Cheesemaking and Passing the Time Projects

Last week, we made cheese because we are grasping for straws or rather, I was grasping for straws. The cheese was very good. It was ricotta and it was the first time I have ever made cheese.  We made it at my older son’s insistence with a kit that had been sitting on my dresser since he was a baby.  He is the curious type and wanted to see what was inside. I made the cheese because the kit was a birthday gift and I felt like I waited long enough to use it so what better time than the present.

I hope that making it lived up to my son’s expectations because it was not an instant process.  I know he got bored with the waiting for the curds to form.  I stared at the cheese pot for much longer than I initially planned on staring because the cheese volcano did not erupt until the gallon of milk had been on the stove for at least 30 minutes. Then I did most of the straining of the curds from the whey after he went to school. That is all the ricotta making process was really, warming milk and heavy cream on the stove, waiting for the cheese to boil for one second, taking it off the stove, and straining it. 

This pandemic is getting very old. Of course, I am very glad that I don’t have Covid and I understand the ways in which it has upended the lives of many people.  

So I feel bad about complaining, but I am running out of things to do with two small children, in the winter, when most indoor things aren’t happening or alternated in such a way that we are less interested in doing them. 

The thing about not having anything to do is not entirely true. My true superpower in life is that I can come up with many ideas of things to at any one time. It is a gift. Sometimes I get annoyed with other people who aren’t as gifted with the ability to come up with ideas.  My problem, right now, is that I don’t have the passion driving me towards any of those ideas. Nothing is really calling out to me to want to do them right now. 

It is six am and I can hear the wind howling outside the kitchen window. The high today will be 24 degrees. I have a daily goal of getting outside every day during the daylight for ½ hour every day. I was going to bribe my children into going with me to a playground this morning but with a real feel temperature of 7 degrees this afternoon, I am rethinking it. 

What we are most likely going to do today is move on to the next cheese in the cheesemaking kit.  Today’s cheese is queso blanco, a Latin American soft cheese.  In order to give our Covid lives structure and excitement, we have declared Friday night’s to be pizza night.  However, in honor our our new cheese product, I think tonight we have tacos tonight!  

The funny thing is that going back to thinking about the cheesemaking process that we did last Friday actually got me a little excited about cheesemaking again.  And maybe that is the trick. These stay-at-home, early 2021 days are long. I think the trick is to do the things every day that need to be done, then after those things are completed, find one thing that excites you a little and go from there.  The spark will grow, hopefully. It worked for me. 

I ran the queso blanco idea past the 5 year old and he told me, “No” because he wants to make butter instead.  Well, we don’t have all the materials for butter. Perhaps then, we will still make queso blanco, but my goal for the day will be working with the 5 year old to be more flexible and that will give my life purpose. 

What are you excited about right now? (even if it is just a little excited)