Self Reliance Tip # 12 It's SO Easy being Cheesey!!

If you reached your goal for this month (water storage) - shoot me an email and I'll have a treat for you on Sunday!!!
I'm sure you've heard the term:


IT AIN'T EASY BEIN' CHEEZY...well, I'm about to change that....for good!


Cheese is on the top of my list. Always has been. Always will be. I have made attempts at making my own cheese (other than powdered milk ricotta cheese YIPPIE!), but until I get that down, there are a few options that we have for storing and rotating cheese.


#1) Get a cow, milk it, make cheese :)


#2) Bottle cheese - I've done this and it works. The only problem I ran into is the temperature in our house got to a certain point and all my jars opened. DOH! But if you can keep them in a basement. This is how I did it.
Canning hard cheeses:

You can, can any hard cheese this way. In jelly/ or pint jars, in a pan of water (put jars in water), put cheese in jars(slice into small pieces or grate) , allow to melt down to 1 in. from top, then put lids on and hot water bath 40 min. for both pints and jelly jars.The longer it sit on shelf the sharp it gets. The can cheese will last 2 plus years in a cool dark place.
Source:http://jordansfarm.wordpress.com/recipes/


#3) Preserve it in cheese wax. Did your Aunt Cherri ever send you those really cool cheeses wrapped in a red wax at Christmas time? Well, you can preserve any hard cheese this way. A few precautions: If you do not have a cool place to keep it, and your home gets above 80F, then this option may not be the best for you. Thank you to Sister Emily H. for reminding me about this option!!


You will find website after website saying that waxing cheese is not safe. How did the Italians preserve cheese without refrigeration? I love how this author debunks the "botulism" myths associated with waxing/ preserving cheese. I can't wait to give it a go! To be honest...I dreamed about it all night last night...


http://www.preparednesspro.com/blog/settling-the-cheese-wax-controversy/

You can get the cheese wax here:
http://www.cheesemaking.com/RedCheeseWax.html

You can get the cheese wax brush here:

http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/51-Cheese-Wax-Brush.html

#4) Freeze dried cheese: If you're not up to messing with canning, waxing or milking your own cow, this is an excellent option. This company has had BY FAR the best tasting freeze dried foods. They even have recipes. All you do is add water to rehydrate, drain it off and sprinkle inside enchiladas, quesadillas, ham and broccoli casserole...the possibilities are ENDLESS!!!
http://www.shelfreliance.com/catalogsearch/result/?order=relevance&dir=desc&q=cheese&x=0&y=0

You might be thinking: That is one expensive #10 can...but remember this, how much fresh cheese would it take to fill that can?


And another thing...
Now that I've been rotating my food storage more, I have about [20] #10 cans in my kitchen...what to do with them? You can remove the ring and reseal them. But sometimes they don't reseal right.


Here are some other ideas to reuse and recycle these precious #10 cans:
http://foodstoragemadeeasy. net/2009/06/04/what-to-do- with-extra-10-food-storage- cans/