The great thing about a chop salad is that you can alter the ingredients easily according to what you have. Change the type of berry, add some cold pasta (like rotini or farfalle) to stretch your lettuce out (seriously), add croutons, use any kind of cheese, switch to beef, whatever. Check out the good stuff in this guy:

chopped Romaine
chopped turkey bacon
green onions
diced breaded chicken
diced avocado
pecans
strawberries
feta cheese

I just whisked up some balsamic vinaigrette (1 part vinegar to four parts olive oil) with lemon juice, Italian seasoning, pinch of salt & pepper and a little sugar to taste, but this would go with lots of different kinds of dressing.

Chop your heart out! (Eyw, that's worse than the other phrase...)

We've been serious, serious Caribbean buffs for a long time now.  To me there's nothing more satisfying than stretching out flat on beautifully clear turquoise water and closely following some random fish on his daily routine for hours and hours.  My children know how to shuck conch, spearfish underwater and can catch their own spiney lobsters for dinner.  This makes me comfortable as I know they can always fend for themselves.  Just find 'em a beach.  They'll be fine.

While wandering aimlessly through the islands, I've been privileged to watch a wide variety of wedding ceremonies - pre, post and during.  A good "pre" was on the island of St. Kitts, South Friars Beach (pictured above) in front of the Sunset Beach Cafe (pictured below). 

A group of late 20-somethings were downing the Carib at a pretty rapid clip, dog cussing the hotel where they were staying (the newly opened Marriott), and taking turns getting an aloe rub from the local Roaming Rasta. 

You've really gotta try one of those aloe rubs - bargain them down to 10 bucks and for that you get 30 minutes, lying in a beach chair in the sun, with someone rubbing a cooling, sticky plant extract on your back.  No, trust me, it's wonderful!

Eventually the whole group became exceptionally drunk (note to the wise - watch the alcohol intake in the Caribbean Sun) and ended up having to hand over their car keys to the Roaming Rasta (which is something no one in their right mind would do) and negotiating with him to drive them back to the hotel for $20 bucks (chauffeur duties being more profitable than aloe rubs). 

I know they made it because that night we visited the Casino at the hotel.  Sure enough, right there at poolside was a ravishing bride, her handsome groom, and eight of the most greenish-tinted, red-and-glassy-eyeballed attendants you've ever seen.  They were all standing at something of an odd slant.  And they looked a little sticky - like maybe they'd forgotten to wash off that aloe.  I hope someone photoshopped the pictures.  Otherwise they're not all still friends...

So if you're thinking about getting married in the Caribbean, St. Kitts is good.  I'll bore you with my lousy pictures in a minute - and probably drop in a travel tip or two.  But first, make sure you take along some favors for your guests!  These are perfect!

You know the drill.  Click the pics for the link if you like what you see!

So anyway - for those of you who are thinking about St. Kitts for a wedding, here are a few tips:

• You'll need a license and you have to follow their rules.  Click here to find out what they are.
• Suggestion - look seriously at Rawlins Plantation as a perfect spot to tie the knot. 

• Another, more exotic and slightly more complicated location - but amazingly beautiful nonetheless is Brimstone Hill Fortress.  Duplicating the view from this place is impossible in my book.  Read more about it here (and get a clue from my truly amateur photos below).

• While whiling (can you say that?) your time away on St. Kitts, be sure to:  visit the rainforest and the batik factory, take the ferry to Nevis for the day, enjoy the native buffet at Rawlins (make reservations in advance), and absolutely, positively spend a day on Turtle Beach.  I hope the pig is still there and whoa - here comes an important travel tip - if he is, don't directly address him if you're in the midst of lunch or dinner (highly recommend the Calypso Chicken Salad).  Because if you do, he will proceed to sit down with you and "snout" you to death until you share.  He's not ugly about it.  He actually has some very nice pig manners.  But he is a pig, and he wants his way.  Avoid talking directly to him until you are done with your food and ready to share your leftovers.  He's much better company then.

• Monkeys are cute, monkeys are everywhere, and monkeys bite.  I know this from experience.  Consider yourself warned. (PS - watch for monkeys on the road, and don't run them over).
• Before you go - Google keywords <artist + st. kitts>.  Get the locations, and go visit.  There are some very, very good artists on St. Kitts - please plan to patronize their galleries and take something back home.   I guarantee you'll enjoy it for years to come.

That about sums it up for my "St. Kitts for Weddings" 101 course.  I'm celebrating St. Kitts right this very minute and will probably go search airline fares immediately after I publish this post.  Jeez I love that island!   If anyone knows a cheap way to get there from Atlanta - send me a line (everydaycelebrations@gmail.com) and I'll be forever grateful!  I'll even bring you some of that FABULOUS fresh goat cheese from PJ's.  Promise!

Celebrate Something Everyday!

Yesterday was not as hectic as Monday, I got up on time and the morning went by smoothly. I was able to get ready without rushing and eat without having to shovel it in. I had my typical breakfast, wheatberries, oats, bulgur and flax seed topped with a nectarine and some almond butter along with a glass of milk. I really liked the nectarine, boy I will miss these summer fruits once the weather turns colder.

I had a full day at work, my inbox was literally overflowing and I had a meeting that was expected to last all afternoon. I worked on one of my website project most of the morning only to discover at 11 that I hadn’t had a snack at all and I was hungry! I went downstairs to get some water and scope out the lunch situation. And to my delight, the staff lunch was chicken and veggie stir fry with teriyaki sauce and rice. I filled my plate with chicken, veggies and sauce but only took about ¼ cup of the rice. I also had a stonyfield farm low fat strawberry yogurt. It was all pretty tasty, for a staff lunch, I was impressed.

Before my meeting started, I was able to at least get my inbox sorted and I enjoyed my homemade cinnamon latte. To avoid stirfrycoffee breath, I popped a starlight mint that I grabbed out of the mixed grill.

As expected the meeting took most of the afternoon and by 3:30 I was really hungry. My guess is the lack of whole grains at lunch. Since I knew I was planning a quick and easy dinner, I decided to hold off on a snack.

Once I got home, I made some whole wheat mini shell pasta with stir fry veggie mix, fresh Hanover tomatoes and garlic. Once it was all cooked, added in some crushed red pepper and crumbled goat cheese. I added a little of the pasta water to make it saucy and then topped with a few more crumbles of the goat cheese. It was pretty tasty but I think I overdid the crushed red pepper.

We had planned that after dinner we were going to rescue a little kitty that has been hanging around our house. We started feeding her and of course she started coming by more regularly. We were worried she might belong to someone else or that she may have kittens somewhere but once we started feeding her, she never left the yard. So, we decided we were going to rescue and adopt her. We called the vet and they told us to make an appointment and to rescue her just before it came. The appointment was set and we had it all planned out.

