jelly time

There are a few times when I really feel like I can't convey something adequately. Most often, it's tastes. The things that you just have to experience, you know? The scent of fresh quince is one of those things, it turns out. Oh. My. The scent is beautiful - fruity and bright and round and warm, and it completely fills your head and makes you (or maybe just me) roll your eyes, in a good way. That's the best that I can do.
These quince were generously given to me by a friend (thank you to Natalie! I'll bring you a little something at the market on Saturday), and I could not be more delighted. To me, this is the best kind of gift. They are quite different from the ones on our quince - ours are not fuzzy, not pear-shaped, and they definitely do not have the same scent. A quick search didn't tell me how pale yellow fruit can possibly make dark red jelly, but I kind of like the mystery.

This was my first jelly, and it is gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. I couldn't be more pleased. Turns out that in the world of jelly, being fussy is worth it in the end.

I took this picture solely to illustrate how clearly the quince jelly ended up. *Beaming with pride*
I tried to get a picture on toast, but that didn't quite happen.

If you've never had quince jelly, it is really lovely, in a lightly floral kind of way. Really, really lovely. It was an all-day procedure, but completely fun and worth it. Every step was enjoyable.

To sum up, I had the best weekend, just about ever. I made cheese and jelly, both for the first time. Ack! I haven't tried them together! You know what I'm going to do right now.

Happy Tuesday!

P.S. Completely unrelated: I ADORE this bedding.

cheesemaking

I made cheese! Seriously, I can't tell you how excited I am about this. I ordered a starter kit from cheesemaking.com and made my first batch of mozzarella yesterday. It is delicious, and I'm super excited to make more.

It went a little something like this (although I've misplaced a memory card which has the first pictures on it, including what the kit itself looked like). I knew that all I needed in addition to milk was rennet and citric acid, but thought that a kit with instructions might be useful. And since it was only $24.95 for enough supplies to make 30 batches, I went for it.


After mixing milk (I reconstituted dry milk and aded cream), adding citric acid and rennet and letting it sit for awhile, the whey and curd separated. You can see the clear whey above my fingers in the picture; the curds squished down under my hand. I added in some extra time, because it didn't seem to be as firm as it should have after the initial 5 minutes. But it still didn't look any firmer after another 5, so I decided that since I couldn't 'pour off the whey' as instructed, I would strain it through cheesecloth instead. It seems to have worked just fine.


I kept pouring off the whey that was left. Then heated it in the microwave, until it was hot enough to stretch like this:


And eventually make a ball like this (yes, that's bathrobe sleeve peeking out - cheesemaking took precedence over getting dressed. I have a problem, folks.)


Which was then plunged in cold water, wrapped, and plunked in the fridge, ready to be eaten!
And the finished product, I first tossed with spaghetti squash, fresh oregano, tomatoes, and a bit of salt and pepper, as seen in the first picture. When heated, the mozza melts into delicious globs. Yum.

We did a bit of figuring, and it seems like it works out to be about the same price to make a pound of mozza as to buy it. No serious number crunching, just a bit of guesstimating. But if you can get half price organic milk, I think you're set, Bette.

Incidentally, this is my first post using the BlogPress app, and although it's taken me awhile to figure out a few things (how to rearrange pictures (still haven't figured this one out) and add links, primarily), it's pretty adequate.

*Edited to add: although BlogPress does seem to leave black holes where RAW format pictures should be. Now fixed.*

chickens

This picture makes me squeal. Adam took it with the hipstamatic app on his iPhone when we went to visit some friends and their chickens a few weeks ago. I didn't know until then that chickens can jump straight into the air. Oh, to have chickens! Soon enough...

sledding hill lavender shortbreads

Adam said, "They taste Victorian. I can see how someone might love them."
I said, "These are amazing. They taste like Anne of Green Gables and perfection."

I had an excellent weekend. So I'm going to tell you about it. On Saturday, there was a Fall Harvest Festival market, and it was so much fun. There were kids activities, all kinds of new vendors from further afield than the usual crew, and tons of locals, aong with a smattering of people here for Nova Scotia Music week. It was really, really, really great. Really. It made me happy in the same kind of way that Old Man Luedecke's music does. (Incidentally, you can listen to one of his concerts here.) Maybe I should send him some cookies.

I met the guys from Sledding Hill, who made the lavender shortbreads pictured. Oh. My. They are even more delicious than they look, and they don't really taste as flowery as you might imagine. It is a gorgeous, subtle, light flavour that will make your tastebuds sing. Really. And you can order your very own! They had a beautiful array of other lavender products; salt, jelly, sugar, and pepper. They currently only ship in Canada.

On Saturday night, we went to see Wintersleep. I went to high school with Paul and Tim, so it was really great to see them. I feel all motherly and proud of them. Just about everyone we know went, and we had a great time. You can have a peek at their tour dates - it's worth seeing the show if you can!

And on Sunday afternoon, we and a bunch of our friends took our toddlers and babies bowling. Really, can you think of anything cuter than that?

Sigh. I'm a lucky lady, indeed.