Einstein, marketing and the bliss of homemade cheese.

To preface this post, I should indicate that I have begun to lust for the power that blogging brings.  A good friend said to me that it is like writing a thesis.  It is the lazy man's thesis.  I can make completely unfounded, unresearched claims based on nothing other than casual observation and assumption.  On that basis, I proceed. 

Also, if you wish to skip the anti-advertising rhetoric, skip down to the bottom for the homemade cheese recipe!  I served it with homemade fig jam (with figs from our tree!) and brown rice crackers - tasty!

I find myself feeling eternally glad that Henry will grow up in a culture that is beginning to realize the dangers of processed foods.  It is becoming on trend again to grown your own food, question what goes in it and seek out healthy options.  It so painfully obvious that our bodies get confused with processed sugars, additives, preservatives and other chemicals that go into food.  I'll lament more on that another day.  But the segue is....we've started to question what goes into our food, however, I wonder if we really question what's going into our minds.  Deep, I know.

As I now have a child, I've spent more time with people that have children and have become more aware of how people entertain and teach their children.  We now have educational toys, developmentally-appropriate playthings, Baby Einstein videos and basically any kind of multi-colored, multi-textured object that should help baby become that rocket scientist you know he's meant to be.  

I'm scared of Baby Einstein videos.  I realize this will probably raise the ire of many a responsible, well-intention parent, but after sitting and watching one Baby Einstein video, I felt completely overstimulated and unwell.  I felt as I imagined Alex felt in A Clockwork Orange.  My brain couldn't make sense of what I was watching, yet I felt somewhat altered.  May be it was just too much red wine or possibly my meds need to be adjusted.

I have watched Henry stare at trees and houseplants with great amusement.  He can watch shadows on a wall for an amazing amount of time.  I can see his little mind working in the stillness and I can't wait until he can ask me those questions that I can see in his eyes.  I watch him watch our dog Jack.

We evolved with trees and sunsets and animals and all of these other natural toys and types of sensory stimulation.  Technology in food and in sensory input have exploded at a rate that we are not adapted to, and hopefully will not have to.  So, as four and half months of parenting has made me an expert on all things related to child development, I would encourage examining what we put into our minds.  What kind of research has gone into the design of the play mat......does it have the exact shade of blue that is on a Pepsi can?  Do the football slogans on his "little boy" clothes make him more prone to buying things from Superbowl ads in his 20s?  Is the orange in that Baby Einstein video that same as in the A & W logo?

Sounds paranoid....probably.  But it's worth a second thought.

On a lighter note, Henry and I made cheese the other day.  It super easy and here's how we did it:

Ingredients:

2L Homogenized milk, the less pasteurized this is, the better
1 1/2 cups of lemon juice (you may not use all of this)
1 Tbsp of sea salt
About 1/3 cup of any type of fresh cut herb that you like, chopped.....I used dill
Cheesecloth (found in the grocery store)

1.  Pour all of of the milk, salt and desired herbs into a large saucepan and bring it to a light boil.  Stir occasionally to prevent it from scalding.

2.  Once it has boiled, remove it from the heat.
3.  Start pouring in the lemon juice, a bit at a time, while stirring the mixture.  Curds will begin to form.  The rate at which this happens will depend on the pasteurization of your milk.  Keeping adding the lemon juice until your curds are about the size of small peas.  My mixture smelled like buttered popcorn at this point!

4.  Line a collander with the cheesecloth and slowly pour mixture through the cheesecloth.  The curds will remain and the whey will go through the cheesecloth.  Apparently this can be saved for a number of uses.  I did not learn this until I'd dumped mine down the sink.

5.  Gather up the curds in the cheesecloth to form a ball.  Squeeze out most of the liquid.  don't go overboard on this, as your cheese will be dry.  Just squeeze it enough so it forms a ball. 

6.  Place in the fridge in the cheesecloth and cover with plastic wrap.
7.  Once cool, unwrap, cut and serve!