F-f-f-fresh

For those of you who don't know me, I'm lactose intolerant. Once I realized this was the cause of my stomach aches, I turned to Lactaid so I could still drink those 2 huge glasses of milk with evey meal, eat ice cream, and make delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. But then I went to France and I started abusing Lactaid pills (you really can't say no to cheese there) so I went on a strict NO LACTOSE diet, and I've held really strong and true to it since. Now I can tolerate a little bit of goat's cheese and a piece of chocolate here and there but that's about it.

Now, before I get to my short story, let me remind you that everything here is 100% natural (I'd say organic, but I think it has to technically be certified in order to be organic, and from what I know that's an expensive and timely process, and it's just not going to happen here until other countries realize what they're missing out on by refusing to trade with Moldova. But that's neither here nor there). With that being said, all of the cheese and the milk and the sour cream is all natural and fresh.

I've heard a lot of talk about drinking fresh milk, especially from my step-sisters who were raised on goat's milk from their farm. I remember them telling me that they can taste all of the chemicals in the store-bought milk my sister and I loved so much, but of course I wasn't willing to try fresh milk for myself in order to disagree with them. That is, until today.

NMG poured herself a fresh glass of milk this evening, which is the first time I've seen milk in this house. Now, when I say "a fresh glass of milk" you probably pictured a jar of cold milk coming from the fridge... just like in the movies, right? Wrong. This is because fresh milk must be boiled before it can be drank. So NMG poured it right out of the pot- and seemed to like the part that was cooked just a little bit at the bottom because she seemed to scrape it out, and I watched it plop into her mug. Then she asked me if I wanted any. I said nope...can't...lactose problems, but that didn't seem to be a good enough excuse because she was already up and reaching for a mug (she has been absolutely wonderful up to this point at not cooking anything- except my birthday cake lol- with lactose. Yay NMG!). It looked like I wasn't going to have a choice- and my Lactaid was back in my house which would mean I'd have to walk in the freshly fallen snow to go take a pill in order to drink 1 big sip of milk (yes, I did just say the Lactaid wasn't worth the incredibly short walk. Hopefully my stomach says the same thing!!).

I took my first little sip. Ew. Warm milk. I know some people like it, but I really don't unless it has chocolate in it... and marshmallows... and maybe some peppermint flavor while I'm at it. After giving it time to cool, I finished it off. And I must say- not bad. It was incredibly thick (I'm more of a 2% type of a gal), and it had a funny smell, but it wasn't bad.

Next up: Goat's milk. Maybe.