Last weekend was fun.....well, mostly.
Peter's 65th birthday was Saturday. Kind of a monumental Medicare day, right?
Like, now you're officially a "senior citizen."
I made a card for him (as I'm not going shopping in a brick and mortar store if I can help it),
and had a book I thought he'd like as a gift.
I pretended I was just making a nice dinner for him for his birthday.....
but in reality I invited the kids over, and told them it's a surprise.
They were expected at 3 pm.
Hmmm....we usually watch Mass online at 4 pm,
so he should have been mostly finished with whatever he was doing by 3.
However, there was no way I could tell him to come in at 2:30 for a shower.
That's too early to be ready for a 4 pm online Mass!
John arrived as Peter was driving away with the truck to park the trailer,
which he was still using to pick up brush after storm Isaias.
Peter arrived home soon after that,
and wasn't really surprised that John happened to drop by on his birthday to say hello.
However......then came Katie with her two dogs!
Surprise! 
After Peter's quick shower, we had a steak dinner outside, just the four of us.
Nice and socially distant, which is why we are not all together in a photo,
which I put on Facebook afterwards.
(Unfortunately, Andy could not join us as he was working.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, we finally got some much-needed rain!
Looking good, right?
I decided it was a good day to make mozzarella.
I have a friend who has been making cheese throughout Covid,
and she told me how easy it is to make mozzarella.
I had a "30 minute" recipe, with step-by-step illustrated directions.
I had already learned to successfully make ricotta, so mozzarella was intriguing.
I had secured a glass bottle of whole milk from a local farm stand.
The milk was actually from a farm in Enfield.
Farm fresh whole milk! Should be awesome!
Unfortunately, nothing happened.
Yes, I mean nothing!
$6.50 + $2.00 bottle deposit and nothing happened!
No curds AT ALL.
My friend thought that perhaps the milk had been ultra-pasteurized.
(That's using extra high heat for pasteurization to increase shelf life.)
This is not supposed to be used for cheese making.
I contacted the company.....really, this information should be on the bottle!
They responded. They said this milk is actually great for cheese making,
but they never told me the temperature at which they pasteurize......
so perhaps this was an accidental high temperature batch. I don't know.
(They, of course, suggested that I give their milk another try.)
Well, no one was about to consume this liquid after I had thrown in:
Citric Acid, water, and rennet (for the Mozzarella),
then vinegar (in a last ditch attempt to make ricotta),
and even salt (in case the ricotta attempt was successful).
Still, nothing happened. No curds whatsoever.
Live and learn. Down the drain it went. 
May your week be filled with great cheese.....unless you have dairy issues!
