One Mug At A Time

Its one of those early fall days, the leaves haven't started to turn in quantity yet and there's been no frost on the pumpkins or in our case...the plethora of zucchini...but it feels like fall. I'm not sure what it is, some kind of change in the air, the smell in the wind, a yen for spiced coffees, my end of summer cold? Hard to say.

I just have to say that I am having a major, all-day, fantasy of teleporting to a secluded cottage for two in Vermont, complete with roaring fire, wool socks, mug of tea and plaid blankets. I think about it all day long. I have told this to A. I have told my sister. I think I've even told the boys. Maybe its just my sinus headache but I'm having a hard time being patient with my children (especially the ever constant chaos) and I am having another hermit phase where I hide to recover from life. If I can't have my log cabin oasis dream then I can pretend to create it in my own house. So, I am drinking big mugs of warm turmeric milk, taking naps, beginning the fourth Narnia book with the boys and lying low. No big reason to go out, life with keep spinning and I can always get on again when I the post-nasal drip goes away.

Speaking of my fantasy....one thing I need in order to recreate it is firewood, and a chimney sweep. I love that we have a fireplace. I kind of love it more than I can say, honestly. Even a tiny, little house with a fireplace feels perfectly accoutered. This summer, one of the things I did finally get changed was the fireplace. One of the previous owners had incorrectly installed a fireplace insert stove and then the doors had broken anyhow. I got it all cleaned out and called a pair of scrap metal dudes to haul it out of our house. I gave the newly uncovered tile a scrub and now I need a serious chimney cleaning (its never been done in the history of our owning the house) and I also need to stock up a nice pile of firewood.

Our new, no insert, fireplace....all that glossy black tile was hidden before.

 Our neighbors across the street just rented a log splitter and stacked a neat heap of pieces in their backyard, I wanted to go running across the street hollaring, "Oooo! OooO!!! Can I have some too?!?!" I see free firewood all the time on Craigslist....now to figure out how to get it cut. Wonder how much that splitter rents for anyway....

We have nursed a sick chicken back to health. Pearl, our extremely ugly (truth, y'all) little Auracana chicken who had a woman troubles once before was back in the sick kennel in the house with us again this past week. This was my most serious pet doctoring yet. Truthfully, folks...I was freaked out, and scared and had some trouble sleeping. I know that my mom has no trouble harvesting chickens when they don't keep up their end of the bargain but whew! I am not my mama. This was some serious sickness....there was blood, medication, sprays, maggots (maggots, y'all!), special baths, and rubber gloves. It was for real. I feel like I should get a badge for making it through that one. I'm glad to say that Pearl is back to her old self...although still a little thin and not back to laying yet.

Life on the city farm is sometimes intense.

I Heart Vermont

Image via Wikipedia

I am back from a little family get-away in Vermont. Vermont makes me happy. It is a state full of cheese, amazing warm old farmhouses, rolling hills and hardwood forests dusty old yoga loving hippies and salt of the earth types, amazing farm markets and wonderful chocolate. Can that get old? I love it in summer and fall and even winter has a certain chilly, nostalgic charm.

I'm not a big winter person anywhere but winter in Vermont, includes warm maple milk, snapping log fires, frosted mountains and is the perfect seasonal experience...at least for a weekend away. This weekend it was -15 below zero on top of the ski mountain so it was a bit chillier than my tastes generally allow.

I skied. I am halfway through a pregnancy, learned as an adult, hate truly cold weather and am deeply intimidated by athletics but I did, I skied. I was absurdly proud of myself. I do think that going out on the slopes in -15 below while pregnant is an achievement, isn't it?

Carts of chocolates in the factory.

In other news, we had some lovely chocolates after our tour at Lake Champlain Chocolates (not nearly as cool as the Ben and Jerry's tour but still rather stocked with free tastings). I do recommend purchases of whatever seconds the factory has on hand at the moment. I also reccomend picking up anything you can that's made by The Vermont Butter and Cheese Factory who are another company I swoon over in The Green Mountain State. They make some of our very favorite cheeses, for instance the Cremont and the Bonne Bouche are right up at the top of our salivation list. How did I get on to cheese? Time to take another look at our Great Cheese List sometime soon I sense.

