Cheesemaking

Mom and I attempted the long-anticipated activity of cheesemaking today. We made delicious fresh mozzarella.

This is Mom now. Everything about Barbara Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable. Miracle" inspired me to try growing and making things. One thing was cheese. A couple months ago,I purchased Ricki's Cheesemaking Kit, as recommended, read the descriptions and instructions a couple dozen times, and then waited until Melissa could come home and play before actually trying it. So glad I waited; we had so much fun, and it turned out just fine. We made three balls, sampled one till it was gone, and tomorrow we're going to make bruschetta and caprese salad with the two we have left. Mmm-mmm.






Melissa again. I ran into the last of the parmesan cheese tonight as I sprinkled it onto my low-fat microwave popcorn. I asked mom, "If we put our mozzarella cheese in the basement, will it get to be parmesan cheese?" She said we'd need to leave it down there long enough and inject the right culture into it, so I plan to put it in the basement for awhile with a nice symphony playing. Mom is 100% on board.

Dad's Birthday

We had an amazing dinner of delectable salmon, spinach and strawberry salad and rice pilaf.
Of course, Dad ate from the "You are Special" plate.
The Reine de Saba cake was for dessert.

Amy picked out an antique map of the Philippines for Dad.

Other presents Dad got.....a book from me called The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese, a physician who also writes novels, a book from Mom that Dad picked out (historical fiction, I think), a car washing by Jon and Jenn, and some nut clusters.

Reine de Saba Cake

For Dad's birthday, I made a cake Mom told me about called Reine de Saba cake. It's made with chocolate and almonds, flour, sugar, eggs. It was a success with Dad and the rest of the fam. I love French cooking, even though it's often buttery. I guess you can't eat it all day every day, but it's such a lovely way to prepare food. I want to try some more recipes from Julia Child. Here are the pics of the cake process.
The eggs.

The chocolate.





Delicious!