Stick to What You Know

Every spring I plant vegetables. Last year my crop was not so good, so this year I added lots of ammendments to the soil and started early. I am growing several varieties of tomatoes and several varieties of squash. Other than that, all I have is some arugula, basil, flat leaf parsley and a few other herbs. The plants have gone crazy this year, and I should have my first tomatoes in about three weeks.

All those tomatoes gave me an idea. Since tomatoes and mozzarella is one of my favorite salads, I decided to try my hand at making, from scratch, buffalo mozzarella. Not a good idea. It sounded so easy. It was a disaster.

I had to go to three stores to get the simple ingredients, milk, rennet tablets and citric acid. Ralphs didn't have these things, but I found them at Stater Bros. The directions were so easy, but it simply did not work for me. You're supposed to heat the milk until curds form, but I only got a few curds, not enough for even a small ball of mozzarella. I ended up having the milk boil over and making a mess, then burning the pan. I threw the whole thing out and will not try again unless I'm under the guidance of someone who knows what they're doing.

Some things in life are meant to be purchased, not made by me. I guess cheese is one of those. I learned 40 years ago that wine was something else I should purchase rather than make. When Ron and I were first married, my friend Ellen and I decided to make red wine, just like they did on I Love Lucy. You all remember the scene where Lucy and Ethel are stomping grapes. Well, Susie and Ellen went to the store, bought the grapes and put them in the bathtub to stomp them. It really was great fun. Then we followed the directions, transferred the juice to a glass Sparkletts bottle and capped it with a cork. We put it in the living room to ferment.

About two weeks later I came home from work to find my living room ceiling decorated with grape juice and pieces of grape skin. The fermentation had gone crazy and exploded. That was the end of my wine making career. As I said in the beginning, some things are better off purchased. Cheese and wine are definitely two things I'll be buying, rather than making.