Funnel Cakes

SG had some delightful friends to spend the night  Saturday night.  They were polite, enthusiastic, and the perfect group to sample the latest sensation to hit our kitchen! 

Need I say more!! Funnel Cakes...who knew?!  Tom Hudgens knew and is now elevated to  genius status in my mind and the minds,hearts, and stomachs of hungry teenagers!

As a family, we have never been able to pass any funnel cake stand.  The state fair, the rodeo, any major league ballgame, a major part of the fun is the "scald your mouth" hot twisting, twirling mass of freshly fried dough.  Watching the  cream batter hit the grease, see it sink in a pile, then pop to the top and float around the vat a silky brown mass.  Then the glorious moment when the vendor flips it on the paper plate to both drain and carry.  While the powdered sugar  absorbs onto the cake, you are practically tossing the cashier your money. Then comes the moment when one of the children says "I want to carry my own."  For a split second you are torn, as this is a moment of independence for your child, you should let him or her carry it.  "Tell you what, you carry the cokes, and I'll carry the cake." Really, who cares if cokes are spilled , the worst is when the funnel cake hits the ground, lost forever! Well fear no more as homemade funnel cakes are here!

Tom Hudgens doesn't assume you have a deep fat fryer. I do own a "Cool Daddy" fryer  but please don't tell as so many people believe a deep fried food held in your hand will extend evil tentacles grabbing your throat and choking the life out of you on the spot!  Please people, this is an OCCASIONAL treat and treat it is! He recommends using a narrow deep saucepan with about 3 inches of  vegetable oil. Heat the oil to 375 degrees.

While the oil is heating, mix the flour, eggs, milk, butter, baking powder and vanilla in a bowl.  The batter was  slightly thick, but dripped from the spoon.

Using you kitchen funnel, plug the hole with your finger, and fill it  with batter using a ladle.

Holding it over the oil, move our finger, and voila!!

There it goes slithering into  the oil.

After cooking on one side, use a slotted spoon to flip it to the other.

Ok, so I might be showing off a little with two in the pan:)

Drain them on paper towels.

Into the delish powdered sugar and flip,  A small  wire sieve would work as well but this way the powdered sugar is on both sides.  Might as well go for broke...

Here are some of the remaining ones. Sorry I don't have pictures of the girls eating them.  Teenagers refuse to be photographed early on Sunday morning in pajamas with bedhead  eating deep fried foods.  I might have negotiated with them, but I had already played my trump card by making the funnel cakes!  The only thing missing were the paper plates.

Queso Blanco

After the milking, I had lovely whole milk.  It is hard to see in the picture, but there is a faint line as the fatty cream rises to the top and the milk sinks to the bottom.

Now I just had to figure out how to separate them.  I headed to the local DEAL$ (the girls hate the  dollar sign on the end, but agree it is better than DEALZ).  I am on the lookout for a glass jar with a metal spigot, but this will have to do for now. For $5, I did get 4 matching drinking cups:) Two other flaws in my plan, the pitcher was green and  hard to see the line, plus after pouring it into the new container, I needed it to  sit for 12 hours rather than 6 to fully separate again.

All the recipes I have been using have come from this amazing cookbook.  I found it in the library and was so impressed that I asked Santa for my own copy!  The instructions are clear, the recipes delicious, and it is a great resource. He even has a recipe for making soap using 61/2 pounds beef kidneys and a picnic cooler...I am desperate to locate kidneys and make my own soap!

The recipe calls for fresh milk, vingegar, and salt-that is it! The  8 cups of milk  are heated  to 180 degrees. 

                        Meanwhile line a strainer with wet cheesecloth and place over a bowl.

Here I added the 1/4 cup vinegar and you can see the clumps or curds forming and separating from the whey.

 I dumped all of it in the strainer, then I put the curds back in the pan to salt it and then back into the strainer       to finish draining.

               It is draining  and has a consistency at present of a lumpier ricotta.  The whey is very warm                     below in the bowl-more on it in a minute.

  Wrap the cheese and place the strainer over the bowl.  Place saran wrap over the whole thing and let it sit in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 days, turning it once. In a million years, I would never have thought of the use for the whey, but it is in the cookbook.

I poured the warm whey into a pitcher and added a cup of sugar stirring to dissolve it.

                                                          I added the zest of a lemon.

 Then I added the juice of 3 lemons.  As warm milky lemonade, it was different but ok.  After the whey lemonade chilled, it was really good.  It might be good for a glaze as well, either  with powdered sugar on baked goods or on meat...hmmm.

After the cheese sat for 2 days, I crumbled some of it in a pan with olive oil and heated it, browning it slightly and then put it over a salad of winter grown greens, almonds, radishes, and carrots!  It was so good that Rick and I started to eat and forgot to take pictures!

What I wear everyday...

This is what I wore this morning to brush off the 6 1/2 inches of snow and ice off the car.  The  temperature at 8:30 was 6 degrees and with the windchill it was -5degrees.  The hat, gloves and boots all contain thinsulate. My jeans are flannel lined and my coat might as well be a sleeping bag!
SG made the indoor snowflakes out of coffee filters...Aren't they awesome!?

The cat who got the cream

Through a series of lovely occurrences, on Tuesday I was able to fulfill a long held ambition to milk a cow! I am volunteering at a nonprofit self sustaining farm which grows over 35,000 pounds of produce for a CSA as well as provide educational opportunities from school trips to teaching plowing using draft horses. Here is the link to the farm's website.http://www.turnerfarm.org/

When the  the volunteer coordinator and I spoke about volunteering, she asked if I would be willing to  milk a cow as one of the chores.  Would I be willing...you betcha!!!

On Tuesday morning, it was unseasonably warm at 28 degrees,  alternately misty and rainy.  I put on 19 layers and went to the farm.    

Meet Sally, a beautiful Guernsey weighing around 1200 pounds and sweet when she sees you holding the grain and hay. She came when called and walked right into the milking stall.  A metal bracket called a stanchion went around her neck to remind her to stay in place, but as she was busy eating, she was perfectly content.  

Melinda had brought a thermos of warm water and towel and we proceeded to clean the udders. 

I couldn't milk and take pictures at the same time.

HERE I AM, milking Sally enjoying myself immensely.  She does look a little demonic, but I promise that is the flash.   Melinda was 3 times as fast as I was and got 3 times the volume of milk, but I got several cups.  After milking, we mucked the stall , swept and  hosed everything down.
I went on to work in the vegetable garden covering some Winter crops(3 to 6 inches of snow expected tomorrow), dug some carrots and several other small jobs.  When I got back to the main building, look what was waiting for me!!! I had not expected any milk, but I was thrilled with  the gift!
Here it is strained and ready to use.  You can see a faint line near the top where the cream has separated from the milk.  I want to use the milk for queso blanco and the I am torn between butter or ice cream for the cream.  I will post those over the next couple of days! 

I guess I am not the only cat who got the cream this week:) Mo was suddenly my friend when she smelled the jar.  I promise I got her off the table immediately!

(The colander was made by B in her pottery class.  I have been using it to drain the pasta I am making, but it is too cool to put away where no one can see it)

And I wonder why it has been difficult to craft!?

Thankfully the needles are more fun than the ball of yarn.  I have no idea how long that will last.

As we are in Mentone, I had great plans to finish up the quilting  on this quilt so I could move on to Sunbonnet Sue.  Ros and Lil have their own plans...guess who is having more fun?

Happy 2011!