Well, the bad news is that when we got home from work she was not around. We searched the neighborhood, called for her and asked around. She was no where to be found. We finally gave up around 8:45 and I made us some of my famous popcorn for dessert. It is air popped yellow corn and while it is coming out of the popper, I drizzle it with walnut oil. Once popped, I sprinkle on some salt and granular fructose and shake it all around. It is such a nice balance between salty and sweet and the crunching really helped calm our nerves about the missing kitty. Shortly after popcorn, we headed off to bed.

I didn’t see the kitty this morning before leaving  but the good news is that dear husband did and he got her! YAY for kitty rescues!! I promise to post pictures of her as soon as I can.

This turned out to be one of most fun recipes to cook. I kept tasting the sauce and looking at Herbert saying "It worked. Taste this again! It WORKED!"

Ginger and Tomatillo 'sounded' like they would pair well together. The sweet spice of fresh ginger and the tart pungency of tomatillos. Add in sugar to bring the bitter under control.

The corn was also one of the best surprises. I sing its praises over on Kitchen Geeking. It really was some of the sweetest corn I've ever tasted in my life. Cooked with no seasoning, no butter, just steam from the husk in the dry heat of a 350 degree oven.

Garnish with scallions for a crunch and fresh onion flavor.

Roasted Corn & Orzo Salad with Goat Cheese and Ginger/Tomatillo Sauce

• ½ pound orzo
• 3 ears of corn
• 1 jar of roasted red peppers
• 3 T minced fresh ginger
• 12 medium tomatillos, husk and stems removed
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ log of goat cheese
• Water
• Salt pepper

  Salad

  1. Cook orzo until al dente. Strain and place in bowl. Toss through with olive oil to avoid clumps.
  2. Place ears of corn in husks in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove hushs and slice corn off the cob.
  3. Dice peppers and add with corn to large bowl. Toss through with salt and pepper.

  Ginger Tomatillo Sauce

  1. Place ginger, tomatillos and water to cover in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tomatillos are soft.
  2. Place solids in food processor and add liquid by ¼ cup full until sauce is thick to coat the back of a spoon.

  Place ½ cup orzo salad on a plate with a 2 oz. round of goat cheese and pour sauce over goat cheese.

  Thanks to Susan for the photo of this dish.

  ]]> http://couchcubicle.wordpress.com/?p=1508 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:45:44 +0000 arielle http://couchcubicle.wordpress.com/?p=1508 I was hungry today!  I love days like this because it means I can eat more and I clearly really enjoy eating.

  Anyway, this afternoon I had two of the peaches my mom gave me.  Here's one:

  

  These are the best peaches I've ever had.  Thank  you mom, you have changed my life.  Seriously.  They are so ripe.  It was heavenly, which is why I had two.

  And then, because fruit just makes me hungrier, I had a cucumber, also courtesy of my mom, with some goat cheese:

  

  The goat cheese was all mine.  We almost always have cheese.

  For dinner I went to Spring Street Natural, one of my favorite restaurants, with Kate and Betsy.  I had lentil salad and a glass of red wine.  Inspired by their healthy eating habits, I got my salad dressing on the side, and I didn't even need it.  I'm thinking there might be something to that little trick.

  And then it must have been my lucky day because on the way home I randomly found this in my purse:

  

  So I ate it.  You know, because I got the dressing on the side.

  ]]> http://felixpapadakis.wordpress.com/?p=152 Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:57:39 +0000 felixpapadakis http://felixpapadakis.wordpress.com/?p=152

  This recipe I must credit to Christine Skordeles, my loving cousin.  She arrived yesterday with dates, goat cheese and melon.  She pitted each date, stuffed it with goat cheese and wrapped it in a thin slice of canteloupe. As you can see the slices of melon are not as thin as they should be, but given that we don't operate heavy machinery (read: Meat slicer) in our home, a knife had to do! Refrigerate them to chill the melon and serve.  Again, a simple, delicious starter!

  ]]> http://whatiateyesterday.wordpress.com/?p=95 Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:11:51 +0000 C http://whatiateyesterday.wordpress.com/?p=95 What a day, yesterday. I got up super early yesterday so that I could get to work early. I was going to my first hot yoga (bikram) class and I needed to adjust ny schedule a little. More on that later. I woke up pretty hungry, my stomach was growling even as I was getting ready. I finally calmed it down with a bowl of hot grain cereal (that i finally got our of the freezer), it has wheatberries, oats and bulgur. I mixed in some ground flax seed and topped it with a banana and some almond butter.
  [caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="TGIBreakfast time"][/caption]

  At work, the day started with a bang. One of the projects I have been working on is our new website and yesterday we went live. I was running around all morning long changing everyone's email settings to they would get their email. I even went to the maintenance department twice which would make a total of 3 times the entire year I have worked there. I wonder if the maintenance department of other world class golf course require rubber gloves to touch anything? But I digress.

  By the time I made it back to my desk it was almost noon and I was ravenous. I barely had time to even have some water which was worrying be because of the hot yoga class. I decided that I would have all natural peanut butter on a whole wheat wrap when The Chef and T talked me into the the member lunch special. T even gave me a little bite of hers to help me decide. The member special was a sirloin tip salad with balsamic reduction topped with feta cheese. I wasn't really in the mood for beef but I was still pretty tasty. I hope the picture is OK but there was someone in my office when it came and I felt kind odd about taking a picture so I did it really fast and only took one. I guess that as my time with this blog goes, I will get over that.

  [caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="beef...it is whats for lunch"][/caption]

  After lunch, I had a few sips of my cinnamon latte I made at home but it wasn't really doing anything for me so I put it away. The rest of the afternoon was hectic. I have major deadlines on Fridays and because my morning was busy being the resident IT guru, I hadn't had time to do any of my "real" work. It seemed like the clock was moving faster than I could work. My phone wouldn't stop ringing and the fellow staff had a number of questions about the new email/website. It was an intense day and when it was over, I was literally running out the door 10 minutes later than I wanted. I was worried about not making it in time for the hot yoga class.

  The Prius didn't let me down. I put the pedal to the metal and made it there in time. My friend Jessy had told me that if I could get there in time to lay on my mat before the class started that it would help me acclimate to the hot tempature of the room. I got there about 20 minutes before class started and was able to fill out the paperwork and get changed. When I walked in the teacher said "This must be your first time" and I meekly said yes, she told me that I looked scared. I was sure I did because I was. I quickly changed and quietly put my mat down in the back of the room as instructed. It was hot in there! And for some reason, when I walked it in it shocked me as if I hadn't been expecting it. First I laid down, sat up, laid, sat up. I couldn't figure out what to do. Some people were in child's pose, one girl was hanging out in downward facing and other were just sitting quietly.

