The last week or so

Quick update on the last week:

- 3rd batch of farmhouse cheddar made, waxed, and presently aging.  Had great luck on getting a clean break in the curd this time.  Used Horizon Whole Milk (pasteurized, homogenized, gallon) and also used calcium chloride for the first time to restore some of what gets damaged in the pasteurization process.

- Had our son's friends over and taught them how to make hummos, tzaziki, and homemade pita bread. 

- Soaked the single origin cacao nibs I found in some vodka to kill any nasty bugs and start pulling the chocolate flavor out of them, and threw the whole lot into the 5 gallons of Russian imperial stout we have fermenting

- Found some other cacao nibs, soaked those in vodka, and added to my micro batch of high ABV RIS - was at 10% when I added them, the last batch hit 12% but I reduced the grain bill so that it wouldn't end up as sweet. Will probably bottle in a week or so.

- Our 3rd attempt at mead seems to have finished fermenting, which is strange since the first 2 attempts are still gong strong.

- Split the ginger beer plant a few days ago and instead of making a batch of ginger beer out of it we've kept the concentrate to use in some Asian dishes we're making soon.

- Bulked up the garden a bit - as well as the herbs we had growing we now have a bunch of tomato plants, some squash, strawberries and some new herbs. Fingers crossed. We've never had much luck with fruit and veg.

- Successful experiments with broiling instead of baking our pizzas.  Found this tip in Bon Appetite this month and it works really nicely.  Heat your pizza stone in the middle (instead of the bottom) of the oven for upwards of an hour at the highest temperature you can get your oven.  Then when you are ready to cook your pizza, turn off the oven and turn the broiler on instead.  The pizza will cook pretty quickly --- half the time from baking at a high temp. from our experience so far.  It gets a beautiful char and crisp crust.