I Had to Smile

Mrs, D., a dear friend and "second mom" to me, was scared to death of home-made goat cheese. Not because of an "Eeek! It's not from the store! It's not safe!" or whatever. She's been a goat mama for a bazillion years, drinks the milk raw, etc. just like me. So why the problem with cheese? Welllll...

Once upon a time, a friend invited Mrs. D. to her house. The friend said, "Oh, you must try my goat cheese! It's the most amazing thing in the world!" So Mrs. D. went to visit. The friend chattered about how easy cheese was. Why, all you do is leave the milk on the counter until the cream separates (for those unfamiliar, goat milk cream doesn't separate naturally from milk for, oh, WEEKS!) and then you cook it up with stuff and it gloms into cheese! So easy!

Mrs. D. had to eat it to be polite, of course. How do you gracefully say, "HA! I ain't touchin THAT with a 10-foot-pole!" So she did. And it was the worst thing she'd ever eaten.

She officially swore off eating goat cheese.

And then Saturday happened. I came to the D house for a small gathering of friends, with a batch of chevre cheese that I'd flavored with some dill, onion powder, garlic powder, and whatever else smelled good, so that we could dip veggies in it. Turned out that we girls all nattered too much to eat, and by the time the visit was over, we'd completely forgotten that we were going to have snacks! So sadly I picked up the cheese and went my way, knowing I'd missed an opportunity to have the D family try GOOD cheese.

Well.

Yesterday, Mrs. D. sent me an email saying that she and the oldest daughter snitched some while we weren't looking, and WOW! It was so GOOD! And now Cora MUST come over and teach them!

So today, I will put on my chef's hat and teach cheesemaking! :-)