What do you do on Thursday nights?

Do you know what's fun? Blanching almonds!

I know it may sound somewhat prosaic (which is a fabulous word, btw), but it's definitely got some character. Do you know how to blanche almonds? Do you know what it means? We'll skip the second question and go straight to the first. All it takes is some boiling water, a watchful eye, a time-keeping object, and nimble fingers. (It's okay if they're only mildly nimble.) You have to bring the water to a boil, pop the almonds in for one minute --- EXACTLY one minute (not sure why, but the directions were very stern regarding the time), stick 'em under cold water, and then...you get to literally pop those little buggers out of their skins!

It's really quite simply you see. Apparently you're supposed to let the almonds completely and thoroughly dry before doing anything with them, but when you're gonna be soaking them for 24 hours in 3 inches of water it probably doesn't matter. Right? Well, nonetheless they're sitting in the kitchen soaking away in preparation to become feta cheese.

That's right, folks. It's almond feta cheese time.

And thus begins the three day process.