It was a beautiful morning with the sun coming up over the mountains and shining through the woods…the woods that is getting greener by the minute.

That itty bitty white patch is the last of the large snow pile and I am fairly sure it will be gone by this afternoon.

For the last week and a half I’ve been on a big push to finish a work project that was due last Friday. I finished about 2 p.m. yesterday – Monday. Yes, late. But, all is well. It has been intense, though and so this morning, before starting on another task, I decided to have some fun and make fresh, homemade mozzarella.

I’ve made ricotta (EASY!) and watched some videos about making mozzarella but it wasn’t until seeing the step-by-step photos and seeing the “only takes 20 minutes” in this post: Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn, that I decided to give it a try.

A beautiful morning…with the sun pouring into my kitchen…perfect for a try at something new and fun!

The ingredient list is short: milk, water, citric acid, rennet and salt. I bought the citric acid and rennet from Amazon. The article also contains links to online cheesemaking supply stores.

The method is short and simple … and it did only take 20 minutes!

The post has complete details but the short version is:
Cook the milk with the citric acid and then the rennet.
The curds (white chunks) separate from the whey (yellow liquid).
Cook the curds, drain the whey and then knead and stretch into mozzarella.

Curds and whey! Bear LOVES, LOVES, LOVES whey and it is good for him. I give him some, put some in my smoothies and it is also good for plants so the lilac bushes get some. Everyone is happy!

The curds are at temperature…

Drain the whey from the curds and then they are ready to be stretched and kneaded…

And suddenly you have mozzarella!

Homemade mozzarella.

I did a melt test and it does just as well, if not a bit better than the store bought fresh mozzarella.

So much fun, so easy and so quick – Happy Tuesday!