Camping Weekend

We headed out to the coast this weekend for a camping trip with some friends. Google maps gave us ridiculously terrible directions that landed us smack in the middle of murder road at 11:00 at night. Following Google blindly (never really a good idea), we started out on Hwy 1, made turn after turn onto progressively smaller roads (the last few had no lines) and finally found ourselves saying, "Do you think it could be down this gravel road?" We finally shook ourselves into reality and realized that Google had done us wrong. Just then, I remembered that I had printed out a brochure from the state park we were headed to and that it had a map at the back of it. Which promptly took us directly to our destination. Luckily Neil, Lindsey and Alec had headed up earlier in the day and so we arrived to find the campsite already prepared, a fire roaring and wine at the ready. Ahh, that's my kind of camping.

We stayed at Salt Point State Park which is about 18 miles north of Jenner and about 2.5 hours from San Francisco. I picked it because it was one of the only parks that still had online reservations available. Californians are serious about their camping, apparently. If you want to camp somewhere any time after June 1, you better start making your reservations in December. I don't remember it being quite that cutthroat in Oregon, but maybe I just have my rose-colored glasses on, which is usually the case when it comes to the Pacific Northwest. :)

Anyway, the campground was really lovely, with big, secluded sites set into a nice, wooded area. We got a nice big spot, large enough to accomodate all three of our tents. There was also a racoon box included, to lock all your food away from the pesky little furballs. Unfortunately, there was no lock provided, so we secured ours with a stick. Neil woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of scuffling, looked out of the tent and saw a racoon with his hand up in the cabinet, just looking right back at him. The stick held, but the racoon could still get his little paw inside. Luckily, all we lost was an apple.

We started Saturday off with a fantastic breakfast of granola, yogurt and loads of fruit, then followed that up with some tidepool exploring, where Lindsey proved to be the star of interacting with the wildlife. I don't think there was an anemone left un-touched by the time we left the beach. There were tons of little crabs scurrying around. We also saw a sea star eating a crab. I didn't know they did that. It was pretty gnarly.

Then we ate a ridiculously delicious lunch of grilled cheese and apple sandwiches. Yes, you heard me right - cheddar and apple slices, on the sandwich, and grilled. Talk about gourmet camping food. After that, we needed a nap. Although it was super-windy out on the beach, the campsite remained pretty well protected and it was really pleasant there - perfect for napping.

After waking refreshed, we ended the day's physical activities with a nice hike along the bluff overlooking the ocean.

The rocks around Salt Point are sandstone, and they are simply beautiful in the afternoon light. They are soft and tawny and warm.

We spotted some sea life - seals and well, that's all - but the seals were super-cute out sunning themselves on the rocks.

There was also some really beautiful flora - sea grasses waving in the wind, succulents in brilliant reds and contrasting greens.

 It was really windy out on the bluffs and I kept having to drag Swarley into the wind. Every time we stopped to look at something, he would try to turn around and start walking back towards the cars. When we finally did turn around, with the wind at our backs, he picked up the pace and was trotting out front, leading the crowd.

After dinner, we had a rousing game of Apples to Apples, roasted some delicious s'mores, had a lovely chat session around the fire and then headed off to bed.

We were the last ones out of the campground on Sunday morning after a leisurely breakfast. We stopped in Healdsburg at the Bear Republic Brewery for some delicious beer and lunch and then back home to the City. Camping is not exactly the most leisurely activity, I arrived home completely exhausted - but it's worth the exhaustion for so much great scenery and exploration and good times with good friends!

Warning: graphic pictures of cheese curds

I told one of my friends that I had made cheese and that I had pictures, and she thought she would be totally grossed out by the cheese curds and whatnot, so therefore, I thought I would put a general warning out there to anyone terrified of cheese curds. Do not read any further if you have a cheese curd problem. I think they look pretty cool, actually.

