Mozarella! And more!

I am currently reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, et. al., and thoroughly enjoying it. In the book, she mentions Ricki Carroll, aka the "Cheese Queen". Of course I had to check it out, since I had been wondering just how difficult it is to make cheese. (Or not.)

WELL.

Some of these (especially the 30-minute Mozarella) are going on my to-do list for vacation.

Cup Cheese. Farmer's Cheese. And more! And even more!

Wow. What a great resource! And it doesn't seem so terribly difficult, either!

Evidently, Creeping Charlie (also known as ground ivy) is a source for vegetable rennet used in cheese. Now all I have to do is find out how to make that, because I have lots of ground ivy around the garden. Lots and lots and lots.

Tea!

From the left: Teavana Black Currant, Raspberry Sangria, Rose Marzipan Delight, Adagio Raspberry Patch with Oolong #8, and Teavana Thai Tea Blend. In the cup: Adagio Raspberry Patch with some Orange Pekoe tea.

Crockpot Chicken

Yesterday morning at 6:15am, I put a whole chicken in my crockpot, shook some dried herbs (basil, rosemary, garlic powder, and a seasoned salt mix that contains peppers, among other things) and turned it on low. (I added no water, because everything I read said the chicken would create its own juice.)

12 hours later, I came home to a wonderfully smelling house, a tender chicken, and a yummy supper.

The top was a bit dry. I think a bit of olive oil brushed on top at the beginning might help this; I'm going to try it next time.

But I will definitely do this again.

Barbeque chicken pizza and calzones

This was my first attempt at calzones. Obviously they didn't really work, but at least all the filling didn't escape. I ate the pizza for supper, so we'll see how the calzones taste for lunch tomorrow.

Oolong Tea

After much taste-testing, I have discovered that I really like Oolong Tea. And no, not just because the name is fun to say--Oooooolong--but because the taste is smooth and as close to my normal tea as I can get.

My normal tea is Lipton. Regular, plain old tea. Nothing fancy, nothing flavored, just tea. The tea you get in many restaurants (well, maybe not Lipton, but Orange Pekoe/Pekoe Cut black tea.)

I've tried just plain Ceylon, I've tried Darjeeling, and just about everything else, but Oolong is my favorite so far in plain teas. Which is nice, because I ordered a bigger tin of it from Adagio.

I also ordered tea from Teavana, and both boxes arrived on the same day! Wow.