Cheese.
According to my rules, if the food item is within the realm of possibility of being made at home without investing in thousands of dollars of equipment or requiring months to prepare (bread: yes; olive oil: no), I have to make it myself. I can make fresh cheese, such as queso fresco, cottage cheese, chevre and even mozzarella, but I can't make harder cheeses than this.
I'm sure that if I had a spare refrigerator, a cheese press and some supplies, I could make an edible cheddar, jack or swiss cheese. Jack cheese might even be ready within the three-month window of the project. But the budget for this little experiment has been exhausted with all the other equipment and supplies I need.
So none of our staple cheeses for the length of the project. No swiss and mushroom omelettes. No American-style tacos topped with thin, airy curls of cheddar. No gooey cheese enchiladas, no salad topped with crumbles of blue cheese, no slivers of manchego with kalamata olives and a glass of red wine. And pasta without Parmesan? As the song goes, "On top of spaghetti, all covered with CHEESE..."
Frankly, I panicked. Inside my head is a little kid saying, "No no no no no no no!" I'm a cheese addict. If there's no cheese in the fridge, there's no food in the house.
I didn't realize how much I had come to rely on semi-hard and hard cheese until faced with the prospect of going without. I can't put it off any longer. But oh, how I'll miss them, all those lovely pressed and aged cheeses.
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hmm you know what I know you wanted to do EVERYTHING from scratch but what about just going and getting cheese that is locally made instead of mass produced cheese. Wouldn't that qualify?? Cow Girl Creamery is great and maybe you could look up local cheese makers? Just a thought. Heheh i realize this post is months old but the idea just popped in my head.
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