Other projects!

Proof that I can do lampwork! These are various beads I have made over the last 3 months. Obviously, I am just learning and this is going to take a great deal of skill. The two beads on the right are supposed to be fish. Hey, bald guy could tell they were fish so they are fish!

The pink one has ruby dust in it. I think it is ruby glass dust but it is pretty and I love the colors. It is also diachromatic. The brown and white one has a copper fall leaf in it. I think it is spiffy. The two dark beads have diachromatic glass in them. I have found mentions of that effect in beads from throwing in mica dust. I am going to have to look around for some information on that and see if I can find something to add to my body of knowledge. None of these projects was done today. I have been busy making....

Cheese!

Behold the power of Cheese! Here we go with the feta. I did EVERYTHING wrong. I kept going. I boiled the milk. I didn't get everything going in time. I went to get my son at work and left the stove on when it should have been setting UNHEATED for an hour. It was at a mild rolling boil when we got home. GAH!!! I had already put the yoghurt in it! Oh damn. I put it in an ice water bath and cooled it back down to 92 degrees, then I added more yoghurt. I had to hope for the best. My son is a professional chef and tried to get me to give up.


One hour later, I added the junket tablets. I hoped it would work and went to bed. I got up in the morning and read the recipe again. I needed to know if it was time to toss it. I opened the stock pot and gave it a shake. Solid!!! The curds passed the knife test! I carefully cut them up and began to warm them. I got it too hot twice, but that happens with an electric stove. I reduced them down, and hung the curds as seen in the picture.

My next move was to wait 4 hours. I wanted to curds to be very dry for my feta. I am going to be doing some special food that will need a very dry and salted feta. See? I am excited and thinking ahead. The curds are a bit too yellow, which I attribute to the milk having boiled and then cooled. Hey, think sterile!

I picked out brown bits that had snuck in and added about 1/2 teaspoon of Trader Joe's sea salt. Then I tried some. OH! It tasted like feta! How exciting. The whole thing was coming together like it was supposed to do!

Now for the bad part. I wanted to make a horse poo shaped cheese. But, I can't. You see, it isn't even really poo shaped. I was so sad. Eibhlin did the actual research for me and showed me the picture. It turns out that it is an ordinary hockey puck of cheese. No road apples. The French Cheese Book by Tomoko Yamada, Yohei Maruyama, and Kazuko Masui is the book that is shown in this picture.

I decided then that my feta can be any general round shape. I didn't have a can or round big, so I used a flower pot! Don't worry, I keep one around the kitchen for kitchen duties. Terracotta is a handy thing to have in your kitchen.



The pot is lined with an old cotton dishtowel. I wanted to make sure I got it packed down tight in there. I need a firm curd for when I pack it down.









I then squished it down after this picture, and smashed it a bit more. Then I added a thin metal plate and a weight that is actually a tin of oatmeal. I haven't thought of a heavy object that would fit in there. I should see if the old iron works.

The whole thing needs to sit in the refridgerator for a few days to drain the curd. Then it goes into a brine bath until I use it. YAY!