I’m writing this with the fancy new gadget Bob got me this week. He knows I like to write these posts on my iPad (also a present from him) but the typing without a keyboard does lead to more errors than I would like. It is a different feel than typing at work, which is probably a good thing, but he found a new toy. The man does love his electronic toys.

That is a wireless keyboard that hooks to my tablet with bluetooth. I can sit on the floor, type and see what I am writing and how may mistakes I’m making much easier than typing on the tablet. And since I am very, very use to keyboard typing, this goes faster. And it’s new and fun and isn’t that half the excitement?!?!

But for the cheese … this month Louise put together a great little box. We have two French cheeses and one from Tennessee. I am partial to sheep cheeses so I was very excited about the Ossau Iraty.

With more flavor and nuttiness than most sheep cheeses, this one is a winner and needs to go on the favorite list. Both Bob and I contemplated cutting more after we devoured the first bit we cut off, but I am trying to savor it; lunch this week and all you know.

The other French cheese was Comte from the Jura Mountain region of France. This one was good, but not great until we made a grilled cheese sandwich with it.

It was National Grilled Cheese Day Saturday and what better way to celebrate than a really good grilled cheese sandwich? This one is smooth and subtle and when it melts it is the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, take this as coming from the person who does have a fondness for the processed cheese product that one can obtain in a grocery store. No, it isn’t cheese, but it has its place. Bob was so happy with the sandwich he apparently made one for himself – on the stove – while I was out visiting with Mom and Dad today. I’m not sure I believe him. He has never used the stove before and I wasn’t sure he knew how. But he claims to have made himself a sandwich with the Comte and the Blackberry Farms Blue.

This has to be the mildest blue cheese ever. Louise asked me to try it (she knows I don’t do blue and has placed little surprises in our box on occasion when there is a blue in it that month, but this time she was trying to tempt me. So … I looked at it and decided to try some from the very middle where there is no veining. The texture was amazing – smooth, rich and creamy. The blue taste was very mild, the mildest Bob said he ever had. I was ok until the after taste or the back end of the cheese kicked in – then it was all blue. Not spit it out and grab Bob’s water blue, but it was there. I didn’t pucker my face or anything, but it still isn’t for me. I can appreciate this cheese. It has to be very difficult to make a cheese that mild and that complex, yet that distinctly blue. I may have to see what else this Tennessee creamy has up its sleeves.

Needless to say we had a great little dinner out on the patio with this box. Gracie tried to join us; she tried to convince me in the kitchen that she should have some cheese too, but no, I refrained from this as that would mean Jessie would be looking for cheese too and that is bad for everyone.

She is darn cute though and very hard to resist.

I’m working through our first Blue Apron box this week and have been taking some notes to compare it with the Hello Fresh boxes we love. I’m trying to get through the entire box before posting though – I have a bias towards Hello Fresh since they have been so wonderful the last few months; seriously the customer service is amazing and the food is great, so Blue Apron has a lot to live up to. I’ll try and get that up later this week. Hope Spring is arriving for everyone and the flowers are blooming. I miss my tulips, but will make due with the pretty flowering plant that I can’t spell on the patio.

It’s spring and while I say it every year, it is definitely true – teachers and staff look forward to the break from school more than the kids do.  I, amazingly, finished almost all of the IEPs and meetings, completed my reevaluations and managed to get caught up on most everything. Just in time for testing season to begin.  I think I’m testing between 24 and 28 days over six weeks.  Sigh.

We decided to stay home this week in part because we couldn’t agree where to go, or where we wanted to go was cold, and because Bob just doesn’t have the time off.  So I’m hanging around the house and prepping for my certification exam on Friday.

Yes, I have to take a test.  Despite my 200 hours of inservice points and everything else I have to renew my certification, I have to take a content area test. I won’t go into details but I am not happy about this as it was the fault of the district and some incorrect information (or they just changed their minds again).  I am not happy about having to do this, but it should be fine – I got a 90-something on the practice test. I am brushing up on Geography and Ancient History.  Not my favorite subjects.

But as I study this week I have some very cute furry creatures to keep me company. 

The kitties have been hanging around the house lately.  Even Gracie has not ventured too far.  We think it is because of the neighborhood cats that have been hanging around.  Whatever it is I am very happy to not be woken up at 2 am when she decides to come home.  Now she just wakes me up at 3 for cuddles.

Jessie looks pretty good for an 11 year old dog. She still loves her walks and she adores laying in the sun.  The last few days have been too rainy for her to go outside but she will go as often as she can. As you can probably tell from the plant, that was taken a few weeks ago – the bougainvillea has way more flowers on it now!  It likes the backyard and the pot apparently.

I love this plant.  I loved it the first time I saw it at the nursery.  The leaves, the flowers, the color.  I had almost given up on it when we moved it to the back.  It makes me so happy to see it blooming so fully.

Bob and I did start my vacation right – we did a cheese class at  our favorite cheese shop. Yes, we talk about this place a lot, and we are slightly obsessed with good cheese (although in all fairness I’m obsessed with good food, not just good cheese). But cheese is a simple food and the variety is amazing and it just tastes so good (and pairs really well with some wine) that its hard not to love.  Well, for me at least.

