My friends and I were talking one day at an article that recently appeared on The Smoking Gun about singer Katy Perry’s rider. A rider for those that don’t know, is a list that someone puts together of a celebrity’s must haves. In Katy Perry’s rider she had: Finncrisp, fresh cut crudites, organic fruit, pinot grigio, pretzels and a list of other items. She also specified the type of furniture that she wanted – two French ornate floor lamps, a refrigerator with a glass door if you’re curious. Apart from this she also needed the Presidential suite at a 5 star hotel, 5 junior suites and 45 rooms for her people. And absolutely NO CARNATIONS.

We giggled, after all a part of us thinks if you get called a diva are you expected to come up with a huge list of things?. Do you sit down with your friends and debate about whether to add “neutered Zebra” or “cross eyed unicorn” to the list? Or do you already have your list of wants and desires and a tantrum worthy of a 2 year old ready to explode if you don’t get the right things or the right brand? We asked each other what our riders would be and it turns out we were of much simpler tastes. One friend asked me what I would have and I answered “A super fast wireless connection, sparkling mineral water with fresh lime, something to crunch on and REAL butter. Oh and I will take the Presidential suite too if you’re asking.”

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How was your weekend? Good I hope   If yours was like mine, it was furiously busy with a whirlwind of activity. And although I was frantically busy, a part of me (perhaps the insane part) thought that making my own cheese was a good idea. The cheese that I wanted to make was Mascarpone. For one, it’s usually quite expensive to buy with a 250g tub retailing for about $7.50 – a kilo of ricotta by comparison is about $7 a kilo and reason two, it’s delicious. Then one day I came across the wonderful Deeba’s post on Passionate About Baking where she made mascarpone and it looked so easy and yet beautifully creamy that I bookmarked it straight away knowing that I would be making my very first cheese soon.

Mascarpone is similar to a cream cheese although more creamy and voluptuous and less “solid”. A speciality of Lombardy in Italy it’s a double or triple cream cheese which is denatured by using tartaric acid or a lemon or lime juice. It’s then drained of its whey and the resultant cheese is sublimely rich and creamy. Simply mixing it with some rose syrup and some fruit and it’s an amazing but simple dessert on it’s own. It’s also the cheese that happens to be used in Tiramisu so you know it can’t be bad right?

Draining the whey off

The process was straightforward and the key was simply to heat it up to the right temperature. After that it was simple and the time taken was just in waiting and like making bread from scratch, I found making my own cheese very rewarding an experience too. You’d think I’d just split the atom such was my pride at my voluptuously creamy mascarpone (and sadly there was no-one around to High Five). “Try it!” I later said to everyone within a spoons’ reach. My 900ml of cream made 700grams of mascarpone and even then I was proud of having created something that would cost me about $20 to buy for a fraction of the price and not only that, it beyond fresh.

Last week I received some amazing news too! I was tweeted the news by the SMH’s Simon Thomsen that I had made it into the new The Sydney Morning Herald “Foodies Guide to Sydney 2010″ book! I was one of two bloggers featured in there. For overseas readers, the SMH is the foodie newspaper and they put out an annual Good Food Guide with restaurant reviews and a Foodies Guide to Sydney. I was amazed and the very next day I got my hands on a copy. I opened it up to the index and squealed “I’m in the index!” to my mother who gave me an amused look. I flicked to the page and there it was. My own feature – and they got me. Yes they really understood me and what my blog was all about which was so rewarding.

My very own feature! Click to enlarge

So how did I celebrate? By going to the World Chef Showcase (story to come this week), a dinner at Rockpool Bar & Grill and a lunch cooked by Martin Boetz and Peter Gordon at Longrain, all stories to come. Many years ago I would have bought a bag or some shoes but now it’s all about food and I couldn’t be happier (woe to my waistline though ).

So tell me Dear Reader, how do you celebrate good news?

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