In my kitchen

Ahh to feel the pull of the kitchen.  It may be one of the greatest feelings for me.  I love when the need to make and bake pulls me towards my apron and mixing bowl.  That may sound old-fashioned to some but until you have experience it, well you just don't get it.

This pull always comes in spring and autumn for me.  I'm sure it's the change of the weather that signals it.  All I can say is Bring It On!

Last week started with the same ole' cooking rut I have been in.  Who knew that taking out dairy would be so dang hard?  All of my favorite foods have cheese, milk, sour cream, yogurt, or kefir in them.  Take those sweet flavorful bits away and I am lost.

{Homemade pizza with Diaya cheese alternative.  It's a decent cheese substitute but one would never call Velveeta cheese if they had lived on real cheddar.  Diaya is like velveeta, good in a pinch but never a true replacement.}

However Thursday my life turned around.  The topic of sustainability and homesteading was buzzing around our home school group.  After a while it seemed that the key words for the day were "goats" and "greenhouse".  Goats?  Goats?  Wait second!  I admit I had a lightbulb moment.  As a baby I had a milk allergy and had to drink goat milk only.  I thought maybe, just maybe, I would be so lucky to have found a way around my dairy allergy.

A quick check on Real Milk led me to a local mom ran farm 15 minutes away.  SCORE!  We grabbed a quart of fresh milk and 1/2 pound of fresh garlic chevre.  Cami, the owner, even threw in 18 lovely multi colored fresh eggs.  It took all the willpower I had not to dive into the cheese before we got home (okay that's an exaggeration).

{Ahh glorious, wonderful, amazing Chevre.  Be still my heart.}

All I can say is, there is a God!  One that knows how much I love cheese.  I have no signs of intolerance whatsoever.  I have to say this makes me one happy girl.  It also kicked into gear my kitchen love.  Last night I soaked a bunch of raw almonds then threw them in the dehydrator, whipped up a batch of whole wheat sourdough, soaked some flour, and meal planned the next two weeks.  Ahhh I love the kitchen.

{By soaking almonds, you are able to digest them easier making absorbtion of nutrients easier.}

{Sourdough starter all happy and bubbly. I will let this ferment for another couple of days before turning it into an artisan bread bucket. More to come on that.}

{You can not find eggs like this in the grocery store! Nothing beats fresh eggs, especially eggs from chickens that have a chance to roam and eat lots of little bugs. The omega content in a free range eggs is higher than in a factory farmed egg. Who knew animals did better when they were allowed to roam?}

Maybe I should have called this post "Ahhh dairy" because those two words came up more than any others on spell check. ;)

So share with me fellow kitchen-lovers, what's happening in your kitchen?

Linking to:  Barn Hop and Fat Tuesday