Abercrombie & Feast

Last Saturday afternoon, at about 5.00pm, Andy and I entered a happy cheese-coma.  We’d eaten so much strong, rich cheese over the course of so many hours that we felt our minds go blank.  Our steps slowed down.  Our eyes glazed over.  We longed to lie down for a rest. 

But, we couldn’t rest!  We were still at Cardiff Castle in Wales, site of the 2009 Great British Cheese Festival.  There were thousands of others just like us… wandering around, dazed by the sheer amount of cheese to be tried. 

It was a perfect autumn Saturday, blue skies and sunshine and cider and live music and cheese, cheese, cheese!  What a celebration of the genius of British cheesemakers.  We tried simple cheddars and gooey white-rind cheeses and Stiltons so strong they made my eyes water.  We had cheese made from cow’s milk, cheese made from goat’s milk, organic cheese and cheese with garlic added in.  All of them different and all of them delicious. 

I’d like to say that we went to Wales to explore the culture and the language and the breathtaking landscapes.  But, honestly, we were there for the cheese.  I’ve been trying to learn more about European cheeses since we arrived in the UK and what better place to start than the Great British Cheese Festival?? 

We took two classes during the day, each led by engaging and funny cheesemakers (are there any other kind???)  We learned what makes blue cheese blue and we learned what makes soft cheese soft.  We learned that we love Stilton and I don’t really like cheeses with other flavours added. 

When the cheese coma finally set in, we reluctantly took our leave of the Cheese Fest.  We plodded through the rolling green park beside the Castle and back to our lovely old B&B.  We napped briefly and dreamt of gooey, stinky, creamy, yummy cheese.  Those were sweet dreams!

As a kid in elementary school, I had the most boring lunches of all of my friends.  Lunch-time at Pulaski County Elementary School would come around and we’d all file into the new cafeteria… the one with a wall of windows and a stage at the opposite end.  We’d sit on our tiny plastic circle seats and unpack our various New Kids on the Block, My Little Pony and Jem and the Holograms lunch boxes. 

My friends all brought exotic and forbidden lunch-time goodies, such as peanut butter on white bread, potato chips and Fruit Roll-Ups.  God, how I coveted those Fruit Roll-Ups!  Chewy and plastic-y and really, really sweet… I would watch my mates wrap the Fruit Roll-Ups around their fingers and eat them off slowly. 

My own lunch box would never contain white bread.  Ever.  We were a whole-wheat family.  I always had fruit for lunch, often slices of apple that my mother would dab with lemon juice so they wouldn’t turn brown (I thought that brown apple slices were “Like, gross and rotten!”)  Sometimes I would get crackers and cheese, or celery with peanut butter… those were good days.

I believe that my love of fruit and veggies began way back at PCES.  Although I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, I’m so grateful to my mother for giving me such healthy lunches.  The lunches she packed for me back then inform my food choices every day.  Even though I thought I wanted Fruit Roll-Ups like all my friends, I now look at the packages of plastic-y food on the supermarket shelves and I’m not tempted in the slightest.

Now, instead of Fruit Roll-Ups, I prefer Spinach and Cheese Roll-Ups!  These are great fun to make and really good to eat.  They are simple, you can adapt them to whatever you’ve got kicking around in your fridge and they are crowd pleaser.  I made these a few Fridays ago for our dinner and served them with a warm lentil salad.  I halved the recipe and still had too many, so we had the leftovers for breakfast the next day.  The only meal I haven’t had them for is lunch… but I would be thrilled to find these Roll-Ups in my Jem and the Holograms lunch box any day. 

Spinach and Cheese Roll-Ups
(Adapted from Delicious Magazine)

The filling for the Spinach and Cheese Roll-Ups

Makes 16
250 grams frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained to remove as much excess liquid as possible
1/2 cup chopped feta cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
4 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F.  Line a baking tray with baking paper or wax paper. 

Combine the spinach and the cheeses in a bowl and “moosh” with a fork until well combined.  Taste for seasoning.  The feta cheese is fairly salty, so you might just need a pinch of pepper. 

Lay one sheet of puff pastry on a cutting board and slice the pastry in half length ways.  Then cut each half diagonally in half again, so you have 4 long triangular shapes.  Repeat with the remaining puff pastry as you need it.

Place a heaped tablespoon of the spinach filling at the widest end of each triangle.  Roll the triangles up, from the widest end to the most narrow end.  When you’re done, they will look a little like croissants. 

Place the prepared rolls on the baking tray and brush with egg.  Bake for 20-25 mins, or until puffed up and golden.  Serve warm. 

