Grafton Village - The Making of Vermont Cheddar

Check out this really sweet video from Grafton Village Cheese Company! Learn more about the creamery and watch them make cheese (om nom nom).



They are famous for making a damn good Vermont Cheddar - find Grafton Village at your local store here.

Enjoy!
xo D

Cheese of the Week

Hi all -

Just a quick post here in the middle of a hectic week - I have to replace a leaking tire, try to remember that dishes have to get washed, and convince the DMV I am not a raging delinquent. I'm about to throw my hands up, buy some paper plates and biodegradable plastic forks, and just order pizza.

BUT: This weekend I had an adventure. An adventure of epic and cheesy proportions. I made the pilgrimage to the new(ish) SF Mecca of all things sharp and oozy and delicious, Mission Cheese.

Chloe is jazzed about cheese!

I will post more photos when I get home tonight, or maybe tomorrow, BUT - suffice it to say that the cheese I am about to tell you about is one of the best cheeses I have had in a loooooong time.

Lovingly created at Nettle Meadow Farm in Warrensburg, NY, Kunik is a luscious triple-creme cow-goat milk blend cheese. I've been eating it spread on Della Fattoria levain with veggies and an egg fried over-hard. Also I may or may not have been eating it with a spoon.

You can definitely buy Kunik at Mission Cheese (for now - they update their retail list almost every day with new cheeses as stock changes!), or you can see a list of distributers here.

Bon appetit ;)
xo D

Getting Jazzed in the Morning

Step Up soundtrack: THAT'S WHAT'S UP.



(Google Reader folks, click out for the playlist.)

Nothing like a little hip hop to kick it up in the morning.

xoxo D

Hippie Chow

Being Jewish is a huge part of who I am.. There's no way to write that sentence that doesn't sound a little cheesy but it's so true.

That said, for most of my life, I've stayed away from the majority of seafood (since unless it has fins and scales, it's not kosher). Still haven't ever eaten a scallop I enjoyed (although I've only eaten them twice, so I'm open to the possibility). I used to think I really hated shrimp - I still won't eat the ones you get at dim sum that still have the eyes and legs and everything. Blech. 

BUT. BUT. Thanks to Whole Foods, a very nice Asian man behind the seafood counter, and one dose of mustered-up courage, the other night I found myself the proud possessor of a dozen pre-cooked, delicious pink shrimp. The counter guy let me taste one before I bought and OH MAN it was so gooooood. Guh. Sweet and not fishy at all. Nom.

So: I was thinking to myself, I want to make myself a Bowl of Food. Now, the Bowl of Food phenomenon occurs when you put a bunch of healthy crap together and it tastes awesome. Also known as hippie chow. Here's my awesomely yummy shrimp-kale-grain version!

Ingredients:

10-12 medium shrimp (size 31-40)

chopped Red Russian kale

crimini mushrooms

1 svg Trader Joe's 3 Grain Blend (barley, rice, spelt), cooked

dash olive oil

1 thick slice firm tofu

1 clove garlic

soy sauce

lemon

salt

pepper

1. Cut the tofu into ~1/2 inch cubes. Dry-fry in a pan over medium heat. Let it brown a little bit and then set aside. 

2. Saute mushrooms & garlic & kale in olive oil. Kale should get bright green and mushrooms should brown but don't overdo it. 

3. Add cooked tofu and shrimp and a splash of soy sauce, just for long enough to warm through. 

4. Dump the rice in the pan, stir everything around, add a light squeeze of lemon and a dash of salt and pepper. 

5. Serve in a bowl, with a tiny dish or napkin to put the shrimp tails.

Makes 1 serving.

Hey guess what! More single girl food! W00t. I think shrimp will not be a frequent guest in my home, but every once in a while I can see getting a craving and running down to Whole Foods to get em..

xoxo D

Potato Thyme Cheddar Toast

Oh man oh man. I just... yes. Amazing.

Let me rewind.

1) I have an obsession with food blogs that is rather odd - I bookmark everything and rarely make anything.

2) I love cheese. And bread. Also cheese. You might know this already.

3) It's rare that I make anything without adding touches of my own. Most of the time I don't use recipes and just toss stuff together.

