A weekend of culinary explorations here at the Jer zone. Friday's dinner creation involved steamed mussels, steelhead trout, and shrimp in a saffron cream sauce accompanied by a vegetable ragout and Thai basil rice noodles. Yummy.

Yesterday started with fresh cinammon scones, replacing almond slivers for walnuts, cinammon chips for apricot, and since I couldn't find a single stick of butter in the whole house I experimented and replaced it with tahini. Also yummy. Started a new batch of Jerry Jerky and sprayed my in-process goat cheese with pennicillium candidium (white mold). I've tried, and failed, to make this particular cheese (Sainte-Maure) before but now I'm bouyed with confidence after reading The fabrication of farmstead goat cheese by Jean-Claude Le Jaouen. Seems that my technique has been missing a vital drying stage. That drying stage is almost complete now and the next step will be a couple of weeks aging. Somewhat frustrating that it takes so long to see the results of a simple process change, but hopefully once I figure it all out it will be easy to duplicate and make great cheese every time.

The garden is all tilled, dirt is raked into rows, and planting should commence soon. The berry plants we planted last weekend are taking off well, except for one elderberry and maybe a raspberry bush not yet shaking off the shock. Oh, and there's one other kitchen project: making a fresh batch of Ginger beer. It's relatively quick to make, with drinkable results in about twenty four hours and very refreshing after a long day lugging rocks. I've documented the process and will post it shortly.

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