How to Make Goat Cheese—via Serious Eats

Goat Cheese is one of the most uniquely flavored cheeses of all, in my opinion. After reading this article, Erin makes it seem like it is a piece of cake to make. I am going to try this if I can find goat milk around here. I will let you know how that turns out.

Original post by Erin Zimmer,

It’s almost as easy as making a pot of tea. Except you also need cheesecloth.”

[Photographs: Erin Zimmer]

This super-easy recipe for goat cheese seemed too good to be true. No backyard goats required? No rennet? (The animal enzymes usually required for cheese production.) No help from an older, wiser dairy farmer?

Nope. It’s almost as easy as making a pot of tea. Except you also need cheesecloth and one other maybe-you-don’t-have-this-lying-around-thing: a candy thermometer. But that’s really it. In less than two hours, you’ll have a little pouch of soft, fresh goat cheese.

READ the article and see the recipe on Serious Eats HERE

Serious Cheese: Going Beyond the Boring Cheddar, Brie, and Blue—via Serious Eats

We all LOVE cheese. But learning to love cheese above and beyond your go-to cheeses will expand your horizons. Most high-end gourmet grocery stores will let you sample all that you want (within reason), so why not seek out new favorites.

Serious Cheese: Going Beyond the Boring Cheddar, Brie, and Blue
Posted by Jake Lahne, January 12, 2010 at 2:45 PM

Stichelton is a blue cheese like Stilton but made with raw milk. [Flickr: adactio]

Click on the image to read about it on SeriousEats.com

Recipe: Granny’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese

When I was growing up, my mother in her words “just cooked to keep us alive”. We had pretty much the same same 7 meals every week, on the same day even! It should come as no shock knowing this that my first Thanksgiving with my partner’s family was a real experience as for the first time in my life, I had some honest to goodness old school “comfort foods”. Things like collard greens, ocra and dried corn were delicious new dishes that made my day, but the two things I can remember most vividly at that meal were his Grandmother’s Potato Salad and her Macaroni and Cheese.

Most of my life, Mac and Cheese was just that… Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. In a box, on the stove, a creamy staple of my childhood, but my partner’s Grandmother’s Mac and Cheese well that was something amazing to me. It may be run of the mill to the rest of the world but to me that’s been the one dish I look forward to at Thanksgiving and Christmas. For years she would make us an extra even if we weren’t eating with her so we could have it where ever we were but once she passed away, my partner took up the charge of making it at every holiday meal, and even though we’ve tried some variations we still come back to the original. With it being Christmas time here for my family, I thought I’d share the recipe. Now like all good recipes, this one was never written down, it was just something she could make from memory and something my partner had to recreate from his memory so your mileage may vary!

Ingredients

3 cups of Sharp Cheddar Cheese (use a block of cheese)
8 tbsp (one stick of butter)
1 lb of elbow macaroni
4 cups of whole milk
3 tbsp corn starch

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Shred by hand the block of cheese.

3. Melt 4 tbsp of butter in a small saucepan and then add the corn starch to it to make a roux.
4. Slowly whisk 4 cups of whole milk into the roux until it thickens.

5. Add 1 cup of cheese to the sauce and mix until the cheese has melted and the sauce is creamy.
6. Boil 1lb of macaroni and drain (remember to salt the water once it begins to boil)
7. Put the macaroni back into the pot you cooked it in and add to it the other 4 tbsp of butter and another cup of cheese and mix it well.

8. Next add to the macaroni, the cheese sauce, mix well and season to taste.
9. Put mixture into a 13×9 pan

10. Top with another cup of cheese.

10. Cook at 350F for 35-40 min until cheese is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Now as far as the cheese goes, you can use any Sharp Cheddar cheese you like (we prefer Cabot’s) but I think it’s terribly important to the taste to shred a block of cheese by hand instead of buying pre-shredded cheese. The thinner shred you’ll get with a box grater will melt more evenly and taste so much better. We usually use a 2lb block, and cut it into 4 pieces and shred each, using the last cup of cheese for one of the other dishes that need to be topped with cheese! Now with all the cheese and butter in this, it’s certainly not good for you… but it sure is tasty!

Recipe: Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip

Well it’s the holidays and that means parties and that means yummy snacky foody things! Here is one of my favorite things to bring to or make for a party. Easy to find ingredients and a quick and simple prep makes this one a winner.

Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip

Ingredients
½ lb fresh jumbo lump crabmeat
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
8 oz. of canned quartered artichoke hearts
¼ cup chopped green onions

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Thoroughly drain the artichoke hearts and if desired, give a rough chop.

3. Drain, rinse and squeeze the crab meat to get as much moisture out of it as possible.

4. Roughly chop the crab so that you will have big chunks of crab in the dip.
5. In a bowl combine the mayonaise, cheese, artichoke hearts, crab and onions. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.

6. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.

Serve with bread or Triscut crackers.

Enjoy!

Review: Five Guys

Prompted by Chuti’s post about In-N-Out burger, I decided I wanted to head to my favorite burger place… Five Guys.

I first ate a Five Guys on a business trip to Columbus, OH. My coworkers took me there raving about the burgers and fries. Since then it has blossomed into quite a large chain all over the US. I visited two different Five Guys over the past two weeks to write this review. Last weekend, I took my dad who had never been to get his unbiased opinion and today I took my partner to make sure we got a good sampling of the menu (hee hee).

The decor of Five Guys is very simple and clean. White and red tiles on the walls, exposed red ventilation ducts and a fully open kitchen so you can see exactly what they are doing. The walls are simply adorned with signs displaying some of the awards they’ve won and boy have then won a lot of them.

Now the menu is pretty straight-forward. Four burgers the Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Bacon Hamburger and Bacon Cheeseburger in two sizes and three hot dogs, two sandwiches and fries. That’s pretty much it. The “Little” burgers are a single patty and the “Regular” burgers are two patties.

All burgers are cooked well done and after you choose which burger you want, you can choose from about fifteen different toppings from Mayo to Jalapeño Peppers to Hot Sauce all for free. It is really nice to be able to get a burger just the way you want it without it costing you a small fortune. Another nice touch is that each burger is cooked and assembled in the open so you can see what’s going on.

The first week we visited Five Guys, I went small and had just a “Little Bacon Cheeseburger”, I had it topped with tomatoes, onions and ketchup. On the second visit, I went big and had the “Bacon Cheeseburger” topped with Onions and Ketchup only. Just for good measure and to be sure we sampled the whole menu, I also ordered a Bacon Cheese Dog! I know it has nothing to do with the food, but I love that the food is served in a brown paper bag and aluminum foil!

Lunch in a sack


My lunch!


Little Bacon Cheeseburger


Bacon Cheesebuger


Bacon and Cheese Dog

The burgers at Five Guys are just outstanding. Yes I know that they are cooked “well-done” but I’ve never had a well-done burger so juicy and moist. They are never burnt, never over done and the cheese is always perfectly melted. The toppings are what makes it your own and the range of toppings leaves you with countless choices. I will say that it is honestly the best burger I’ve ever eaten and very much worthy of all the awards that they have won.

This weekend was the first time I’ve ever had the hot dog and I can say that the hot dog was also out of this world. The hot dog is a beef hot dog and served dog split down the center and grilled. The beef dog combined with the lovely saltiness of the bacon and the ooey gooey cheese was just scrumptious.

So we know the hot dog and burgers are on point but let’s talk about the other star at Five Guys… the french fries. Seriously delicious. They are fresh cut, and fried in peanut oil each time someone orders them. You can actually watch someone come out into the dining area and grab a huge 50lb bag of potatoes (stacked up as part of the decor) to take back to the kitchen when they need more.

The fries are served skin on and come in two sizes regular and large (both served in styrofoam cups). One of the nice extra touches that Five Guys does is no matter how many fries your order or what size, they always throw an extra heaping helping of fries into the bag on top of everything else! The fries are so delicious I could make a meal out of them alone. Piping hot, not over fried and super fresh. Just amazing.

Every time I visit Five Guys I’m blown away by just how good the burgers and fries are. If you have one near you and you like hamburgers and good fries, I highly recommend you go and visit. Be sure to let me know if you agree that it’s one of the best burgers you’ve ever eaten!

