Homemade Cream Cheese

I’ve been playing around with making my own cream cheese and ricotta cheese.

1 container of full or part fat Yogurt
2 layers of Cheesecloth
Colander and bowl large enough to hold it
Plastic wrap

Lay two sheets of the cheesecloth inside the colander and dump the yogurt into it. Fold the cheesecloth over the yogurt, place place the plastic wrap over top of it, and place the bowl and colander into the fridge overnight. The amount of time to fully strain the liquid will depend on what type of yogurt you choose. I used 2% fat yogurt, and strained it 8-9 hours. Below is the result of that strain. I stirred in my jam at this point, relined the colander and put it back into the fridge for another 5 hours. Gathering the ends and twisting them to squeeze out some of the liquid helps, too.

I turned the first batch of cream cheese into a strawberry blend by stirring in some Smuckers jam.

Straining the cream cheese and strawberry jam

Straining the cream cheese and strawberry jam

It was a bit runny even after 9 hours of straining in the fride, so I strained it another five hours so it would end up a bit thicker.

Homemade strawberry cream cheese

Homemade strawberry cream cheese

Lovely on toast. I think I might be love. I will be making my own cream cheese from now on. {swooning}

Made ricotta cheese tonight, too. Dead simple like the cream cheese, but not worth the price. I can buy more or less the same in the store pre-done for the same price. That makes me sad. Oh, well.

Made a lovely pumpkin pie torte for the boy for tomorrow’s snacking. Maybe breakfast. Dunno yet. 😀

Stewed a bunch of tomatoes into a lovely Italian seasoned pasta sauce that I will add ground beef to and make it the base layer of my ricotta filled jumbo shells for dinner tomorrow night. Should be lovely.

Made a few other things, but I’m tired and blanking. Not too shabby, though. I feel like this has been the most productive day I’ve had in a very long time. I love piddling around in the kitchen on a free day off. It’s the best!

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna - Prebake

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna - Prebake

(From the archives)

You can never have too much of a good thing. And in this case, I’m talking about meat. This is another dish I made up one day years ago just for my husband while I was bored. The ingredients are roughly as follows…

Sauce:
-Pasta sauce (700 mL)
-Mild salsa sauce (about 3 C – 1/2 for bottom of dish and 1/2 for pasta sauce mixture)
-Canned mushrooms (284 mL)
-Chicken meatballs (about 25 frozen meatballs for slices from each)
-1 tbsp butter
-1 tbsp sugar

Fillings:
-Ricotta cheese (half of 475 g container)
-Sour cream (5 tbsp or more to soften ricotta)
-2 tbsp chopped garlic
-Salt and pepper to taste
-Italian seasonings to taste
-Oven-ready noodles
-Mozzarella cheese (about 3 C)

1. In sauce pan, mix pasta sauce, half the salsa, drained mushrooms, sliced up chicken meatballs, butter and sugar till it starts to bubble.

2. In a small to medium bowl, cream ricotta cheese, garlic, sour cream, salt & pepper and Italian seasonings until mixture drops off spoon.

3. Pour second half of salsa into glass dish and layer with oven-ready or cooked lasagna noodles.

4. Spoon some meatball pasta sauce over noodles and top with creamed ricotta mixture.

5. Spoon thin layer of meatball pasta sauce and top with a bit of mozzarella (to bind the next layer of noodles to the bottom layers) and add more noodles.

6. Top with the last of the meatball pasta sauce and top with all of the mozzarella cheese leftover.

Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees. Let it cool down and set before serving.

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna - Assembly

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna - Assembly

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna

Mushroom-Chicken-Meatball Lasagna

Personal Veggy Lasagnas

Personal Vegetable Lasagnas

Personal Vegetable Lasagnas

(From the archives)

Years ago, Adam from BlogHungry posted his recipe for Personal Vegetable Lasagnas and I fell in love with the idea and his recipe. This is my interpretation of it. My husband liked the idea but he hated the execution because (shocker) it was meatless. (Right?) Anyway… I loved it. Make it. Tell me, and Adam, what you think of his creation.

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan

(From the archives)

You can find the recipe over at Papamo. Very easy to assemble and lovely to taste. There is nothing that screams comfort food to me quite like tomatoes, basil, eggplant and bubbling cheese. Satisfying tastes and meal to feast upon. Try it.

Eggplant Parmesan Assembled

Eggplant Parmesan Assembled