Remember my post about my Lotsa Motsa Kit I got my MakeCheese.ca via Kickstarter? No? Well, go check it out right here! In any case, CJ and I finally made our first batch last night and had to share- sooo cool!!! FYI this is a big picture post- lots of pics- not a lot of me blabbing!

For reference, the super cute box!

Look at that set-up!

This is the one buy you need to make your cheese- good whole milk. We went to Whole Foods and got a good organic brand. The better the milk, the better the cheese. Goat's Milk can be used too!

We first watched this video from Make Cheese Inc. to know how to make it! The instructions included are super easy to follow but we figured it couldn't hurt to watch and she had some great info in the video.

Some more set-up pics. We got our water boiling and such- if you can't tell our kitchen is pretty much all red and black.

We've got our solutions mixed and then the milk/citrus acid was on the stove! We used the thermometer from the kit at first and then later opted to our super premo one we own. Do you see in the bottom right pic how the curd is already forming on the spoon?

It's been heated to the right temp and off the stove- time to wait! I wrote a a blog post while waiting- haha. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes.

The weird part! We sliced the curd into little squares, first checking to see that the knife came out clean (it did). It looked crazy- I can't believe I'm making cheese!

The result after the first couple of stirs! See how clear the whey is? That means we did it right! Score!

Scooping out the curd! A little to a LOT! Can I just say that this is ONE batch- ONE!!! Out of THIRTY!! I can't believe this!!!

We flipped the curd a bit to help drain out the whey while not pressing it- we were lucky that is was really scoop-able- the quality of milk goes a long way!

The whey! You heat this up real hot (can't remember the exact number- I think 185 degrees F) and then dip the curd in before stretching and kneading and making mozzarella!

So I forgot to take any kneading pics until the very last one! Boo! It was cool though and we only had to re-dip a few of them!

This was our "trial" piece. We had to re-dip it but I think it looks pretty good and shiny. I did this one : )

We ended up adding salt to a few. One regular, one with a specialty salt, and one with salt and oregano from our mini-garden!

Voila! I knew they are random pics... you can see the difference in the shapes and the best ones were our last ones (like the last pic-middle row- on the right).

We couldn't help ourselves and immediately tried the salted and regular ones. Really good. We then cooled them in water baths. We had some for dinner and individually wrapped up the rest.

Dinner is served! I had already eaten one...

Jealous? You should be! This was amazing! We preferred the salted ones over the un-salted mozza so we will probably pre-salt all of them next time. The BEST though was the one with a bit of salt and our homegrown oregano! We have basil plants AND tomato plants too so the next batch will lead to caprese with homemade mozza with homegrown herbs, on top of homegrown tomatos and topped with homegrown basil! Drool! 

We had some more after this plate that had one of our exotic salts (we have a few from a local cheese shop) and it was great too. This looks like a lot but we still have LOADS of cheese from this ONE batch. And we have enough for at least thirty more batches. It's craziness! More like crazy awesome! CJ commented that the regular mozza (as in salt sprinkled on top/not in the actual mozza) was one of the most flavorful he's ever had- and I'd agree. Super success!!

Now here's the kicker! Because of my late change in address, the Make Cheese company's spread sheets had me listed TWICE and I ended up getting a second kit a few days after receiving my first (it was re-directed to me from my old address). I didn't want to keep the free box without them knowing so I contacted them and offered to a) pay for the box now or b) use it in a giveaway-I'd just pay shipping to a reader! And what did they pick? B! That's right! One lucky reader gets to have a kit too! This is a $30 + shipping value but considering you can make 30 GIANT batches of mozzarella (or ricotta) from this kit only adding a gallon of milk from your pocket, this comes out to be worth much MUCH more! I'm thinking of getting their Feta Kit too because YUM! And I know more kits are coming! Check out their site makecheese.ca and enter here to win a FREE kit!

You know the deal! Enter below with Rafflecopter and Good Luck!

This holographic box looks so trippy in pics!

Ta-da! This unboxing is tricky because everything is inside one of the items.

See?

Info card- again the theme is TOKEN! Woot woot!

GraphicLab- Collectible Mushroom Kingdom Racing Cinch Pack: Loot Crate seems to work a lot with GraphicLab which is great since we usually like their stuff. Who knows if this backpack/bag will get used but we both love the Mario nod. The graphic is cool and CJ loves displaying his geekdom proudly so I'm sure he will use this at some point just to put it out into the world. Price: ~$6

Boston America + Taito- Space Invaders Candy with Collectible Tin: I immediately thought this was super cute and awesome. I love the little arcade game tin and c'mon who doesn't love space invaders. CJ liked it too (of course) and immediately used the candies to make space invaders (next pic). The candies were surprisingly yummy too. Like little sweet tarts. Price: $6.91

Ok, this is a multi-pic to bring together a bunch of little things. The top pic if of the sour apple space invaders candy and the ticket (bottom middle) is for an awesome thing that Loot Crate is doing! Starting tomorrow, subscribers who got this box are put into a raffle for daily prizes using the # of their ticket. How cool is that?!

