Back: Rediscovering passions in a freshly painted kitchen

                                                                     Well, it's been a while since my last post. The summer was full of adventures, leading canoe trips in the beauty Temagami region of Ontario, and now that I'm back at school the adventures continue although they are more culinary and less wilderness-y. It felt like yesterday was the first day that food came back into focus for me in a big way. Perhaps it was buying a Zagat guide to plan a tour of Montreal's restaurants; it might have been the little conversation I had with my friend Jacob who has been blogging about his shift to a vegan diet at  http://www.r4n0k.com; or maybe it was cutting up hot peppers with my friend Mike to make hotsauce on Sunday; but I was reminded of how excited I get about food- preparing it, looking at it, tasting it, talking about it.

So last night it all came together. Jamina, my housemate, has some friends visiting, and it seems whenever we have visitors, my cheese-making knowledge is called upon. I may actually have become a tourist attraction of sorts- just like you should eat a cheesesteak in Philly, you should make cheese with Chris in Ste-Anne. Unfortunately when I left Pennsylvania at the end of the summer I forgot my thermometer, rennet and cultures along with my nice perforated ladel, so my capabilities are limited. However, ricotta is easy to make and doesn't really require any of that equipment. We also happened to have some lasagna noodles in our cupboard- all of a sudden, evening meal plans were becoming obvious! 

Part of the reason the culinary adventures hadn't started sooner, was that our kitchen had been kind of out of commission. It was in desperate need of love and we undertook its painting. So it was only recently that our tangerine-fizz orange and plantain green kitchen was usable. 

Anyways, we put the gallon of whole milk on medium heat around 5pm. I decided it had reached 185 degrees F when the milk was steaming and slight froth had formed at the edges. The pot came off the heat, in went the 1/3cup of white vinegar and a pinch of salt, and it was left to sit. 

An hour later, I was anxious for the curd to be ready, but it definitely needed more time. After two hours, it still didn't look great. I gave it a stir, and immediately regretted it- it was awfully milky and probably just needed to sit undisturbed.  I walked away, but I couldn't stay away. Around 8pm I decided with a little more heat the cheese might happen. I put the heat back on- I was only planning on ten minutes, but all of a sudden back in my econ reading a half hour had gone by. I rushed back to the kitchen, opened the lid expecting the worst, but there, in the pot was a nicely separated mixture of curds and whey. I poured the contents into the cheesecloth-lined colander, already in the sink. 

I let the cheese drain about ten minutes, and in the mean time I got out a pyrex dish, whatever tomato sauce we had kicking around, some mushrooms; I put on some water for the noodles, and took out an onion, some garlic and a shallot, all taken from our generous campus garden. My noise in the kitchen brought in others and as I still had reading to do, after the ricotta got out of the cheesecloth and into a bowl, I passed on the cooking. Somehow I got through my economics chapters and came out to see a delicious looking bean salad with chick peas, kidney beans, cucumbers and red bell peppers; Emily was preparing garlic bread from a fresh baguette, and a vegetarian lasagna with homemade ricotta cheese, spinach and mushrooms was in the oven!

All of a sudden our apartment was bustling; Mike, Roman, and Basel came over from next door, and all eight of us sat down to enjoy a late meal in our living room. It didn't matter that I should've been in bed or that there was a pile of dishes- I was reminded of the joys that come with food- the satisfaction in making something for oneself and the community that forms around meals.