So, the first round of crème fraiche ended up turning into a batch of strongly flavored farmers cheese. It was not as bad as the original taste test led me to believe, but still not what I was aiming for. Moving forward, I'm going to buy a little crème fraiche from the co-op to re-inspire me (and to find an excuse to work it into my food budget) and continue researching recipes. Since it takes so little time to make, I'll aim to make another batch this week, leaving room to make two more if the next attempt should fail. This will leave me enough experimentation and time to either hone in on the process of making crème fraiche or get a lot of practice in letting go of expectations.
           On an ironically related note, my first failed attempt at crème fraiche and subsequent success at making too-strong farmers cheese proved to be serendipitous in some way. The domain name of this blog (Dommage Fromage) is an invented French phrase that means nothing to the French, but a lot to me. They are two words that mean nothing together, but when separated mean "too bad" (dommage) and cheese (fromage). I like the nonsense phrase precisely because it is nonsense, but also because of the feeling behind the word dommage, if said with the right inflection is like claiming "oh well" while shrugging your  shoulders; its recognizing that something didn't work out and deciding not to care. When hunting around on the internet for more about the word dommage I found a website that says the French use the word when things don't go your way or the way you expected. Now, when paired with the word fromage, my favorite old saying suddenly perfectly sums up my experience making crème fraiche: "Oh well, cheese!"