This cheese class focused on American Cheeses. Not American Cheese or, as much as it pains me to admit that I like it on occasion, cheese product, but real Artisan Cheeses produced right here in the USA.  As much as I get into local food movements and knowing where your food comes from, I was surprised at the range of American cheeses.  Pleasantly so. We went through ten cheeses from very soft fresh cheese to the I won’t eat it but Bob loves it blue. We found lots to love, but narrowed our take home choices to three.

First is the Oma.

This cheese is from Vermont and the Von Trapp (yes, those Von Trapps apparently) Farmstead.  This is the cheese Val gushed over at Christmas and it is still that good.  I was surprised when the lady sitting next to me took only one bite of this one – it is really just about a perfect cheese. Mild in flavor, great texture, but with enough character to let you know you are eating real food.  I almost asked if I could have the rest of hers, but I thought that might be a little rude.

This little gem is a Wisconsin  sheep’s cheese called Dante.  Yes, that is a sheep cheese.  Doesn’t look like it, but it is probably one of the best sheep cheeses I’ve had in a long time.  It has a crumbly texture and deep, deep flavor.  The rind looks like wood grain which is pretty darn cool in my book. Bob and I both liked this one so we picked up a chunk that we can eat throughout the week

And last, but not least was this one. This is a Utah cheese (who knew) that is rubbed in espresso and lavender. Barely Buzzed is its name and it is really hard to describe. Obviously if you eat the rind area you get coffee – lots and lots of coffee, but as you eat into the cheese you get more lavender and more put cheese taste.  Again, I can’t really compare it with anything else, it is unique.

I did make the chicken pie the other week, but forgot to take pictures.  It wasn’t too pretty either. I’ve been doing some cooking, but nothing terribly exciting.  Bob is putting up with my vegetarian experiments or tried and true veggie dishes and I occasionally reward him with BBQ chicken or sausages.  I’m pretty sure the food portion of this blog is going to be in a  sorry state for the next few weeks, but hopefully I can get one interesting dish in before the end of the school year.  I also hope to have a few minor adventures to share – we are doing the Wine Walk at the Ca’dzn mansion this week, so if I can get a few pictures I’ll make sure to post them. All in all life is pretty much the same here, and that is pretty darn good.

Hope everyone is making through the (hopefully) last snow storm of the season.

As most of you are in the middle of a deep freeze that I don’t even want to contemplate, I will just say, be careful, warm and safe. I have vivid memories of the ice storms, snow storms and blizzards from my days in Jersey and DC and while there are things about the northeast I loved winter was not one of them.

2014 has started out chilly but pleasant here and I took the last few days of vacation to cook a few experiments. I had a few hits and one pretty bad miss. The miss was a vegetable vindaloo I desperately wanted to try.

It looked beautiful with the squash, tomatoes and potatoes all vying for attention. It smelled wonderful, but I made a classic mistake – I substituted the wrong form of spices and totally threw the balance and flavors off. I could not find cardamon pods, or mustard seeds, so I used ground of each. And since I have no idea of the size or intensity of cardamon pods, I just had to guess. Val was amazed that I couldn’t find the right form of spices in my grocery, but I looked, and looked and looked and could not find them – in either store. So while the first bite of this was yummy and the second was pretty good, the more I ate the harder it became to eat. It was just off and I didn’t know how to fix it.

On the better side, I wanted a cottage pie or shepherd’s pie, but with pork instead of lamb. (Yes, I still have hard time with the concept of eating baa baa black sheep.) So I took some leftover pork from Christmas, carrots, shallots, some beef broth, and flour and made a filling.

To that I made a mashed parsnip top. I know, cottage/shepherd’s pie is usually topped with mashed potatoes, but I only had one potato in the fridge and I had something else in mind for it. So I used parsnips and topped the filling with mashed/whipped parsnips. It worked.

It doesn’t look pretty, but holy cow (or in this case, pig) was it really, really good. I actually like the parsnip top a lot. It was light, but comforting and filling. This was a true comfort food dish and we had no leftovers.

When we went to Val’s for the Solstice, she made this incredible butternut squash, potato lasagna. I wanted to recreate it, but knew I wouldn’t for a variety of reasons, the main one which is I didn’t have any ricotta in the house. So, I went with mozzarella and Parmesan.

I fully admit this wasn’t as pretty or tasty as Val’s dish, but it was really nice. Good flavor and pretty light.

This last experiment, I fully admit, is not vegetarian, not healthy and probably a heart attack waiting to happen, but I had to do it. When I lived in DC, we use to go to Jaleo more often than I should have. I loved the food there, especially the croquettes. Chicken, ham, a rich béchamel sauce. I found a recipe in an old Tapas cookbook I have and decided to give it a try. I made the filling Sunday night and let rest in the fridge overnight. After work Monday, I made little round balls, coated them with egg and breadcrumbs and fried them.

They came out super cute and pretty tasty. I need to work on the execution of these, but for a first try, not bad. I do think I need regular milk in these and not soy milk, but they were rich, silky and good. To attempt to lighten them up a little I made a curried carrot salad.

Couple of carrots, a little pear, cucumber and walnuts in a curry vinaigrette. I liked the concept, but it was too sweet for me. Between the pear and the dressing, it just didn’t work for me. Bob liked it, but I didn’t.

I am hoping to keep experimenting this year, and make a few things that are better for us, but still taste great. If those of you trapped by the cold want to make your own marshmallows for so e hot chocolate, I have a great recipe from the Washington Post – just eliminate the peppermint and you have plain, yummy marshmallows that will forever make you reject store bought ones.