Maybe this will help with the chicken poop. It is a summary of how to use Lacto bacilli to get the chicken poop deomposing in the chicken house, help eliminate some odor, and help your chickens' health. This is summarized from the Gil Carandong paper on the link above, with an alteration. 1. Get or make some plain yogurt--doesn't matter whether it is fat free or full fat or inbetween. Make sure it has live cultures. (Dannon and Stoneyfield do). NO flavors. (This is the alternative to gathering LB from the air..) 2. Put a sieve over a bowl and line the sieve with a coffee filter. 3. Pour yogurt into sieve and let the whey drain out. Depending on how long you let it drain, you will end up with more whey/stiffer "yo-cheese" product (which you can eat or feed to chickens) or less whey/firmer yogurt product that resembles Greek yogurt. Eat it yourself of feed to the chickens (and goats) if you don't like yogurt. (If you use a quart of yogurt and let it drain a couple of days in the fridge you will end up with close to 2 cups of whey.) 2. Two options with the whey. Store the pure whey in the fridge or mix 1:1 with unsulphured molasses to keep at room temp without it going anerobic. 3. If using pure whey, mix 1.2t per 2 gallons unchlorinated water (like in a typical 2 gal pump sprayer). If using the molasses/whey mix, mix 2.4 (2.5 for ease) in two gal sprayer. Spray the chicken house floor...how often? I would do as much as possible at first to really get the LB bacteria working in there. You can also use this same mixture for the chickens' water. It will be like natural antibiotic, good for their digestion according to the paper. It is supposed to be particularly effective against Salmonella and E coli. Refer back to that Janong article to look how they are HANDLING the chicken litter from the house. They also use it in piggerys to eliminate odor. As for the pile of straw... a. Perhaps you can screen it off with some split bamboo fencing (not too pricey) or another alternative...free wooden pallets? http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sawyer69.html or, if you need taller, this one: http://summerville-novascotia.com/PalletWoodShed/ But, if you add the right stuff to the straw pile (as mentioned above) you will have some incredible compost...and the straw pile will continually be shrinking.. Thank you Luckygal and RJ over on the other thread for coming up with the "one step" method of dealing with the LB... Here is a link that might be useful: split bamboo fence

Tehre are people who think cheese needs refrigeration. It doesn't. It will get more well aged and if there are mold spoors around it will get moldy....but it won't "spoil" in the sense that it will grow bacteria and make you sick. It's a CYA maneuver....like the wool sweater that says dry clean only. Do you refrigerate a cake that contains milk? or rolls made with egg yolks? How about a danish with a cream cheese filling? Or those wedding mints made with cream cheese? If you leave a cream cheese frosting out in a very warm room it may get too soft and sink into the cake....the way a butter cream will do. By the way....do you refrigerate a buttercream frosted cake? That contains dairy. How about chocolate truffle candy?

Ive had it with lobster at a 5 star restaurant and tried over an over to find it...the rendition I did was a BIG FLOP....

This recipe was recently posted on the cooking forum. The first set of ingredients make up a basic Mexican White Cheese Dipping sauce. This recipe adds salsa in with the white dip and tops with a Pico de Gallo but you can omit the salsa and just make the dip. I would be inclined to add a few diced green chiles but that's up to you. Rita's Queso from Rita's on the River in San Antonio Originally posted by Brenda55 on the Cooking Forum. Brenda's notes: This recipe was in the SA paper several months ago and a reader had asked for this recipe from Rita's on the River because it was "the best queso we have ever eaten". I just recently fixed it and it was for us also the best queso. I changed the recipe somewhat for the heat impaired in my house and served the pica de gallo on top, which I really liked as it added the crunch with the creamy queso. I hope you enjoy as much as we did. I also halved the recipe and we still had enough left to serve over some soft tacos the next night. Can be cut in half or thirds Rita's Queso 3 Lb white American cheese ( Use Queso Blanco Instead ) 2 Cup half and half 1 Cup heavy cream 1 Cup sour cream 1 Cup salsa (your favorite recipe) 1-1/2 T. Lawry's Seasoned Salt (or your favorite seasoning) 1 Tbl Tabasco sauce Pico de Gallo 2 Cups ripe tomatoes chopped 1/2 Cup chopped onions 2 Tbl minced fresh jalapeno or serrano chiles 2-3 T. chopped fresh cilantro 3 Tbl fresh lime juice Salt and pepper to taste For queso: cut white cheese into 1 to 2 inch cubes, set aside. Combine all ingredients, except cheese and Pico de Gallo in microwave-safe dish. Add cheese and microwave on high for 4 minutes, stop and stir and repeat twice; then reduce to 2 minutes until mixture is hot and well mixed. Recipe can be reduced by half or a third. Pico de Gallo Combine tomatoes, onions, chiles, salt, cilantro and lime juice in bowl. Let set for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Drain before placing on top of queso. Food editor's notes: It can also be made in a slow cooker to keep it hot and to avoid a skin forming on the surface. You can adjust the heat level easily with salsa, pico de gallo and Tabasco.