I’m spending this last week trying to catch up, clean up, and finish a few house projects, so it’s going to be a little quiet around these parts. I hope everyone is having a lovely week!!!

reindeer invade SantaCon

Found via the ReadyMade blog, this series from GOOD.is called “Ideas for Cities”.
“Notes from a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities”

Basically people propose an idea, and then it’s discussed. Really good stuff over there, hopefully over the holidays I can sit down for a couple hours and go thru all of the posts.

Right now, this is my favorite: Reclaiming Space and I think my particular neighborhood would benefit greatly from it.

Buildings not kept to code for more than five years could be reclaimed by the city. If they are not structurally sound they would be destroyed, and if they are sound, they are provided to entrepreneurs in the community with a basic stipend for minor repairs and paint.

So much of our business district has basically been held hostage by the Jerk who owns Inman Park Properties. A beautiful old school building rotted over 2 decades, before neighbor’s eyes, former landmarks just melted into the ground, all because this jerk was playing some game no one knew the rules too.

flickr photo by slowfade

Thursday morning I got up at an unreasonable hour and waited impatiently for a very important call. Shortly afterwards, I had taken a hat shower, grabbed my camera, donned my rubber boots, and was out the door on an adventure with my friend Rebecca and newly-met Shari. A short drive to a secret location barely outside the city limits, and I was soon grateful for those boots as we slogged through the remnants of Tuesday’s rain towards a small green building full of white gold.

First we were greeted by an assortment of ladies who were very curious about what treats we might be bringing them.

Then our human hosts made themselves known and invited us inside their sanctuary. The owners of this little farm treated us to their knowledge of the craft we were about to attempt, as well as delicious little slices of ambrosia in the form of a handcrafted aged white cheddar. Such wonderful and hospitable women they are!

After taking a mini-tour of the rest of the farm and making a couple new friends, we headed back home with our treasure: 2 gallons of incredibly fresh raw goat’s milk. (I’ll be talking about the distinctions between types of milk in another post)

Later that evening, the three of us reconvened in Rebecca’s gorgeous kitchen to start our project.

Rebecca is an experienced cheese maker, and was kind enough to get Shari and I started learning the intricacies of this craft. We started with one of the simplest cheeses, Chevre.

From this site on French Cheeses:
About Chèvre: “Pur chèvre” on the label ensures that the cheese is made entirely from goat’s milk. Chèvre in French simply means goat. Chèvre cheeses come in a variety of sizes and shapes including cones, cylinders, discs, drums, and pyramids. The cheeses are often covered with ash or leaves, herbs or pepper.

Tasting advices: Store in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Is a fine combination with French bread, avocado, olives or figs. Chèvre is used in salads, omelets, pizza toppings and souffles.

For Chevre, all we needed to do was heat the fresh goat’s milk over the stove to the required temperature, stir in the powdered “starter”, and then wait. And wait. And wait.

The chevre sat in Rebecca’s kitchen overnight, at which point she divided it up into cheesecloth bundles and let it begin the draining process.

Basically, the chevre is made from the “curds” of the milk, and the “whey” must be drained off. Since making chevre produces a large ratio of curds to whey, the draining is most simply done by letting the cheesecloth bundles hang over a bowl for a few more hours.

Once it’s drained sufficiently, you can add herbs or spices to your heart’s content. I’m adding rosemary to this batch since it’s what I’ve still got growing like mad in the yard. I also think sage would be excellent.

While we were waiting for the chevre to cooperate, Rebecca suggested we use the second gallon of milk to try a slightly more complicated cheese: mozzarella.
Mozzco.com has this to say about the history of Mozzarella cheese:
Legend has it that mozzarella was first made when cheese curds accidently fell into a pail of hot water in a cheese factory near Naples…and soon thereafter the first pizza was made!
Mozzarella was first made in Italy near Naples from the rich milk of water buffalos. Because it was not made from pasteurized milk and because there was little or no refrigeration the cheese had a very short shelf-life and seldom left the southern region of Italy near Naples where it was made. As cheese technology, refrigeration and transportation systems developed the cheese spread to other regions of Italy.

We started out the same, heating the milk to the required temperature over the stove. Once that temp was reached, we stirred in rennet and citric acid to make the milk curdle. We used vegetable rennet for this cheese.

Once the additives are fully blended, the milk needs to rest. After a few minutes of this, we were able to check it and see that it was indeed curdling up nicely!

Then, the curd is sliced up, and the whole pot heated up again.

After it’s reached the appropriate temperature, the draining process begins. Now, mozarella is not like Chevre, in fact, it’s almost the reverse. Where chevre is almost all curd, mozzarella seems to be almost all whey. In other words, there was a lot of draining…

Once it’s drained, it’s time to get your hands dirty and start stretching the curds (oh, and you can also add salt at this point. It will need it).

The more you work the curds, the harder your cheese will be, so be careful here.

Once you’ve got it where you want it (we might have gone a little too far on this batch) form it into little balls and wrap it in plastic wrap. You can eat it at this point, which I did, with a nice glass of red.

Delicious!

This was such a great experiment, I can’t tell you how awesome it was to learn this skill, and to get to meet the happy little goats who provided us with the milk. I felt so satisfied at the end of the day!
Next up, Paneer, another simple cheese. Stay tuned!!

This is genius. Pure genius.

One of my favorite bloggers “NotMartha” has put together an awesome holiday baking tutorial for these little houses that sit on the rim of your cup.

