I am going to make cheese. In my kitchen.
I am reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is very similar to Omnivore's Dilemma but includes a section about the Kingsolver family making their own cheese. I became very inspired by this. The Kingsolvers make their own cheese, make their own pizza dough, and use sauce from tomatoes they grew in their yard. Imagine eating pizza completely independent from industry, wholly your own creation.
I have to say I feel really, really excited about this. We didn't get any tomatoes in the ground last year when we moved in to our house, but we can get canned local tomatoes from the farmers market and make a truly Pittsburghian pizza.The thought is so thrilling to me, this notion of being able to personally create the foods I typically imagined a magical machine producing somewhere far away. It puts a whole new light on the notion of providing for my family.
I went to the website Kingsolver talks about in her book to order cheese supplies. The site makes me feel even more excited to make dairy products at home. My big goal is to have mastered mozzarella making by Corey's birthday, so I can move on to ricotta and make lasagna for him. My next cheese goal after that is to master making pizza dough and possibly pasta noodles so that when my family comes in droves to Pittsburgh for Groundhog's Day, I can serve them homemade cheesy pizza or stuffed shells.
As I drunkenly explained these goals to my rugby friends last night at a party, I expected them all to get excited with me. This is interesting! Who ever knew that regular people could MAKE cheese??? They just furrowed their eyebrows and said that Corey and I really need to get television. It may be true that we need TV, but how much more fun will it be to watch The Office while eating nachos made with my homemade cheese?
I am fully prepared to acknowledge that I have reached a new height of nerdiness and/or weirdity with this new project. All I can say is give me a week and then come over to my house, because there will be delicious cheese there and I will share it with you.
After years of nomadic temporary employment, advanced degrees, and chocolate ice cream, a rugger with a love of knitting and a cyclist with no domestic skills signed a Ketubah and bought a house in Pittsburgh.
8 comments:
Ninny, what nerdiness have you created?
Dude when I visit can we make cheese?
When I was a kid I was obsessed with the Little House on the Prairie series. My mom even made me a sunbonnet. She would not, however, let me try to churn butter or make cheese like was described in the books. Sigh.
i can't wait to meet roxy lev.
i though corey was allergic to milk products??
yes, Corey is lactarded. BUT according to the cheese queen on www.cheesemaking.com, this cheese production method removes the lactose from the cheese. i am not a scientist, but my small understanding is that the cooking process makes lactose into lactic acid, which is digestible by him.
i didn't think you were a geek for making cheese but now you sound like alton brown with the lactic comment...
someone else in the world is obsessed with little house????
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