holy cow

we've been getting unpasteurized cow's milk from a local dairy farmer lately. i don't know how much sense it makes, ultimately, to drink the milk of another species, but we do. i believe that the raw milk contains a lot of good stuff which makes it easier for our bodies to process, and contributes to overall health. there's a lot of info out there about it. one (probably biased) source is this. in any case, i feel better about giving cosmo dairy that has come from a healthy, grass fed cow, nearby, than i do giving him the stuff that has been shipped from far away, and has lost some of its nutritional value. plus, it is cheaper than getting the organic milk in the store, and the milk is stored in glass jars, which get re-used.

since it is illegal to sell raw milk, we purchase a share of a cow, pay a monthly care-and-feeding fee, and the farmer "gives" us some milk every week. we receive more milk that we are used to consuming (none of us are big milk drinkers), so we have been finding other things to do with it. so far we have made yogurt, cream cheese, and mozzarella.


(cream cheese, hanging over a bowl, and fresh out of the cheese cloth)

all of them have been very easy, with the yogurt being the easiest of all. you just heat it a little, add some starter (existing yogurt) and then pour it into a thermos and let it sit undisturbed for 6-8 hours. the cream cheese was made from a batch of yogurt, and all you do there is pour it into a few layers of cheese cloth and hang it overnight. the mozzarella is a bit more involved, but still, pretty quick and doable. and for each of these products, the taste can't be beat.


(home made mozzarella, and insalata caprese with our own tomatoes, basil and cheese)

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in other news, cosmo will turn THREE in exactly one month. aaaccckkk! how can this be?

"two"

cosmo turned two on the day after thanksgiving. he was thrilled to have his beloved uncles ch. and h. visiting from houston. carl made his now-famous-pumpkin-bread in a cake pan, and we topped it with whipped cream and a few blueberries. i couldn't find the birthday candles, so we had to use some household/emergency ones i had in the cabinet. he managed to blow them out this year, i think. or, maybe i was too busy snapping photos to actually witness that for myself.

two also happens to be one of cosmo's favorite words right now. he pronounces it really well, and uses it to indicate most quantities larger than one.



two is also the number of fish oil tablets that cosmo gets to take each day. i was concerned that cosmo might not be getting enough omega 3, 6 & 9 fatty acids, which are said to be important for the developing brains of small children. so, i got him some fish oil supplements designed for kids. they are similar to a vitamin e capsule, and they burst in his mouth when he bites down on them. i tasted one, and it did not taste good. they have some lemon oil in them, but it does not mask the nasty fish oil taste and odor. surprisingly, cosmo LOVES these. he knows that he gets two, and he gets all giggly and giddy when we hand them to him, and chuckles as each one pops inside his mouth.
"how many do you get cosmo?"
"two! tee hee hee"
he refers to them as fish, asks for them every time he sees the bottle, and gets upset if we refuse (because he has already had them that day). luckily, offering a clementine instead is enough to get him to forget about them...for a little while anyway.