Percolating

I have no pithy quote.  I'm here to say that I've been percolating and baking, cooking, sewing, running around being a mom and all around delving head first into my mid-life crisis about 15 years too soon.

I've got food and life adventures to share.  Right now, I'm smitten with canning.  Can't wait to share with you. 

Stay tuned...

It's been a busy week at my end of the world. Lots of commitments, drama, death and dismemberment. Well, maybe not dismemberment. But some death and a funeral to attend.

I've stepped back also to try to get a grasp of what the conversations that interest me are about in the blogosphere. I'm flailing around and trying to find my way around this new endeavor. I'm not sure where I fit in, or if I even have a voice to add to the chorus. I identify with bits and parts of the food bloggers, and mommy bloggers, and even some of the newbie crafters. I wouldn't say I am firmly in any of those spheres, however. In the end, this may end up not being anything more than an electronic journal of food and wines I like and some meandering musings. I have to figure out if I'm ok with that, or if I want to commit more time to make it more than that.

But in the meantime, let's get on to the weekend cheese, and just for kicks, let's throw in a conversation about wine pairings.

The weekend cheese:

Humboldt Fog

Humboldt Fog is a goat milk cheese made by Cypress Grove Chevre, of Arcata, California, in Humboldt County. It is named for the local ocean fog which rolls in from Humboldt Bay.
Humboldt Fog is a mold-ripened cheese with a central line of edible ash much like Morbier. The cheese ripens starting with the bloomy mold exterior, resulting in a core of fresh goat cheese surrounded by a runny shell. As the cheese matures, more of the originally crumbly core is converted to a soft-ripened texture. The bloomy mold and ash rind are edible but fairly tasteless. The cheese is creamy, light, and mildly acidic with a stronger flavor near the rind.
This cheese won first-place awards from the American Cheese Society in 1998, 2002 and 2005.

I first tried this cheese as part of a cheese plate I was putting together for a small gathering. I wouldn't say it was the standout cheese of the three, but something about it intrigued me. It is very creamy, so it's like a spreadable cheese in that sense, and I did find that the flavor seemed to develop after a few days of having opened it.

I've had to get it a few times and try it in different combinations to get a real sense of the flavor profile. After having done so, I have to say that I like it best at room temp with water crackers. It is also good with some crusty french bread, but the water crackers seem to allow the focus to be more on the flavor of the cheese. It pairs equally well with a white or red wine. But I would certainly stay on the lighter end of those two. I've liked with a sauvignon blanc, or a very buttery (light on the oak) chardonnay and also with a light beaujolais or pinot noir. I would not say it pairs as well with the bolder flavors of a Sauvignon, Syrah or Merlot. Although, I found that a nice Cabernet has a nice contrast between the berries of the wine and creaminess of the cheese. My favorite pairings thus far, however, have been with some of the New World red blends. Try it with some Sexto, or Pillar Box Red.

Overall, I would say that this would not be a showstopper cheese (outside of the presentation) in a large gathering; but I would certainly save it for a smaller gathering where fewer distraction would detract from the simple complexity of the flavor profile.

Happy Monday everyone!

Overreaching your goals, oh yea and cheese to go with the whine...

"Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this? "
Mark E. Smith

Umm yea, the whole baking multiple loaves of bread coupled with the reality of running a household and chauffering kids to games and practices, nevermind the cleaning and cooking (my family likes to eat for some reason), throw in there an "I have to clean my house" meltdown - I had to do a little adjusting in terms of what I could realistically accomplish.

So, no cinnamon bread for the kids this weekend. Instead we combined the "clean the house" meltdown with the kids desire for baked goods and made some Honey Bran muffins that I had the mix for in the cupboard (thank you Martha White!).

Also good because after having the epiphany that home-baked goods are leaps and bounds better than packaged mixes, I'm resolving to try to bake from scratch this year. Check in with me on that goal about mid year when I say "eff it" and become a Martha White and Duncan Hines devotee again.

However, I did manage to bake the bread from that wondeful recipe I found. And now that I know I haven't completely butchered it, I can tell you I found it via Ivory Hut. She's convinced me that I need to pick up that book.