Candy Warehouse- Retro Game Candy: Alright, we got an IBC Root Beer Candy and a frutti Mini Burger. I grew up loving those little root beer hard candies and so did CJ. He popped it right away and like always the whole room started smelling like wonderful root beer. The Gummi Mini Burger was a bit eww to me at first since it resembles one of those candies at the check-out of non-candy stores (think video stores and Best Buy) that look gross and are just about the design. Strangely enough, it tasted good. I'm not lying, I swear, it tasted yummy! It was kind of fun to eat this little burger. Price: $0.40

8-bit Zombie- 8BZ Arcade Token: Another company repeat with an 8-bit zombie goodie. CJ thought this was cool right away. I was meh, but I'm not the one who gets this box. I liked the idea of putting in a token- I mean the theme IS Token but I would have thought it was more of an extra. This 1UP coin is already on CJ's desk along with all the past few month's Loot Crate treasures. Price: $3

Kid Robot + Capcom- Street Fighter Mini Series Blind Box: This Street Fighter mystery box contained one original World Warrior. We opened it up and CJ immediately knew his special move- I didn't even know he played Street Fighter, but I guess every adolescent boy has. He couldn't remember his name but he started doing his special move. Anyway, it may sound strange but I thought he was super cute- don't judge me! Just look at the little fella! This reminded me a bit of the bobblehead figures from the March box, just in how they are adding recognizable figures to subscribers collections. E. Honda is gonna take up shop on CJ's desk. Price: $9.99

Kid Robot + Capcom- Street Fighter Enamel Keychain Blind Bag: Another Street Fighter mystery item from Kid Robot + Capcom. Maybe the theme this month should have been Street Fighter? CJ knew that this was Chun-Li and Vega right off. I don't think this will go on a keychain- we keep our keys sans keychains but this will go on CJ's desk or something. The best part is definitely the back of the keychain with quotes AND gameplay for their signature moves. Love that. This is one of thirteen legendary showdowns this product features. Price: $4.95

Verdict: All totaled this box ended up being worth $31.25. Well over the price-tag of the box! Loot Crate has had some great boxes with us in the past and while CJ said this was a solid box, it wasn't our favorite. I wish we could've seen more classic games and a bigger array- I think it was too much Street Fighter for me. In any case, CJ, as always, was pleased and that's what's important! We, of course, are keeping this subscription and looking forward to next month! If you want to sign up for Loot Crate please use our referral link and save 10% with code TOKEN!

Still no clue!

Yarr matey! This is a treasure hunt! I had no idea what to think! Tropical? Super treats? Citrus?

Whaa?? Ok, I knew a lot of the "bars" are savory but I did not think of stuffed peppers and olives when I saw Treasure hunt...

Here's a look inside. It's hard to really look at the individual foods so I'll stick to their info.

Blue Cheese Olives: So, I reeeaally don't like olives. They are one of my biggest dislikes in life. That being said I will try anything. I prefer to not eat them like I won't order a pizza with olives but if it's a specialty I'll try it. I tried some snack olives from another box recently that were actually tasty to me! These however were not. Ugh. Me no likey. CJ on the other hand thought they were good- not great- but good. CJ btw really loves olives and peppers and mushrooms.

Stuffed Mushrooms: I like mushrooms, sometimes... It's a texture thing with me. I gave these a try and meh. CJ didn't really care for them either. The flavor is supposed to be very umami but really it was a little slimey for us. They taste wasn't great.

Red Mini Peppers: Of the three stuffees, peppers are my least, least favorites. Ugh- that sentence was terrible! My point is peppers are also not really my thing but I actually eat them. Salads and recipes and sandwiches galore I will try some peppers but they aren't my fav food. These were actually GOOD to me. CJ really liked them. They were more than mildly spicy but not in a bad way. 

Pepperballs: Ugh, no bueno. I did not like these. And CJ? He loved them!! I guess I don't like sweet picante peppers. Anyway, not my thing.

For the last two tastes, this is what I ate:

Mmm

Greek Olives: Like I said, I didn't want anymore olives, but CJ dove in. These were supposed to be the most intense and CJ said they were intense but the Blue Cheese ones were crazier. That being said, he really liked them.

This last item turned out to be...

Black Truffle Cheese-Stuffed Olives: The point of the treasure hunt was supposed to be to find the "diamond." The diamond of the kitchen was hidden with a second card under the item. I get it, Black truffles are legit expensive AND good. I really like truffles but you can totally overload. 

Total side note: I overloaded once getting one of the most over-the-top (and pricey!) burgers out there. It's from Hubert Keller's restaurant and has foie gras and TONS of black truffle.

Anyway, even though I had liked everything before- the combo was WAY too much! And fyi, no more foie gras for me or CJ. It's just too sad!!

Ok, so that being said, truffles can be great if you use them properly. CJ said this was good but not great- he expected a smack of truffle and it mainly just added an aroma. He preferred the Greek Olives and Pepperballs to this.

Verdict: Obviously, this wasn't my thing. CJ liked it enough that it was worth it but he wasn't screaming for more either. We loved the last box and this is less that $10 so I think it's worth it to keep going another month. Fingers crossed for an awesome May!!