Thanks for the fish

Ok, so after 3 and 4 attempts at making cheese, I have succeeded! On Sunday, J wanted to take some pictures in a town near us, so we went tootling around (maybe I’ve already mentioned this). My idea of tootling, is running into the grocery store and doing my week’s worth of shopping in the 10 minutes I have to spare before my piano lesson next door. But there is a natural foods store in that town that i have been meaning to check out. So, we are on foot. We are tootling. We are passing the nautral foods store and there is no excuse NOT to go in. so we go in. Now I’ve been going through this bread-making fantasy in my head lately. For some reason, all of my fantasies either involve sexy guys or making/storing (ok, occasionally eating) food. I envisioned these giant barrels of local flour… you know, potato, rye, wheat, white, etc. etc. that I could buy by the pound to make bread. I don’t know where I got that image from, but that didnt’ happen. Though they do have red lentils in bulk. Good to know for when I start making my red lentil stew this winter. Sometimes the red lentils are hard to find. But anything, what I did find was unpasteurized milk. Now I know what you’re thinking..pasteurization was invented FOR A REASON. The problem is that these days milk isnt’ just pasteurized, but it’s ULTRA pasteurized, which means it could survive a nuclear war. You can not make cheese out of nuke-resistant milk. That is a fact. I’ve tried this at least 3 times with local milk, organic local milk, etc. and it’s never turned otu right. But when I stumbled on the unpasteurized milk, I thought..hmmm… I could make cheese out of this AND kill myself with microbes in one fell swoop. Sweet.

But the plot thickens. I get a call (or email, I forget which) from my dad (or mom, I forget which) saying they came across a goat farm that sold goat milk. Then they asked me to call them back with detailed instructions about when I would be home, etc. etc. etc. which of course I did not do because I am a horrible daughter and never call them back, ever. Soooo… after purchasing the raw milk over teh weekend and planning to make deadly cheese sometime in the future, I get home from a very very stressful day at work to find an Igloo Cooler on my porch with a gallon of fresh goats milk (and some goat cheese too). Awww.. am I the luckiest girl in the world or what? not only can I be a total bitch to my lovely husband when I have PMS (sorry sweety!) but I have just the best doggone parents in the world. So freaking sweet! So I spent the entire night making (yes! Making!) cheese! and succeeding! I feel a little nauseous now but hell I’ve got enough mozzarella to survive a nuclear holocaust.

I know.. you are wondering about all the nucelar holocaust references, right? it’s Jericho. That TV show. I love it. J used to get on my nerves when he would say 6 times a day “Let’s watch an episode!” and I woudl say “no! we have to preserve it. We need to save it for a special occasion…like once a day. You freaking addict!” but now, he says that and I’m like “aww yeah, bring it on brother.”

Well my fingers are burnt from cheese making (it’s kind of dirty and gross and in the future I will think twice about where I get my cheese from as there is a lot of hand to hand combat involved) but it was fun. Also J read some article that he has not yet forwarded to me about how peopel are depressed because they aren’t doing any of these survival things themselves (like making food and stuff I guess). I really want to read this article because you know I am really into evolution and dna and stuff. I totally believe I am a product of evolution and that’s why I want to have sex with various cute italians and really get a kick out of growing, preserving, and storing food. Plus I also dig hanging my laundry out to dry. This was what was missing from my life when I lived in Greater Metropolitan Washington DC. Let’s face it girls, we are gatherers. We are made for this! Go get some berries! Speaking of which, I just planted 3 raspberry plants and 3 blueberry plants in my yard. Amen. That’s all there is. There isn’t any more.