I Made That! Ricotta Cheese

Homemade ricotta on toasted bread with basil and balsamic drizzle

I know you won't believe this, but it is super easy to make ricotta cheese at home. Can you boil a pot of milk? You can make ricotta cheese. I made ricotta cheese today in the time it took to make Kraft Dinner.

No seriously, I was making Kraft Dinner for lunch and decided to make ricotta with some extra milk I had (I know, who ever has "extra" milk? Well 2-litres and 3-litres of 2% milk was the exact same price so obviously I bought the 3L). The KD and the ricotta were done at the same time. I know there is a paradox at play here, but such is my life of a mother and lover of good food.

I did make this with 2% milk, but usually I make it with whole milk. You get a richer cheese that is, frankly, better. But lean ricotta is better than no ricotta, right?

I have a few recipes for ricotta bookmarked that I've referenced when making it before, but at the most basic level all you do is this:

1. Bring a litre (quart if you are outside of Canada) to a boil with 1/2 tsp kosher salt.

2. Turn off the heat and stir in the juice of 1 lemon or 3 tbsp of white vinegar

3. Milk will immediately separate into curds and whey. Line a colander with a few layers of cheesecloth, or alternatively use a clean piece of linen or cotton. If have a very fine mesh sieve you can use this rather than a lined colander (this is what I use). 

4. Pour contents of pot into colander or sieve, letting the curds drain briefly but don't let them drain completely dry- you want a creamy ricotta. Taste the cheese and add more salt if desired. If you find you have drained off too much whey some milk can be stirred in to moisten the ricotta.

Save the whey if you are super thrifty like me- it is high in protein and can be used in smoothies or whatnot.

Here are some actual recipes from my bookmarks on making ricotta for your perusal. Apparently I'm a little obsessed with homemade ricotta judging by how many recipes I have collected.

DIY Ricotta from The Kitchn
Fresh Ricotta Cheese from Bon Appetit
Jennie's Homemade Ricotta from Too Many Cooks This recipe uses milk and cream, and buttermilk for the acid rather than lemon or vinegar
Rich Homemade Ricotta from Smitten Kitchen
Homemade Mascarpone from Vegetarian Ventures Have you seen what a tub of mascarpone costs?!? Making it at home is the same as making ricotta only using all cream rather than milk

And finally, here are some recipes from my bookmarks in which to use your fantastic ricotta. Aside from eating it with a spoon with the fridge open. That's never happened.

Ricotta Gnocchi from Four Seasons Kitchen If you plan in advance to make ricotta and use it for gnocchi let your ricotta drain more and you can skip right to mixing it with the other ingredients.
Vegetable Fusilli Bake with Ricotta Topping from LCBO Food and Drink
Roasted Squash and Ricotta Ravioli from Dinner with Julie
Roasted Fall Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza from Martha Stewart
Ricotta Blintzes with Lingonberry Syrup from Food and Wine
Whole Wheat Ricotta Blackberry Scones from 101 Cookbooks

My Grandma's Pancakes

Swedish pancakes, crepes, Grandpa's pancakes. It doesn't matter what you call them so long as you call them breakfast sometime very soon. It's a long weekend coming up. Perfect for spending a little extra time making something special for breakfast.

As kids we would go up to my Grandparents house on the lake almost every weekend. Us kids- my brother, cousins, and I- would get up early on Saturday and go with Grandpa on his morning walk to the "treat store" (when the grand kids weren't there I'm pretty sure he just called it the store where he got the newspaper). If you weren't up by the time Grandpa left for his walk you were left behind. We would get home and have some "crepes" that Grandma had started making at the butt-crack of dawn in order to feed the hordes.

I use quotations on "crepes" because these are not your dainty French crepes that are not to brown when cooking. These are big, spotty Swedish pancakes. Only Grandma is Estonian. They're not pancakes- those are fluffy and you put maple syrup on them- so we just called them crepes. We would get home from the treat store with our candy that we were not to eat until after breakfast and sit down to stuff our faces with crepes.