Ru is turning out to be a top notch skier already at the ripe old age of 5. I am by turns jealous, proud, wistful and inspired by watching him zipping down the slopes fearlessly. I wish I had half of his vim and deep belief in his own genius. He is intimidated by no one. Not a single impressive, cocky racer whipping past him on the hill can make him wobble and pout. He thinks everyone at the resort is wonderful and everyone who is more talented than he is is just a few inches ahead and completely exciting. I was sharing with A on our drive back home that I truly believe deep in my soul that I need to treat everyone else on the run with me as a potential enemy because they all might find it hilarious to knock over that ridiculous looking, clearly terrified inchworm of a grown woman, creeping her way down the hill in giant, baby-step zig-zags. I believe the absolute worst of every other person on the slope. Isn't that awful of me? I am generally not nearly so cynical and prefer to believe the best of everybody but somehow skiing brings out my inner conspiracy theorist.

On the way home A and I read Greek myths to each other. Such incredibly interesting stuff. We are loving all those romantic, hilariously bawdy, heartwarming and curious tales. Some of them are very familiar to me (Pandora, Odyssus and the Cyclops etc.) but some pretty completely new (Hera's escapades to punish Zeus, the goddess Io and the Greek account of creation and the great flood). I didn't realize how much I had missed reading together. We've taken a long break and not been working our way through anything for a while. We've made our vacation schedule for the year though and have planned quite a few happy little road-trippy type jaunts and I am determined to begin packing the books again. We're even going to read fiction like we used to before we accidentally picked up a Henry James that one time. Heh.

Related articles

• Vermont is a State I Love (vermontbrenda.wordpress.com)
• Welcome Friends to My Vermont Life, (smalltowntothemountains.wordpress.com)
• 2011 Award-Winning Cheeses We Reviewed Here on the Website (marcellathecheesemonger.com)
• Cremont From Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery (marcellathecheesemonger.com)
• Fireside Fashion (theprepcrew.wordpress.com)

The Great Cheese List

So yes. Cheese. I like cheese. You like cheese. So, today we talk about cheese.

This fall we went (as we often do) to Vermont to getaway into billboards-are-illegal, mountains-are-cool land and we decided to make it a tasting tour. Vermont has a fabulous world of small farmers, locally produced goods and excellent craftsmanship. Of course, Vermont is specifically known for its dairy energy.

There are few other states besides perhaps Wisconsin that can give it a run for its money in the world of bovine-centricness. I'm all about it. It means that Vermont, is a great place to eat cheese.

You've read before how I feel about food. Suffice it to say that I like it. A lot...and handily I'm married to a man who is similarly inclined. We love the pleasure that procuring, preparing and consuming food can give us and we love the adventure that can be involved. Sometimes its the crazy lengths we'll go to to get a cluster of oyster mushrooms down out of our neighbors trees but sometimes its the raw novelty of trying something reportedly fabulous that has never crossed our lips. Cheese, for us, is a great place to look for culinary adventure.

Heaven knows how many cheeses there are out there and we haven't tasted even a quarter of them yet! Hooray for unexplored worlds!

So, this fall when we went to Vermont, mid-stride through our food-tour I (iPhone in hand) started looking up cheese...and in particular looking for recommended cheeses that we ought to try...the kind of life-changing edibles that you have to seek out.

What I ended up with is what I now call affectionately, The Great Cheese List. I am keeping notes on what we've had and how we felt about the experience and slowly compiling my own private ultimate, favorites list.  I keep it in my email so that I pull it up quickly at a moments notice, should we find ourselves unexpectedly blinking into the cheese display at a wonderful grocery. Heh. Don't laugh. Its happened.

This weekend we plan to have the first of what we hope will be a series of cheese focused gatherings at our house...we've asked a couple friends to bring their favorite rindy, bloomy, creamy, slice-able cheeses and we're going to go pick some off our list and hopefully, we'll have a new round of excellt favorites to add to the mother list.

In case you're curious...here's the dish:

