NEW WEBSITE! www.UrbanCheesecraft.com
Hi there, my friend Jen Agosta designed a fancy new site for us with a shopping cart and everything. There’s still good info. on this site but you will find all this and more on the new one. I will not post here any more after today. See you at www.urbancheesecraft.com!
Thank you friends, Claudia
ps. I apologize if you got this in your email a hundred times, I was a little rusty! 🙂 No more, I promise.
Urban Cheesecraft Kits Launch at Williams-Sonoma today!
Hi there! If you’ve noticed I haven’t written much for a while, here’s why…my goat cheese and mozzarella/ricotta kits launched with Williams-Sonoma today! They are part of their awesome new Agrarian line.
Check it all out HERE.
Thank you all of the support you’ve given me and my business!Â
MAKING FRESH CHEESE is a great introduction to a time-honored food craft–and one that provides instantly enjoyable results you will be proud to serve and share. Home-crafted cheese is simple to make and requires no specialized equipment. It’s easy to get started with just fresh milk and a basic cheese-making kit. Whether you use grocery-bought or dairy-delivered milk, you can be sure that homemade cheese will contain no artificial ingredients, taste more flavorful and cost a fraction of the price of commercially produced varieties.
In as little as one hour, fresh mozzarella, ricotta or goat cheese can be ready to serve on its own or in recipes. Use fresh cheeses in dips or toppings for crostini, added to stuffings for vegetables or poultry, stirred into creamy soups, layered into lasagna and other baked dishes or served with fresh fruit for a simple dessert. It’s easy to customize cheese by using different types of milk or by adding your favorite flavors and stirring in chopped fresh herbs, sweet jam or chutney, or dried fruits and nuts. Making fresh cheese is also an ideal activity to share with children, who will gain an appreciation for using quality ingredients and traditional methods while watching milk transform into cheese right before their eyes.
Etsy made a short documentary about my cheese kits!
http://vimeo.com/26600153
Hi everyone. I’m so happy to tell you that my business was chosen for an Etsy film. Not sure how well-known these films are but they are really inspiring and artistic. All are posted on the same Vimeo channel. The Etsy team clearly has a love for making good films and telling stories. This is not just a commercial- it really conveys my interest and beginnings in cheesemaking as well as the larger part it plays in my life. I’m very proud to be a part of this film project.
Eric and Dan followed me for a couple of days; we went to the Montavilla Farmer’s Market, one of my classes and my friends’ Linda and Mike’s goat milk farm (Terra Farma) where I got the pleasure of bottle feeding a baby goat!
Hope you enjoy the film. Claudia
Playing Around with Vegan Cheeses…
cultured nut cheese- NO dairy! not an Urban Cheesecraft recipe, you will be re-directed to Sunny Raw Kitchen
So many people in my classes have asked if I have a vegan cheese kit or know of any recipes that I’ve started playing around with some nut cheeses. Believe it or not, I have been vegan for a total of 9 months in the not too distant past. I did it in support of my partner who took it on for longer than I did. Anyway, because of that and because I love a challenge, I often make vegan dishes. Nut-based mac and cheese, flax-seed egg cookies and banana bread…very delicious results if you know how to convert. Here are some tips if you’re interested.
Pre-made, vegan store-bought cheeses however, were not something I enjoyed. Even on a vegan diet, I preferred no cheese to vegan cheese. They often tasted like oil and plastic (which is not far from the truth). Since then, I’ve had some homemade nut cheeses and cheese sauces that aren’t bad at all. Not quite cheese, true, but delicious treats on their own- and since I love food in general, they deserve a fair chance if you ask me.
If you love cheese but have to limit your dairy, give these a try. The salty, creamy and even pungent flavors could definitely satisfy a cheese craving and go well with dried or fresh fruit, herbs, crackers and crudite. I’ll keep playing around and who knows, maybe I’ll make a kit!
Cream Cheese Ball
Cheddar Cheese Ball
More challenging and more complex taste, Cultured Cheese.
Hope you enjoy playing too. Claudia
ps. Etsy has been out to Portland to film me twice. A short documentary about cheese and my venture is said to be ready in late July, stay tuned! The films are great, check some out HERE.
pps. Did you know I have a facebook page? Be UCCs friend won’t you?
