farm fresh cheesecake + strawberries

When you have a surplus of fresh goat’s milk… make cheese for…

… a ‘traditional’ cheesecake, and

…serve with just-picked strawberries from the garden!

How-To: ‘Modified’ traditional cheesecake recipe {made with my goat cheese}:

First, make a graham-cracker crust: 2-cups cracker crumbs, 1/4-cup sugar, 1/2-cup melted butter; press crumbs into bottom of 10-inch spring-pan. Refrigerate.

Filling: Cream 16-oz. chevre goat cheese and about 15-oz. ricotta (made from 1-gal goat’s milk). Gradually add 1-1/2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1/2-teaspoon salt. Add 6-egg yolks (one at a time) saving egg whites. (You can add lemon zest if desired.) Blend in 1/3-cup flour. Beat egg whites until stiff, not dry, and fold into cheese mixture. Pour into pan and bake at 350 degree F for about 1-hour and 15 minutes. Cool; chill thoroughly before serving.

While it’s baking in the oven, stitch-up a few sachets from fabric ‘scraps’, stencil with numbers (just because??) and fill with lovely  lavender!

A sweet gift for a friend!

Happy Day!

Fiber Project for the Day

Today I finished up several HAND-felted sheepy pillows ~ or ~ sachets? Are they sachets when you fill them full of sweet herbal goodness from the garden…regardless of their size??

I’ve been wet felting since I have owned my sheep. I never get tired ~ or bored ~ making sweet sheep!

Love those sheep!

I haven’t ’embellished’ them much…but, you could add buttons, tassels, flowers, bobble & what-nots. I did add a rusty bell & heart…

The fabric was made by wet felting my wool roving. Think of it as my canvas…which I then needle felted my sheep…again using my wool roving as my media or ‘paint’. I love texture; I also used mohair yarn.

 

I used recycled wool fabric for the back of the pillows.

I describe the wet felting process in other posts, but I also put together a little ‘how-to’ booklet on the subject.

 

I hope my sheepies find their way to new homes… and they smell good!

 

Winter’s back?

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?   Shelley

I was just beginning to enjoy seeing BROWN grass…but the new snowfall quickly dashed away any thoughts of an early  Spring…after all, this IS Michigan!

The fresh snow paints a pretty picture…once you dig yourself out!

My little Pygmy, Oreo, didn’t seem to mind, and was the only goat-y brave enough to venture out into the snow.

The sheepies are indifferent…

So, after shoveling snow, I baked.

Yum…cranberry bread!

RECIPE:

3 cups flour

1-1/3 cups sugar

2-1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup orange juice

1 Tblsp grated orange peel/zest

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped

1 cup walnuts (optional)

Sift dry ingredients; add wet ingredients and mix well. Add berries & nuts. Bake in (2) greased/floured loaf pans at 350 degrees F for approx 50 minutes. Turn out and sprinkle with XXX sugar or glaze (lemon juice and XXX sugar).

After baking, I made a little prim wooly sheep sachet (from an earlier felt project). I filled the sachet with lavender buds, clove, allspice and juniper berries.

…and continued to work on my soon-to-be bunny topiaries…a slow go, because daughter was home on mid-winter break and just plain living that most often simply deters me from work.

I still have to work on the bunny details: eyes, nose, tail. I made two different styles of bunny. The smaller one that actually reminds me of a pair of Dutch Dwarfs that we had…BK (before kids, my kids that is!)! Hubby recalled their names as if it was yesterday ~ Scratch and Radar! Mind you, that’s about 20-years ago!

♥blessings!