Searching for Direction & Purpose in Life's Sea of Opportunities
Yesterday was a big day for me: I had friends over to taste my first batch of cheeses. I was so excited being able to share my new passion with these people from all different aspects of my life. We started with the first pressed cheese I ever made (top left in the picture), the… Continue reading All About the Cheese
One of the items I purchased after my cheese class was a thermometer: The Big Daddy Dial Thermometer. It is super cool because it has a nice long stem, and it can be calibrated. My previous thermometer didn't register at low enough temperatures for some types of cheese. I put the instrument into rapidly boiling… Continue reading There She Goes Again
This past weekend I finally spent my birthday money from Ma and Tom. I was looking for the perfect-for-me opportunity, and then my job loss delayed things even further. But finally I found exactly what I wanted, and I spent Saturday afternoon in a cheese making class. Gisela, the owner of Curds and Wine, taught the three-hour… Continue reading Cheese Fundamentals
Right after I had success on my second attempt at making paneer cheese, I used my momentum and placed my Amazon order for rennet - the ingredient needed for making the harder, melting cheeses. It arrived right away and sat in my fridge until I was ready. During our rainy weekend a couple months ago, my courage… Continue reading Intermediate Cheesy Courage
My catastrophic cooking fails that I share here are always popular - they get more hits than my other posts. I decided to be brave and retry two of my fails: Making paneer cheese and pectin. Paneer is supposed to be the easiest of all cheeses to make. It doesn't involve rennet, and it's basically… Continue reading Second Try
I was on my third leg of back to back to back trips when I contemplated what skill I wanted to learn next. Somehow my beyond tired brain immediately thought back to a recent Mother Earth News issue - I was going to teach myself to make cheese! What initially drew my interest was how easy… Continue reading Cheesy Adventure
Grown Up, Now What? 