Dave came home from work and joined Annabelle on the floor to play a game together. I went to the kitchen, loaded a cracker with my new "cheese" and brought it to him.
Dave :: Yum! That's good! HEY - is that your cheese?!
He liked it. And so did Annabelle, another surprise. She ate several celery sticks full. A success!
Essentially, I soaked three cups of raw cashews in water overnight. Then I put them in the Cuisinart along with 1/2 C water and the powder from three probiotic capsules. Then I wrapped it in cheesecloth and let it sit on the counter for three days.
This afternoon I took about a third of the mixture and added 2t lemon juice, 1t nutritional yeast, 1t salt, 3-4t fresh chives, some pepper and some herb that I couldn't identify but guess that it was thyme. It was super simple and I swear it really does taste like cheese.
Now for the freezer test... I will see what happens with a thawed batch next week!
Here is my rejuvelac. I drank a glass full and it was okay. With something sweet added (maybe juice?) it would taste pretty good. It will be my spring break experiment. I know it is easy to add to other foods to reap the fermentation benefits, but the only thing I can really dream up to use it in would be smoothies.
Some of you might remember my Summer of Salads two years ago, when I decided that I would serve a salad as the whole meal every single night for dinner. It was really really great for two months and after that it "was a good idea" that was beginning to go too far. Just in time our local lettuce growers stopped selling lettuce because the season was over. Then I quickly declared that we would begin the Winter of Soups!
As it turns out, I like salad a whole lot more than I like soup. And I gave it up after a month and went back to my Sunday baking day routine and the Winter of Soups quickly turned into the Winter of Apple Pies.
But I bring this up because I have seriously been considering starting the Spring of Smoothies. The weather is changing, I'm in sandals every day now at school, and a breakfast smoothie mixed up with some fruit, vitamins, rejuvelac, and yogurt sounds delicious.
This was the biggest surprise : strawberry ice cream. Made with 1/2 C of sugar, a cup of half and half, six strawberries and some water. It is so good that I claimed to have made it for Dave and it's nearly gone already -and he hasn't even sampled it yet. I never realized how easy an ice cream maker is to use. Yesterday I made dairy free coconut ice cream for Annabelle and then she had it for breakfast this morning. That was fun! (Though she did tell her entire kindergarten, so I heard all about it later.)These recent posts about cooking are actually the novelty they seem to be. I've been regularly coming home early from school because I am hacking and sniffling with this cold virus. And though I'd like to be in bed, afternoon naps leave too much room for Annabelle to get into all kinds of mischief... so we have been cooking together instead. I've appreciated the change of pace.
