Rocio making tortillas

Tortillas y queso, Tico style!

I've made cheese! Well, Rocio made cheese and mom and I helped. My morning milking is getting better. I still only fill up one cup, but I feel like I'm improving. Even more, I have now witnessed that very milk get turned into cheese! Here are the details:

We started with skimming off all the fat from two big pots, which Rocio turns into natilla, a yummy sweet-sour creamy treat. We warmed up two huge stock pots of milk over the woodstove, then added a tiny bit of bacteria culture to each pot, gave it a good stir and let it sit for about 20 mins. After sitting, the milk gets really thick (like yogurt), so you stir it up and mix it a bunch which makes it look like cottage cheese. This sat for about 3 hours, while the curds and whey separated. We poured off the whey (which Rocio gives to the animals), and mixed salt in with the curds.

Now for the most ingenious part. We took a big piece of PVC piping that had a bunch of holes drilled into it, and draped an old T-shirt in the middle and over the sides. The curds were dumped in, filling it almost to the top. Next Rocio took a round piece of wood, that was cut to fit just inside the tube, and set that on top. On top of that went a big block of wood, that could fit inside the tube as the curds are compressed. On top of that goes a long piece of wood to act as a lever, one end jammed into the mesh of the window, and the other end, with a little gauge cut out, is used to hang the enormous bag of rocks from. And so it goes, slowly squeezing all the moisture from those curds! So smart!! The next morning, we unwrapped it and QUESO! Deliciously delicious!

Rocio also taught us all how to make fresh tortialls (without cheating with a tortilla press), and we cooked them over the wood stove. YUM!

Yesterday, we spent the morning in town at the feria, loading up on amazing fruit and vegetables (the pinneapples are 500 colones (about $1 each) so you can imagine how many we leave with!)

We saw another snake today, in the bushes on the side of the road (thankfully)! It froze, and squidged it's body up all wavy to look like a vine. It was the one time Isaac forgot him camera, but we're pretty sure it was a Bird Eating snake, and they are harmless.

I'm feeling so lucky these days, and have been enjoying this time with my mom and dad. No school, no planning, no stress - it's been amazing.

"Pura vida" as Pancho says every time he greets me, sending my love!

Naomi