Let me tell you, that bread is better than advertised! It is fabulously crusty on the outside and soft and perfect on the inside. It is also very very easy to make. Trust me on this one. I was all stressed out about it not coming out right because I used tap water (following Ivory Hut's lead) and then my kitchen is all sorts of drafty so the Hubby had the brilliant idea to set the bread mixture on a cookie cooling rack on top of the heating register to proof. I should have taken a picture! I was worried about the kids knocking it over while they ran circles around the house, I was worried about a random house bug crawling in, or it getting TOO warm. I was all sorts of worried, until I got too busy running kiddo to practice and going to the store for the cornmeal I needed but didn't have and defrosting the sausages for the dinner I was making, and trying to tackle the laundry, and oh my god how did my house get so dusty... so then I forgot about it. And when I remembered, it had proofed perfectly!! So that's my advice, be too stressed and crazy to think about it, and it will come out perfect. Because after all of that juggling and running around, here was the end product:















And believe me, the picture does not do it justice.

Other things I managed to accomplish this weekend? Well, we did have the chicken and the lovely Chardonnay went very well with it. I also cemented my belief that this wine has to be one of the best value priced reds around:

Seriously, I've tried it with the short ribs from last week, with the sausage and garbanzo beans from last night, with the standing rib roast I made over the holidays and also as a sipping wine when noshing with my best friend or while cooking dinner. Go out and get it before everyone realizes how good it is and they jack up the price like they did with my beloved Sexto.




Ok, so what about the cheese portion of this post? Here it goes... did you know that blue cheese contains natural amphetamines? I mean, that quote up there says it, so it must be true right? Something to do with the ageing and mold and all. But anyways. I love cheese. I mean, I really love it! So I tend to hunt out artisanal cheeses to try out. I like to pair different combos for interesting flavor profiles, I like to eat them with bread, or crackers and fruit. I like to pair them with different wines. Some of the most fun ever is going to my guy at the liquor store (yea, I got a guy) and hunting down a wine to go with a cheese I'm swooning over.

So, I thought, I need a schtick. Everybody's got one, a recap or recipe or something. How about "the weekend cheese"? Couple with the "weekend wine"? Hmmm still fleshing it out. But at least for now, here is the weekend cheese:

The weekend cheese:


Montagnolo cheese

Montagnolo is a triple cream soft ripened blue cheese, carefully crafted by the master cheese makers of Kaserei Champignon in the alpine mountain region of Bavaria, Germany. The buttery texture and rich, piquant flavor intensifies as it ripens. This cheese was inspired by delicacies of the Renaissance and a time when cheese making was performed by cottages and families in this region.

Seriously, if you've never had this and you have a halfway decent cheese shop in your neighborhood, run out and get it now! It is amazing and worth every penny of that $10 you are likely to spend on a medium sized wedge. Besides, it contains natural amphetamines, which is really helpful if your weekends resemble mine and you tend to get weirdly high strung and stress yourself out. We could all use some nature-endorsed drugs, right? I mean, that's why we run, work out, eat chocolate, etc and stuff.

Anyways, this is like the perfect middle ground blue cheese. It's so creamy and smooth that it entices those that shy away from the spicy bite of the more traditional Roquefort Blue Cheese. And for those of us that completely groove on that spicy bite, it has enough of the bite to make you happy, but the creamyness of it gives it a whole other dimension.

Ok, I'm tired now. I think this is the most I've written. Time to get on with the rest of the week!

Fridays

When do you start your week? Some people start it on Sunday, with the ritual of going to church and taking the day for family. Some start on Monday, first day of the work week and see their weekends as the end reward.

In the past couple of years, I’ve realized that my week actually begins on Friday evening. I used to think I started over on Saturday. But it’s not true. Friday is when I being to look to the week ahead. Friday is when I plan menus, grocery shop, hunt down that special recipe or two. Friday is when I begin to visualize the week ahead, take a deep breath and plunge ahead.

I haven’t completely fleshed out the menu for next week yet. But my special projects thus far consist of baking cinnamon bread (at the request of the son), and making a crusty french bread out of a recipe I found. I love to pick up baguettes to eat with cheese and wine throughout the weekend and week. I was planning on tackling a baguette this weekend, but then this other recipe caught my eye. It’s based out of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. (You know I’ve got that book my wish list!)

Regular menu will include a roasted chicken on Sunday, I think. Throw in some seasonal squash, maybe some mashed potatoes and rosemary rolls… yum! I have a nice Francis Coppola Chardonnay that is buttery without being too oaky that I’m betting will go really well with it all.

