Cabot factory tour

I went to a cheesy tourist attraction in Vermont, and it was actually pretty fun. First of all, I learned that butter is only made at the factory in Massachusetts. Second, I learned it is really easy to make cheese, and pretty quick. This guy is making basic cheddar with tomato basil. The curds are poured in one vat, and the whey is poured off through a pipe and saved. Then the curds are churned, and salts and flavorings are added.

Once everything is well mixed and ready, the cheese gets compressed into big blocks to get rid of any air bubbles, and these blocks are shrink wrapped. Then they go to a storage site and sit on shelves until the cheese is properly aged. Cheese testers come along and take core samples from every batch. They sniff and taste the samples to decide if the cheese is mild, sharp, extra sharp, and so on. Then the cheese is repachaged in smaller blocks and we eat it!

Then we are happy, like this:

Grape grafts

A new discovery was made in Vermont. One grape half green, half red. Interestingly enough, the same effect can be accomplished with two people:

Frittata

In addition to the apple crisp, Connie and I made a frittata with onion, green pepper, tomatoes, and some cheese. Although I just did a little reading about frittatas, and I don't really think we made a true frittata. We whisked together eggs, milk (actually I used a little yogurt and water), s&p, and the filling, and then poured this into a dish and popped it in a hot oven, and let it bake until it was set.

I read that a real fritatta is poured in a hot skillet and started on the stove top, then finished in the oven. Maybe I will try this next time.

Carla originally turned me on to frittatas. I'm not really sure if I even knew what they were until Carla started making huge vats of frittata for the hungry-hungry hippies of Oberlin.

Apple crisp

Last week my parents and I went to Vermont, and we were kind of obsessed with farm stands and farmers' markets. We bought a big bag of tart apples (4 varities) for $1.50, and last night, back in Dorchester, Connie and I turned a bunch of these apples into an apple crisp with an oat topping. We added a splash of maple syrup to the standard oat topping (oats, flour, butter, salt, sugar) to contribute to the Vermont theme.

Inedible! From the garden

I attempted growing a few vegetables in my front yard, including tomatoes, cucumbers, and wax beans. I left these wax beans on the vine too long, and they were mealy, with overly developed seed-bean parts.

Last night I had two tomatoes that tasted pretty good, but nothing like Alabama tomatoes from my grandma. Also, there are amazing tomatoes to be had in Ohio.

Vacation, east and west

I have been taking a lot of time off latley, and ate lots of food other people cooked. Like this shared breakfast of grits, egss florentine, and cinnamon roll in Arizona. I love eggs florentine, but I always forget to ask for extra spinach, the best part. Maybe I will learn how to make it at home.

Pickles

My friend Marc sent me this story that I really enjoyed. I think my favorite pickles in the Boston area are the homemade ones at the East Coast Grill. I wish I could eat them every day.