What's for Supper on a Rainy Day?

Elizabeth David compiled a collection of her writing in a book entitled, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine.  The title essay was an ode to a simple meal. 

It has been cold and rainy here in West Virginia. After getting soaked in the rain doing chores, I took a hot shower and needed a rather easy, yet decadent supper.  So I made a mac & cheese grilled cheese sandwich.  With a nice glass white wine. 

Wish you were here...

A "Cheesy" Christmas Idea

Give a friend a log of goat cheese and they have a nice appetizer.

Give them a share of Belle Cheve from Kickstater and they have a share in Belle Cheve.

Belle Cheve is a fromagerie in Elkmont, Alabama. The original owner wanted a nice French goat cheese and got herself some goats and the rest is history. Well, actually, the story takes its modern turn away from Alabama. It seems that Tasia Malakasis stumbled across some Belle Cheve in New York City where she found herself transplanted from Alabama. She was so impressed with cheese that she decided she wanted to return to Alabama and make cheese.

This is the point in the story that everyone has from time to time. That, "Hey, I'm going to quite my job and start a food company on a farm a thousand miles from where I am now and all will be fine" moment that most people have and quickly forget about. Malakasis refused to forget. She called Belle Cheve. She begged to work there. She begged to learn how to make cheese. She showed up. She offered to buy the place.

Her dogged endurance paid off and soon, she was making an extraordinary goat cheese sought out by chefs and consumers far and wide. The story hits a bit of a bump in the road, however, because the lease on the land where all those lovely Alabama goats roam free is up and the landowner will not renew the lease.

Belle Cheve needs its own place. That is where Kickstarter comes in. Kickstarter is a way to garner funding from people out there in the real world. So be one of those people.

If you are one of the 1% out there and need a tax right off... send Belle Cheve $100,000 and get cheese for life.

If you are one of the 99%, give goat cheese as a gift... not just the cheese but a chance to keep this great dairy alive and milking.

Cheese Safe -- 20 Things You Don't Need In a Kitchen...

When Martha Stewart began her new show many years ago, she did a series of shows featuring the 20 things every kitchen needed. One was a spatula. She asked the audience if they owned spatulas and about half of the audience raised their hands. Only half? Seriously, the audience was full of women screaming about how much they loved Martha and they didn't own spatulas? You can't make fish sticks and tater tots without a spatula. In the end, Martha gave everyone a spatula (which was a good thing for all those poseurs who said they loved Martha and yet failed to find time to buy a spatula. Remember when Oprah gave everyone in her audience cars? Well I must say, Martha's audience was just as excited to get a spatula, but I digress...)

I felt that the better show would have been the 20 things no kitchen needs but are really cool to have. Here is one of the items I would feature -- a cheese safe. Back in the day, before those nifty pre-grated, pre-measured bags, cheese came in a wheel. Cheese, being a living organism, needed a bio dynamic environment to stay fresh and -- safe. Not to mention cheese is a prized food item for the rodent population. So you kept your cheese in a cheese safe. The bottom of the glass has ridges to allow for airflow around the cheese. A bit of vinegar and water in the bottom keeps the cheese fresh and moist.

I own a cheese safe or two, but rarely do I get a nice wheel of cheese. This Christmas, however, I received a lovely wheel of Vermont Cheddar from my friend Catherine. I was excited about the cheese but even more excited that I would get to use my cheese safe. I set it out and proudly admired it.




Over at Cookbook Of The Day, I wrote about another of my Christmas presents, a new 9 X 13 pan. So I managed to combine these two Christmas presents into this lovely item. In this 9 X 13 the cheese was not safe! Not at all. It was, however, delicious.