1. Auricchio Sharp Provolone
2. Baluchon
3. Banon
4. Beecher's Flagship
5. Beemster
6. Bergenost
7. Berkswell (from Neil's Yard)
8. Besace du Berger
9. Boerenkaas
10. Boursin's sweet cheese w/ guava, raisin and nuts
11. Brie de Meaux
12. Brin d'Amour
13. Cacicavallo
14. Cambozola
15. Camembert Chatelain
16. Campo de Montalban
17. Carpicho de Cabra (the goat version)
18. Chaource
19. Chaumes
20. Chevre Noir
21. Chevrot
22. Clisson (Tome d'Arquitaine)
23. Cotswold
24. Crottins de Chevre (let it get warm)
25. Cypress Grove Midnight Moon
26. Epoisses
27. Etorki
28. Ewephoria
29. Explorateur
30. Fontina Val d'Aosta
31. Fourme d'Ambert
32. French Sheeps Milk Feta (double creme)
33. Gratte Paille Double Creme (Lauren Bacall's favorite)
34. Haloumi
35. Hubbarston Blue Goat
36. Idiazabal
37. Jasper Hill Farm Constant Bliss
38. Le Papillon Roquefort (black foil, not green)
39. Livarot
40. Maytag Blue
41. McAdam Triple Cream cheddar
42. Mignergon de Charlevoix
43. Mimoulette
44. Montbriac
45. Mont Enebro
46. Morbier: We weren't terribly impressed with this one. Its quite mild and not unpleasant just not impressive. Admittedly, we tried it with some rather robust partners so we may give it another go in a different setting. We heard that if we liked Gruyere we had to try Morbier, but the tastes seem unrelated to me. Puzzling.
47. Neal's Yard Ardahan
48. Ossau Iraty
49. Parrano
50. Parrano Robusto (maybe the same as above?)
51. Pecorino Foglia Noce
52. Pepato
53. Perlagrigia
54. Petite Basque
55. Pierce Pt. (from Cowgirl Creamery)
56. Pierre Robert
57. Pleasant Ridge Reserve
58. Queso de la Serena
59. Reblochon
60. Red Cloud
61. Red Square
62. Roaring Forties: A blue I like! A wonderful, nutty cheese with lots of pleasant zing and a sweet background flavor. I can't say I roundly dislike blue cheese anymore.
63. Roccolo
64. Romano Aged Gouda (from Holland): Whew! This stuff is so strong! Its good but a little stronger than something we would like to eat all the time. Kind of a novelty to try...totally different from "gouda."
65. Roquefort Carles
66. Sally Jackson Sheep Milk Cheese
67. Selles sur Cher
68. Sir Wilfrid Laurier
69. Sottocenere
70. Spanish Cabrales
71. St. Andre
72. St. Marcellin: Amazing! Totally melty with a tender rind that is almost like a crust over the pourable insides. Full of high flavor...so wonderful! A favorite for sure. Am kicking myself because we missed it when we were in Lyon. Its the signature cheese of the region and ubiquitous there, apparently. It comes in a little earthenware crock because it is too melty to stand alone.
73. St. Nectaire
74. Taleggio
75. Tipo Cabrales
76. Tuma
77. Turma Persa
78. Vacherin du Mont d'Or
79. Valdeon: A liked it. Too strong for me. Kind of an electric, zappy blue, presented wrapped in chestnut leaves.
80. Vermont Coupole

My Current Favorites:
Appenzeller: (We like black label best, which is the strongest!) A firm, emminantly slicable cheese that is excellent with apple wedges. Perfectly sweet, sharp, fragrant, tangy, quite nutty. Like a Gruyere with its grown-up socks on! A flagship Swiss cheese we met when we finally strolled The Alps together, my childhood dream.

La Tur: A mixed milk cheese from sheep, cow and goat milk. A fabulously creamy smooth texture with a lovely complex flavor. Hints of tang, round flavors, wafts of mushroom, positively mind blowing. So good with honey and almonds. My cousin Drake introduced us to this cheese when we had dinner under his tutelage in Santa Barbara. You can read all about it in this post here!

Burrata: A cheese that I think I maybe heard about on NPR or else found in a book. I can't recall. We tracked it down in Zabar's in NYC. You can find anything in Zabar's. Burrata is creamy and smooth with a little smooth elasticity. It comes wrapped in a pouch of green leaves and is hard to obtain because it expires with such speed. It must be perfectly fresh. The live leaves its wrapped in are a marker of its freshness...if the leaves are still perky then the cheese is still good. I have found some versions sold in fake leaves but they are not nearly as good. The cheese itself is very like a soft fresh mozzarella, but has a hollow center that is essentially filled with a mixture of soft bits of the cheese and cream. I slice it in wedges and eat on thin bread, drizzled with honey.

Beltane Farms Chevre: I like to buy this cheese directly from the farmer because I like it young, young, young. Its a tender, moist cheese. Very tangy but with a round sweetness far in the background. I love it eat it spread on ciabatta and topped with basil leaves, olive oil and meaty, fresh tomato slices sprinkled with sea salt

St. Marcellin: So good...creamy, complex, a bit nutty but with a tiny kick, very liquid cheese, great for eating with a spoon. Has a tender rind and comes in a crock to protect it the mooshy little round. 

Bonne Bouche: Pronounced bon-boosh. This is a Vermont cheese which is made by the same company that keeps us Americans in quark. Good, good people. Bonne Bouche is wonderfully brightly flavored and creamy, comes from goat milk, has an ash-coated rind and comes in its own little wooden box, to support the tender disk en-route to your car...which is all the further it got when we bought it. Mmmm...