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Posts tagged ‘cheese’

Brussels sprout gratin with whole-grain mustard and caramelized onions

Brussels_sprout_gratin

I did something exciting to these brussels sprouts. I did something fantastic to them, in fact, though in a way that might make some people feel a little nervous. “Gratin” means cheese and cream and butter, see, and sometimes those things induce a bit of anxiety. There’s also gussied-up breadcrumbs and caramelized onions, which don’t tend to turn people away, but the rest can b ea bit prickly.

But if you’ve been here for a bit of time you’ll know that I’m a pretty fervent defender of the butters and creams of the world; always ready to push for the sorts of things our great-grandmothers would have eaten (was that not someone’s – Michael Pollan’s, perhaps? – advice; to eat only things made of ingredients our great-grandmothers would have understood as a child?). I just have trouble getting worked up over something made with ingredients I could (at least conceivably) get from a farm, and I generally choose to fully immerse myself in and enjoy these things rather than worry about how much or how little I’m allowed to have. I live a pretty healthy lifestyle, in general, and a gratin here or there will not be my undoing.

So, here I am turning perfectly innocent brussels sprouts into something a bit devious. If your eyes and hearts are turning toward the holidays already, then by all means let me kickstart things for you.  Read more

Marinated goat cheese, with endless variations

I’m always looking for good ways to make something special out of an everyday ingredient, especially as we enter our grad school budget phase of life, and marinated goat cheese is definitely one of those things. I’m a little obsessed.

Goat_cheese_ready Read more

Homemade ricotta

Note as of February 2014: I’ve started making homemade ricotta in a different way, and this post really needs to be updated to reflect that. I’m working on it! In the meantime if you’re looking for a recipe, you should head over to Amy Thielen’s post about it here.