"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
Philipians 4:8
So I recently made my very first recipe out of the fabled Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" book that my Dad gave me for my birthday. What fun! I made a Chocolate Souffle. I have always wanted to try making a Souffle, and I figured, what better way to begin my journey into french cooking than with a quintessential french delicacy? I've always liked dessert first.
It was a success! The Souffle was light and airy, warm and chocolatey. I topped it with some real whipped cream, lightly sweetened.
So creamy. Of course, the two of us couldn't exactly finish a whole souffle off by ourselves in one night, so I had to put the rest in the fridge. Surprisingly, I actually liked it better cold. It became more of a dense, rich pudding. Mmm. Hubby said he like it best warm though. Either way, it's just plain tasty!
Our little baby nephew turned one on the ninth. I can hardly believe it! Just yesterday...
I made him monkey cookies and little K N O X cookies.
My first real cookie decorating. I had a blast. Took me a few hours, but still. My sister also made him a cake. We gave him a piece of it and just let him go crazy.
At first he didn't really know what to think of it.
But then he tasted it.
I've never seen cake disappear so fast.
And he was serious about it too. Both fists were full at every moment and he was not to be distracted.
Grandpa came and asked him if he could have a bite. Pa Pa is one of Knox's favorite people. But birthday cake just isn't negotiable.
Attack that cake!
I love this shot : )
All gone already?
Then he got his cookie.
He liked that too. : )
Sugar coma!
Here is the recipe I used for the cookies. And here is the inspiration for the monkeys. : )
So. Tilsiter. Not quite what I expected. I knew it was funky. I knew it would have a healthy flavor. What I wasn't expecting was a Limburger strength pungency. Not that I've ever had Limburger. So that's probably not really accurate. But let me tell you, this stuff is stinky. Let me remind you of the description.
"If there were ever a cheese I would describe as unctuous, this is it. It's like cheese peanut butter, fudgey and rich and sticky on the roof of your mouth. "
"If you like the full on flavor of unusual cheeses like the Swiss Vacherin Fribourgeois, then you'll really enjoy this powerful washed-rind Tilsiter.
Gooey and funky, it's the real deal, made from raw cow's milk, aged for 10 weeks in Austria with only a hint of bitterness so you can enjoy the tremendous flavor of Tilsiter. The Sibratsgfaell Cooperative on the outskirts of the Bregenz Forest in Austria produces it with the help of 12 farmers and their silage-free milk."
Hm. Well, my husband won't come near the stuff. He says it tastes like old socks. I have been valiantly trying to cultivate a taste for it but...so far no can do.
I will admit, the texture is quite nice. I can see the reference to fudge. I might suggest a less decadent description, as it inadvertently implies something more..tasty. But so far I haven't been able to get myself to eat a large enough piece to see if it sticks to the roof of your mouth. It's stinky, people.
But look at how creamy and delicious it looks! I just want to eat it so much. So my next plan of action is to devise some way to eat it that dilutes the funky a little bit. I haven't figured out how yet. Perhaps with crusty bread. I'm open to ideas!! If anyone has ever dealt with the dilution of stinky cheeses, please, enlighten me!
Want to know what cheeses I am dying to try next? Mimolette and Bloomy Cheeses are on the agenda. It just may be a few months...you know, still have that Tilsiter to eat...
Yes, my lovely cheeses arrived yesterday. I came home from work to find the cute little brown box in my garage (per posted instructions.)
I was blissful.
Cute.
I opened up the box...
and the dogs went berserk. They could smell the cheese right away, and they wanted some.
Look, I even got nifty little Murray's ice packs! Yessss.
The cheese!
I love the paper...apparently, it's the best for cheese storage. "An outer waxy layer with a cheesey design and an inner plastic layer allows the cheese to breathe"
First up, the gouda!
I love the rind! So festive and rustic.
And look at that beautiful crumble!
Now, for the actual eating experience. As you recall, the description online was "...a rough and stony wheel with a deep toffee-colored interior smattered with white patches of crystalline minerals. The milky sweetness of the younger version intensifies into a caramelized, burnt sugary treasure with a similar crunchy texture to boot." I loooved the texture of this cheese! It was crumbly and crunchy, with the "crystalline minerals" giving an extra little crunch every now and then. It was just so satisfying to munch on. I like being able to just break off a chunk and nibble on it. The flavor was truly complex and exciting. While I don't have a sophisticated enough palate to taste all those complicated and delicate flavor notes, I can definitely detect the slightly sweet, caramelly, "burnt sugar" undertone of this cheese. Totally loved this crunchy, munchable fellow! I have a large chunk of it eaten already...I just can't stop!
I got a Creme Brulee set for Christmas. Oh joy. For my graduation my man surprised me by taking me to Harry's Uptown for dinner...the swankiest joint in town, and a place I'd been longing to go for quite some time. We got all dolled up and everything. When we got there they took us back to this cute little secluded booth- perfect! And we didn't even have a reservation. After an amazing meal, we ordered Creme Brulee with Strawberries in a white balsamic vinegar reduction. It was incredible. The perfect creaminess of the cream, the slight crisp of the sugar crust, the juicy sweetness of the strawberries contrasted with the rich tartness of the vinegar. To die for. Ever since I have wanted a butane torch and some white balsamic vinegar to try my hand at my own Harry's Creme Brulee. Last week I got both of them! The results- to die for!
