It has been said by visitors and family members, upon looking in my refrigerator that I seem to exist mostly on appetizer types of food. While that isn’t exactly true, (I still need bacon and coffee), it does seem like most of my favorites are glorified condiments. Right now if you were to get a glimpse for yourself you would see half and half, roasted red peppers and lemon and garlic olives in there. Add some crackers, capers, fresh bread and butter, peanut butter and honey and cheese, and you would have all the foods that I would ever need.

I have made all of the above, save for capers, half and half and honey myself at some point or another. I have made butter, crackers, loads of loaves of bread and peanut butter all by myself. I have helped to gather honey though and I learned how to roast my own red peppers. I have perfected my preferred lemon and garlic mixture for olives, although Whole Foods does it so well I don’t bother very much any more. I have even roasted coffee – but I don’t have the means to do that at home obviously. That experience was thanks to a trip to a coffee plant in Boulder, Colorado.

Pretty much I’ll try to make anything, but until this weekend I had not tried to make my own cheese. Now I can cross that off the list with great pleasure.

Last month on one of my trips to Hadley, MA to grocery shop at the closet Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, I stumbled across a cheese making kit in the wine department of Whole Foods. I had just read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in May of this year and remembered the section where Barbara Kingslover visits the Berkshires (where we live) and takes a cheese making workshop, right here in my own backyard. I bought the kit, made by the same woman who teaches the workshops, and then, naturally, it sat in my kitchen for weeks with me doing nothing about it, except to move it to dust around it.

We were invited to a party this weekend and all attendees were invited to bring a dish. Since I have been thinking more and more about seasonal eating and the 100 mile diet, I thought it would be wonderful to try and bring a caprese salad made from basil and tomatoes from our garden, and cheese that I made myself. Naturally the olive oil and vinegar would have to come from the store – but let’s face it – if you serve cheese you made yourself, details like oil and vinegar seem silly to bother over. Full disclosure: our tomatoes are still green so those came from the farmers market.

So Eric’s mother Sharon came over on Saturday and we set out to make the cheese. I wish I could really tell you how easy it was to do and how delicious the cheese tasted. I got compliments galore, but that may have been because I stood by my dish at the party and announced loudly every time someone came near the food table, “I MADE THIS CHEESE MYSELF TODAY.” Never mind that though, I saw people having seconds even when I wasn’t lording over the table.

Here is the experience in pictures:

This the basil we picked from the garden. And I’m sorry about the photo quality. It was dark and cloudy. Sharon stacked the basil and then thinly sliced it into long strips so we could infuse the olive oil with it. We put half the basil in the oil, and I used the other half and some full leaves to garnish the salad before I served it.

Then you put some enzymes and other stuff into water and dissolve it. Meanwhile you heat a gallon of pasteurized milk to 88 degrees and and mix the water stuff in and then you wait for 5 to 8 minutes. This is a photo of the whey and curds forming and separating.

Here we are, ready to separate the curds from the whey. You ca sort of see how the knife is cutting into the thickness of the curds.

Next we scooped the curds out and squeezed the whey away (heh) with our hands. With the first batch of cheese we made, we did this squeezing step three times. We were much better at it the second time around, and strained the curds through a strainer. The whey is supposed to be good for plants, so I dumped it in the garden, which drives the dogs crazy. They seem to know right where I dumped it and they are very curious about it. Although you could use the whey to make pancakes or bread.

After you are done separating the curd, you microwave it and as it heats up, you stretch and knead it. This is what you wind up with. A sort of cheese blob.

Then you put it in an ice bath.

Now you have some yummy homemade mozzarella! Yay!

When I make it again, and I plan on making it a lot, I’ll do a few things differently. I would leave it in the ice bath a lot longer than we did and I would make it the day before I wanted to serve it. My cheese ball went kind of flat, maybe because I didn’t let it get cool enough in the ice bath. Instead of slicing the tomatoes and cheese in pretty rounds, I had to cut them up into cubes and serve the salad in a bowl. You could even make little balls of the cheese or braid it, which I may try next time.

