Renovations and Cashew cheese recipe…
Hello from renovation city !
The ‘little house’ is almost ready to camp in – just need to finish the bathroom floor, add shower, toilet, basin, tiles, door and we have a bathroom, my main requirement after a kitchen. Also need to finish laying the wooden floor in kitchen, stain and wax/varnish, add cupboards and woodburner…, oh, and put a sink in and we are fine there too. Put bed in and we are sorted, we can then continue from there 🙂
from this
to this
Right now we are back to putting the finishing touches on the main house for our holiday makers and retreaters this year and there are only, well, I stopped counting at 50 things to do so all on target (cue hysterical laughter).
and from this
to this
So lets forget it all for a minute and I will give you my Raw Cashew cheese recipe.
Blend until very smooth:
2 cups raw, unsalted, soaked cashews, 1 sachet probiotics, 1/4 cup plus 1 TBS water kefir
Put in a warm place or the dehydrator, wrapped in muslin or a nut milk bag (I use the latter) for about 36 hours, until it smells deliciously tangy.
Mix into it:
1 TBSP nutritional yeast, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp Umboshi vinigar (optional), 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp pink salt plus a pinch or two of tumeric for added colour if you want to. Mash it all up with a spatula or wooden spoon then push into two ring moulds set on a sheet of greaseproof paper.
Put them into the freezer for a couple of hours to set so that they are easy to push out of the molds then put the cheeses back into the dehydrater for 24 hours (skip this step if you do not have one) to form the rind.
Remove from dehydrater, leave to adjust to room temperature then wrap and put in the fridge for a few days to a few weeks to mature.
Et voila !
When you keep cheese it is important to check it from time to time to make sure no mould is growing on it. I wrap in greaseproof and then a piece of kitchen paper to absorb moisture and store in an airtight glass box, this works well for me.
Options:
Ignore the rind making bit and roll the cheese in herbs or crushed pepper corns or some dehydrated ‘caramelised’ onions or even chopped raisons.
Add some herbs at the flavouring stage instead of the smoked paprika.
Eat straight away ! The one in the photo was just out of the dehydrator after ‘rinding’ because I made two, one to eat then and there and one to mature which is still in the fridge.
Let me know how you get on?
Happy weekend, I am now off to sand a floor 🙂
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Who knew how many sides a chair has!
Robin, he who puts up with me, commented patiently this morning that I have the attention span of a gnat.
It is true I like change. Regularly, however big or small.
Hence having moved more times than I can remember and when a house is finished ( OK, when a house is nearly finished or even just been going on too long) another will catch my attention and…. poor Robin, he who gets all the really hard work.
So, having discovered Annie Sloane paints in Derbyshire, those that need NO preparation ( joy, my favourite thing, straight in!!) we brought some back to France and after 25 years of living with cheapish, orangey varnished wooden chairs around my very ancient and beautifully worn big pine table I decided to Annie Sloane them.
Duck egg blue was the colour of choice, the paints are really chalky and gorgeous, then you wax them to stop the paint coming off. I couldn’t wait to get started.
I have just finished the third. Not bad going you might think. But, a small confession, the first was done about 8 weeks ago, maybe more. The other two started yesterday so I earned some (well deserved) brownie points for having seen two through to the end in 24 hours but oh, how tedious!!
You do not know how many sides a chair has until you try to paint them. And then wax them!
Imagine if I had also had to clean/ sand/ prep them too, and wait for them to dry – this paint dries in no time, ideal for gnats.
Possibly a majorly good development idea – Annie, please can you put the paint in a spray? Maybe thats one step too lazy.
I told a friend, via chat, yesterday that I was going to do some yoga and try to do more than 15 minutes. He said, very wisely, “its not how long, its the quality of the movement”.
I read his comment afterwards. How true it is, how right he was.
I did my yoga teacher training 5 years ago. It was tough, magical, empowering, strengthening, inspiring, everything I could have dreamed. How could I forget, even for a moment that every movement, part of a movement and breath counts.
As I did my practice, which actually did last way longer than 15 minutes because I was in the moment and each movement did count, it was just getting onto the mat that was the problem, it felt gooood.
I asked had he trained in martial arts. He had. I guessed because mostly people who think that way, or would say that, have trained in some ancient art.
Everyone should have that knowledge, that the quality of the movement counts – all movement. Being present, right here right now and making the most of it all.
Sooooo, never mind how many sides a chair has, I am going to enjoy painting each and every one of them…..
Says me; “Actually Robin, don’t you think the chairs would look really good alternating, duck egg blue then cheap orangey varnish, then duck egg blue, now we have three and three?”
Says he; “Attention span of a gnat”.
