Say Cheese!

I made my first batch of cheese today, and it turned out perfectly! I am extremely proud and already imagining a world-renowned artisan cheese business. Seldom do my pastimes yield such satisfying results (as my recently documented failures involving campfire cooking, beading, and fiddling illustrate).

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, I must state that I owe everything to my 30-Minute Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. I had read about the owner, Ricki Carroll, in Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Ricki recommends that beginners start with soft cheeses, which require little equipment and are not aged. I ordered the mozzarella kit on Thursday and it arrived Saturday. The $24.95 kit contains a dairy thermometer, butter muslin, citric acid, cheese salt, and vegetable rennet tablets--enough for 30 batches of cheese. 

I began by pouring a gallon of organic whole milk (pasteurized but not ultra-pasteurized) in a stainless steel stock pot and stirring in 1 and 1/2 teaspoons citric acid dissolved in one cup of bottled water. When the milk reached 90 degrees, I added 1/4 of a rennet tablet dissolved in one cup of water. I brought the milk to 105 degrees, turned off the heat, and covered the pot. Five minutes later, the curds had pulled away from the sides of the pot and were ready to scoop into a microwaveable bowl. 

I microwaved the curds for one minute, drained the excess whey, and gently folded in about one tablespoon of cheese salt.  I returned the mixture to the microwave for 35 seconds, drained the whey, and kneaded the cheese until it was smooth and stretchy, like taffy. I rolled the cheese into a ball, and dropped it in a bowl of ice water. Done!

The Wrangler, whose culinary skills ordinarily are of the grilled cheese sandwich or frozen pizza variety, made a beautiful and tasty cabrese salad with the homemade mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from our neighbor's garden, and olive oil. It was a wonderful treat on a hot summer's eve.

Technical Assistance

Around the time I finished law school, I started the veterinary technician associate's degree program at Purdue University. It's a distance learning program, with 35 internet-based core courses and 17 clinical labs. Courses include anatomy, physiology, parasitology, and clinical pathology. The clinical labs, which are supervised by a local licensed veterinarian, include small, large, and equine nursing and anesthesia, diognostic imaging, sterilization techniques, pharmacy, and necropsy.

The distance learning format lets me take as few or as many courses as I can manage, skip a semester here and there, and "attend" class when work allows. Granted, this flexibility means that it will take me years and years to finish the program. I only have six classes under my belt and, truth be told, I've been on hiatus for a while. But I'm not sweating it. Taking the occasional vet tech class or two is a constructive hobby. I'm learning things that are useful to pet owners and hobby farmers, I might be able to volunteer as a vet tech at an animal hospital or zoo, and...I like studying and taking tests. It's an illness, but the Wrangler loves me anyway.

http://www.vet.purdue.edu/vtdl/vtdlhome/

Just Bead It

Earlier this summer, I spotted a beautiful beaded necklace in one of the boutiques here in town. I don't wear much jewelry--I'm allergic to metals, and I dislike fussy things. But this necklace had a very simple design of shiny burgundy beads interwoven with small, sparkly crystal beads. Price? $140. "Whatever," I told my friend. "I could make this for, like, $20."

Determined to prove that boutique prices are for suckers, I dutifully signed up for the Beading 101 class at the local craft store. Upon registering, I was slightly dismayed to receive a lengthy supply list. I needed only some string, a clasp, and two types of beads, right? Apparently not. I purchased the required "Bead Bucket" and now own three types of pliers, an assortment of odd needle-like sticks purportedly called tube crimps, several rolls of wire, and some strange looking pins.

Noting that the speciously named Bead Bucket did not actually contain any beads, I stopped by the Bead Lounge to look for shiny burgundy and sparkly crystal beads. The Bead Lounge did not disappoint; I found the exact beads I was searching for! Unfortunately, I also found that beads are expensive.

Beading 101 Class = $45

Bead Bucket = $54.38

Beads = $90.50

Grand total = $189.88

Number of beautiful beaded necklaces completed by me = 0

Summer Daze

Just when you don't believe it's possible for a place to be drier or sunnier, July arrives in Southern California and delivers an uppercut that takes your breath away. The omnipresent sunshine and dry spells are more intense July through October in Laguna Beach, leaving this urban cowgirl longing for greener pastures. Summer traffic and tourists add insult to injury. No amount of fantasy farming and counterfeit camping can satiate my thirsty soul. 

What can be said about a place where the weather is the same...day in and day out, year in and year out, until every memory blends seamlessly into the next, and life morphs into the same long day? East coast, west coast, or midwest is fine, so long as I have my four northern seasons and an occasional cloudy day. Right now, I am too far south of paradise.

Not-So-EZ-Bake Oven

We met some friends for dinner at their campsite near Trabuco Canyon yesterday. I envisioned making a blueberry cobbler in a dutch oven hanging over a roaring campfire or nestled among smoldering coals. I did enough research to learn that Lodge makes the best dutch ovens, and I bought a cast iron beauty at the local Sports Authority yesterday morning. Unfortunately, I had not done enough research to ascertain that dutch oven cooking requires a some skill. It is not as simple as dumping some berries and crumb topping into a pot and simmering over the fire.

I didn't realize that the dutch oven must be seasoned (coated in olive oil and baked in an oven for at least an hour). Nor had I anticipated that important peripheral equipment is necessary to maneuver the 14-pound cast iron pot and lid among the fire and coals--for example, long-handled metal tongs are used to handle hot charcoal, and an iron lid lifter prevents burned fingers and also keeps hot ashes from being dropped in the food. Moreover, it turns out that I had purchased a flat-bottomed dutch oven for traditional stove and oven cooking instead of a camp dutch oven with legs. The legs keep the pot from resting directly on coals and allow for better heat circulation.

Although I scrapped my dutch oven cobbler plans for the campfire dinner last night, I am not discouraged. I bought the International Dutch Oven Society's Field Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking from Novice to Champion and am going to find the leggier version of my dutch oven. I vow to wow the Six-Button Cowgirls with my amazing campfire cooking on our upcoming trip to Sombrero Ranch.

Fun with Fungi

One of the Six-Button Cowgirls, a very enterprising sort, grows gourmet mushrooms in her living room. Contrary to popular belief, mushrooms don't have to be grown in manure--a fact for which Charmaine's fellow residents and guests alike are grateful, I'm sure. Mushrooms do, however, have to be grown in a relatively warm environment, which makes Charmaine's outdoor garden near the mountains less than ideal for her mushroom endeavors. Thus, Charmaine's sunny living room is the place to be if you're a baby bella or young shiitake.

Charmaine is a proud member of a mushroom-of-the-month club that sends her monthly mushroom patches (mushroom mycelium growing on a sterilized medium, or substrate), which Charmaine places under a humidity tent in said living room. She's also active in a mushroom growers support club. She reports that club members skew heavily toward the "grown-up Dungeons and Dragons nerd" demographic (Charmaine excluded, of course).

At any rate, she has grown beautiful and delicious mushrooms that taste far better than the grocery store variety. Pictured here are her pearl oyster mushrooms sprouting at the tender age of four days.