Creme Brulee with Strawberries in a White Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
Your favorite Creme Brulee recipe. I used the pioneer woman's:
Serves 6
1 quart heavy cream 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used extract) 10 egg yolks 3/4 cup sugar, plus 6 tbs superfine sugar
Preheat oven to 325 F. Pour the cream into a saucepan over med-low heat. Add the vanilla bean or extract. Bring almost to a boil, then turn off heat. Place the egg yolks in a large bowl, add 3/4 cups sugar, and whisk until very light yellow in color, 3-4 minutes. If using vanilla bean, filter the cream. To temper the egg mixture, very slowly drizzle one cup of the hot cream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from cooking. Continue with the rest of the cream. Place 6 ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and ladle in the custard until the ramekins are 3/4 full. Place the pan in the oven, then pour water into the baking sheet until it reaches half way up the ramekins. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the custard is set but not brown. Watch carefully to avoid browning. Remove the ramekins from the pan and allow to cool. Refrigerate the custards, covered, for at least two hours or overnight. When you're ready to serve, sprinkle the top of each custard generously with superfine sugar. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar to a crisp, working quickly to avoid cooking the custard below. Serve immediately.
White Balsamic Vinegar Reduction
1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar 1/8 cup of sugar
Mix sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for a few minutes, cooking down the vinegar until it reaches a syrupy consistency.
Caution: don't cook too long or you will end up with an extremely sticky candy-like substance instead of syrup. Taste your syrup to make sure you've cooked it down enough. You should still be able to taste the vinegar, but it shouldn't have as sharp a bite- it should be sweet. Balsamic vinegar has such a rich, deep flavor. When you reduce it, you loose some of the overwhelming vinegar and that rich flavor really shines through.Yum.
Slice fresh strawberries (if they aren't quite ripe and sweet, sprinkle with a little bit of sugar)
Arrange sliced strawberries on top of each ramekin of Creme Brulee, then drizzle generously with White Balsamic syrup.
I have a confession to make. I am a cheese addict. I love smokey cheddar, fresh mozzerella, baby swiss, Chevre, Brie... I would love to bid myself as a connoisseur of fine cheeses, but I haven't enough experience. The most exotic cheese I've tasted is the incredibly pungent Gruyere...which, admittedly, I didn't enjoy at all. But they just fascinate me! Ask my husband, any time we go into a grocery store of any significance at all I spend upwards of twenty minutes (more if it's a real store with a semi-decent collection) just browsing all the cheeses. Once we were visiting friends in Pittsburgh and went to a grocery store that rivaled the likes of any that I can find in Podunkville, KS, and the cheese section was AMAZING. They literally had an entire aisle of just cheese. They had huge wheels of it, ginormous walk in refrigerators filled with it, rows filled with mouth watering, foreign, fascinating cheeses. Sigh. I definitely spent more then twenty minutes there. I dream of someday returning. On our honeymoon in Oregon we made a specific visit to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, just for me. Boy, was that a treat. The cheese curds are stupendous! Anyway, a month or so ago I discovered the website for Murray's Cheese from New York. Like, cheese capitol of the world. Probably, I don't really know. But they have more cheese than I have here, that I do know. So I found this website. And spent hours browsing through it. They have these great little descriptions for every cheese, with like crazy descriptions of how they taste, like "grassy" and "caramelly" and "fruity". Talk about feeding an addiction. Then I discovered that shipping was super cheap! So, I decided to order some as part of a Christmas present I received. Yay! I spent several more hours narrowing down which ones I wanted to try. Which was obviously all of them, but I had to eliminate several based on price alone. Those European cheeses ain't cheap. Fiinally, after much agony and deliberation, and painful reductions from my shopping cart, I settled on two. Half a pound of each. They ship tomorrow. I should get them by Tuesday or Wednesday. Oh boy, I'm excited! I'll be sure to post extensively (trust me, you'll probably get really sick of cheese.) about each one. Here are the two I picked with the Murray's descriptions. Get excited!
"f there were ever a cheese I would describe as unctuous, this is it. It's like cheese peanut butter, fudgey and rich and sticky on the roof of your mouth. "
If you like the full on flavor of unusual cheeses like the Swiss Vacherin Fribourgeois, then you'll really enjoy this powerful washed-rind Tilsiter.
Gooey and funky, it's the real deal, made from raw cow's milk, aged for 10 weeks in Austria with only a hint of bitterness so you can enjoy the tremendous flavor of Tilsiter. The Sibratsgfaell Cooperative on the outskirts of the Bregenz Forest in Austria produces it with the help of 12 farmers and their silage-free milk.
In Holland, a country inundated with gouda, this is probably the most unusual export. Younger pasteurized goat gouda, only aged for several months, has a supple snow-white paste that’s mild and vaguely sweet with no typical goat-y flavors. This aged version is held for at least one year before release, resulting in a rough and stony wheel with a deep toffee-colored interior smattered with white patches of crystalline minerals. The milky sweetness of the younger version intensifies into a caramelized, burnt sugary treasure with a similar crunchy texture to boot. The unapologetic butterscotch is well suited to giant, juicy Zin.