  At promptly 4:30, the teacher walked in, clapped her hands and said "Everyone up" and like little soldiers we all stood. The class began with some breathing exercise and sweat was already dripping down my face into my eyes. I knew I was sweating, obviously but it really dawned on me how much when we put our arms towards the ceiling the first time and I could see sweat pouring in little streams down my arms. Then in our first forward fold I saw sweat popping out of the pores of my legs. I had never seen sweat like that.

  The class continuted and I was doing pretty good. A few times my brain was asking me what the hell I was doing there but I resisted the urge to flee. I didn't feel and dizziness or nausea until AFTER the water break which I found to be really odd. A couple times I had to just stand while the others were in the poses and even a couple times I had to sit all the way down. Some of the poses felt easy and some of them felt really hard. I noticed towards the end of the class that bending forward was really getting the dizziness and nausea going so I was really gentle with myself. I wasn't able to go as far as in a normal class on some things but was able to go farther in others. It was really an odd yoga experience.

  Right on the dot at 6pm the class ended, she told us the lay as long as we needed to. I tried to stay still and just lay but I was really ready to go. I probably only stayed a minute or so. On the way home, I had some odd sensations in my head. My jaw felt really tight and I felt I was kind of unable to focus. I wonder if I should haved stayed a little longer. I also wonder if I was clinching my jaw during class.

  I arrived home to find that dear husband had made us lovely salads for dinner. It was spring mix, cukes, almonds, dried cranberries and crumbled goat cheese. Which was awesome,  I had really been craving goat cheese lately from reading Jenna's blog the past few days. I heated up some Sister Shubert's whole wheat yeast rolls to go on the side, topped the salads with some oil and vinegar and dinner was ready. It was delicious! The odd thing was that I wasn't really hungry even though it had been about 7.5 hours since I had last eaten. I blame that on the hot yoga because lunch was pretty light and I had avoided eating before class because that can increase nausea.

  [caption id="attachment_98" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="another salad"][/caption]

  After dinner, I delved into my book again. I am reading How to Survive your diet by Linda Moran. It is a pretty interseting book about not dieting, which of course is what I am doing. I keep falling asleep while reading it so though it is a very short book, I haven't even read half of it. So, in true form, I fell asleep while reading. I was had wondered if the hot yoga was going to keep me up but I was actually really relaxed and I had a great night's sleep. I'll be doing that again.

  ]]> http://caretoeat.wordpress.com/?p=385 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:47:45 +0000 Andrea http://caretoeat.wordpress.com/?p=385 That's what I call Costco.  If you live in a city and need a break from it, don't drive to the country and spend $50 bucks on gas - just go to Costco and spend $50 on a 10 gallon tub of peanut butter!  Spend just five minutes in the warehouse frenzy and you'll be itching to get back to the city where life is simpler :)  I drank my uneaten smoothie from this morning (frozen mixed berries, yogurt, and rice milk) and added some vanilla flavored Muscle Milk Light for some protein to prepare me for my "workout."  I knew that pushing an oversize cart full of beer would not be an easy task!

  

  I have a Costco card because a friend lists me as her "domestic partner" so we just split the $40 charge between us.  I usually only go there for staples like laundry detergent and toilet paper, but when you're throwing a party for 60+ people, Costco comes in handy.  I should have taken a picture of our haul.  Five cases of beer, two bottles of wine, one magnum of champagne, chips, dips and cheese.  

  Afterwards we went to WinCo (which is 100x worse than Costco) for cheap fruit, veggies, drink mixers, a pinata, and condoms to put in the pinata.  Quite the combo, no?

  Emily and I went back to my house to set up the backyard a bit and to figure out what we need to do tomorrow before the party starts.  When that was done, we broke open one of the bottles of wine for some much needed relaxation after our outing.  I had one glass of chardonnay and it was rather tasty.  Here's Emily enjoying hers :)

  

  The smoothie didn't quite tie me over until bedtime, so I had some raw goat cheese and crackers.  They are the Milton brand whole wheat variety.  (There's all of our mixers in the background - I'll take a picture of all of the food we bought tomorrow when I'm setting up.)

  

  Ok...off to bed!  Tomorrow will be a loooong, drunken and debaucherous.  I better get a good nights sleep and load up on nutrients and water tomorrow to prepare for the damage.  This weekend will be alcohol filled as Chris and I have a wedding to go to on Saturday at a local vineyard.  I'm getting too old for this :)

  ]]> http://eggsonsunday.wordpress.com/?p=843 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:00:34 +0000 eggsonsunday http://eggsonsunday.wordpress.com/?p=843

  All the herbs in our garden have really filled out, and are ready to start using in large quantities -- they've done even better than I'd hoped! -- and I've been trying to use them in some different ways. Last weekend it was Pesto Central in our kitchen; I made basil pesto, mixed herb pesto, and the parsley pepita pesto from the latest issue of Gourmet.

  

  

  

  Two thoughts:

  1. If you don't subscribe to Gourmet, you may want to pick up a copy of the July issue: it is *loaded* with great summer recipes! I started earmarking pages with recipes I wanted to try, but stopped when it became clear that I was flagging almost every page...

  2. I tried a new way of freezing individual portions of pesto which worked really well. Make a big batch, transfer it to a bowl and refrigerate it for a little while so it firms up, then you can scoop it into portions on a parchment lined baking sheet (I try to do roughly 1/4 cup sized portions.) Transfer the sheet to the freezer for a few hours, until the pesto portions are frozen solid. Then, you can just store the individually frozen portions together in a large freezer bag, and take out as many portions as you need to defrost at a time -- no defrosting a whole big bag just to get a single portion.

  

  I also used some of my herb haul -- basil, oregano, lemon basil, chives, parsley, and rosemary -- to finely mince and use in this herb-marinated goat cheese. You take a log of goat cheese, flatten it into a disk, press the minced herbs lightly into the surface, shower it with some finely grated lemon zest, coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, then drizzle the whole thing with few generous glugs of extra-virgin olive oil. Stick it in the fridge for an hour, two hours, eight hours, whatever -- the flavors will just meld and get better and better.

  

  I made crispy rosemary flatbread (also in the July issue of Gourmet!) to spread the herby goat cheese on, using all white whole wheat flour.

  

  

  

  It's basically a homemade cracker, super easy to make, flecked and perfumed throughout with rosemary, and very conducive to breaking into little crunchy bits to scoop up every last bit of the goat cheese. You could play around with this recipe, using different herbs or spices, but I loved the rosemary flavor.

