DIY: Mozzarella Cheese & a Giveaway

So this was a coincidence....One day Ott, E mentioned to me that he thought it would be fun to make our own cheese.  Now I like being a DIY (Do-It-Yourself'er) in the kitchen as much as anyone, but making cheese seemed like it would be a bit much to me.  But the guy did work in a cheesemaking factory in high school so I figured he knew a little something about the process.  But as the same time I wasn't too sure about that.  So I smiled, nodded and thought to myself..."we'll see."  

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I discovered that Sur La Table has a whole line of DIY kitchen products from make your own bacon to butter to.... make your own mozzarella.  Yes, that's right they have a Mozzarella cheese making kit.  What luck!?!?!  I couldn't wait to get Ott, E started on this project and cure his cheesemaking curiosities.

The kit contained pretty much everything we needed and all I had to provide was a gallon of milk, large pot, strainer and a slotted spoon. There were easy to read and follow instructions and the whole process took about a hour from start to finish.  I was really happy that I could use pasteurized milk so it was easy to purchase.  I also liked that the instructions contained some trouble shooting ideas in case something went wrong along the way you could quickly figure it out.  And, I also discovered that they have a refill kit you can purchase separately so you can make more cheese again and again.


The process was easy and almost (dare I say) fun to do together, from separating the curds and whey to rolling the cheese balls.  As you can see our mozzarella turned out great and we ended up with about 4 pounds of mozzarella.  And we are very excited to start using that on some dinner dishes.

To start off with I made a tomato and mozzarella Panini with fresh tomatoes from our garden.  I simply sliced a bagel, tomatoes and cheese.  Then layered my panin together and pressed it with a panini press until the cheese melted.  Ummm... Delicious and I loved knowing both the tomatoes and cheese were fresh!!!

And now on to the giveaway.  The fine folks at Sur La Table are allowing me to giveaway a Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit to one of my readers so you can be part of the DIY kitchen kraze as well.  Simply click on the Rafflecopter widget below to enter.  Contest runs 10/2-10/10/14.  Winner must be a US resident and will be notified via e-mail.  winner will have 48 hours to claim prize or risk forfeit.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Big Thanks to Sur La Table for sponsoring this giveaway and for sending me a product to review.  Please note all thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are my own.