No sooner had I posted that bit about a stress-free Christmas, I was called to do a few capes for an historical reenactment. Which I agreed to, and THEN got called to start training for the wage job - out of town. For 2 weeks.
So naturally, I packed my sewing machines and table. For the record, this works only if you get a room with plenty of natural light, and a convertible sofa-bed. I got lucky I didn't need to bring my own work lights.
2 weeks turned into 4 weeks. Then 5 weeks, travelling through the Niagara Region of Ontario from grocery store to grocery store to learn about this:
I cracked that huge parmagiano reggiano open all by myself, with only a scoring hook and a couple of pointy cheese knives.
And this:
The pecorino romano wasn't as tough-rinded as the parm, but it was crumbly all the way through. It took a team of two (me, and the other guy), to garotte it in half with a piano wire, and then a two-handled guillotine knife to break it down into eighths, so I could get it on the cheese wire tray for alabaster-white wedges of sheer sheep cheese bliss.
And MOAR of this!!!
OMG. I still can't believe I got paid to eat this. This stuff is amazing. Favourite is the raspberry-washed.
Ironically, I have no pictures of the many wonderful, locally made cheeses. I ate them. (In case you're wondering: Comfort Cream. Eat it. Also: Mountain Oak Nettle gouda. You'll agree with me, I know you will.) One day, during the Cheese 101 course, we sampled 17 different kinds of cheese! At the end of the third day, we had consumed 35 different kinds!
All this, to learn that I can't really distinguish a "nutty" flavour from a "meaty" flavour, but don't tell me Canadian blue is the same as Danish! And Esrom... No. Just... no.
And that has kept me frantically busy. I got the capes finished with three days to spare before the historical reenactment, and preparing for the grand opening of my store left me with zero free time until now. I actually got a day off. (I've had other days off. I just slept through them.)
So as usual, the Elven Hands store takes a downturn in production, until I find my new groove. If you see it in my store, get it now. I don't know when I'll be able to post new things. But that's nothing new, is it?
Until the next break, The Void! Happy shop-hopping!