In hindsight, I'm not sure why we had to wait to eat our candy. Now that I think about it, the crepes probably weren't much better on the healthy scale. We always ate them with strawberries and whipped cream or applesauce with cinnamon sugar. When I was a bit older I also started to eat them with lemon juice (from a bottle but now I'm a snob and use fresh) and sugar. The crunch of the sugar with the tartness of the lemon is my favourite. Jam is good too. Or you could eat them like Grandma- standing at the counter after everyone had finished eating, holding a crepe smeared with lingonberry jam in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I wish I could say that this is Grandma's recipe, but she doesn't have a recipe. She's been making crepes so long that she just mixes stuff together, tastes the result, and tweaks it if needed. Perhaps one day I'll get there, but even recipes I know off by heart I still look up just to be sure. So I cobbled together a recipe from a bunch of different recipes for Swedish pancakes online. These are very close to Grandma's. If you're really good you can work two pans at once in order to crank them out faster like Grandma used to.

PS I wish I had taken made the crepe in the lead photo look nicer, like the one below. Or used a smaller plate at least. But I am digging the breakfast table setting so I went with that one. I guess I don't do my best food styling at 7:30 am. My apologies. 

One Year Ago: Mystery Box Dinner and The Reveal

Two Years Ago: Bulgar Salad + Three Corn Cornbread

Three Years Ago: n/a

GRANDMA'S CREPES

Serves 8 (2 crepes per person, although members of my family have been known to eat 5 in one sitting)

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter, divided (to grease the pan)

Toppings:

• Applesauce and cinnamon
• Jam
• Berries- thawed from frozen are good, then you get some nice berry juice
• Lemon and sugar

Heat an 8 to 10 inch skillet over medium high heat. Whisk together milk and eggs in a large bowl. Add flour, sugar, salt and whisk until mostly smooth.

Once pan is heated add a small pat of butter and spread around the pan to coat. Add a soup ladle of batter while turning pan so that batter coats it evenly. You'll get a feel for how much batter to add for the next one on this first crepe- you don't want your crepe too thin or too thick. Even if they're not perfect, they'll be rolled up so don't sweat it. Flip once the crepe is golden on the bottom, about 45 seconds to a minute. Cook until browned on second side.

Transfer to a plate, stacking subsequent crepes on top. If crepes cool before eaten, warm one at a time (i.e. the one you're about to eat) in the microwave for 15 seconds. Spread desired filling all over the crepe or just down the middle- everyone has their preference- and roll up.

DIY Skinny Irish Cream + Grown-Up Shamrock Shake

It's St. Paddy's day. If it were 10 years ago I'd be going out, standing in line freezing for an hour to gain entrance to a pseudo-Irish pub and then proceeding to drink my face off. But. I'll be 30 in a few months (eek!) and I have a toddler and a job on Monday. So Irish Stew and Irish Cream drinks at home it is.

I am not sharing a recipe for Irish Stew today, but here is the one I'm making tonight. It may show up in another post if it turns out well. I'm going to make it with lamb, so we'll see how that goes. Last time I cooked lamb at home I was pregnant and couldn't stand the smell so the whole thing went in the garbage. Better luck this time I hope!

I believe it was on Pinterest that I first noticed a recipe for DIY Bailey's Irish Cream. Of course. I didn't pin it though and then forgot about it until today since all the recipes I Googled call for cream. Any recipe that calls for a cup of cream is generally a deterrent for me, especially this one as Tyler doesn't like Bailey's so I'll have it all to myself. It occurred to me that it would just as good with milk. I used 2%, but any other milk or even almond milk would be great too.

As I was making the Irish Cream Tyler decided he wanted a Shamrock Shake and a burger from McDonald's. He left to get one and I had the brilliant idea to make a grown up Shamrock Shake. Oh my gosh, this is the best milkshake ever. Dangerously good. Unfortunately it's not green- I did add 3 drops of green food colouring but the brown of the Irish Cream overrode it and I didn't want to add any more. The minty goodness is there though. I think Shamrock Shakes are no longer just for St. Patrick's Day in my house any more. Yum.

One Year Ago: Ham, Cheese, and Spinach Strata

+ Pecan Pie Cupcakes

+ Baby Food Part 3: Toddler Food

Two Years Ago: Creamless Creamy Vegetable Soup

+ Baked Rigatoni

Three Years Ago: Almond Cake

DIY SKINNY IRISH CREAM

Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Makes 16 oz., recipe is easily doubled

I didn't have any chocolate syrup so I used 1 tbsp cocoa powder mixed with a little hot water, which is why my Irish Cream is darker brown than the original recipe. Also, I didn't have any Irish Whiskey but we did have some 40 Creek Whiskey and it tastes great, it's just not as authentic obviously.