Five Guys
Numerous Local Locations
http://www.fiveguys.com

My Thanksgiving Feast

Every year since I’ve moved into my home, my partner and I have hosted my family for Thanksgiving. We host, he cooks, which means he makes a fantastic meal and I stand around. He was taught to cook by his grandmother which means he really knows how to “throw down”. Having eight extra people in the house always keeps me busy while he sweats and toils over a hot stove

This year, with all the changes we’ve had at work and all the things going on in our personal lives we respectfully declined hosting Thanksgiving and decided to just have a quiet feast at home just the two of us. This turn of events lead me to finally get up the courage to try and cook the feast myself. Now let me be perfectly clear… I am a HORRIBLE COOK. It’s not that I can’t follow a recipe or measure, mix or even sauté… it’s just I panic, early and often when there is more than one thing to be done at one time. Knowing this my partner suggested that we cook together, he could show me the ropes and be there to keep me from losing it.

So over the past two weeks we planned a menu. He usually cooks his grandmother’s recipes from memory but this year he wanted to try some recipes he saw on Food Network and I wanted recipes to follow. We decided on a smallish (8 lbs) turkey breast, Alton Brown’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Giada De Laurentiis’ Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs, Granny’s Stuffing and a Green Bean Casserole with Mushrooms (yes even with my allergy!).

We started around 10am preparing the turkey. Due to the small size, we decided instead of brining it, to just use a garlic marinade injected into the meat.

After injecting an entire jar of marinade, we seasoned and got the bird up on the rack ready for it’s four hours of roasting:

Next came the mashed potatoes. They were a change of pace from what we usually have, because there was not only panchetta added but also LOTS of mozzarella and parmesan cheese mixed in. It was terribly easy to follow the directions in the recipe and we only had one minor mishap. While I was slicing the potatoes, I accidentally took a good bit of my left thumb and thumbnail off. I didn’t let this slow me down, I washed it, put on some antibiotic ointment, a bandaid and then covered it with a rubber glove and got back to work!

Next dish up was the Baked Mac and Cheese, also an easy dish… to be honest I was surprised at this point at how easy the recipes were and at how well everything was progressing. One thing at a time all leading up to cooking when the bird was done. I was actually kind of embarrassed that I didn’t try this sooner. The recipe for the Mac and Cheese had a lot of ingredients but not a lot of instructions. It came together quickly and we were ready to move on.

The green bean casserole was the first place where I had trouble. I followed the recipe but to be honest the Onion/Mushroom/Sour Cream sauce looked more like toothpaste than a creamy sauce. I began to panic. My novice cooking skills were showing! I started to panic, luckily my partner stepped in and said “just add more sour cream!” I swear I would not have thought of that. In just a few moments the sauce was much more creamy and I put together the casserole.

While I was putting together the green bean casserole, my partner made his grandmother’s infamous stuffing… it’s so good that we just could not bring ourselves to make something else…

We finished the prep of the side dishes just about 30 minutes before the turkey as due to be done cooking. As I checked on the bird, I suddenly realized I was supposed to check on the bird over 30 minutes before this point and cover the it with foil. I forgot and the result was damn near burnt skin! I was quite worried about the meat being dry because of this, but I am happy to report that it had no affect the the very crispy turkey skin was super delicious!

Once the bird was out and resting, we started cooking all of the side dishes and carved the bird. Everything cooked without incident and in about another hour we were ready to serve our enormous meal for two.

I helped myself to a very large, very full plate of food that I actually had hand in making for the first time in my life!!

So what was the verdict? How did my first experiment with a Thanksgiving dinner go?

Well first of all, every dish came out pretty well, no major mistakes. The bird was very very juicy and not dry at all. The sides were all delicious, and in fact the baked potatoes will make it into our regular holiday meals I think. The Baked Mac and Cheese while perfectly delicious, did not have the flavor and tanginess of my partner’s usual Mac and Cheese. He uses more than one type of cheese and it makes a difference. The green bean casserole was okay… I think we’ve determined that I’m not allergic to WHITE mushrooms so that’s something. My only complaint about that dish was the excessive amount of breadcrumbs on the top. The recipe called for corn flake crumbs and the taste over powered everything else.

Once we had eaten all we could eat, it was time for clean up and packing up the leftovers. We cooked wayyyyyy too much food, lucky for me it was delicious because we have enough for several days of meals.

All in all I would have to say that I’m extremely happy that I decided to help out cooking, and to be honest, I can’t wait for Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!