Delmarva, Part 1

A couple weeks ago, Charlotte and I took a few days to "vacation," though spending the summer in New Hampshire's Seacoast has certainly been no hardship. Since last summer's quota of vacation time was spent in Denmark visiting Charlotte's Mormor and Morfar, we chose to head south this summer to visit my (Mike's) Mom Mom and Pop Pop. After a bit of a trek from Dover, NH, we arrived in Ocean Pines, MD, on the Delmarva (aka "DELaware/MARyland/VA") Peninsula. While we were quite happy just to have arrived (see our smiles above), we were soon whisked away to a wonderful dinner with a goodly chunk of the Angstadt clan. We headed to the Sunset Grille in Ocean City, where we got a big table, a great view, and, best of all, the Early Bird Special! Seated at the table were (L to R) Pop Pop, Mom Mom (to make her blogosphere debut in subsequent photos) Mike's Aunt Diane, Charlotte, Mike, and Linda (a truly wonderful person who Mike likes to consider his aunt because it makes him feel very lucky).

We ate a good deal of food, including several soft-shelled crabs (mmm!), and everyone was in good spirits.

Following dinner, most of us headed to the nearby Assateague National Seashore for a quick evening sightseeing visit. While you, as a blog reader, can catch a glimpse of the ever-energetic Mom Mom (on the right of the photo below), we as tourists came to Assateague to search for one of its majestic oddities-wild ponies! There is a sizeable herd on the island, and in addition to the beautiful dunes and beaches (and flies/mosquitoes, if the wind blows the wrong direction), it is often possible to catch a glimpse of the horses doing what wild horses do!

Even on our first visit, we weren't disappointed.

However, once the sun went down, we left the horses behind and headed back to Ocean Pines for another project. Ricki's cheesemaking kit had made the journey south with us, so, as you might guess, fresh mozzarella was on its way!

As before, we measured out the necessary quantities of raw milk, citric acid, rennet, and salt, and heated the mixture as directed.

We next cut the curds with a spatula (which was just as fascinating as the first time), and then it was time to pulllllllllll-and streettchhhh-the curds out. Pop Pop handled this task this time, and we discovered that PA cows make some great cheese!

We were soon enjoying delicious, homemade mozzarella! Mmm!

And, as before, you will soon have yet another blog update to read, since we spent several more wonderful days in MD. However, this blogger needs a break, so stay tuned!