Perks of Pregnancy

In Spain they say that if a pregnant woman has a craving for something and she doesn't satisfy that craving, the baby will have a birthmark in the shape of whatever it was.  Birthmarks are called antojos--"cravings".  Needless to say they take this very seriously.

Being the stupid American that I am, I haven't taken advantage of this major perk: everyone, everywhere will heed my every whim and fancy!  For example we were out having beers before lunch one day and when everyone else had ordered a second round, I was still nursing my lemon soda and therefore wasn't entitled to a tapa.  When Angelines chose some salami (which I cannot eat), I said, you should have got the cheese to share with me!  Nuria, who was sitting on my other side, overheard and immediately called the waitress over: "She's craving cheese, give her a tapa of cheese".  The effect was immediate: a mini plate of cheese was placed before me within seconds; although I'm sure it was added to our tab. ;)

There is a small, family owned and opperated dairy farm behind our house down a dirt road where we walk the dog most days.  For some time now, I have been wanting to talk to the owners about buying milk straight from them, but I´ve never had the oppotunity to bring it up and I didn't feel right just waltzing up to the farm with a bottle and asking for milk.

Wednesday evening Angelines and I were coming home from our evening walk when we ran into the dairy farmer heading for home on his tracktor.  He stopped and as we were chatting, I noticed that he had a small tin canister by the tracktor seat.  This was my chance to bring up the topic: "What's that," I asked, "milk?"  It was.  Apparently he takes some home every day... I would too if I had a dairy farm!  When I told him that I wanted to buy milk from him, he wanted to give me the cannister then and there: "Take it!  You don't want your baby to have a milk-shaped stain across her face!"  I laughed and said that we'd talk about it after the baby was born.  I know that fresh milk can be more dangerous to drink than what you get in the store and playing with risky foods during pregnancy isn't a good idea.  

I was finally able to dissuade him and off he went.  But the next day coming home from my walk, as I was turning the corner to go home, his 85-year-old father, Pepe, flagged me down and said he had a bottle of milk for me!  I wasn't about to argue with an elderly man who spent all his youth milking straight into a glass and drinking it about the possible dangers of raw milk... so after asking about how to boil it and for how long I  graciously accepted the bottle and headed home to do a few google searches just in case.

Pepe had assured me that I just needed to bring it to a boil, that once the milk had formed a foamy head and risen to the brim of the pot, I could take it off the stove and let it cool.  I should stir it as it was reaching the boiling point to kill anything in it, but "nowadays there are all kinds of controls and vaccines for cows, they're healthier than we are!  There's nothing bad in this milk" he assured me.  The germaphobe got the better of me though and I opted to follow some advise I found online on home pasturizing which said to let the milk simmer at 145 F for thirty minutes.  I took out the meat thermometer I only ever use at Thanksgiving, and got to it.  

The milk was on average well over 145 and so I took it off the stove two minutes early.  Even though I know that cooking it so long changes the flavor somewhat, this was by far, the best milk I've ever drunk.  It was delicious.  I didn't even wait for it to cool, but instead grabbed a chocolate chip cookie I'd made a few days earlier and sat down to enjoy--divine. :)

Today Angelines and I finished off the last of the 1.5 liters that we were given.  They say that you should drink fresh milk between 36 and 48 hours after milking...although I think if you cook it as I did it will last a bit longer.  In any case, we finished it off with no problem within the 48 hour time frame.  Breakfast this morning was homemade pancakes with peanut butter, maple syrup and ice-cold, FRESH milk.  Yum!

...and just for fun, here's my belly at 7 months. :)