Tuesday, December 30, 2008
New Camera
Having acquired a new camera over Christmas, I can assure you that, if nothing else, this blog will have more pictures than ever, many of them strange. Enjoy.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
More Mozzarella
Just wanted to add a few thoughts to follow on my original mozzarella post. I'm blown away by how easy and cheap it was to make the cheese. It took 45 minutes of my time, and less than three dollars of ingredients. By comparison, it takes about an hour and a half to go to the Italian Centre and back, and about $4.50 to buy the equivalent amount of mozzarella. Funny that making my own mozzarella would take less effort and be less expensive than just buying it.
I sometimes wonder what we've lost to our consumerist culture. Don't get me wrong, there are many things that I'd rather buy than manufacture myself (cars, apartments, computers, etc). But at the same time, I feel like we've been cheated out of parts of our past, simply because they've been taken over by businesses. When I decided to try making mozzarella cheese, I had no idea how hard it would be or how long it would take. I had absolutely no notion of what cheese-making entails. I imagine most people don't, either. Indeed, because it's become so uncommon, it took me several days to round up the rennet I needed. This wasn't due to some scarcity of the rennet itself ($4 will buy you enough for 500 litres of milk), but because no one could tell me where to find any. It's sad that this simple, inexpensive, yet rewarding activity has slipped beneath the cultural radar.
I truly don't plan on buying mozzarella from a store ever again. It's simply not worth the time, money, or effort. It would be like buying pre-toasted, microwavable toast. It makes me happy to know that, one day, if I have children, they'll grow up knowing how to make their own cheese, and will find it strange when they make their first friends, only to discover that not every family makes their own cheese. Once again, it's a good thing to have supermarkets in which we can buy all of those items that we couldn't prepare on our own, but let's not give up on the simple things, the things we can do for ourselves.
I sometimes wonder what we've lost to our consumerist culture. Don't get me wrong, there are many things that I'd rather buy than manufacture myself (cars, apartments, computers, etc). But at the same time, I feel like we've been cheated out of parts of our past, simply because they've been taken over by businesses. When I decided to try making mozzarella cheese, I had no idea how hard it would be or how long it would take. I had absolutely no notion of what cheese-making entails. I imagine most people don't, either. Indeed, because it's become so uncommon, it took me several days to round up the rennet I needed. This wasn't due to some scarcity of the rennet itself ($4 will buy you enough for 500 litres of milk), but because no one could tell me where to find any. It's sad that this simple, inexpensive, yet rewarding activity has slipped beneath the cultural radar.
I truly don't plan on buying mozzarella from a store ever again. It's simply not worth the time, money, or effort. It would be like buying pre-toasted, microwavable toast. It makes me happy to know that, one day, if I have children, they'll grow up knowing how to make their own cheese, and will find it strange when they make their first friends, only to discover that not every family makes their own cheese. Once again, it's a good thing to have supermarkets in which we can buy all of those items that we couldn't prepare on our own, but let's not give up on the simple things, the things we can do for ourselves.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Bella Mozza
I learned how to make mozzarella cheese. This is now the only skill I have that would be of any use in a post-apocalyptic world.
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