You can get your own kit for the mozzarella and ricotta cheese here. It only costs 25 dollars and the only thing I had to buy was the gallon of milk. The kit makes 30 batches of cheese and when you add that up, this is a way more cost effective way to go. It took less than 30 minutes to make one batch and the process was easy and there was no mess. In fact, you could make a bigger mess baking cookies from scratch.

If you try it let me know!

Spam comment: “Don’t let them make fun of your small weiner!”

How do spammers know that we have two miniature dachshunds?

I’m no gardener, but I do like to mooch off of others who are. So when Crispina, my friend, neighbor and landlord, left for two weeks, I agreed to be in charge of her gigantic garden. I am only required to water it and pick flowers and herbs for myself. So it should be easy right? Wrong! I have spent more time worrying about the garden than I think even she would. I am terrified that I will kill everything and she’ll come back to a barren pile of organic compost that once held beds of fresh flowers, a complete herb garden and sunflowers almost as tall as me.

She said I could weed if I wanted to, but I am such a plant dunce that I can’t even tell a weed from a potential actual garden plant. I just water everything and hope for the best.

We have some very beautiful weeds out there I’m sure.

Hello friends!

Things are happening around here and I feel busier than I have in a long time.

Here’s the highlights:

I received some potentially really, REALLY good news. I wish I could share it here, but I’m a believer in jinxing so I’ll have to wait until it is official. Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be able to share everything.

Yesterday I was walking down the main street in my town, on my way to see a play with a friend, when I passed the editor of a regional magazine that I did some work for back in the spring. Turns out the magazine was finished and she was delivering them to some places and she gave me a handful. It felt so good to open a magazine and see an article I had written and a ton of photos I had styled. If I was more um, inclined to be talented with technology, I would scan the photos in and show you.

I am getting up at the ungodly hour 5am on Monday to head to Vermont for the day. I’m working on a story (print and radio) about a camp for girls that teaches them how to do things like fix cars, basic electrical work, bike repair, firefighting skills and self-defense. I am really excited about this project.

Yesterday. Ah yesterday. It was just about perfect in my book. My friend, the lovely and talented Ms. Laurie Coyle, met me at 10 am and we were off to Hadley, where I grocery shop every other week. We took a long winding road and I can tell you that the Berkshires and the Pioneer Valley are bursting with beauty right about now. Flowers are blooming, corn seems at least one-story high, and the whole outdoors seems to smell like fresh cut grass.

Laurie and I took a detour to Montague where one of my favorite places to eat is located, the Lady Killgrew Café, in the Montague Book Mill. It is a small café that is located right on a river, attached to a wonderful used bookstore. The food is out of this world, they have an excellent craft beer menu and when we were there, Neko Case was playing on the stereo. Perfect I tell you.

I had ginger peanut soba noodles, and Laurie had an amazing rice salad. We each had a vegan cupcake, the very same cupcakes that Eric and I had at our wedding. Look at these photos… aren’t you a little bit jealous?

Hummm. My sister just called and said she is on her way to visit us.

There are good things and bad things about having my sister visit. Let’s review.

Good:

She is like free slave labor. My sister loves nothing more than to clean other people’s messes and since we are frantically trying to get ready to empty our storage unit, having her here to dust, sort and vacuum to her heart’s content will be great.

She will walk the dogs.

She goes to bed early.

Bad:

She is on a new diet and requires special food and will be cranky about our offerings. She also mentioned us exercising together. She is bringing some sort of exercise DVD.

She knows almost nothing about computers or the Internet. She has asked me for lessons on eBay and Etsy. It is not easy to teach my sister anything.

I will have to figure out where the air mattress is and blow it up for her as well as make room for it on the craft room floor.

I asked her if she planned on leaving on Saturday and she was non-committal. She was all like “Saturday or Sunday or maybe Monday. It depends.”

After a health scare yesterday that found Eric and me in the emergency room for five hours – I am ready to get going on my projects today.

I was up early, it is cloudy and raining out (my second favorite, next to snow), I have a full pot of coffee brewed, my notebooks, files and pens next me – season 3 of weeds loaded into the DVD player and both dogs are walked and happy.