  

  ________________________________________________________________________________________

  Herb-Marinated Goat Cheese

  View printable recipe

  Ingredients
  1 4-oz. log goat cheese (chevre)
  2 tablespoons finely minced mixed herbs -- such as basil, thyme, parsley, chives, oregano, and rosemary
  zest of 1 lemon
  coarse salt and pepper
  good extra virgin olive oil

  Directions
  Using plastic wrap as an aid, mold the goat cheese into a disk about 1 inch high and 3-4 inches across. Place in a wide bowl or on a plate. Season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, then press the mixed herbs into the surface of the goat cheese. Shower the lemon zest over the goat cheese, then drizzle some olive oil over the entire surface and around it on the plate. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until you're ready to serve it.

  Crisp Rosemary Flatbread

  Adapted from Gourmet, July 2008

  Ingredients

  1 3/4 cups white whole wheat flour
  1 tablespoon chopped rosemary plus 2 (6-inch) sprigs
  1 teaspoon baking powder
  3/4 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup water
  1/3 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
  Flaky sea salt

  Directions

  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with either an heavy baking sheet or a baking stone inside.

  Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and chopped rosemary in a bowl. Make a well in the center and pour the water and olive oil into the well. Use a wooden spoon to gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid, stirring until it comes together into a dough. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead it 4 or 5 times.

  Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Take one piece and roll it out on a piece of parchment paper until it's a thin round, about 10 inches in diameter. The shape doesn't have to be perfect - you're going for rustic here. Keep the remaining pieces of dough covered with a dishtowel.

  Right before you're ready to bake the first round, brush it with additional olive oil and sprinkle it with some of the rosemary sprigs and sea salt. Transfer the entire piece of parchment with the dough on it into the oven (onto the baking sheet or baking stone; I used a pizza peel to do this but you wouldn't have to.) Bake for 8-10 minutes, until browned around the edges and crispy. Transfer to a rack to cool (discard the parchment), and repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of dough (don't oil or salt them until just before baking.)

  Break into pieces before serving.

  Serves 2 (if you're hungry) to 4.

  ]]> http://caretoeat.wordpress.com/?p=310 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:30:07 +0000 Andrea http://caretoeat.wordpress.com/?p=310 I don't know what got into me this morning, but by the time I put all the food on the counter that I wanted to take to work, I had to take two lunch sacks.  Maybe I subconsciously know that I'm PMSing (I never figure this out until after the fact when my mood suddenly improves) and that I'd be hungry all day.  Or, maybe it was my only halfway satisfying breakfast.  

  

  I made a partfait with frozen berries, homemade granola and Fage.  It was good, but I definitely need more carbs at breakfast to tie me over through the morning.  

  I wanted to finish up a couple things before I ate lunch, so I had a snack of seven cracker squares (I don't know what company they are from - all I know is that I got them at New Seasons a couple days ago and that they were on sale) and 1.05 oz. of my raw cheddar goat cheese.  I weighed the cheese this morning as I was slicing it.  I normally don't break out the food scale, but I can easily go overboard with cheese, so the scale keeps me in check.  

  

  Not long after eating these, I got to a good stopping point and made a salad quite similar to the one from last night.

  

  This time I added some zucchini, half a pear and some quinoa.  The pear was HUGE, so I gave half of it away to a coworker and I'm totally regretting it.  It was so good!  The damn thing cost $2.59 (for one pear - can you believe it?!) so I shouldn't have been so callous with it.  The snacks still left in my bag are 1/4 slice cantaloupe, sourdough pretzel nibblers, and edamame.  At the rate I'm going, I'll probably finish them all before I go home :)

  Now I am totally salad-ed out and probably won't want one until next week.  Last night I stayed up watching Rachael Ray show reruns.  She's so annoying, but I pick up a lot of great ideas from her.  She made falafel burgers and they looked delish.  I think I have everything already to make them, so I'm going to download the recipe and probably try them out tonight.  Maybe I can get the hubby to eat one :)

  ]]> http://mmmsandwiches.wordpress.com/?p=9 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:34:41 +0000 moonunit16 http://mmmsandwiches.wordpress.com/?p=9 Grilled cheese with goat, Boursin and grueyre cheeses on sourdough from Loie in Philadelphia http://www.loie215.com/loie215/

  You rock, Anne!

  ]]> http://eclectichedonist.wordpress.com/?p=135 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:21:53 +0000 Stephen Malczin http://eclectichedonist.wordpress.com/?p=135 Previous Recipe: Spinach Mushroom Melts

  We made these tonight. It's a simple recipe, not even exactly a recipe, but it was wonderful, so I'm sharing.

  Serves 4:

  • 4 large portabella caps, stems trimmed off
  • 8tbl sundried tomato pesto
  • 4oz fresh goat cheese (chevre), sliced.
  • 4tbl whole pine nuts.
  • 1tbl butter
  • garlic powder
  • salt

  Turn on the broiler and let it get up to temperature. Melt the butter with a little garlic powder and salt and brush it on the caps of the mushrooms. Put the caps in the broiler face up for 5 minutes (watch closely not to burn). Take them out, flip them over, and spoon the pesto evenly into the caps. Spread it around, then top with slices of goat cheese and sprinkle with pine nuts. Press the pine nuts into the cheese a bit and return to the broiler, cheese side up for another 5 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil or white-truffle oil and serve piping hot.

  ]]> http://lastomach.wordpress.com/?p=46 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:35:12 +0000 lastomach http://lastomach.wordpress.com/?p=46 Favas in July?! Thanks to Tutti Frutti Farms and some hungry ladybugs we snagged some very late season favas at this week's Hollywood Farmer's Market. We also picked up some beautiful heirloom and garden variety tomatoes, leeks, avocados, arugula, mexican squash, lemon verbena, basil, thyme, italian parsley, shitakes, plums, peaches, white nectarines, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, tangerines, rhubarb, red onion, creamy Soledad Goat Cheese, and some fresh Ono from the Fish Truck.

  I'd love to hear your suggestions about what to make this week. Please send your ideas.
  

  The “Farmer’s Market Bounty” series is a weekly, typological photo essay of my Market shopping, which charts the possibilities of seasonal eating.

  ]]> http://foodjunta.wordpress.com/?p=253 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:44:56 +0000 Claire http://foodjunta.wordpress.com/?p=253 These are curious creatures, these garlic scapes. As you can see from the photo above, they look a bit extraterrestrial. But they are related to the garlic we all know and love, just ever so much more subtle and tender. After garlic has been growing a little bit underground, a shoot will poke through the dirt, and grow into this beauty of a tendril. If left alone, the tendril will simply turn into the same texture as the white paper outer layer of the garlic we're all familiar with; if left attached, the scape also will inhibit the garlic bulb's growth. So, farmers cut off the scape and have an additional delicious product to sell, the garlic does better, and we all win.

