also found some raspberry liquer left over from Watermelon George on the 4th of July.  Could this get any better?

Heven Mamacitas, heaven.  Now I wish I could tell you exact measurements, but I can't.  Fruit? However much you want to put in.White Zin, about 2/3ish of the pitcher (yes, a big bottle of zin is better than a small for this- or two).  Big ole glug of hennessy (not TOO much or it will be nappy-doodle time after the first glass.  Glug of raspberry liquer for more fruity flavor and a splash of OJ for even more fruity goodness. And a heaping handful of ice. Chill in fridge so fruit infuses into Sangria. Drink. You can also enjoy the sangria laden fruit at the end as an extra yee-haw cowgirl.

What are you waiting for? I said drink!  Just look at that glass, sitting there, waiting patiently to be picked up. Come on now.

WARNING: This sangria should be enjoyed by a group of sangria lovin' people. Luckily, Gar had run into our neighbor Jay in the afternoon and told him I'd made a pitcher of Sangria. Being the Sangria lovin' folks they are, he promplty informed his wife Lauren when he got home at the end of the day. Not being the shy types, they came over just as the pitcher came out of the fridge.

EXTRA WARNING: Has been known to cause skinny dipping. Is that a bad thing? Aaaah, the pool all to myself and my sangria within reach. Call me Martha, but it's a good thing.  Ssssshhhh, don't tell anyone, but I highly recommend it.

Something On The Side

When we stopped into Durham Marketplace on Sunday, they had a lovely cheese counter.

Found this local (well, Massachusetts- which is pretty local since we're only 15 minutes away from the border) Great Hill Bleu Cheese.  Nice veining, a little sharp, very fine indeed. Added extra..........you can order it online!

Once I picked this up, I couldn't leave without it. Fontina. But the kind of fontina you'd find in Italy. Of course, that would be because it was from Italy. Fontina Val D'osta, from the Piedmont regin. Just gorgeous. Pungent, earthy, a little on the stinky side- in fact both cheeses were a little on the stinky side. Most importantly, ever so delicious. Wonderful depth of flavor.

I'd highly suggest both. But then again, I haven't met a cheese I didn't like.

Happy Thursday. Enjoy it to the max, would ya please?

A Sofa, Louis & Rachael

Etsy, for those of you who don't know, is an online marketplace for handmade/designed goods, vintage, and supplies for making handmade goods. Etsy is, quite frankly, chock full of inspiration.  I've designed note cards inspired by Pamela Angus' stained glass. I drew a sofa that my friend Susie had in her shop. I coveted that sofa. When Susie saw the drawing of the sofa she said "How on earth did you do that?" I said with a wink, "I drew it."  I know, very smarmy. Let's get more specific, though I do have  drawing pad and pencils, you will most often find me working on my computer. Illustrator is my program of choice. I drew her sofa in Illustrator, in part with my mouse and in part with my Bamboo computer pencil. 

I really liked the simple line drawing style that it embodies.  Susie liked it too. Which got me to thinking, maybe others would like it. I spring boarded from there. Perhaps a Louis XI chair?

Then I found some more inspiration on Decor8 in their feature on neon bright colors. I transformed the classic line drawing of the Louis XV chair with bright colors and and patterns (one of my paper designs to be exact).  This might be the piece my sister Di has been waiting for to go in her guest room with her 'happy' color comforter.

I had fun with inspiration and creation yesterday. I needed some 'just create' time big-time-a-rooney. It made my day.

Rachael Ray

Now, I like Rachael Ray, though her show and cutesy words can get a little much for me at times. I bought her magazine a couple years ago from the girl next door who was raising money for girl scouts. I wouldn't consider Rachael a 'chef' so to speak, but she doesn't consider herself one either.  That said, I could do without the sections that feature the products RR loves or can't live without. Doesn't mean that much to me. But I continue to get this magazine each year from the neighborhood girl scout because I like her recipes. She had a couple of grilled pizza recipes in this month and having not tried grilling pizza before, I thought it was about time.  I didn't stick to her recipe, just the general idea.

Got pizza dough from the store (shout out to my bil Niall who is shaking his head as he reads this.......he makes his own dough). Easy. Made two rounds. Grilled up some of the Lebanese squash we got at Farmers Market this weekend.  Grilled the pizza dough on a cookie sheet with some greased foil. Flipped it and grilled longer. Brought it all in to top it off. One we topped with sauce, the grilled squash, prosciutto and mozz. The second we topped with the rest of the grilled squash, baby bella shrooms, yes- more prosciutto (what can I say, we love the stuff and it still left me some for the cantaloupe this week), and mozz.  Brought back out to the grill, but cheese wasn't melting good so popped under the broiler. Mighty fine meal.

Now, it looks like there is more cheese on the pizza then there really was. What really shined was the squash and prosciutto. We will definitely do that again.

Another hot day here. Our friend Charlie just stopped by with his granddaughter Makennna. She needed some pool time. Pictures tomorrow.

Proof of the heat. One sprawled out, zonked dog. (yes, that's a fur ball behind him).

Forecast for tomorrow..........hotter. Good thing my parents have an air conditioner they're not using. Well, my father would be, but Mom isn't big on them. I'm not either to be honest, but the hot-dog above will be very happy and will breathe a bit easier the next few days.

Wow, Wednesday already! Hope it's great in your corner of the world.