It’s a start. Tonight I’ll finish writing the menu out, hunt through cupboards for items to replenish, check calendars for next week’s activities, make notes on errands and chores. The lists never end, do they?

And when I finally sit down, sometime around 11pm, I’ll have a glass of wine (I’m thinking that Leese-Fitch Pinot Noir will fit the bill), and look forward to the week ahead.

Knitting and making new friends

"The reward of friendship is friendship itself." --Unknown.

Last night I attended the inaugural meeting of a knitting circle. You can go ahead and blast that image of grannies sitting around with sweet tea and quick breads discussing the sermon from church the previous week. This meeting included adult beverages and fabulous apps, and four smoking hot ladies! Complete with saucy tales and peppered with some questionable language. In short a ladies night without the tired out bar scene, which would be inappropriate for some of us anyways as two are married, one engaged and the other involved.

We had a blast! We laughed and shared and knitted and ate and drank. Good times were shared by all. We are all mutually glad to have started this little group and I look forward to a year filled with knitting projects and friendship.

After a pretty rocky start to the new year in that whole interpersonal relationship front (not at home, just extended relationships) I really needed this evening to remind me that I can connect with people and make friends. We may all be at different stages of our lives (I’m the only one with non-furry kids right now) but we had such a great time! And I marveled at the fact that at this stage of my life which is filled with so many family commitments, I could still be swinging a version of girl’s night and making new friendships.

This is what it’s about…and all those other people that have tried to rain on my parade these past couple of weeks with your own preconceived notions and skewed perceptions…I have a message for you – you can SUCK IT!

Baking Bread and other Rituals

"[Breadbaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells...there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread."
M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

One my resolutions this year was to really learn how to make a good loaf of bread. Not just throw it together and hope it comes out, but to hone in on a recipe and know it intimately, to understand how the ingredients come together, and how to finesse the best results from them. I want to be able to see how the dough is forming and know at a glance if it's too sticky and will need more flour, if it requires more kneading, etc. I want to come to a point where this process is as natural to me as breathing, as cooking rice, and making a hundred variations of chicken, just something innate which resides under my skin.

Intimacy and immediacy are what rituals are about, and for me, what food is about. The process of spending an afternoon in the kitchen preparing a meal out of the simplest of ingredients, is ritualistic, meditative and cathartic. It is through the many steps of dredging, browning, braising, or measuring, creaming and kneading that I begin to purge the everyday stressors of life, it is how I express my love to my family when I just cannot find the words.

I needed that this weekend. Something involved and nurturing that I could lose myself in. I'd already received the explicit request to have something, anything, other than soup this week! So I made sure my menu for the week had no soup in sight. Instead, this week we are feasting on roast chicken, short ribs, spaghetti with a quick meat sauce and plenty of lovely home-made bread.

BTW, I think I've found a recipe I want to work with for a while. The results were better than I'd even anticipated. I decided to do some research and added wheat glutten to the recipe, also, I moved away from the rapid rise recipes and plunged into the process of "making a sponge" for bread, adding a little sugar as suggested by Tiffany.

Here is the recipe as posted on Tasty Kitchen

Honey Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients
4-½ teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
½ cups Honey
4 Tablespoons Butter
2-¼ cups Water
1 Tablespoon Salt
2-¾ cups All-purpose Flour
4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup Quick Cooking Oats
1 whole Egg

Preparation Instructions
In a medium bowl (or in a saucepan), heat the butter and honey until the butter is melted. Add the water; the mixture should be warm (120-130 degrees). Stir in the yeast and let sit until bubbly, about 10 minutes (this is called making a sponge).
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine salt, yeast mixture, 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. With mixer on low, gradually blend liquid into dry ingredients until just blended. Increase the speed to medium, beat for two minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. Gradually beat in the egg and one cup of whole wheat flour to make a thick batter. Continue beating for two minutes. Stir in oats, 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour. Knead till smooth and elastic. Use more flour if dough is too sticky (I usually add about 2/3 cup more).
Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch the dough down. Turn onto a floured surface; cover with the bowl and let rise for 15 minutes. Shape into loaves and let rise for 1 hour in greased 9 x 5 loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
(You can make the dough in a bread machine, using bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. Use the dough mode setting for the largest size loaf. Follow the recipe’s directions for the second rise and baking.)

Brief Interruption

To the vast unknown, and all my loyal non-readers: I have some posts in draft form, but first I'm fiddling with the format. It's starting to annoy me.