  Garlic scapes taste (and look) more like overgrown chives, in opinion, than like a clove of garlic. Which is no surprise, since garlic and chives are in the same family (allium), along with leeks and onions. Fresh scapes have a very delicate flavor, much less hot than regular garlic but still with a touch of bite. Their texture is also much more reminiscent of chives, just slightly thicker ones. (Scapes are different, by the way, than green garlic, which is basically the early spring crop of garlic, and comes with bulbs still attached.)

  For me, the scapes were actually an impulse buy. I was walking down the aisle of the co-op (you will hear more about the Park Slope Food Co-op in a later post, I assure you), and there they were, looking practically alive in their bin, their green arms poking out in an attempt to escape. I filled a bag with them and got them home before I realized that I had absolutely no clue what to do with them.

  A little online research later, I concluded that most people used scapes in one of two ways: either by making a pesto with them (for the moment impossible, due to my unfortunate lack of a food processor) or cutting them into pieces and sauteéing them. So the latter it would be, and just for kicks, I decided to mix them in with some rainbow chard I had also gotten that day, thinking they would liven up the greens and stems in much the same way regular garlic does, but with a lighter flavor. I had tried a bit of one raw, and found it still pleasantly garlic-y, and assumed that it would impart that taste to the chard when cooked.

  I cooked the chard similarly to how I have made chard before, except this time I sauteéd the stems in a pan (and without onion) and cooked the leaves separately in a pot. After sauteéing the stems for a couple minutes in some olive oil, I added the pieces of scape I had chopped, adding up to a good six or seven scapes. After another couple of minutes everything was tender and ready to go.

  But while the dish was perfectly good (and an especially nice side to the pork chop I cooked and smothered with store-bought tandoori curry), it had lost all of its garlic flavor. Instead, the scapes tasted almost like Chinese green beans, which is how I had read them referred to in a New York Times article. Satisfactory, but not what I was going for. I love garlic. I love variations of garlic. I wanted to still be able to taste the garlic!

  So, when I decided to use the scapes again a few days later, I kept them in their perfect, raw form. I'd had a long day of pre-Bastille-day celebration and didn't feel like making much. Things started with the idea of toasting a bit of baguette and adding some goat cheese. Then I remembered I had some nice grape tomatoes. Then I realized that combo would perfectly showcase the raw scapes, and so a sandwich was born. A drizzle of olive oil and some freshly ground pepper over the top made the whole thing complete. Note: I was going to make it a closed-face sandwich (as you'll see by the presence of the top half of the baguette in this photo), but I realized that, for one thing, that much bread overwhelmed the contents of the sandwich, and, two, that I couldn't fit the whole thing in my mouth. So an open-faced sandwich it was, and it was amazing, and amazingly scapey. Leaving me with the conclusion that raw garlic scapes are the way to go; cook them at your own green-bean-tasting risk.

  ]]> http://kitchenconfidence.wordpress.com/?p=230 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:35:21 +0000 kitchenconfidence http://kitchenconfidence.wordpress.com/?p=230

  Ile de France’s American importer contacted me to see if I would try their goat cheese and write about it. I did not hesitate to take them up on their offer and promptly invited our best friends over for dinner.

   

  Thankfully, the La Buchêtte chèvre they sent was a large one so that I could try more than one recipe and evaluate the cheese in different gastronomic settings. I set about finding recipes that interested me without concern for the protégées in our lives. (Though the supply was copious, it wasn’t endless. I going to use this occasion to introduce the girls to something they might spit out!) I searched my files and the internet for recipes and ultimately, for the appetizer and main dish, I settled on these:

   

  Goat Cheese on Fire Roasted Tomato and Olive Oil Triscuits

  Oyster Mushrooms with Corn, Goat Cheese and Farfalle

   

  We all thought the goat cheese tasted great on the Triscuits. We’re all big fans of goat cheese to begin with. These new Triscuits have a flavorful kick which was a nice compliment to the plain goat cheese. To add variety I also served Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar. The tanginess of both cheeses was nicely offset by the 2007 Four Vines Naked Chardonnay from Santa Barbara County, California. Chardonnay was the recommended pairing on the Ile de France website.

   

  The main course recipe was found in Cooking with Shelburne Farms. I had never prepared anything with oyster mushrooms before. They’re very unique and as you might guess from the name, have a slight seafood taste to them. The goat cheese here added a subtle richness. With dinner we tried a chardonnay blend called The Other which was 65% chardonnay, 25% sauvignon blanc and 10% voignier (this from Periano Estate Vineyards of Lodi, California). Sauvignon blanc was another recommended pairing, so this wine looked a good choice. It was very different than the Naked Chardonnay, but quite nice with the pasta.

   

  For enjoyment on it’s own, or in a recipe, goat cheese can’t be beat. Tune back in tomorrow for a recipe where you might not expect to find goat cheese.

  ]]> http://syrupandcornbread.wordpress.com/?p=40 Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:52:46 +0000 Aimee http://syrupandcornbread.wordpress.com/?p=40

  Beets. One of the most underestimated vegetables in modern times. I've only recently begun to appreciate the sweetness and breathtaking hues of beets. Before last year I didn't realize that you can eat beets prepared any way other than pickled, and I'm not crazy about pickled beets. But, a friend of mine recommended roasting or boiling them and serving them plain with goat cheese. I tried it and a whole world revealed itself to me. As I gazed into the scarlet puddles left behind after we'd eaten every morsel I realized I'd been missing out.

  There are many different kinds of beets and if you can get your hands on a variety other than red you should try them; it's fun to mix and match. This time I had one bunch of golden beets that I bought at the farmer's market. It was one of those weak moments when I didn't have a menu planned, I just couldn't resist golden beets. So they've been sitting in my fridge waiting to be cooked. I decided after I bought them that I would cook both the beet greens and the beets themselves, so I snipped off the greens and wrapped them in a paper towel. Separating them from the beets will ensure that both the beets and the greens stay fresh longer. When you are shopping, look for beets with greens that are healthy and green, and roots that have firm, regularly shaped roots.

  

  

  I couldn't stop taking pictures of these beets. Even if you don't like eating them you have to admit that they are beautiful:

  

  My favorite way to cook beets is explained below. I learned it from Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables. You can also boil them, or slice them and then cook the slices. This recipe makes one dinner-sized salad (with some beets left over) or two side salads, and is inspired by my friend Brittany's recipe which includes kale.

