Negative numbers

Lately, it's been chilly around here. Zero is the day warming up. It was negative nine when we got up and it was negative twenty the other morning.

To combat these temperatures, we use a pretty tried and true approach, a wood stove in living area to give a point source for heat. A large high temperature object in the room warms the air and more importantly gives off radiant heat. With that radiant heat, the air temperature in the room can be a lot lower and still comfortable.


But the woodstove isn't just about comfort heat. That's bread rising on the upper shelf, a molasses wheat. I really enjoy fresh bread and everything that goes with it. We can get the oven on the woostove up to about 450 F. It's a little tricky keeping a steady temperature and given the hot fire box on one side means it is important rotate the bread in the oven.

With a little monitoring, though, they come out even. This batch did.

Nothing like fresh

That's fresh mozzarella cheese my wife made from our goats milk. The tomatoes are from our garden as is the basil. And it's bread she made that day. A nice meal to come home to.

My wife said the mozzarella was not hard to make, but it was time consuming. And milk consuming, two gallons of milk for about two pounds of cheese. We also got another cup of ricotta (my wife says it is marscapone because it is goats milk) that we used for lasagna today, another hit.

My wife said it was a lengthy process to make the cheese. Get it to the right temp, stir in the other ingredients. Get it to clot just right, cut the curds to the right size, drain it, stretch it, ball it, etc. But it was a wonderful cheese when I got home.