So, with that context, I give you elephantine's potato & rosemary pizza... which, in my house, morphed into potato thyme cheddar toast.

A few notes: Make sure to slice the potatoes suuuper thin. Also, you can make this with frozen bread, which I did, since I have a loaf of Sunflower Seed bread from Wild Flour Bakery in Sonoma County (ya rly) hibernating peacefully in my fridge. Also also, try making this with other stuff! Like a milky soft cheese + some kind of spicy salumi + thinly sliced potatoes would also be amazing. Ooh! This one would be great with chives and butter instead of ricotta and thyme!

Without further ado:

Ingredients:
2 small pieces of toast
2 tbsp ricotta cheese (I used part skim)
Whole salt (like in a twisty mill thing? What is that called?)
Pepper (peppercorns in a mill)
1/2 medium red potato
2 tbsp(ish) finely chopped Cabot clothbound cheddar
1 tsp olive oil

1. Toast bread lightly to defrost.
2. Spread with ricotta.
3. Slice potatoes very very thinly. Put olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper in a small bowl with potato slices; toss to coat.
4. Lay coated potato slices over the toasts.
5. Sprinkle sharp cheddar over the potatoes.
6. Toast again until cheese is melty and potatoes are sorta cooked.

In the above picture, I would have toasted it for longer - it was a little too soft and not crunchy enough. Maybe toasting the potato slices first on a toaster pan?

Anyway, DELICIOUS. Hell yeah single girl food.

xoxo D

Tangy Leek, Mushroom, Kale & Cheddar Quiche

Hey all! I was looking for a low-cal quiche recipe on Saturday and was so excited to find this post on the MyFitnessPal forums. I'm copying my recipe straight to/from there, so.. no judgment, ok? :)

I LOVE the OP's strategy of using greek yogurt and ricotta and egg to make the custard part instead of milk/cream etc - I think it gave this quiche a really fabulous tangy flavor that it might not have had otherwise. 

Alas, I am a quiche-with-a-crust kind of girl, so my variation is more calories than the OP's - but I used a whole wheat crust, so as to add some fiber. 

Custard: 

1 C part skim ricotta 

1 C fage 0% greek yogurt 

4 whole eggs 

salt 

pepper 

dash nutmeg 

Filling: 

3 lg crimini mushrooms, chopped 

1 leek (white/light green part only, chopped thinly) 

2-3 cups red russian kale, chopped 

2 oz Cabot clothbound cheddar (sharp white cheddar), crumbled 

garlic, 3 cloves 

dash olive oil 

whole wheat crust from Whole Foods, frozen 

1. Saute leek in olive oil for 1-2 mins. Add garlic. Add mushrooms and kale. Saute until the mushrooms are browning and the kale is bright green, but nothing is burning or limp. (at this time, pre-heat oven to 325 F) 

2. Transfer to bowl off the heat; set aside. 

3. Mix ricotta, yogurt, and eggs. The texture will be a little gross at first but give it some muscle and it turns into a nice fluffy, slightly goopy mixture. Add a dash of nutmeg and some salt and pepper. 

4. Add cooked veggies to the custardy mixture. Stir. Also add the crumbled white cheddar. 

5. Pour the mixture into the whole wheat pie crust. The pie crust should be full but not overflowing. 

6. Bake the quiche at 325 F for 60 minutes, give or take. You want the center to be softish but not liquid. 

7. Let the quiche cool for ~5-10 mins. It will collapse/settle slightly - this is normal. 

8. Cut into 6ths; serve. 

So: for a serving that is 1/6th of the pie, the nutrition info is as follows: 

340 calories 

20 g fat 

18 g protein 

If you want to do 1/8th pie servings, the nutrition info is as follows: 

255 cal 

15.1 g fat 

13.4 g protein 

It's really the crust that adds on the calories and fat, so making this without the crust would really bring down those stats. BUT - crust is amazing. Therefore: whole wheat crust. More fiber!

AND IT WAS AMAZING. GUH. I am sad that I can't with any conscience eat the entire quiche right now, but I am heartened that I have quiche to eat for the rest of the weekend/week. NOM!

**UPDATE** Even more amazing two days later!!!