  Golden Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Walnuts

  One bunch golden beets (I'm not sure how much this is weight-wise, maybe 2 lb.)
  1 oz. or so goat cheese
  walnuts (toasted if you like)
  2 tbsp. olive oil
  rice vinegar
  salt
  pepper

  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove tops of beets (if you haven't already) leaving about 1/2 inch of stem. Wash beets thoroughly. Put them in a baking dish with a splash of water and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 45 min. to 1 hour, or until they can easily be pierced with a sharp knife. Uncover and let them cool. When they are cool enough to handle, cut off the tops and the tails and slide the skin off; it should come off easily. Cut each beet in quarters (or half if very small). Sprinkle with vinegar and salt and pepper. Let the beets sit for 30 minutes and absorb the vinegar. Alice Waters swears that the beets won't be as good if you don't give them a chance to absorb the vinegar.

  While the beets are sitting, cut the stems off of the greens. Wash and dry thoroughly. Saute over medium-high heat with olive oil until greens have wilted nicely. Place on a plate, top with beets, goat cheese, and walnuts. Sprinkle with a little more rice vinegar and a small amount of olive oil (to balance the vinegar).

  ]]> http://verdavivocooks.wordpress.com/?p=34 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:25:37 +0000 Verda Vivo http://verdavivocooks.wordpress.com/?p=34 I've made the following recipe with both arugula and Red Russian kale. If you like the sauce a bit more juicy, add some sour cream to thin it out. I get country-style bacon from a local butcher and freeze it in packs of three slices each, perfect for adding to dishes for a bit of flavor.

  Ingredients:

  • 1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 thick country-style bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
  • 1 can (14.5 ounces) Italian style diced tomatoes in juice
  • 2½ cups coarsely chopped fresh arugula (about 3 ounces)
  • 1 9-ounce packages fresh fettuccine
  • 3 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
  • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

  Preparation:

  1. Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Add bacon; cook until translucent and nearly crisp, about 3 minutes.
  3. Add onion and garlic to same skillet and sauté until tender, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add thyme and crushed red pepper; sauté 1 minute. Add canned tomatoes with juice. Simmer until tomatoes are heated through, about 4 minutes. Add arugula and simmer until wilted, about 1 minute.
  5. Add goat cheese, toss to combine.
  6. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until al dente (tender but still firm to bite), about 3 minutes. Drain.
  7. Transfer pasta to large bowl. Add sauce and season with salt and pepper.
  8. Serve, passing Parmesan separately.

  Serves 2-3

  ]]> http://foodjunta.wordpress.com/?p=249 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:55:39 +0000 Claire http://foodjunta.wordpress.com/?p=249 At this point, arugula has become so much of a yuppie cliché and emblem of the gourmet-ization of America (see David Kamp’s The United States of Arugula), that it seems a little silly to even write about it. Shouldn’t I be onto bigger and better lettuce greens? Maybe so, but I love arugula. I just love it. It’s so peppery and yet so delicate. So I say bring on the yuppies, if it means I can find arugula in any supermarket.

  I’m even more of this opinion now that I’ve realized that arugula is a multifunctional green: it can be used both raw and cooked. Usually you eat lettuces raw and greens (beet greens, kale leaves, chard, etc) cooked. I thought spinach was the only place the Venn Diagram overlapped, but as it turns out, arugula also represents the best of both worlds. Or rather, can at least also be wilted into various dishes (imagine trying that with romaine…it would not be pretty). I don’t know, however, that I would attempt to wilt pure arugula and eat it plain.

  Arugula plays slightly different roles in these two dishes. I made the risotto first, where the arugula plays a more starring role, significantly changing the color and body of the dish. A few nights later, I just happened to be making spaghetti and had half the bag of arugula still in my fridge. I didn’t really want to eat a salad that night, but I did want to feel like I’d had some nutrients, so I just dumped the rest of it into the sauce. There, it was practically unnoticeable, but I could still feel virtuous, and I think it made the whole thing look a little prettier.

  I don’t really have a recipe for the spaghetti: I (again) used jarred sauce, livened up with some ground beef I had cooked up in a pan (draining the fat) and some red pepper flakes, as well as a good dose of leftover red wine. Then, at the last minute, when the pasta was cooked and in the colander in the sink and the sauce was already hot, I just stirred the arugula into the sauce, over low heat, for about a minute, until it all wilted in. With the risotto, you also just wilt the arugula in at the last minute. It’s really quite remarkable to see how such a volume of greens can cook down so small in so little time. Wilting greens is a great technique, and now that I know it can be done with arugula, I’m going to start trying it all the time (my next target, I think, is going to be scrambled eggs – though I’m not sure the arugula can wilt in the amount of time that won’t overcook the eggs…we’ll find out!).

  Also, it’s worth pointing out, that this risotto is a bit unusual, because it uses goat cheese in the final step, instead of parmesan or mascarpone (or some combination thereof). The goat cheese gives the same creamy texture, but with a more kicky flavor. I liked the change, here, too. (For tips on cooking risotto, you can read my post on mushroom risotto or Kevin’s on asparagus risotto – here at FJ, we just can’t get enough.)

  
  Risotto With Fennel, Arugula and Goat Cheese
  Adapted from the New York Times

  1 bunch arugula, rinsed
  1 bulb fresh fennel
  3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  3 scallions, chopped
  2 cloves garlic, minced
  1 ½ c. arborio rice
  ½ c. dry white wine
  Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  5 c. well-flavored chicken stock, simmering
  ½ c. crumbled soft goat cheese.

  1. Rinse and drain the arugula. If the stems are particularly thick, tear the leaves from the stems and discard the stems. (Most arugula you buy these days, and definitely the kind in the pre-packaged salad bag, will be fine as is.) Roughly chop and set aside.

  2. Cut the tops off the fennel bulb. Mince two tablespoons of the feathery green part, discard the stems and cut the bulb into very thin slices. Set aside with the arugula.

  3. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the scallions and sauté until just tender. Stir in the garlic. Add the sliced fennel bulb and continue to sauté until the fennel is tender. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until the grains are looking transluscent. Stir in the wine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

  4. Slowly start adding the chicken stock, about half a cup at a time, stirring constantly and adding more as the broth is absorbed. After about 30 minutes, the rice should have swelled and become nearly tender. Fold in the reserved arugula and fennel tops.

  5. Cook another minute until the risotto has a creamy consistency but the grains of rice are still al dente. Fold in the cheese and serve.

  ]]> http://poetwithadayjob.wordpress.com/?p=869 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:10:01 +0000 Poet With a Day Job http://poetwithadayjob.wordpress.com/?p=869 I made the cheese this morning! It is now curing in the fridge. And thank God I got to milk her Friday and bring home what she gave - she came down with a little respiratory infection Friday night and is now on antibiotics so drinking her milk is out of the question, because of the drugs. She will be fine - but it will be 28 days until her milk is clear again. Sad clown.

