stinky cheese

A local restaurant supply importer has semi-annual warehouse sales. I went to check it out and came back with a lot of olive oil (really good stuff), chocolate, this langres cheese and a boudin.

langres cheese
This was really good, but really stinky. It had a nice creamy texture, and wasn't too salty.
[langres cheese, boudin sausage]

decadence

We always feel kind of guilty for eating like this for dinner. Somehow the cheese and charcuterie plate seems like an overabundance of good things. D always thinks of the scene in Lord of the Rings where Denethor is eating and sending Faramir off to be killed. We don't send our children on suicide missions or eat tomatoes and let it dribble down our chins, but I think D's sense of the decadence of that scene carries into our eating.

cheese & charcuterie plates
The cheeses are Fog Lights from Cypress Grove Chevre, Piave, and Manchego. The charcuterie is from La Quercia - speck and proscuitto. All were purchased at the new mega Whole Foods in Pasadena.

broccoli and cheese

We mysteriously started receiving food & wine magazine, so i thought i'd try some of the recipes. What sold me on this was the cheddar crisps.

broccoli soup and cheddar crisps
The color is pretty gross on this. The truth is, the soup is a few days old at this point, so the vibrant green of the broccoli has faded into this dull gray-green. For a soup without cream, this had a very creamy texture. The cheddar crisps were just great and extremely easy. Just grate some cheese onto some parchment and bake until bubbly and crisp.
[soup: broccoli, onions, garlic, water, salt, pepper; crisps: cheddar cheese]

charcuterie

Meals like this make me realize how spoiled/lucky I am. While in Napa for our 9th (!) anniversary, we picked up a chunk of coppa. Our friends L & E gave us a bunch of figs from their tree, and I still had a bit of Parmeggiano-Reggiano tucked away in our cheese drawer.

figs, parmesan, and hot coppa
This was such a nice snack/meal. The figs were super-ripe and sweet - a perfect foil for the salty, hot coppa. And the cheese is just really great.
[figs, coppa, parmeggiano-reggiano cheese]

grilled cheese night

Sometimes you just get a craving for some basic grilled cheese.

grilled cheese and tomato sandwich
Nothing fancy here - I used a combination of cheddar and the queso and tomatoes from mom's garden.
[bread, cheddar cheese, queso, tomatoes, butter]

queso, continued

More tastiness with the cheese. This time stuffed with avocado and tomatoes.

avocado quesadillas
I had half an avocado leftover so it went right into this quesadilla. Kind of decadent tasting, since the avocado was so creamy.
[flour tortilla, cheese, avocado, tomato, spice rub]

queso

I've never met the cow that my cheese came from before. On our trip to Ensenada, we stopped by our friends' family friends house where they had a cow from which the milk for this cheese came.

quesadilla
The cheese was salty and crumbly, with a little tartness. It melted beautifully in the quesadilla. I put in tomatoes from my mom's garden, and the flour tortillas came from Mexico as well.
[flour tortilla, queso, tomatoes]