Greetings from the land of happy cows and happy cheese (does anyone else in the US get to see those commercials?),
I have been into home cheese making off and on for about 4-5 years now. I have made several different types of cheese but tend to like the washed curd cheeses like Gouda both for their flavor and relative simplicity (recipewise). A couple of days ago I made my first brie and look forward to trying it when the time comes (also really looking forward to making more!). Right now, I am really interested in the P. candidum ripened cheeses and seeing what kind of weird concoctions I can come up with.
I have also been looking into (and will be attempting soon) making vegan "cheese" using soy and/or cashews (fermented). I have never made a vegan "cheese" but I get asked by friends about vegan or dairy free cheese alternatives often enough that I thought it would be fun to try (I got a book on vegan "cheese" recently).
I am thinking about starting a Gouda this weekend, especially since I just ordered a new gouda mold. That or I have been tossing around the idea of muenster (which I have yet to make but love muenster and have always wanted to make it).
Other hobbies include brewing (beer and mead, want to get into wine- I do live in CA afterall...), gardening, cigar rolling, bread baking and a few others.