  But, she gave me a half gallon at the morning milk, and the cheese making using this simple recipe went smooth as, well, milk. The taste test will be later today after we come back from this fair, but I have to say: a curd got on my finger and I licked it and...whoa. Delicious. Not goaty like the goat cheese in the store: soft, and mild, like farmer's cheese.

  In church this morning I was saying a prayer of thanks for the milk in my private prayer time. It truly is an amazing thing to ask a goat to get on a stanchion, eat some molasses-soaked feed, and allow you to milk her. Then to bring that milk home and make cheese - it may sound cheesy but this full circle act of harvest to stomach really hones in on how bountiful and giving our planet can be if we let it.

  Sometimes Ali Oop would turn her sinewy neck into a U-shape so she could look at me and what I was doing. She wanted me to pet her beard and waddles, old lady that she is. After she gave me a pail chock full of milk, she'd tuck her head into my belly like a good dog and want me to scratch her ears and hard, hard crown of her head. I'd say thank you to her and she'd bleat back (for real), then put her back in her pen with some fresh hay. So, so sweet.

  

  Materials for the simple cheese-making process.

  

  Boiling the milk slowly up to 185 magrees. Our wedgewood stove does "medium heat" like nothing I've ever experienced before. So smooth, so even.

  

  After adding the lemon juice, you stir for a while until you are good and curdled.

  

  Then strain it through the cheese cloth. I tried to figure out if there was something I could do with the water and lemon juice that drained out, but after looking at it in the bowl, I become uninterested. Looks like pee. Can't imagine it tasted any good. But I wondered if I had a garden, if it would be good at the foot of my tomato plants...someone try it and tell me.

  

  All tied up and bulbous and draining for 4-8 hours in my fridge. They are so cute and portly I want to cry. My, and Ali oops, handiverk!

  ]]> http://pimenton.wordpress.com/?p=66 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:45:05 +0000 irvington http://pimenton.wordpress.com/?p=66 If I let my lady decide the fate of the world, we'd all be eating pizza and burritos.  So once a week i indulge and out comes the pizza.

  I mixed 2 parts bread flour with one part whole wheat flour, water, yeast and oil and did the bread machine thing.  She rolled that out and I spread a home made pesto of sage, oregano, and thyme with pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, birdseye chili, and some local aged goat cheese.  Added some peppers and some fresh goat cheese and away we baked.

  We drank a washiington Gewurtztraminer.  gosh that stuff goes with anything.  it's a poor man's riesling.

  

  ]]> http://aimgrrrl.wordpress.com/?p=68 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:53:06 +0000 aimgrrrl http://aimgrrrl.wordpress.com/?p=68 Last night for dinner I made red cabbage and yellowfin tuna. It was quick, easy, and delicious!

  Fish:

  2 steaks yellowfin tuna (flash-frozen at Trader Joe's is cheap and good quality)

  1/2 cup ginger-soy salad dressing

  Marinade fish in salad dressing for an hour. Place both steaks in oven under broiler for approximately 7 minutes total (watch carefully - your time may vary dramatically depending on thickness of steak and heat of broiler) Flip halfway through cooking.

  Cabbage:

  1 head red cabbage, chopped into bite-sized pieces

  1/2 small onion, diced

  3-4 cloves garlic, smashed into paste

  2T brown sugar

  1T butter

  1/2C chopped almonds

  1/4C chopped dried cherries and cranberries

  2C chicken or vegetable broth

  Melt butter in large pan or wok over med-high heat. Add onion and stir frequently. When onions are medium-brown, add sugar and garlic. Stir once and add cabbage. Stir well to mix and reduce heat to medium. Cook cabbage, stirring occasionally, over medium heat. Add broth as needed to ensure plenty of steam. Add almonds and dried fruit. Place lid on pan for 5 min to allow cabbage to steam and soften. It should be mostly soft with a slight crunch left.

  ]]> http://thenourishedsoul.wordpress.com/?p=173 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:04:55 +0000 thenourishedsoul http://thenourishedsoul.wordpress.com/?p=173 From Bon Appetit

  Ingredients                                                     

  Compote: 
  1 1/2 cups pitted dark sweet cherries  
  1 1/2 cups pitted sour cherries
  1/4 cup sugar
  2 teaspoons cornstarch
  1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  **NOTE** There was a note on the original recipe that said that sour cherries are basically impossible to find.  I found this to be true.  If you can't find them you can up the lemon juice to 1 1/2 tablespoons.  Also I found that it was very easy to squeeze the pit out of fresh cherries with my fingertips and then use the flesh in the compote.

  Goat cheese cream:
  1 1/2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
  3 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled
  1/4 cup powdered sugar
  1 2-inch piece vanilla bean, split lengthwise

  Turnovers:
  1 17.3-ounce package frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
  1 egg, beaten to blend
  2 tablespoons raw sugar*

  
  **NOTE** I used smaller individual frozen puff pastry tarts and put the egg wash on them.  They had a pretty little lid that you could put back on but I chose not to because of my cream situation. 

  

  Procedure

  For compote:
  Combine dark sweet cherries and sour cherries with sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and vanilla extract in medium saucepan; toss to coat. Let cherry mixture stand 30 minutes at room temperature. Stir gently over medium-high heat until mixture boils and thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Cool cherry compote completely. DO AHEAD: Compote can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

  For goat cheese cream:
  Combine heavy cream, goat cheese, and powdered sugar in medium bowl. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean (reserve bean for another use). Using electric mixer, beat until mixture is smooth and peaks form (do not overbeat or mixture may curdle). DO AHEAD: Goat cheese cream can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover and chill. Rewhisk just until thick and smooth before using.

  For turnovers:
  Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Roll out 1 puff pastry sheet on lightly floured work surface to 11 1/2-inch square. Cut into 4 equal squares. Repeat with second puff pastry sheet.

  Arrange 6 pastry squares like diamonds on work surface, spacing apart (reserve remaining 2 squares puff pastry for another use). Place 1/6 of cherry compote in center of lower half of each pastry diamond. Brush edges of pastry with beaten egg. Fold top half of pastry over filling on lower half, forming triangle. Press firmly on pastry edges to adhere, then fold edges over, enclosing filling completely and creating double edges; press with fork to seal.

  Place turnovers on large rimmed baking sheet, spacing 2 to 3 inches apart. Using tines of fork, pierce top crust of each turnover in 3 places to allow steam to escape during baking. Brush tops and edges of turnovers with beaten egg; sprinkle with raw sugar.

