Day 3: The Quest for Citric Acid. Plus a Day of Cheese, Bread, Meat, Sidecars and Santa

It was a fun day. For once I woke at 7:30 am. A personal record. At least in recent memory. I drank my coffee and started my bread. A sweet potato sourdough, if you will. I've been working the sponge dough since Sunday, feeding it twice since. Today was the day. I started the bread. It should be ready to bake off tomorrow, but more on that later.

After the coffee and the bread, I did some chores (dishes, laundry, bathroom cleaning, house vacuuming) before tackling the 12 lbs of pancetta I had to tie. I have blisters on two fingers, but I now have four beautiful logs of meat curing in the basement.

I also ran some errands for presents of assorted sorts and did some grocery shopping to find citric acid. Citric acid you say? Yes. It's in every soda pop, bread and chinese toy imaginable, but finding a source of pure powder has been difficult. Why do I need it? Who uses it? Answer: It's ridiculous and nobody, respectively.

More embarrassing answer (and the one I told my father earlier today): I need it to make mozzarella cheese and baguettes. Seriously. I understand that anybody can buy either of these two grocery staples without making them for less than $5 combined. But what's the fun in that? Especially when you're on a cheese sabbatical. Short answer: I found it. It's cheap, I made my baguettes and they looked ridiculous but tasted good. Mozzarella is tomorrow -- conveniently timed for when Ken is away on a business trip.

The other part of my day was spent looking for a Santa suit (with no luck; they were sold out) for Santacon, a 400+ person drinkfest comprising of all sorts of people dressed in Santa suits. Ken went last year while I made bacon. But this year, I think I'll join. Afterwards is a party at a friend's house for Festivus. Should be a fun weekend before I start my new job.

I got things ready for some friends to come over tonight -- the bread and cheese I made, plus the recent spread of smoked/unsmoked pepperoni and spanish chorizo. I made sidecars, my favorite drink recently, and we watched some tube and relaxed. Now I'm ready to hit Day 4. I am still excited. It has been a wonderful week.

Sidenote: the cheese turned out, albeit much softer than I imagined. I mixed some of the plain queso blanco with honey and cayenne. It was good but the pancetta and roasted garlic demolished the plain or the doctored plain.