In this vlog-style episode, Victor (Speaker A) and his family juggle a hectic day that blends outdoor recreation, farm chores, and a full‑course home‑cooked dinner. After a snowboarding outing, the family shifts to the kitchen to render suet into tallow, separate cream, culture butter, attempt kefir, and make fresh mozzarella using citric acid and rennet. While the adults prep a hearty Argentinian‑style chicken‑tomato soup with sweet potatoes, black beans, and pork, the children help with chopping, fetch tools, and manage errands. The video interleaves step‑by‑step instructions (e.g., low‑heat rendering of suet, mesh‑filtered tallow jar‑ing, cream‑separator operation, mozzarella temperature control) with family banter, logistical planning (appointments, hardware store trips, sewing projects), and reflections on the value of shared meals. The episode showcases practical homesteading techniques, improvisation when supplies run low, and the emotional payoff of cooking together.
Chapters
Okay. Had a little crash at the end of the snowboarding session with the big kids yesterday. It was worth every bit of it though. We had one of those moments, we had one of those days where it was just perfect. It was a good old day day. And unlike they said, that guy said in the office in the final episode, I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them. I realized it, at least after it was over, I realized it and cherished it and was very thankful for that. We were gonna split locust logs manually with splitting wedges and mauls. I think that's out. So I got another impossible list. Quick Argentinian supper, make tallow. We've already rendered down some suet. It's ready to be put in jars. Cream separate. Did you do that, Josiah? Yeah. How much cream did we get? 'Cause we were behind. Start curing bacon, make butter, and make mozzarella. Yes, buddy. I get it off the— I get it on the tail. I get it to under the tail handle. Okay, got him occupied on some coloring sheets. Are you tired? Are you as beat up as this old man? Yeah, my neck hurts. Black bean, onions, and sweet potato meal. Forgot to soak the black beans. Soaking breaks down the nutrients. So what do you do when you forget? Beautiful one told me about a little hack. I'd like to see if we can salvage our kefir. Haven't made kefir in months. We have some kefir left over. I'm kind of hoping it has some grains in it. We're good. I just finished the cream separator. Okay, can you bring me up the cream and a bag of suet? I don't think I want to attempt those stairs.
I made a rainbow one.
Wow, tallow is all the rage, but how do you ensure the top-notch quality? Well, you make it yourself. So you can have it from a beef from your farm. You take the fat from the cow and you grind it up into— well, it's a suet. Beef cow fat is a suet. Okay, you gonna surprise me? One second. Can you let me finish the video and then you'll surprise me? Okay, hang on. We'll be surprised together. Okay, you fix it while I finish this. It's ground up so it will cook down more easily. We take it— if you have to buy it, we had to buy some. We like to go to U.S. Wellness Meats and they sell just suet by the, I don't know, 5 pounds. We take it from there. I put it in a pot big enough for it right here. I added a little bit of water. I won't do it now, but I added a little bit of water to it so it just doesn't burn. And then I did it on a low Okay, I'm gonna come see it in one second. I did it on as low as you can go, and you can see— you can sometimes see some of the water evaporation. You want to go about an hour, 3 hours, depending on how well it's ground down, depending on how hot your stove gets. But definitely catch it. See how when we stir this, no more— you get no more evaporation? That's test 1. And 2, your, your little curds are chitlins or whatever you want to call those things. They're brown, they're not white anymore, and they're cooked. You're ready to go. Now we're going to put them in quart jars. I have a mesh, wire mesh, stainless steel, and then a stainless steel funnel. And let's just pour it in. I spilled a little bit. You're going to want to get that up. Sooner than later because it will just harden. It won't hurt anything, it's just gonna harden. You want to pour the rest of this so I can help Henry? Let me see it. Oh, I like it! Give me some cake. I like it. I'm gonna hang it up. All right, and now you can feed this to the chickens. They'll love it. Look, it already hardened. And we're boiling. Turn that off. Boil it for 2 or 3 minutes. It's probably been boiling 2 or 3 minutes, so we're going to turn that off and let it cool. We're supposed to keep it covered. What are y'all doing? Little detour. We're gonna let this sit now until it becomes beautiful, pure white gold. Lily, you want to help do sweet potatoes, onions, garlic? Sewing plans, babe?
I am, but I'm trying to find this pattern that I saved and I'm not finding it. I was gonna like prep now.
Uh-oh.
So we have— I have to take Gideon into town for an appointment, and then I think we're picking some stuff up from the hardware store. Yeah. Um, I was gonna prep it all now so that I could just sew when I get back. I have to prep, but I can't find my pattern.
