Imported Cheese

A very good friend of a very good friend has been studying cheese-making in Switzerland and making cheese in northern Japan.

She kindly brought some for us to sample.

Delicious, dense, slightly crumbly, like a fine grana. I wish we could get this without involving quite so many airplanes.

Black Garlic

We have been making black garlic, fermenting entire buds slowly over two weeks and then drying them for another week.

With a texture like soft, creamy dates, the black garlic adds a dark, fruity richness to roast beef gravy and goes amazingly well with most cheeses.

To Waffle An Egg

A breakfast graced by the airy, crunchy, pockety, leger-de-pain of a cloud of waffles is bound to be a happy one (provided the coffee is fresh).

And there is no dark, dungeon cell as forgotten as the kitchen cabinet or hall closet that keeps a waffle iron for the other 364 days of the year.

We wanted to get more use out of our waffle iron than just an occasional freezer full of clouds and a forearm full of contact burns. Hence, this: the Cheese Omelette Waffle (or "Chomffle", which is hard to say).

A very hot iron keeps the egg from escaping over the sides.

The cheese awaits the closing of the lid, so as to crispify.

The first photo is a damned dirty liar.

Better than expected! The cheese (barely visible) was crisp and the wafflated tesseracts increased the golden surface area well into the range of "Very Good - Delicious".

We also had spinach (not shown) and the coffee was fresh.

Duck Dinner

With Keith's father in town a few weeks ago, we decided to sautée some duck from the always-excellent Windsor Packing Co. on Main Street.

Creamy green pea soup with fried Parmesan cheese biscuit.

Whole wheat pasta with blue cheese and walnuts.

 Slow-cooked giambotta.

Breast and thick legs of duck, getting some salt and pepper before cooking.

Duck leaks so much fat that it very soon becomes like deep-frying.

Cherry clafoutis.

What did we drink? Hmm... We'll try to figure that out and add it later. But we finished with Islay whisky, of course.

Trip To New York #2: Fantastic Food

We were able to keep our heads long enough to grab some photos of our meals, but most were so delicious that they were demolished before the camera came out.

A fantastic breakfast at Bread Alone in Rhinebeck, NY. From their menu: "Country Scramble Three eggs scrambled with baked ham, Old Chatham camembert, scallions, grilled tomatoes and organic French Sourdough toast."
and
"Huevos Benedicto: two poached eggs with saffron hollandaise and merguez sausage on a corn muffin, with plantain mash."
It's hard to overstate the deliciousness of the sweet corn muffin with the spicy merguez.

Massive chicken wings with blue cheese dressing, pulled pork, and a half-rack of ribs, all cooked to perfection and drenched in barbecue sauce at Max's Memphis BBQ just north of Rhinebeck, NY.

A New York Strip steak (but in New York they just call them Strips) grilled rare with sautéed spinach, and a plate of fresh gnocchi under arugula at the beautiful Park restaurant in New York City.

These meals were shared with family from far and wide, but the warmth of the company and the wonderful conversation is best left un-blogged, we think.