Celebrating with cookies!

We've been planning this trip to the Vermont Cheesemaker's Festival for months now. In fact I bought my ticket mere days after they were available. Pre-move to be exact. And that's where the trouble started. I remember very clearly thinking "I should put this somewhere I won't lose it." Cut to last week when we start hammering out details and I realize I have no idea where it is. After several days of taring my apartment apart I finally found it at the bottom of a laundry basket today. So to celebrate I made this fun play on a classic. Half blondie, half chocolate chip cookie. All delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars (stolen from Fake Ginger)


1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet because it's what I keep on hand)


Melt butter; stir in granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; stir just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.(I needed the full 30, maybe a few more if you'd like them really crunchy on the outside)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment or aluminum foil. Spray lightly with oil.

Blueberry Madness

Friday was a one day Madness sale at the store on fresh blueberries. I love blueberries but almost never buy them since they're so expensive. But at $1.99 I picked up three pints. One pint I proceeded to demolish while stuck in cape traffic on my way home. And a second one went to today's breakfast. I haven't quite decided what to do with the third so if anyone has some suggestions...

Blueberry Pancakes with Lemon Blueberry Syrup

For the pancakes

Adapted from What to Cook and How to Cook It

2 1/4 cup self rising flour

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/4 buttermilk (I never keep buttermilk around so I soured whole milk using lemon)

1/2 milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

The rind of one lemon

2 eggs

1 cup blueberries

Mix dry ingredients together (including sugar) and create a well.

Melt butter over low heat, once melted remove pot and stir in wet ingredients.

Pour the mixture into the well and whisk until smooth. 

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat adding a tablespoon of oil if necessary.

Pour small amounts of batter onto heated pan. 

Add desired amount of blueberries to each pancake as the batter starts to bubble.

Flip.

For the syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup blueberries
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Dissolve the sugar into the water over medium heat.
Add blueberries, zest, and lemon juice and bring to boil.
Turn the heat down and let simmer until it cooks down and thickens.

Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

My reward for surviving cheesefest (pics to come)!

Problem Solving With Chutney

What do you do when you want to call attention to a perfectly ripe camembert everyone should buy NOW? Make it pretty of course! Herve mons Camembert with Farmhouse chutney, golden raisins and roasted garlic.

The Crack Heard 'Round the World

In true WFM Dedham awesomeness, we held our "Crack Heard 'Round the World" event today. And I have to say it was even more majestic than I could have imagined. It's fun to see so many people get excited for something we do several times a week. Seeing the number of people who have never tasted Parmigiano-Reggiano from a fresh cracked wheel is a nice reminder of why my job is awesome.

Kristen, the Parm Queen, and Andrew, the Parm King 

She can not even handle the excitement

Regional VP Laura Derba does the honors

The turn out was amazing. People got super excited about it.

 Next up Cheesefest May 20th. The excitement is already building!

Roasted sweet potato and butternut squash soup with fromage forte cheesy bread

Spring Sphericals!

I was given two very important pieces of news today;

1. Michael and I were tasked with coming up with Easter related "in-house made" items for the weekend
2. It's apparently not cool to use the phrase Easter Egg anymore, thus making the naming process much more difficult

With this in mind we opted for Capricho de Cabra "Spring Sphericals" (ok, we called them "holiday eggs" on the tag, but spring sphericals is pretty damn fun to say). I went large format and decorated with pink peppercorn, parsley, and lemon zest. Michael opted for mini eggs and used honey infused beets, parsley, lemon zest, and chives.

Michael and Kristin showing off the spheres

We did singles and a mini collection

Wheat grass and berry baskets. Martha would be proud

Sometimes my job is crazy stressful and intense. And sometimes my job is shaping cheese into egg shapes and making them pretty.