Camembert, books and crafts

My camembert cheese from my course at the end of October is maturing quite nicely. It has grown all of it's white mould, so now I have cryovaced it and it is in the fridge waiting to be eaten as a Christmas treat.

 I have purchased myself a couple of books in the last couple of weeks. I saw this book today, and grabbed it. It is a huge book, a couple of inches thick, with so many old classic recipes in it.

  I picked up this book at Spotlight a couple of weeks back, it is a lovely book with lots of lovely sewing projects for the home, but all are with a modern look.

I knitted up this scarf as a gift for my heartsister in Melbourne, as well as this lovely heart sachet, which I thought was apt for my heartsister. The heartsister idea is through the Simple Savings website, and we send a gift or card or thought to someone anonomously each month or so, and we receive something from someone else, and at the end of 12 months, we all reveal who we are a heartsister to. It's a nice way to make some new friends, sort of like a penpal, but a little different.

I managed to finish off the Christmas shopping today, which is great because Kasey finishes school tomorrow, and I didn't want to be traipsing around the shops trying to think with Kasey in tow. So now we can concentrate on doing fun things in the lead up to Christmas, and go to the movies and other Christmas time activities.  So just need to finish the wrapping, and a few hand  made things, and that's it. The shops were so busy as well, people absolutely everywhere, and it's only going to get worse, so I m glad I don't have any more shopping to do, other than grocery shopping.

Cheesemaking

I signed up for a cheese making course about 6 months ago, which I spent the weekend in Brisbane doing. We made lots of different cheeses such as Quark, Milk Ricotta, Whey Ricotta, Chabichou, Cheddar, Camembert, Mozarella and a Greek Fetta. It was a very busy couple of days, with lots to learn and lots of different processes to get our heads around. But it all came together by the end of the course, so I am just waiting for the cultures and rennet that I have ordered to arrive, and then I will make the first home cheese that they recommend we make so we continue on with making cheeses.

Above, Cheddar cheese, there is 2 hours of constant stirring to make this, and it takes 9-12 months to mature, a lot of work, so large batches would definitely be beneficial in making cheddar.

 This is a Greek Feta above, this should be ready to eat in a couple of weeks, and I will marinate this one.

 This is fresh Mozarella above, this is ready to eat now, I am looking forward to making up some fresh home made pizzas with this.

 This is Chabichou above, I have never heard of this cheese before, it's a creamy cheese.

Above, half of the Chabichou has been marinated in a oil, herb and garlic marinade.

 Above, the other half of the chabichou has been left as is to eat with fresh crusty bread or crackers.

This is Quark above, again a creamy cheese.

Above, this is Whey Ricotta, I will make up some filos or ravioli's with this I think, I have heaps of silverbeet to use up which will go nicely with this in some filos or ravioli.

 This is milk ricotta above, this is best eaten the day it is made, again I will use this in some cooking dishes.

Above is Camembert, I am waiting for the white mould to grow on the outside, should be about 6 weeks until this is ready to eat.

At the end of the course, we finished off with a wine and cheese tasting meal, so I got to try some different cheeses, I mainly like cheddars and creamier cheeses, the mouldy and really pungent cheeses definitely are too strong for my palette, as were the goat and sheep milk cheeses,  but the triple cream camemberts and double bries were lovely, and not something that I would have gone out and bought for myself to try, so now I know what sort of cheeses to both buy and make, as there is no point in making something that none of us will eat. I also bought some yoghurt cultures, so will try making up our home made yoghurt with those instead of the couple of spoonfuls of easiyo starter....I think it will be even cheaper again to use those. We are heading away to Kolonga this weekend, and I know that the cheeses will be appreciated up there, so will take some up to share with platters over the weekend, which will be nice. I was a bit iffy about going to do the course, but I am really glad now that I put myself out of my comfort zone and went and did the course, I met some lovely people, a couple of really nice ladies in particular, and I may look at doing the Cheese Making course module 2 some time next year if I continue on in the mean time and make some different cheeses.