Now cutting garlic from the farm. I have to remind— I'll be honest, I have to remind myself this is important. This is the most important thing. I mean, we could do our typical Mexican, really easy, and there's a place for that, but we haven't had this in a while. And if success is just enjoying a meal together with your family and not thinking about any other thing in that moment, Then let's, let's make a nice— this is important, even if I'm crippled. Never done this before, it's, it's— but it sounds like a fantastic idea, and that's go ahead and cube the pork before we sauté it. Here, yeah, let's not worry about cutting it too clean. I'll just— I'll also include the soup, the bone in the soup, and we'll pick it off once it's clean. I'm gonna take some of my fat strips. Since we don't have 12 hours till we need to make butter, do 2 tablespoons. Maybe that'll speed it up. We want to culture that cream so that we have cultured butter. And normally you got to let it sit at room temperature 12-24 hours, but we need butter. All right, this is working beautifully. We're getting a nice little thin layer of fat for cooking. Well, we're going to cook the meat in it first, Lily. I don't know if I'm gonna sauté a whole roast again. One, we got the cutting of it out of the way. Two, each little bite got seared on multiple sides. Seems like there's a three with that tone, isn't there? But I don't think there's a three. All right, we're gonna keep the fat in here. A whole lot of grease in here, so I'm afraid we're gonna burn it up on the Burn It Up Cooking Show. So I'm just keeping it moving. Put our, what, 8 cups of chicken broth. So nice having it frozen on hand in cupped proportions. Each Super Cube square is 2 cups, so it's easy to follow a recipe. We're going with 8 cups, really, because I want it to be a thick— and that's all we got for frozen. Try the spices a little bit too. Note to self, next time I'm gonna do twice as much. We got the broth. The meat, the bones, the spices, onions. I'm fasting today because of the inflammation in my knee. It just feels natural to eat less when you can do less. Although, although, am I really doing less? I mean, I'm not splitting locusts by hand with splitting mauls, so yes, I'm doing less. Hey, can you grab me a mesh for the beans? It's been an hour. I can try. We're gonna time-lapse for you because see how it's already turning white on the bottom? Oh, sorry, it turns white on the bottom. Yeah, it turns white. Roll it back, Austin. Did I say green? See how it's already turning white on the bottom? I said white. You're crazy. And then let's just put them back in the pot. Clear water until 1. So in case— Mom, when do we want to be— will we be back by 1? We should be. Let's do a checklist, shall we? Butter going, supper going. Is that it? I need to get in my head. The mill needs to be enough. If I've done the mill, it needs to be success. It's just not ingrained in me. It's gonna be a little slower. I should not have walked yesterday. I thought I just tweaked it. I went on a walk with everybody last night thinking I could walk it off. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye-bye. Gotta go on some errands. Take— I love you too. And we got the tallow going. I think I'd be really happy if this afternoon I could do the kefir. It shouldn't take long to do the kefir. And oh, is it too much to hope for the mozzarella? I am back. That was kind of a dud because there was so much traffic we didn't even get the wedges. We did our other errands. This is whitened up. We got the time lapse. What are we making? Chicken and tomato soup. Shoot, I forgot to set out the bacon, so we will not be securing that with stuff. Please, please let there be keeper grains. Okay, have we stirred it a little bit? I'm gonna start right now. Let's put it on a high simmer. There won't be keeper grains in this, will there? Well, maybe. I don't know. Keeper grains accidentally got thrown out, so there's a chance there was some poured in here. I guess that's what I'm hoping for. All right, it's just added the sweet potatoes and the beans. You think that's a good mix, Lily? And then I'll make rice and quesadillas. We're cooking it with the fat and we're cooking it with the bones just to Get that added goodness. Look, freeze-dried tomatoes, thanks to the beautiful one. Josiah, you want to learn mozzarella?
No.
You look real excited. The milk was left out a little bit since this morning. I hope it's okay. I hope that's gonna be okay. So it's probably to 55 at least. Yep, half a cup. Dissolve 3 teaspoons of citric acid. You want to do it? Did you order some more citric acid, Rebecca? Yes. That's heating. I said 85, 88. I'm going by Ruth Ann Zimmerman's mozzarella. Just Google Ruth Ann Zim mozzarella. 88 degrees. Half a cup of water and the rennet. Turn off the heat, cover it up, set a timer for 10 minutes. We'll have mozzarella— we'll have curds magically. I took some whey out and got it mixed with my salt. That's, that's what we're— this is what we're gonna stir it in, and these are gonna just magically— it's another magic— they're gonna just clump up in the clumps as now this heats up. It's crazy. Who discovered this? How'd they learn how to do this the very first time? A few minutes later, it's as if— look at that. This heat is magic.
Finally did it. You can tell I'm a beginner because it takes me a long time to do very simple projects.
Okay, look, we got a potholder.
I have one potholder. I think I want to make an oven mitt too. I gotta look that up.
You'll supervise this mozzarella, tell me if I'm doing all right. Hey, you're doing great. Did you look? Yeah, I did. I got this stuff out. You guys want to see it? You guys want to see what I'm calling done? Shiny. And I don't know, should I put it in a little more? It's tearing a little bit still. Dang it. Just cool this off and we'll be able to shred some mozzarella. All right, so we just laid up on the couch for a little bit. Like this. Relax, you're recovering. I am. You making more potholders?
Yeah, I messed up on this one. We pretty much don't really have any good potholders and I didn't want to— they're expensive.
Yeah, thanks, I appreciate it. And that's going to get your skills Yes, or even more important, and I need to have better skills. And 20 minutes in the bath, that really moved the needle for about 5 minutes. Look how this turned out. Holy smokes! Wow, we need a ladle though, Lily, because it's a soup. What do you think about it? What do you think about this meal, Beck?
I think it looks amazing.
I mean, Seriously, it's a winner. Is this not the best, or is it because I haven't eaten in 24 hours?
That's pretty good.
This is so good. This is so good. Can I please have my swaddle? So good. Happy day.