Progress here I come!

All Day Blogging

What better way to try to get back in the swing of blog things AND force myself to productive at the same time?

8:15 am
Eric wakes me up. He is almost out the door to go to work. I lazed around in bed for a few minutes with the dogs before getting up. Eric tells me that we need dog food today, which will be difficult as the dog food place we go to needs 48 hours before we can pick up our food – and no other stores in town sell our brand. He also tells me that he didn’t feed the cat and that I need to remember to shut all the windows because it is going to be in the 90’s today. Oh and could I please schedule doctor’s appointments for today.

Then he is out the door so he can be at work by 9 am.

8:30 – 9:30 am
I got up.
Turned on the coffee.
Fed Zoe.
Found the insurance card and dialed the 800 number on the back. We have not used our medical insurance once, and I’ll need help figuring out which doctor we signed up with.
Closed windows.
Drank a glass of blueberry juice and took vitamins.
Emailed Waggin’ Tails about dog food.
Checked email.
Checked Bloglines.
Got a cup of coffee.
Made our bed.
The automated recording from our insurance company finally tells me that all staff is in a company wide meeting until 10am today.
Showered.
Wrote this post.

Keep on keepin‘ on »

Since I last wrote I have been to Vermont, Maine, New York City and Boston.

I have met with a publisher who is interested in my book idea.

I have deleted over 3,000 emails from my gmail account.

I have managed to mail three packages.

*I haven’t cried in at least a week.

I have hung up some pictures.

I have unpacked boxes.

I have thrown out a bunch of stuff.

I have made boxes for the thrift store.

I have read 19 books.

I have sold some stuff on eBay.

I sent shoes back to Zappos.

I went swimming.

I have helped Eric find loads of geocahces.

My dog ate my wedding veil.

I have seen two movies. In actual theatres.

I ordered five book from Amazon.

I sent emails to people I haven’t talked with in way too long.

* This is no longer true. I cried when I found my veil.

For Ren

6:20 am - wake up because Eric is leaving for the day. I asked him if the alarm was set for me and he said no, so I asked him to set it for 8 and he did. Then he wished me a happy anniversary and I conked out again.

8:00 am - Two dogs wake me up minutes before the alarm. I am usually up by now! They are both climbing all over me and trying to lick me. Baxter stands on his hind legs in a begging position and makes whining noises. The alarm goes off. I shut if off and get out of bed. I brush my teeth and pee first thing and then I opened the pocket doors that keep us sealed in our bedroom and the day begins.

8:10 am - 9:00am
I push the button on the coffee machine so it can brew while the dogs and I are walking. I feed Zoe her breakfast.
I leash up the puppies and here the alarm go off again. I must have just hit snooze instead of turning it off. I take care of that and we are out the door.
When we get to the front door I see and construction worker lurking on the porch. He must not know where the secret key is and maybe there is a reason for that? He walks around the side of our huge house and we walk outside and to the other side of the house Chances are we’ll not see each other at all. And we don’t.
While walking the dogs I think about what I need to do today. I have a load of things that need to get done and not a lot of time I really want to go work on a photo shoot tomorrow, which means giving up my free time. I decide to make a list and do an All Day Blogging and we come in. To the alarm going off. I shut it if for real this time, I hope.
I unleash the dogs and get a cup of coffee. Oh wait! No I don’t! It turns out I didn’t push the brew button twice, so It didn’t make any. I fix that and then sit down at the kitchen table where the computer is for some awful reason having to do with laziness.
I read blogs that have been updated since I read them last.
I love this blog from Vermont about this woman and her town and her family. All her entries are short and sweet but I love every one.
I check email. I write back to my friend Paige, we are having lunch together today.
I make my To-Do List for the day.
I start one load of laundry.
I I turn on All Things Considered and edit my To-Do List.
I waste time by poking around on npr.org and build a playlist to listen to while I work in the kitchen.
Take vitamins with Botlhouse Berry Blast. I tried hard not to drink it all, but it is So. Good.
I typed all of this up which took a long time.

