Happy October (almost)! I cannot believe how fast the rest of the summer went. So some exciting news in my life: I'm going back to France as an English teaching assistant at the high school where I was last year! I'm very excited, and as great as it's been living at home and catching up with my parents (and all the benefits that come with that - a car, perpetually stocked fridge, etc) I'm ready to get a move on!
In other news, I just broke up with my boyfriend John. And while some people shop, watch sad movies, go out on the town with renewed vigor, I get bizarre urges to cook (though I confess I did have 500 Days of Summer on in the background of my maiden mozzarella voyage). So far I’ve attempted blanching some late tomatoes a friend gave us, fresh mozzarella, pumpkin scones, various experiments with unknown varieties of squash, and an encore of a pasta fagiole soup I once made in France for my dinner club.
Small anecdote: I ran down to the local grocer for a gallon of milk (the only ingredient not in my cheesemakign starter kit) for my mozz and realizing I didn’t have cash tried to use my credit card for which the store has a $10 minimum. When a guy who worked there bought the milk for me before I could say anything, I burst into tears prompting a “Hey lady, don’t cry!”. I’ve come a long way since last week.
Anyway, here are some random pictures from my recent ventures:
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| My first cheese making kit! I got the idea from Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Vegetable Miracle" where she does a workshop with this woman, Ricki. |
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| Adding my (free) gallon of milk to a stainless steel pot |
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| My first curds!! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished product which we ended up using in a vegetable lasagna my Mom made. |
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| I had never blanched anything but it was quite simple, here are the steps: rinse any remaining soil from your tomatoes |
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| Place them in boiling water until the skin just pops open |
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| Like this. |
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| Place them immediately into an ice bath and they are be cored and peeled. |
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| Egg washing my pumpkin scones. I brought some over to the kids I babysit for and they kept calling them "squeams," how cute?? |
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