As I write the start of this post, I’m sitting at the dentist’s office at… yup, around 8 PM. It’s a long story why I’m here, and I’ll not bore you with details, but it won’t stop me from sharing a couple of culinary highlights from the week.
Radish Butter
If I’ve tried radishes before, I don’t remember the experience.
Option A: generally unmemorable, or Option B: simply hated.
Whichever the case, I wasn’t going to let it stop me from giving radishes another go. I’d spied them at market last Saturday, told myself very sternly as I walked over to a booth to just go for it, and I scurried away with both the radishes and a recommendation to try radish butter.
Huh?
Apparently, you grate the radishes up and whip them into softened butter. Easy enough, I suppose, but in all likelihood also easy to mess up. So of course I flexed some Google-fu and found this recipe. Much to my delight, this did prove both simple and quick to prepare, though it made a lot for one person to consume in two days. Next time, I’ll halve it.
Luckily, I have coworkers who are more than happy to try my foodie experiments and provide helpful feedback. Overall, reviews came back positive!
The recipe also used simple ingredients that highlighted the light peppery-ness of the radish without overpowering it; on top of that, it tasted pretty darn good on top of fresh sourdough bread. If I had a previous opinion of these veggies that I’ve somehow suppressed, let the record show that I have a more positive view of them now, Your Honor!
Goat’s Milk Ricotta Cheese
I had intended to try this months ago, but life got in the way. But another farmer’s market contact who runs a dairy told me I didn’t need fancy things like rennet to get started with cheesemaking — just add lemon juice and have some cheesecloth handy.
Disclaimer: I know about how traditionally, people make ricotta from the whey of other cheeses, hence the name in Italian translated as “re-cooked.” Call this what you like, but the resulting consistency and flavor was close enough to ricotta for me to deem it so. Further, the below linked recipe calls it ricotta… *shrug* do with that information what you will.
So I bought some cheesecloth, opting for a version both washable and reusable. Then, with a quart of goat’s milk and some lemon juice in hand, I used this recipe as a guide.
Bringing the milk to 185°F. 
Pouring curds and whey into cheesecloth to drain into a large bowl. 
Cheese complete! Yum~
Goodness, I wish I remembered to take a picture of how I managed to “suspend a wooden spoon with the cheesecloth” over a bowl to drain the whey. Let’s just say it involved the microwave handle and a pantry cabinet door.
Have fun imagining that…
…but the results can’t be argued! I’ll admit (for the sake of coworkers I know who read this blog 😉) that I made two tiny deviations: one to remove the lemon zest this time, and second to add a secret ingredient to the cheese for better flavor.
Nope, not telling you what it was! A girl’s gotta have some secrets!
With that admission, I did sample the cheese prior to adding the secret ingredient, and it still tasted amazing. Creamy, soft and with a slight tang from the lemon, I may never buy ricotta again!
For the next adventure, I need to figure out what to do with all of that leftover whey, since one quart of goat’s milk yielded only one cup of cheese. Until I can determine a use, I poured it into a jar and tucked it into the freezer.
Seeking Continual Flavor 
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