• 3/4 cup Whiskey
• 1 cup milk - 2%, 1%, skim, or almond
• 1/2 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tbsp chocolate syrup or 3/4 tbsp cocoa powder mixed with a splash of hot water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1/4 tsp almond extract

Blend all ingredients in a blender, or in a mixing bowl with an immersion blender, until smooth. Transfer to a jar and refrigerate up to 2 months.

GROWN UP SHAMROCK SHAKE

Serves 1

• 1.5 oz Irish Cream
• 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream- regular or reduced fat
• 3 ice cubes
• 1/4 tsp peppermint extract

Blend everything until smooth.

Bookmarked

Photo via Canadian Living

 I haven't done a bookmarked post for a while. Here's a few things I've come across in the last couple of weeks. Again, if you try out any of these recipes let me know in the comments how it turned out!

Spicy Sausage Cornbread Cobbler via Canadian Living I came across this while looking the for sesame snaps recipe. I may make this for dinner. Perfect for a chilly rainy day like today. Can you tell I'm on a diet? See food. Want food. 

Sesame Snaps via Canadian Living I saw sesame snaps at the store today and now I really want some. I didn't buy any, of course. I'm actually in the process of making these as I write this. Craving? What craving?

Lime, Lemongrass, Ginger, and Coconut Cheesecake via Nutmegs, seven Wow this looks so good. Would have been perfect with my Thai feast had I come across this recipe a couple of months ago.

Grapefruit, Lime, Ginger Juice via Lottie and Doof I seem to really be digging this flavour profile lately. In anticipation of spring methinks.

Spiced Pear Cake with Browned Butter Fudge Dribble via Dinner with Julie You had me at browned butter. This is another "quick make it before spring!" recipe.

Homemade Mascarpone via Vegetarian Ventures I saw a tub of mascarpone on sale at the grocery store this weekend. For $10. Yikes. I've made ricotta at home a few times and it's easy (no, it really is!) and this is the same process only using cream instead of milk.

Skillet Mac and Cheese with Spinach and Bacon via Dinner with Julie This is on the menu for this week. Looks yummy.

Bacon and Brie Potato Skins via Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice The brie with sweet potatoes is an interesting twist on potato skins.

Super Simple Scrumptious Supper

This is, hands down, once of the simplest and most delicious meals I have ever made. They always say that keeping food simple is best, and this is a fantastic example of that. The pork is 3 ingredients plus good old salt and pepper. The roasted vegetable side is thrown in the oven with the pork at the back end of the cooking time. Easy peasy.

My family was all abuzz about pork this weekend. Yesterday my step mom called asking if we wanted some pork from Costco. She had already bought a couple of pork loins and was going back for more. Because they were $11 bucks for just over 7 pounds!!! What!?! Of course I wanted some. So my step mom called my brother, my brother called me, and a few hours later I had 15 pounds of pork. Oh yeah.

Obviously a pork roast was in order for dinner tonight. A quick Google search turned up this recipe for Pork Loin Roast with Garlic and Rosemary. This one's a keeper folks. The pork came out perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and incredibly juicy. I'm sure this is a testament to both the recipe and the meat itself (Costco's meat is so good, right?).

Okay, pork is in the oven. What will we eat with it? I had a few vegetable contenders- sweet potatoes, parsnips, or carrots. I went to my new go-to vegetable book Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule. This book is my new favourite. Beautiful photography, simple recipes, and witty commentary. I also love the fact that the author has organized the recipes by colour i.e. Yellow- there is a page for corn, one for pineapple, one for yellow onions. Each fruit or veg has a funny overview on the vegetable, a few suggestions on how to use it (not recipes but simple uses like Nectarines: Relish = diced nectarines + cherries + red onion + ginger), and then a recipe highlighting the produce.

