not-so-brie adventures

Well, my cheese has taken an interesting turn. Apparently my improvised cheese press (by which I mean a contraption devised of a bamboo steamer, wax paper, cardboard, and a bucket of sea glass) did not press a sufficient amount of whey out of the curd and the resultant overly-moist cake fell to bits when I tried to dry it. I took a moment to taste it as I was gathering up the pieces and noticed that it is not particularly brie-ish. I've never heard of anyone making straight-up brie from kefir and I wonder if the microbe mix from the kefir is simply destined to turn this into a feta-like cheese (I've made kefir cheese with chevre starter before and it pretty much instantly turned into something feta-like, but I wasn't sure if the chevre or the kefir had more of a hand in it). So I mashed it back up, rolled it into a log with thyme, sage, and sesame seeds on the outside, wrapped it up and tossed it into the fridge to forget about for a while. If the brie culture wins, it'll hopefully rind over within the next two weeks. If the kefir culture wins, I'll have a sharp spreadable cheese. Either way, I win because I get cheese.

Oh, right! Also, I made two batches of kombucha starter out of loose leaf tea and a bottle and a half of GT's in hopes of growing my own mother colony. I know, I know, one more thing to carry on the move. But that thing is friggin' three bucks a bottle at Whole Paycheck! Can you blame me?

ETA: yes, this is how I procrastinate. Fox is very puzzled by how my procrastination is so productive. Usually blogging or cooking are what I do when I'm agitated or out of inspiration, and I think I've earned it this past week. I'll be hearing back from my doctor hopefully soon...