Homemade ricotta cheese!

Aaron and I just got home from a 3 day vacation to Seoul!  We stayed with Jess and Mayo, undoubtedly one of my favorite couples in the world, and ate the most delicious food, talked about life, love, relationships, traveling, the future, healthy food, crafting and blogging... We played games, took walks, watched a 4D  movie, drank wine, felt baby Perlaza jumping around inside Jess's belly and relaxed together... you know, all of my favorite things!  I left feeling refreshed, rejuvenated and blessed to have friends like them in my life!

*** Sorry there are no pictures of the weekend!  Sometimes memories are best held, well, in our memory! :)

So, this morning, NFL football has taken over the TV, Maverick is purring into the blanket next to me, I'm wearing my most comfy and cozy pajamas while lounging on my Thai lounge pillow on the floor and I have the next 8 days off of work!  Does it get any better than this?!  Well, yes, it can!  It can be better when homemade ricotta cheese is fermenting in my kitchen! :)

Making ricotta cheese is surprisingly easy and chances are, you already have everything you'll need in your kitchen (minus the cheese cloth)!  So, here's what you'll need:
1 carton of whole milk
1 spoon full of salt
2-3 spoon fulls of vinegar
a pot
a stove
a wooden spoon
a bowl
a strainer
a rubber band
a cheese cloth.

So, let's begin... Pour the milk into a pot, throw 1 spoon full of salt in, and turn the heat up to low/medium.  Then stir and stir and stir.  If you don't stir, the milk may burn on the bottom of the pot and that's never good!

You'll start to notice gooey stuff forming on the top layer of the milk.  Just take a wooden spoon and scoop it off and throw it away.

After a while, the milk will start to boil and rise.  Take it off the heat before it goes over the edge of the pot and drizzle 2-3 spoon fulls of vinegar over it. (I used brown rice vinegar, but regular, or apple cider vinegar work well too!)  With a wooden spoon, slowly drag the milk from one side of the pot to the other.  You'll notice that the milk's fat will begin to separate, and the liquid will become more clear colored.  If it doesn't., throw the pot back on low heat and continue to drag the liquid with the wooden spoon, adding a little bit of vinegar until the liquid is clear.

Then, let the mixture sit for 30 minutes (off the heat).
After 30 minutes, wet your cheese cloth and throw it over a strainer. I laid my strainer over a bowl to catch the liquid.  Then, pour the mixture into the strainer, ring it out and let the liquid drain through it. Tie it closed with a rubber band and hang it over your kitchen sink for no more than 6 hours.

Then, wala, you'll have your VERY OWN home made ricotta cheese!  So easy right?!
Recipe via by sweet food guru friend, Jess Perlaza!
Check out her food blog at www.greenteaandkimchi.com  

Winter Camp is FINISHED!

My 4th and LAST English Winter camp ended today!  This was the first time in 4 years that I was asked to teach 1st and 2nd graders and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit freaked out!  I only teach 3rd-6th graders during the school year, so I knew these little munchkins wouldn't know a lick of English and would have to be fully trained (yes, trained!)!  I'm proud to say that after teaching them for 1 hour a day for 2 weeks, they are leaving today being able to: 

- count from 1-20

- read the alphabet

- name a bunch of different animals

- name a bunch of different foods

- name all of the colors in a standard crayon box

- write their English names

- say, "Hello teacher!" in the morning.

- say "My name is ..."

- say "I like..."

- read a couple simple words

- understand simple English commands

and most of all, how to have fun!

I'll miss these little munchkins, but I'm thrilled to not be waking up to my alarm or walking a kilometer in freezing temperatures to work and back for the next two weeks! 

Let Winter Vacation commence!  

BTW: Aaron and I are heading off to Seoul on Thursday to spend 3 1/2 days with Mayo and a VERY prego Jess!!

Briana Moore Photography!

If you've had a chance to see our wedding photos, you know that our photographer, Briana Moore, (a friend of mine from college) is super talented!  Not only is she an awesome photographer, she's also awesome at doing contest/giveaways for her clients! Please help Aaron and I win a 20x30 GALLERY CANVAS WRAP of one of our wedding photos to be hung in our future home!

It's simple! Just click on this link, like her photography facebook page and like or comment on our wedding photo... If we have the most likes and or comments, we'll win!

Please help us win! The contest ends January11th!

As you know, we'll be in desperate need of home decor in July, since we won't have ANYTHING when we move back home!  It would be sooooo nice to have this canvas to remind us of our big day and to remind us of YOU and your like or comment! 

Happy birthday Sammy cakes!

Today was Sam's 28th birthday, and who better to celebrate it with than great girlfriends (and Andrew and his brother Alex, two cool guys Sam and Gill grew up with back in South Africa)!  It was such a fun afternoon filled with delicious Irish food, yummy drinks, tons and tons of laughter, a fancy Korean cake, and a little shopping at H&M after lunch!  

It was the perfect Sunday!

We all met here, at Wolfhound Irish Pub in Haeundae!  Felt just like stepping into an Irish Pub... Well except for all of the Korean employees of course. :)

Thanks to Gill for setting everything up and keeping it a surprise from Sammy!

Anne and Crystal have been best friends for years and are practically hooked at the hip!  They BOTH just got hired to teach 2nd grade at an International School in Guatemala beginning in August of 2013!  I am beyond excited for them!  I love having all of these International traveling/living friends!

I just adore these two!  :)

There's really never enough Coke Zero to go around with this group!

...Or cake, for that matter!  Thanks to Crystal and Anne, we had a DARLING Korean ice cream cake to pass around the table... and a happy birthday girl!

And thanks to Andrew, there were shots of gold...

 and fancy mixed drinks passed around too!

Anne, (the birthday girl Sam), Salome, Gill, Crystal, and Me! 
What happens when 1 Wisconsinite, 3 South Africans, 1 Australian and a California girl walk into a bar?

That's for you to figure out! :)

Happy birthday Sammy cakes!  I love you!

Girls day!

My alarm went off at 6:30 am this morning (not my favorite thing for a Saturday morning), but it was all for a good reason!  I was meeting my two co-teachers at the Sasang Bus Terminal to spend the day in Jeonju together. In true Korean fashion though, plans went awry at the last minute and instead of exploring the 1250 year old city, we spent the day in Seomyeon (downtown Busan)!  Ugh. Why you ask? Well, Okk had set her alarm wrong and woke up minutes before we were supposed to meet (strike 1), then when Loola and I got to the bus terminal to buy tickets, all of the buses to Jeonju ended up being sold out (strike 2)!  We were doomed.  

We made the best of it and ate breakfast together at McDonald's (double ugh for the unhealthy food, but it was the only place open!), went to see Life Of Pi for $4 at Megabox (which is an AWESOME movie by the way!), then had coffee and lunch at Paris Baguette Cafe before bidding farewell for the rest of Winter vacation!

The 3 Dae Gyo Elementary School English Musketeers!

Loola... Me (aka Chelsey)... Okk

Korea is known to be dynamic!  This was just another one of those days and as I've learned over the years, it's good to just smile and go with the flow.  The original plans may have gone awry, but I got to spend the day with these two goofballs - I'd say it worked out pretty well!