  Bake turnovers until crust is golden and filling is bubbling thickly through steam holes in crust, about 35 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve turnovers warm or at room temperature with goat cheese cream.

  ]]> http://couchcubicle.wordpress.com/?p=1328 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:31:15 +0000 arielle http://couchcubicle.wordpress.com/?p=1328 Tonight for dinner I made a take on this goat cheese zucchini pasta by adding shrimp:

  

  Much better with shrimp, I have to say.  I'm not sure what isn't better with shrimp actually.  The last time I made it, it was a little too much with all the cheese, but the shrimp balanced it out a little better.  If you like goat cheese, you should definitely try this.  It's like fettucini alfredo.  Except it won't kill you, which kind of makes it better. I think it would be good with broccoli and sun dried tomatoes and the possibilities are endless, really.

  Before dinner I accidentally had a handful of Sun Chips.  No photo, sorry.  I was going to go back and do a little reenactment, but I was scared I'd eat that handful, too.  Damn those chips.

  I'll probably have an ice cream sandwich in a few minutes.  As for the rest of the night, I'll be working on keeping my fingers out of the jam.  I am pretty sure it cast some sort of weird spell over me.

  ]]> http://cookofages.wordpress.com/?p=20 Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:25:02 +0000 Cynthia http://cookofages.wordpress.com/?p=20

  In The Deipnosophistae, a second century BC cookbook written by Athenaeus of Naucratis, we find many references to [cheesecakes] ... cheesecakes made of cheese and cheesecakes made of everything but cheese, cheesecakes boiled in oil and dipped in honey, cheesecakes devoted to Olympian goddesses surrounded with figures of lighted torches, and wedding cheesecakes baked over an open fire and drenched with honey...

  --- Artemis P. Simopoulos

  Furthering our culinary tour of Antiquity with the Deipnosophists as our guides, it turns out something modern was mentioned by all of the diners at the Banquet of the Learned: cheesecake. It's no wonder how this combination of sweetness, cream cheese and eggs got to be so popular. Aresty writes, "The poor man probably hungered most for cheesecake." The topic has been discussed time and again--everything from history and recipes to blogs and birthdays.

  And at long last, after patiently waiting and researching and the making of cheese, I present The Deipnosophists' Almond Cheesecake! The following recipe was mostly adapted from the New York Honey Cheesecake on the National Honey Board's website. You can also find the exact methodology I used there.

  Ingredients

  4 pkgs (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature (and if you're one of the cool geeky kids, you've made some yourself...)
  3/4 cup honey
  1/4 cup flour
  5 eggs
  1/3 cup heavy cream
  1 Tbsp lemon zest, grated
  1 tsp vanilla

  For the topping:

  1/4 cup roughly chopped whole almonds
  1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon of fresh grated nutmeg

  You may be wondering... why follow a book at all if you're not going to use the recipes from it? Well, I'll tell you. Aresty's recipe calls for 7/8 of a cup of sugar. No big deal, right? Sugar is in a lot of cheesecake recipes, duh. But as difficult and expensive as refined sugar was for the first part of the history of it, I was in the mindset it would be much easier to obtain honey. "The first production of sugar from sugarcane took place in India. Alexander the Great's companions reported seeing 'honey produced without the intervention of bees' and it remained exotic in Europe until the Arabs started cultivating it in Sicily and Spain. Only after the Crusades did it begin to rival honey as a sweetener in Europe." (Source... you guessed it, Wikipedia).

  And if I'm crazy enough to go out of my way to make cream cheese, I'm crazy enough to try and figure out if sugar or honey in the Deipnosophists' cheesecake is going to be more authentic.

  Adding a bit more to the nuttiness

  Yes, I can be a hypocrite. I am at times, a culinary relativist. I'll choose to make something completely authentic, then turnaround and make a crust of Almond sable when it probably wasn't invented for a couple hundred more years. At any rate, better people would have resisted. Consider me not the better person, but love me and this recipe from Chef Stu Stein. I doubt if hypocrisy ever tasted this good:

  Almond Sablés
  Yield: 10 to 12 cookies

  1 cup Unsalted butter, softened
  ¾ cup Sugar
  1 Large egg
  1 Tbsp. Pure vanilla extract
  2 cups All-purpose flour
  1/8 tsp. Iodized salt
  1 cup almonds, roughly chopped

  Please see original recipe for methodology.

  I used the almond sable as a crust, and put the crust around the individual pie pans. I poured the cheesecake mixture into the pie pans. When the cheesecakes were completely cooked and cooled, I turned them upside down onto plates. I topped them with more crushed almonds, then drizzled the whole cake again with more honey. It turned out a bit like this...

  

  The tasting

  I was extremely pleased with both the lightness of the texture and the mildness of the taste. So many times cheesecakes can be this thick cream cheese sweet bomb. This, on the other hand, came out light--almost like cheesecake quiche. (I know, a strange thought...) I was really worried about the runniness of the batter, but it cooked up like a dream.

  I have a ton of almond sable dough left. I think I shall make cookies! I think the Deipnosophists' would definitely approve.

  ]]> http://karmafreecooking.wordpress.com/?p=521 Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:31:23 +0000 karmafreecooking http://karmafreecooking.wordpress.com/?p=521 When my friend Magda told me about 8-9 years ago that her favorite cheese was goat cheese, I felt kind of lost...  Goat Cheese?  How does that taste like?  Is it soft or hard? Tell me more, tell me more...

  So I immediately went to the specialty cheese case in my grocery store to see what this goat cheese was all about.  I was instantly HOOKED!!  I could not believe I had been ignoring the specialty cheese section for so long...  Magda opened up my eyes to the delicious variety of cheeses there are and that there's more to cream cheese than the Philly kind I love so much... to this day.

  One of my guilty pleasures on the weekends (and some weekdays too...) is to make myself a Goat Cheese Toast...  crispy, creamy, tangy - One of my perfect snack foods.

   

  

   

  GOAT CHEESE TOASTS

  1 whole-wheat baguette

  3 oz of soft goat cheese, make sure it's without animal rennet

  Extra-virgin olive oil

  Kosher Salt

  Freshly-cracked black pepper

   

  1. Slice the baguette into 2 halves.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  2. Toast the baguette halves in a 350° F oven for about 5 minutes or just use the toaster setting on your toaster oven.
  3. Take the toasts out (careful, they're hotter because of the oil) and spread the goat cheese on the bread.  Sprinkle a bit more pepper and drizzle a bit more olive oil for the nice cool finished look.

   

  Enjoy alone, with a nice chilled glass of pomegranate juice... or fill the two halves with a few slices of fresh tomato, baby spinach and roasted peppers for an awesome sandwich.

  ]]>