Dear Marilyn,

I really appreciate the phone seminars you set up and it means a great deal to me that you make
the info from the seminars available on your site.

I particularly felt this from the last seminar about fermenting foods. I listened carefully to the entire recording, took notes and then bought the DVD.

My buying the DVD was a very big deal here because we are on a very limited income,
but I was so excited by the info in the seminar that I felt the DVD was a necessity. I need a boost to get more deeply involved with fermenting foods so I am looking to the DVD and booklet to be just that boost!

There isn't enough yet to do much else. - especially with my four year old who absolutely guzzles the stuff! Occasionally I have been able to make soft cheese which I flavor with herbs and garlic and use as a sandwich spread. This is delicious and I have calls to have some always on hand so I am working my way up to that. Being able to eat cheese that is full of probiotics is amazing, isn't it?

What I particularly want to draw your attention to is kefir mascarpone. My husband now makes this daily and we eat it with practically everything and it is amazingly good. Directions and inspiration are on Dom's site. Do you know about Dom? He is probably the world's expert on
kefir and he has many, many web pages about every aspect of kefir making, history, molecular structure, recipes and so on. Making the mascarpone is simple in any case. Mix milk and cream. Ferment with kefir grains for 24 hours and then turn out into a draining cloth and drainfor 24 hours. We find that kefir consistently makes cheese with a velvety texture and really shines with this mascarpone which is supposed to be velvety.

When it is done, you add a bit of salt and then use your imagination. We have mixed it with mango jam and served that on pancakes. We have mixed it with horseradish sauce and served it on sandwiches with roasted peppers, onions and portabella mushrooms. We serve it on baked potatoes or slather it on bread. Whatever. Anyway, it is easy and delicious, full of probiotics in addition to the nourishment of cream.

One last note, we make pizza every week or two here. This last time, I used mostly kefir and some water as the liquid in the pizza dough. I let it sponge an extra bit of time and then proceeded as usual.

It made a stickier dough than usual but, oh my, the results were spectacular! The flavor and the
texture were by far the best ever. I will be making our pizza crusts this way from now on.

Leslie R., Virginia