It's been about 3 weeks now since I made my first ever cheese (besides ricotta which doesn't count because it uses common kitchen ingredients, not special supplies), but the glow still hasn't worn off. I don't know what it is that is so exciting about making something like cheese. There is just kind of a mystique about it - it seems like a magical, complicated procedure that a common human shouldn't be able to perform without extensive training. Or something like that. So to be able to turn it out in an afternoon and have it actually taste good, is pretty darn fun. Granted, I didn't make an aged Cheddar or a Gruyere or a Gouda. I made cream cheese. But still.

So the process went something like this: Heat up a big pot of milk and cream. Add the culture that you buy from the cheese lady (http://www.cheesemaking.com/). Stir it in. Add the rennet. I used vegetable rennet for no particular reason. I guess, originally, animal-based rennet came from the stomach of cows and the thought of using stomach in my cheese...I don't know...Plus, this way vegetarians can eat my cheese! :) So you stir the rennet in, cover the pot with a tea towel and then just let it sit for 18 hours. I got up the next morning so excited to check out the cheese! It had firmed up until it was about the consistency of greek yogurt.

I cut it up into cubes and loosened it from the edges of the pot, then I poured the whole thing into a big colander lined with cheesecloth.

The curds had separated from the whey, and so you have to give it time for all of the whey to drip out of the cheese, so I rigged up the cheesecloth to dangle from the water faucet. And I just let it dangle for 8 hours or so. It really reduced in size as the whey dripped out. The cheesecloth was probably about half as full at the end of the dripping period.

Then, to finish it off and to squeeze out the last bit of whey, I put the cheese in a pasta strainer (b/c it fits so nicely into the pot), placed it over a pot, put a plate on top of the cheese in the strainer and placed a weight on top of the cheese. The book said to use a couple of bricks. Well, there didn't happen to be any bricks laying around the house, and I couldn't really put my finger on anything that heavy. Until I spied our dominos set. It worked out perfectly. I dumped them all in a plastic bag and they were nice and flexible to fit down into the strainer on top of the plate. I put the whole contraption in the fridge and let it sit overnight.

The next morning I woke up and, voila - cream cheese!! Well, close, anyway. I put the drained cheese into a bowl and kneaded in a bunch of cheese salt, and then formed them into two little patties, wrapped them in plastic wrap and it was all good to go.

I didn't get to taste it right away, because I was already late for work (cheese-making not being part of my usual morning routine), but tried it the next morning on some homemade bagels and it was really good! It was nice and creamy, with an interesting tang to it. It didn't taste anything like the cream cheese that you get from the store, but I'm okay with that.

So cheese-making success has been achieved. Next up, Mozarella!! And then I might think about investing in a cheese cave so I can move on to the aged Cheddar, Gouda and Gruyere! And then, maybe I'll get a cow and some goats to have my own milk! And then... Oh dear, this could get out of control.

Neil

Katie called me a slacker the other day for not updating my blog and I guess it is about time. What's the news been? Neil graduated about three weeks ago and had his big MFA graduate exhibition. It went well, but he was exhausted when it was all over. It was a crazy week of installation, very few hours of sleep, family, graduation, eating and we basically just crashed when it was all over. The last couple weeks have been so nice, getting to see Neil before 10pm almost every night, and having him around the house on Saturdays and Sundays! He moved all of his stuff out of his studio this week, and into a storage unit and I think that really made it sink in to him that he really is done. He's been a little bit mopey the last few days, and I don't really blame him. He's had a great couple of years. And he counted his paintings as he was moving out and he said it was around 45. So, it's been a very productive couple of years, as well.

For your viewing enjoyment, here's a little visual re-counting of his time at school, in paintings:

First semester, first year:

Second semester, first year:

First semester, second year:

Final semester, second year:

It's been quite a journey, as you can see from the shifts in his paintings every semester. So now, Neil's preparing to enter the real world again - searching the job listings and going on interviews. It's not nearly as fun as art school, but that's life, I guess. As soon as he gets a job, he'll look for a studio and continue on with the painting, and hopefully do some research into galleries.

I made my first cheese last weekend, a cream cheese that turned out pretty tasty. I have pictures and want to show you all the fun steps, but I need to make dinner now, so that'll have to wait until another day!