The parsnip recipe won me over. The recipe in the book is for Roasted Parsnips with Pears and Thyme. I didn't have any pears, but apples with pork are classic, so I swapped apples for the pears. Now, I actually am just warming up to the sweet with savory deal. I have never had a pork chop with applesauce. It just weirded me out. BUT the apples were the best part of this meal and went perfectly with the pork, other vegetables, and thyme. I will make this again and again.

By the way, how do you like the alliteration in my post title? I enjoy it myself.

One Year Ago: Sriracha Devilled Eggs, Tomato Soup Cake

Two Years Ago: Creamy Mushroom Fettucine with Spinach

Three Years Ago: Ricotta Gnocchi

ROAST PORK LOIN WITH THYME PARSNIPS, CARROTS, AND APPLES

Vegetable recipe adapted from Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule

Serves 4

I used dried rosemary on the pork and it was great, but I bet it would be even better with fresh rosemary. Ditto for the thyme with the vegetables.

• Roast Pork Loin with Garlic and Rosemary via Epicurious
• 4 parsnips, peeled
• 2 apples
• 2 cups baby carrots
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Get the pork loin in the oven following the recipe linked above. Keep in mind that you will putting another pan in the oven beside the pork or on the rack underneath, so plan accordingly.

Cut parsnips in half across the width. Cut the thinner ends in half again lengthwise. Cut the wider ends into quarters lengthwise. Cut the apples into wedges, discarding the core.

Place apples, parsnips, and carrots on a baking tray lined with foil. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss and arrange everything in a single layer, ensuring the apples are not sitting with the skin side down (you want the flesh to touch the tray so that it gets caramelized for optimal deliciousness).

After turning the pork halfway through cooking, put the tray of vegetables in the oven with the pork, either side by side on the middle rack if you can, or on the rack below. Roast for 15 minutes then flip the apples and veg with a spatula. When the pork is done let it rest as per the recipe, keep the apples and veg in the oven cooking until the pork has finished it's rest. Serve with ketchup if you are 2 years old, otherwise nothing else is needed.

Breakfast Smoothie

I forget which movie it is from, but there is a dialogue in said movie where the dad says to his daughter, "What are you drinking?"
"A smoothie," she replies.
"What's a smoothie, like a milk shake?"
"I guess so, only smoother," his daughter says.

Smoother, indeed. Smoothie is a strange word, isn't it? Think about it. Smoooooooth-ie. Anyway, I have one almost every morning. I pack as much good stuff as I can into my smoothies to set me up for the day. If lunch ends up being a pemeal bacon sandwich from the cafeteria downstairs (read: no vegetable to be found), oh well, I had my nutrition-packed smoothie for breakfast.

I don't have a recipe for my smoothies, but I do have a basic formula. A least one fruit, something green, something high in fiber, some protein, and some dairy. Sometimes on ingredient fills a couple quotas: black beans provide protein and fiber. Or berries give fiber and fruit.

Here is a list of stuff I've used for each category of my formula. Items with a * are the ones that usually make the morning cut, if you're interested.

Fruit and Veg:

• Apple (skin on, cut into chunks)*
• Banana*
• Mixed frozen berries*
• Pumpkin puree*
• Carrots
• Nectarine
• Fresh or canned peaches
• Fresh, frozen, or canned pineapple
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Cranberries

Protein:

• Protein powder (duh)
• Tofu
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils
• Nut butter
• Nuts
• Chia seeds
• Egg (I've never actually thrown in a raw egg, but I've thought about it. My Grannie used to make us "egg nog" with milk, raw egg, and vanilla for breakfast all the time before school and we were fine. But definitely follow guidelines for consuming raw eggs)
• Cooked quinoa*
• Whey leftover from making ricotta cheese (yep, I'm that "thrifty")

Fiber:

• Oats* (throw in raw, or cook in the microwave with some water for a smoother smoothie)
• Ground flax*
• Chia seeds
• Cooked quinoa
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils

Dairy or Dairy Alternative:

• Yogurt* - plain, vanilla, Greek, etc. Whatever was on sale that week, basically
• Milk
• Rice milk
• Almond milk

Something Green:

• Spinach*- fresh baby spinach or thawed frozen spinach
• Kale
• Arugula (in a pinch, but it's a very strong flavour)

Other Miscellaneous Add-Ins:

• Turmeric (doesn't really add any flavour but it's a super food that is good for inflammation among other things)
• Honey or maple syrup when using plain yogurt to sweeten it up a bit
• Fresh ginger
• Cinnamon*
• Pumpkin pie spice

There you go. Mix and match to a healthy breakfast and a hall pass to eat a greasy lunch. Also really good for tricking your kids and/or husband into eating spinach.

