prior to the age of
the Internet
and Email
and Blogging
i was a handwriting
Letter Writer,
and i kept a daily journal.
i haven’t written
in a diary in over
five years.
on a bookshelf,
upstairs,
dw keeps a stack of my
old
pubescent
young adult
twenty-something
ramblings.
for a long time
i believed i’d always write
in bound books,
on ruled paper,
words written without margins,
precariously,
as though they’d fall off the page
without the adhesive
rules of a sentence.
rabid with my memory collecting
that it never occurred to me
that one day
i wouldn’t need it.
i’m too busy, now,
making the memories.
and eating.
i do mourn the slow death
of cursive though.
homemade lactose free parsley ricotta
adapted from the Splendid Table
note: back when i figured out that i was lactose intolerant i fully believed that i would never eat cheese again, it was like a slow death i was really sad. then i learned that the harder the cheese, the least amount of lactose in it. then i decided to try my hand at making cheese, vegan and lactose free. i’ve made ricotta before, i just had to look for lactose free stuff. and now, ricotta’s back in my life. happiness again.
1 cup 2% fat lactose free milk, i use organic valley
3 cups lactose free half/half, i use organic valley
juice of one lemon, about 1/4 cup
healthy pinch of salt
chopped parsley, amount to your heart’s content
heat up milk and half/half in pot, on medium heat, to a gentle simmer. remove from heat. add in salt and stir with lemon juice. curds will rise to the top, add the chopped parsley, stir and then give it a few minutes.
you can separate the curds from the whey (the separated liquid) with a cheese cloth and colander. (the leftover whey can be used to make soup, though i’ve never done that before). i use a big spice bag to drain the cheese, hang it over the sink.
drain for anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight. just keep in mind that the longer you drain it, the dryer the ricotta will be.
i drain it for about an hour, carefully dump it out of the spice bag, shape into a ball.
a good tip: coat hands with olive oil to shape.
drizzle with olive oil to keep from drying.
slather on toasted bread.
BAM!
bonus topping ideas:
i roasted up some delicata squash, along with the seeds.
simmered down honey + miso (1:1 ratio) + a splash of water til it reached jam consistency.
sliced figs, cukes, tomato, whatever you have in your pantry.
the combination is only limited to your imagination.
another BAM!
morestomach 