Okay, Some Cheese

Turns out if I could shop at the better and bigger Co-Op in Hanover or Lebanon, I wouldn't feel a lull in my cheese consumption at all. We spent the afternoon & evening with friends yesterday who live in a slightly more urban, definitely more cultured, area of the state. All the cheeses she pulled from her fridge as I told her of my cheese woes were lovingly crafted with vegetable rennet. All of them. Well all but one very stinky blue. I was in cheese heaven. I had high hopes when I shopped this morning at our local Co-Op, but all I came home with was one block of Cabot cheddar and some Applegate American sliced at the deli counter. Everything else was suspect. I will be hitting the bigger, better Co-Op very soon with my cooler in the car. At least I know I won't have to go totally cheese-less.

P.S. Zippy lost ANOTHER tooth this afternoon. That makes five so far this month.

Oh No! No More Cheese!

This came as quite a blow to my cheese-loving self. It happened last night at the annual Cider Press Potluck at the kids' school. The school is located at Meadowstone Farm, an organic farm with tons of beautiful produce, chickens/eggs, goats, pigs. The purpose of the goats is to make delectable goat cheese. And, man, is it good. I reached into the commercial kitchen's giant fridge yesterday evening to grab the big bowl of bean dip that was our contribution to the potluck and my eye rested long enough to get a pit in my stomach on a bottle filled with brownish liquid sharing the same shelf in the commercial fridge as my bowl of beans. "Veal Rennet" is what it said. I had a very bad feeling about that bottle, and I went outside to ask Farmer Tim, the school's landlord, organic farmer, and goat cheesemaker extraordinaire, what the deal was with the bottle of veal rennet in the fridge. I feared the answer and was not wrong in doing so. I have been a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian for 21 years. I have read vegetarian-diet books, I have subscribed on and off to Vegetarian Times magazine. I was shocked (and saddened) to find out after all these years that almost all cheese is produced thanks to the slaughter of baby cows. Yes, I wear leather shoes. Sure I love me a good pair of gorgeous leather boots. My issue is not one of animal rights so much as I just feel grossed out to think about EATING animal parts. And baby animals!? Even gross-er.

So I am afraid my love affair with cheese has ended. At least until baby cows are no more harvested for veal because farmers can sell a lot more meat from a full grown cow and the price of veal rennet will be so high that more and more farmers will turn to alternative enzymes to produce cheese and more and more of those alternatives will be vegetarian. Sigh. I feel like a new cheese-less me already.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Sure we do it up for Chinese New Year. Makes for a fun party even if it does fall during one of our busiest times of the year with #1's bday, The Spark's forever family day, Valentine's Day, and The Spark's birthday. We love Chinese New Year.

But, there is another important and equally party-worthy holiday for lots of Asian people around the world: The Mid-Autumn Festival or The Harvest Moon. This year it is tomorrow, September 22nd, our official first day of fall. While my kids will not be staying up til midnight to paint lanterns and gaze at the moon on a school night, we'll read a story about this holiday together and maybe read it to their schoolmates too.

A Bottle of Wine

This practically lept into my cart today at the grocery store. Anyone who knows our girls would think that perhaps this bottle of wine was created for us. Princess Eee is our future telenovela star after all. Yes, Cupcake is rather emotional to say the least, but for her it is all very real. Raw and real. Princess Eee tries on emotions and attitudes, likes and dislikes, and behaviors like some kids try on different outfits. To hear her gasp is to see her twenty years down the road (after re-learning spanish) as the star of a hit Latin American telenovela.

So this bottle of wine must have been made for us, her parents.
In case you can't read the fine print, not only is the vintner named Middle Sister, but this particular selection is dubbed, "Drama Queen."

Toothless Zippy.

Four teeth in seven days! Zippy is keeping the Tooth Fairy hoppin'! It was time so the grown up teeth are making their move.