(no subject)

Good news on the cheesemaking front: my most recent ricotta salata is really, really good. It was made with milk I bought from the local health food store that was marked Pasteurized and that supposedly came from a New York area farmer-owned dairy. Nothing against Tonjes Farm, I just wanted to try milk I didn't have to cross the Hudson for.

Also good news: Garden of Eden, the expensivemarket down the street from the health food store, has started carrying organic milk that says it's pasteurized rather than ultrapasteurized. (UP milk has a longer shelf life, but the high heat involved denatures some of the protein and makes it unsuitable for cheesemaking unless all you need is something with ricotta's texture.)

Not such good news: I was just about to get excited over a provolone recipe when I hit the line about aging it four to six months at 52-58 degrees F. I don't have anywhere that temperature to work with, let alone somewhere safe from the cats. I'd have to either buy a minifridge and rig it for those temps or rent space in someone else's aging facility, and I'm not really ready to do that. *sigh* oh well.

(no subject)

Fifteen miles today. And I found a moderately respectable hill in Hoboken. one would think I would remember that Stevens Tech is kind of up on top of a big ol' rock promontory. it's not much, and there are stop signs, but at least it's a local place I can do hill practice.

Oh, and I did my fifteen in an hour and twenty-three minutes. Given how slow I am going up hills this does not surprise me. At least I did respectably on the flats.