One Year Ago: Overnight Oatmeal,

Two Years Ago: Cranberry Coffee Cake

Three Years Ago: n/a

Superbowl Food

It's Superbowl Sunday. If I was a good blogger, I would have whipped up these recipes, photographed, and posted a week ago. But I just can't bring myself to make recipes in advance of the actual event. That would mean making all this food and then the three of having to eat it, only to make it all over again for the Big Day. Not happening.

And really, do you really need a special occasion to make Soft Pretzel Bites with Buffalo Cheese Sauce? That is a negative. Any random Sunday will do, thank you.

I have been trying to make great soft pretzels forever and the never turned out the way I wanted. I wish I had stolen the recipe from the movie theatre where I had my first job. I worked at Wetzel's Pretzels kiosk. We made the dough on premises (whereas at Pizza Hut the dough came in frozen) but it never occurred to me to make them at home. I've even looked for a copy-cat recipe online, but to no avail. What made these different is usually pretzels are boiled in a baking powder solution, but Wetzel's just baked them. I'd never tried the boiling method until today because it just sounded like too much work. But it was a success, and honestly not much more difficult that straight baking them. 

One tip though- don't boil the pretzel bites for more than 30 seconds. The first batch I made I boiled them too long, more like a minute and a half probably, and they are kinda ugly. Yummy, but ugly, as you can see below. The one on the right is the one that boiled too long, the one on the left was boiled for just 30 seconds.

You can thank Pinterest for the Cookie Brownies. I didn't even repin this, but they were stuck in my head. Brownie Cookies? Crookies? Brookies? Whatever you choose to call them, they are over the top and delicious. Definitely for sharing though. I wouldn't trust myself make these if I were home by myself one night. It's bad enough that whenever I make chocolate chip cookies I save a container of raw dough in the fridge for snaking on. Cookie dough dipped in brownie batter? Game over.

One Year Ago: Crunchy Sesame Cookies

Two Years Ago: Chocolate Beet Cupcakes

Three Years Ago: nada, Feb 2010 was a slow year at Four Seasons Kitchen

SOFT PRETZEL BITES WITH BUFFALO CHEESE SAUCE

• Ballpark Pretzel recipe from Chuck Hughes
• Buffalo Cheese Sauce recipe from Half Baked Harvest

Pretzel Bites:
Follow the recipe for Chuck's pretzels up to and including step 3. Rather than making large pretzels in step 4, rip a handful of dough and roll it out into a rope. Cut (a pizza roller works well) into 1/2-inch pieces and roll each into a ball. Continue with the rest of the recipe, however I omitted brushing the pretzel bites with egg wash.

When boiling the pretzel bites, work in small batches. I gather up and many as I can hold (gently!) in one hand and drop them quickly in one at a time, timing once the last one goes in.

Serve pretzels same day as they are made. If not serving immediately after baking, put them on a plate or in a container but don't cover or else they will get soft on the outside instead of staying crisp.

Cheese Sauce:
Make the buffalo cheese sauce following Half Baked Harvest's recipe. Keep warm in a small Crockpot if serving as a snack at a party. Or just eat it really fast, which shouldn't be too hard to do.

BROWNIE COOKIES

Method from Pin Cookie

You can use my favourite recipes that are linked below, or your go-to brownie and chocolate chip cookie recipes.

• Lentil Brownies
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix up a batch of cookie batter and brownie batter. Tyler helped me and made the brownie batter for me, but if you are making both yourself I would suggest making the brownie batter first as it doesn't contain any leavener.

Butter a muffin min, either a standard sized tin or a mini muffin tin (I prefer how the cookies made in the standard tin turned out). Drop a tablespoon of brownie batter in each muffin well and spread to cover the bottom. Take about a tablespoon of cookie dough and press it flat in your palm to about the size of the muffin tin and put that on top of the brownie batter. Bake 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.