I made that!

So yesterday was Yom Kippur!

Transcript from chat with close friend Tessa:

Tessa: Are you and John coming to the Yom Kippur break fast dinner tonight?

Me: Fo sho.

Tessa:  I didn’t work today.

Me: If I knew I would have asked you to join me and Becky on our bike ride to Sausalito!

Tessa: Well, I’m supposed to be somber today.

Me: What, are you Jewish?

Tessa: Um…yes.

Me: I’m an asshole. Let me make you some cheese.

So “What does cheese have to do with Yom Kippur” you say? Tessa needed full fat cottage cheese for her noodle kugel, which makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Apparently full fat is hard to come by these days, and since I haven’t had a cheese making project in a while, I donated my services. So much fun to make! First I heated the milk and then added some rennet and buttermilk. I let that sit for an hour to set up while I went to get my precious hands dipped in parafin wax and massaged (can you say occupational therapy? love it…) When I came back I sliced up the curds and they looked like this:

Then I heated them up some more, to help them tighten up. All that yellow liquid is the whey.

Then I drained out the whey and salted my curds. And then I had cottage cheese!

Sorry for the lack of kugel photos…we sort of demolished the kugel. It looked like this.