This might be the cutest thing I’ve seen all season.

well, looks like today’s post is going to have to bleed over into tomorrow so I can tell the whole story properly. In the meantime, I leave you with a teaser pic:

Well it looks like they were right.

Many of us suspected all along that the stuff was unhealthy, many people just didn’t like the way it made their sodas taste, even more were shocked at just how much stuff it was in. Well, now Science has given a definitive reason for avoiding it.

“Fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.”

Well, that’s just dandy. I mean, haven’t we been told all along that it’s just like sugar?

Turns out, not so much:
“Fructose bypasses the digestive process that breaks down other forms of sugar. It arrives intact in the liver where it causes a variety of abnormal reactions, including the disruption of mechanisms that instruct the body whether to burn or store fat.”

Well golly, doesn’t that just make you want to run right out and feed it to your kids to show them how much you love them???

Here are a few tips for avoiding HFCS in your diet:
1. Don’t drink soda or processed fruit juices without reading the labels. “kosher” coke and several Mexican brands of soda like Jarritos do not contain HFCS. Neither does our perrennial favorite Jones Soda.

2. Avoid fast food. ’nuff said.

3. READ ingredients labels on any processed food you buy. This includes breads, canned fruits and vegetables, pickles, soups, sauces, you name it. The stuff hides in unexpected places. It doesn’t matter if the foods are labelled organic or natural, as FDA loopholes in both of those classifications allow HFCS to be snuck in. (I’ve read that if the product reads 100% organic, you’re ok, because there’s no way to make 100% organic HFCS, but I can’t seem to find any real documentation of that claim.)

4. Cook from scratch, with real, unproccessed, fresh ingredients.

And here’s a discussion list including some of people’s best choices for products without it.

I know this might seem a little late for some of you, but for others, your holiday doesn’t really start until next week, when you just might have a few precious days off. If you are looking for some last minute holiday crafting ideas (many of which are extremely kid-friendly!) check out this post by The Long Thread. for simple delights like these star ornaments by ThePurlBee

Last day for Xmas shipping is this Saturday, Dec 19th, (I’ll still ship after that, but I doubt it will get there in time) orders need to be paid for by 11am EST so I can get them wrapped up and to the PO before they close. (If you’re local, we can meet in person on Monday)

sneek peek of a few items left in the shop:

Remember a few months back when I blogged about the public protest in Piedmont Park… you know, the slow-food sit-in Potluck Picnic organized in part by local foodie phenom, Lady Rogue and SlowFood Atlanta?.

(flickr photo by findfado)
Well, if you recall, the whole point of that (not so) little public display was to raise awareness of the absolutely dismal quality of some public school lunches. With estimates that 1 in 3 children in some areas will be diagnosed with diabetes, and an epidemic of childhood obesity, healthier school lunches could be a big factor in turning those numbers around.
Getting healthier lunches to kids, however, is not as easy as it sounds. Unfortunately, the federal government often subsidizes meat and dairy and high-fat foods like french fries. The lowly vegetable usually doesn’t receive the same treatment. In addition, a lot of schools don’t have the room or the money for a real kitchen, and wind up outsourcing their lunch program to vendors who supply highly processed reheatable foods, a practice which is, in some cases, prompting boycotts.

One way to change this is to get the kids themselves interested in what they eat. To make this possible,Georgia Organics founded a Farm-to-School program partnering with our local schools to help them find the tools and resources needed to take charge of their own nutrition.
From their website:
A typical Farm to School Program may include:
* An edible school garden, planted by maintained by students, teachers, parents, school staff and community members.
* An Integrated curriculum focusing on nutrition, science, biology, math and local community history.
* Farm field trips and farm education that explores local economics, biological systems, local environmental issues and the holistic connection that links food, health, the environment, and local economics.
* Hands on food preparation and taste testings featuring fresh, local foods

Thanks to these efforts, some needed changes were made by the Atlanta Public School system, including the founding of their own nutrition department. Based on these new guidelines, and with the help of several local organizations, the community, and a nice grant, Burgess Peterson Academy (my neighborhood’s elementary school) started their own organic garden.

It’s small, but it’s a start, and has so far been receiving an incredible amount of community support.
I’m really excited about the potential of this program, and others like it, even though I don’t have children. Just look at what some other schools have been able to do with similar programs. (video)

I confess: I have a terrible time finding gifts for my husband. I suspect I’m not the only girl who feels this way, so here’s the flip side of yesterday’s list… gifts for the men in your life!

First up: Ok, just like the TV says women want jewelry, I always thought it was pretty funny how ads for men seem to always be electric razors (anyone else notice this?) I’ve been putting together a nice shaving set for my husband (it’s ok, he already knows) and that seems like a nice place to start this list.
Here’s a nice brush and soap set, all ready to ship from Etsy seller Naiad:

Need a gift for that man who’s never without his laptop? How about some of these awesome retro vinyl laptop stickers? (don’t worry, they’re removable)

Or, Maybe your man could use a little help in the wardrobe department? Here’s an awesome twist on a standard necktie from ToyBreaker:

(actually, this shop has so many awesome ties I really don’t know which ones to post…)

oh, and how about these awesome sterling silver cufflinks? Every man needs a pair of cufflinks…

Or hey, how about some awesome original art? This zombie/tiki print is by local illustrator Scott Thigpen.

And last but n ot least, you could always get him a classy vintage hat… Don Draper, anyone?