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

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

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!