9:00 am - 10:00am
Take shower. Cross that off list.
Chat with Minna online
Have another cup of coffee. Did I ever mention that I only drink decaf now, unless I order some in public?
Is it wrong that I really want to see Made of Honor AND Iron Man?
Oh! Today’s Morning Edition is now online. Turn it on.
Get dressed in real clothes. For once, I want to write one of these things and not end up having to report that I am wearing some crazy combination of pajama bottoms, beret, and leg warmers with a coat and two different socks.
Get distracted by adorable puppies laying in sunbeams, who automatically turn over and show me their bellies. So cute.
Look for credit card information about transferring balance and also hunt for the paper that tells me how to apply for unemployment. Decide it would be a good idea to plug in phone, since I suspect both calls will take my remaining battery life.
Fining that stuff took a long time. My whole hour is almost up. Now I need to figure out how to transfer one balance to another card so I can order shoes. I’m going to make an awesome unemployed person. I will not be able to eat, but I will have some cute summer shoes.
Set up kitchen table with all the information I need apply for unemployment, and to transfer a credit card balance.
Fill up coffee again, and allow myself some Agave Nectar.

10:00am - 11:00am
Where does the time go?
It goes to Zappos that’s where!
So I did my credit card thing and I ordered some shoes.
And I chatted with Minna and answered some emails.
And now the whole hour is gone.
Plus, I thought all Zappos orders came within 24 hours! And they just said it would take 4 to 5 business days. Nerds.
The dogs keep barking because there are so many construction people here today. Blech.
Wrote this lame hour and then updated it.
Suck.

11:00am - 12:00am
Dial the unemployment number. They say there will be at least a 10 minute wait, but they reserve the right to ask me to hang up at any time. Nice.
Oh my. I had to enter my social security number, and since it ends in 5, they will only talk to me on Wednesday. Can you believe that? I guess that opens up my whole hour then.
I managed to eat homemade guacamole and read blogs until 11:19. Maybe I can ruin this whole hour by finishing up an episode of Arrested Development that I started last night.
Ouch. I watched two episodes.
Now I have to get ready for lunch.

12:00pm - 1:00pm
Snuggled both puppies
Tried on four pairs of jeans. Must consider unemployment diet.
Found favorite hoodie, which has been lost! Horray!
Emailed back and forth a bit with my Mom.
Dried hair.
Managed to apply both blush and eyebrow pencil stuff.
Looked for lipstick. Found three. I don’t know about you, but I always find my lipstick in my china cabinet.
Hummm. My sweater is still damp from the wash, even though I set it out to dry yesterday. Maybe I should still wear it. Have you ever smelt someone wearing damp clothes though? A groody mildewish smell? I do not want to be that person. Maybe the Indian food smell will over prower a dampish sweater smell though. Or maybe my walk to the restaurant in the hot sun will dry the dampness. Or maybe I am so lazy that I will try to dream up any excuse to not have to find another sweater.
Looked for something to use as a bag, instead of Envriosax. No luck.
Yay! Zappos says they are shipping my order today! Whoop Whoop!
Wrote this early as I am off to meet Paige for Indian food. Wearing a slightly damp sweater and carrying my wallet in an alternative grocery store bag. Nice.

1:00pm - 3:00pm
Yumm Indian food lunch.
Time spent with Paige was great. She has a real talent for flipping the coin to a side I never would have seen. It felt good to tell her everything that was going on in my tiny world. It is 2:30 now and I think I’ll further relax with the dogs until 3, when I shall become very strict with myself and my To-Do List.

Hello 3:34pm
Ended up falling asleep in the big comfy chair with two dogs in the sun.
Emailed my mother.
Ate three caramels from Trader Joe’s.
Loaded dishwasher.
Checked emails again. I am the only person with multiple email accounts?
Thought about new job opportunity.
Looked for slippers.
Marveled about wasted day, aside from lunch I have done nothing and now Eric will be home soon.

Flash forward to 6:14.

I have since talked on the phone, ate more guacamole, walked the dogs and looked at catalogs.

Eric is home now and we are going geo-caching and then out to eat for Part One of our Anniversary Extravaganza.

Lemon Out.