Update- the VIDEO reviewing my kits is out. Watch me be nervous and blink way too much! This is what happens when you make things after work, late at night! Ha. They did a good job and even made cheese though!
I’m excited to share some great news: Friday 4/15, beginning at noon (EST), 9am for us west coast folks, and running throughout the weekend, Daily Grommet (http://www.dailygrommet.com) will feature our DIY Cheese Kits!  Daily Grommet is a new company with a mission to find unique products and share their stories through video, blog, and an active community discussion.
I hope you’ll take a moment to stop by DailyGrommet.com when our kits are being featured. It would be wonderful to hear your thoughts, reflections, and feedback and to add them to the conversation – it’s really easy to leave a comment in the “Talk about this Grommet” section.  And if you want to make sure you don’t miss our feature, just sign up for the daily email from Daily Grommet.
After our time on the Daily Grommet homepage, you can still find our DIY Cheese Kits under “Recent Grommets” or within the shopping categories. Feel free to comment there – Daily Grommet customers often search through this area of past Grommets looking for great gift ideas and special treats for themselves!
Thanks so much for your support and we hope to see you at Daily Grommet! (I’ll be there commenting as well.) Claudia
New Home Dairy book and we’re in it!
It’s a new book on making cheese and Urban Cheesecraft is profiled in it! Â The photos are beautiful, the recipes useful and the tips great even for me, consumer of every cheese book out there. Get it folks!
Some Braggin, AKA Press
These are neat people who try our kits and write about them- I finally got around to gathering some links. I will add more as I find time :).
Food Lover’s Guide to Portland- a book!
HGTV- Home and Garden Television
Do you HEART cheese? Or at least cheesy post titles?
February, the month of love…chocolates, roses, champagne- who doesn’t like those things? But imagine if someone made you herbed chevre or some creamy ricotta in the shape of a heart? Now that’s a unique treat! I think what you need for your sweetheart (to be?) is a cheese kit and/or some heart shaped cheese!
Don’t have a heart-shaped cheese mold? Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter or muffin tin! Simply follow one of my recipes, drain most of the whey out in a colander and press your salted cheese into the heart and coat with herbs after you pop it out. LOVELY.
This would surely impress!
Find the kits around Portland, OR at New Season’s, Whole Foods (Washington too), Urban Farm Store, Mirador, Alberta Co-op, the Powell’s gift section and more! Request the heart mold and they should be able to get it from me (though maybe not fast enough for the holiday).
I can also mail a kit AND heart mold straight to you or your beloved (family members count). Order by Wednesday night and you’ll have it right on Valentine’s Day (we send by 2-3 day Priority Mail so we can only promise so much, after that, the U.S. Post Office is to blame :)).
Have a love-filled month!
2011 Cheese Class Schedule- Feta and Cultured Chevre added!
Feta Cubes Curing in Salt
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you’ve had some time to reflect on 2010 and dream about 2011 and beyond…if your dreams include learning to make cheese, check out the classes I will be leading this year by following the links below. I added some new ones as you’ll see; you can learn to make feta, cultured chevre and even easier cheeses.
Classes through the Urban Growth Bounty series– hosted by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
These are demos, so you will see the process and taste the results. 15 slots available per class. Beaumont Middle School
Mount Hood Community College Community Education– David Douglas High School
These are hands-on classes. Students are paired up and work in real Home Ec. kitchenettes! 12 slots available per class.
Order kits by Dec. 17 so you can have them by Dec. 23.
why use ribbon to make bows for gifts when you can use mozzarella?
So…we did get a mention on HGTV after all! Orders have been insane but we’re keeping it together.
Order your kit ASAP and you can have it by Dec. 23. We will close the online shops and stop responding to emails between Dec. 18-Jan. 5 though. Yay. A break is much-needed around these parts.
Hope you have a wonderful winter solstice and happy new year celebration. A friend of mine does a “year in review” on her birthday, I think it’s a really great practice that I will try on Dec. 31! See you on the flip side- Claudia
Urban Cheesecraft- DIY Cheese Kits and Cheese Making Supplies for Urbanites with Country Appetites! 