The City Mouse in the Country

    So what do you do when you find yourself alone on Mother's day?   It was a truly miserable day of low temperatures, howling wind and at one point, about an inch of snow on my front yard.        Well if your me...you make cheese.   Not one, but two different types of cheese.  Both of which you have never made before and wanted to experiment with. I'm actually happy to call both a success, although the quick mozzarella I made missed the mark in my opinion.        That's the fun thing however, and so far I've been pretty successful in my cheese making endeavors.  I was not going to do a post about cheese making however, generally speaking they are only popular with 3 - 5 people and I don't really have a lot of great photo's to share this time.  However I decided to because one of them is a bit unusual, a lot of fun and simple to make.   Although it is time consuming. Juusoliapa - final product        When I was out gathering some things for some vegan cheese

          By the time I actually post this, Earth Day will have passed and honestly I could not think of a better way to celebrate Earth Day , than talk about the health of the planet and my personal healthier living goals.  No, this is not an ego post.     However the two are intertwined.   There are only a few people on this planet that still deny that we humans have a negative impact on the planet.  We, as an entire collective species, also don't seem to care.  Frankly if we would have started changing things around 30 years; we may not be in the mess we are today.  But, here we are.     That being said I'm not a climate scientist.  I don't have an advanced degree or specialized knowledge or even a crystal ball.   What I do have is a sense of history, an ability to take a large variety of data and connect the dots.  After all, I've made a living out of educated guesses based on the data I have at hand and I've been doing it fairly well for nearly 30 + years.

      I'm going to keep this simple.   One of the reasons why Sue and I moved back to Western Pennsylvania was due to our desire for healthier living.       Sue has had some various health problems through the years and has managed to fight them all.  She's a strong resilient woman and one of the many reasons I love her is that she is a fighter.   Many people would have given up, but she keeps on keeping on.  For privacy, I will not go into what ails her.      I, on the other hand, have a pretty strong constitution and want to keep it that way.  So when my doctor starts telling me he's worried about "cholesterol" and "high blood pressure" I can't help but pay attention.  Both my parents have heart disease and it's something that I've been aware of my whole life.  Both Sue and I actually try to maintain a low salt diet for example.       That's tough to do when your a hedonist and a foodie at heart.  Living out here in the country does lea

    We are having my family over for Easter.       Generally speaking I'm happy about this.   I don't get to see my brother and his family very often.  I'm sure that my niece will have a bit of fun feeding our next door neighbor, Billy the horse. as well as enjoying a good dinner of glazed Ham, carrots with some pesto and my homemade ricotta, scalloped potato's and maybe some grilled asparagus.       Easter is also a time of rebirth, a call back to simpler times when the natural cycles of the world held sway.   Both Susan and I are non religious, believing in Science more than some Higher Power but we are both smart enough to know that traditions matter; and that deep down we are still hardwired to be thankful for warmer days ahead. Blessing of the Easter Baskets     This is also the first major holiday since Thanksgiving that we will have family over.  Sadly my brother and I have little in common and completely different memories of growing up in the same home.  Si

      I recently read something that both surprised me and shocked me.   I was not looking for a research project, I wasn't even looking for anything but a distraction.   The problem is this particular distraction combined a few things that I love.   Food, being one of them, and History being the other.   It also contained a mystery; which at first seemed like a shock.  However it really something I had never really thought about before...but after a day of research all the puzzle pieces fell into place and it made sense.     So what was the mystery?    Exactly.     Japanese, and to a lesser extent Chinese culture had never really developed a Cheese or Dairy Culture.    I knew for example that in Tibet and other areas Yak's were used for the production of dairy.  Yak's milk is around 6 to 11% butterfat, meaning that it is perfect for things like yogurt, butter and cheese.  Water buffalo and even cattle were also known to both cultures.     However "dairy culture"

 **edit - I received some feedback that the links I share are not always visible.  So I am going to try highlighting them for now to see if that helps.** Maybe an actual photo of me?        Spring is coming, there is even a countdown clock for it available on the internet.  So far the winter hasn't been as bad as I had feared.   We have only had a few days where the temperature has dropped below freezing and for the most part the snow has been manageable.   I've managed to only have to shovel my driveway a handful of times this year.  We are currently experiencing the coldest snap of the year but the day is sunny and bright and that helps.     I have to admit that I'm not happy at this moment, being wrapped up in sweaters and wearing thermal pajamas to bed each night.  However, I remind myself that this to shall pass.     I moved South to escape the cold and moved back up north to escape the every increasing heat in the South.  I do believe in Global Warming and remember m

      I was thinking about something that I posted on my companion Facebook page as I drove home my brother's house in Pittsburgh the other night.   I was also thinking about how in the previous week or so I had submitted some previous things that I wrote for review with a paying publisher.        A few years ago, I wrote a short story because it demanded to be written.  I was up every day for several months at 5 AM, writing for two or 3 or 4 hours.   The short story become a novella...then a novel.  I edited it and reedited it in the months since, then a published author friend of mine gave me an "in" with her publisher.  I submitted my work.   It was  rejected, which is not that uncommon.  I took the rejection letter in stride...and took their advice to heart as well.   They pointed out a few strengths and weakness's in my writing as well as giving me the tools to improve my work.  When I resubmitted the piece, it was still rejected but my overall score was higher

    Hey everyone!  Did you know that this page now has a companion Facebook page?    It will have articles, memes and such that interest me that relate to this page but don't really apply.  Be sure to check it o ut!     OK...I hate cliche's.  Those terms and expressions that have been so overused that they lost meaning.       As I tried to write this blog entry, I found myself using more and more of them.  That's not creative, that's not even that interesting.  There is absolutely no reason that I should be boring myself...AND I AM THE FREAKING AUTHOR!       The problem is that Susan and I got into a little bit of discussion the other day.   It was over my current hobby of making cheese.   I was planning on making an Amish cheese that required the buttermilk to basically "spoil" before using it.  The correct way to do this is to use uncultured buttermilk and "culture" for 24 hours before making the cheese.     I let me "cultured" buttermi