Mozzarella cheese, baby...

"I think I'm going to try and make me some cheese next....", I said at the dinner table that night.

You could have heard a pin drop, but only for a second and then came the....

"Mom, seriously, why would you want to do that?"
"Doesn't the grocery sell cheese?"
"You don't possibly have time for that too?"

Hmmm, sounds like a challenge to me....and so it began.

Mozzarella, baby!

Sure, the only cheese I've ever made before is cottage cheese.  (on a side note...cottage cheese is terribly easy to make...google it, try it....you will love it.  But that's beside the point).

Okay, onto my cheese quest.  Where was I??  Oh yes, I was about to conquer the cheese world.  Surely, I could make this stuff.  It's made out of milk, right?  And that my friend, I happen to have A LOT of.  (We drink over a gallon a day)

Well with any great accomplishment, one must start with a plan.  It was 2:15 at my house, dinner was at 6:30 and I had just made pizza dough and pizza sauce.  I needed that cheese and super fast.  So what do other adventurers do in their time of great need....they go to google.

Come to find out, mozzarella cheese is extremely easy to make so as long as you have just a few key ingredients.  One:  a digital thermometer.  Two:  vegetable rennet.  Three:  citric acid powder.  And four:  kosher salt.  Oh, and of course, the obvious.....milk.

In my state obtaining raw milk is illegal.  However, everything I researched was that making mozzarella from raw milk produces the best results.  Hmmm, dilemmas, dilemmas...I needed to find milk that was the least processed I could find.  So this was it....

This is some super good milk

By now, it's really late and pizza awaits no one....so here goes, mozzarella in a nutshell.  

Buy milk...check!

Pour milk into pot...check!

Make sure you watch the temp closely....check!

Pour some of this and a little of that and stir....

...and viola!

Okay, I know, I know.  But where's the recipe, how do you do it?  Well, I just don't feel qualified - yet - to post my own recipe.  Ya know, being that this was the first time and all.  But I will provide the link to the recipe I used.  Mozzarella cheese recipe   

Seriously people, it took really no time at all and the taste was fabulous.  Even my husband could tell a difference in the quality of taste of the cheese.  So go on out there, get yourself some good ol' milk and make up a batch of fresh mozzarella...you will love it!

Me, personally...I definitely see a cow in our future.