But I did know that I was happy to be in Australia with my long term boyfriend, I was excited to see Sydney and make new friends, and I was going to continue learning to cook for my boyfriend and our friends.

This photo is from our first week in Sydney, March 2005

Within two weeks we’d found an apartment in the neighbourhood of Kings Cross.  It was a modern apartment with marble floors and an open living area in a secure building.  It was a 4 minute walk to the grocery store and the train.  We loved it!  It was the first apartment we’d picked out together and the first time we’d bought furniture together.  I loved being at the very centre of this new, shiny city. 

Some people laughed when we said we lived in Kings Cross.  You see, in Sydney, Kings Cross is known as a “dodgy” area.  Lots of clubs and bars and establishments where ladies take their clothes off for money.  We didn’t live in that part of the neighbourhood, but we could still hear the parties and the clubs and the people calling for taxis at 4am. 

But none of that bothered us at all.  We felt lucky to have a beautiful apartment that was so close to the shops and the trains.  We felt lucky to be right at the heart of our new city.  We felt lucky to be together. 

And we had lots of fun in our Kings Cross apartment!  We had dinner parties, my parents came to stay for several weeks, we explored our new city and Andy and I started to make Sydney our home.

Mom and Dad under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, June 2005

It was a sunny day and we threw the baseball and watched the sailboats coming in and out of the bay and we talked about how happy we were in Sydney and how happy we were together.  And then Andy said, “Will you marry me?”  And he gave me the most beautiful engagement ring I’d ever seen.  I cried and we laughed and suddenly life in Sydney was even better.

The view at Rushcutters Bay on 24 September, 2005

And… so will this recipe for Gorgonzola cream sauce.  I had already planned to have a special dinner that day, but it turned into a celebration of our engagement and our life in Sydney.  I’m actually pretty confident that I didn’t cook this very well- I kept stopping to look at my gorgeous ring and to kiss my gorgeous new fiance- but it was delicious and I’ve made it again since and always been pleased with the results.  Gorgonzola cream sauce can make any meal feel like a celebration, and can make a celebration feel even more memorable. 

Gorgonzola Cream Sauce
(adapted from the Barefoot Contessa)

Makes 1 1/2 cups

2 cups heavy cream
50 grams or 2 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
2 tbs freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan.  Boil for about 30-35 minutes, until the cream is thick like a white sauce.  Stir occasionally.

Remove the cream sauce from the heat.

Add the Gorgonzola, Parmesan, salt and pepper.  Whisk rapidly to melt the cheeses.  Serve warm. 

Last November, I got homesick.  Big time.  Living abroad is a great adventure, and I wouldn’t trade this life we have for the world.  But, every now and then I miss the USA and all the lovely people in it.  So, after a few glasses of wine one Thursday night in October, I decided I was going back to the States for Thanksgiving.  I booked my flight, packed lightly (shopping!) and hopped on a plane to LAX.  My gorgeous husband joined me for the first (and loooongest) leg of the flight, then we split up… he flew to Atlanta to be with his family, and I met my parents in Rhode Island to celebrate with my grandfather.

Oh man, we had fun.  And oh man, did we eat well.  Seafood, clam chowder, turkey, sweet potato casserole good enough to make you slap yo’ mama.  We mostly stuck to the classics, as Americans tend to do around the holidays.  But, when we experimented with a new recipe to enjoy one afternoon by the fire, we hit on a huge winner, and a new classic in my house.  Behold, the Newport Cheese Puff….

I will admit, I have no idea where this recipe came from, so I’m sure I should be giving credit to someone and I’m not.  Sorry!  I do know that these are easy to make with things you probably already have on hand, are a really simple party snack and are goooooood. 

I’ve since made these numerous times for a wide variety of occasions.  Sunday afternoon snack, easy first course for a dinner party (just add some salad greens), game-time finger food… these puffs fit the bill no matter what the event. 

I am going home to Georgia this year for Thanksgiving- the first time I’ve been home in over 2 years.  I am looking forward to it so much.  I know these cheese puffs, and so many other gorgeous, nostalgic dishes will be on the menu. 

Newport Cheese Puffs

Makes 20-25 puffs
1 loaf plain white bread
3 egg whites
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs mayo
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
chilli powder to taste
salt and pepper to taste
paprika

Preheat your oven to 180C or about 350F. 

Cut out small (1-2 inch) rounds of white bread, avoiding the crusts (you can save the crusts for bread crumbs later!)

Whip egg whites until stiff.  Carefully mix in mayo, cheese, garlic powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper.

Spoon the egg white mix unto bread rounds.  Sprinkle with paprika and bake about 10-12 mins or until golden brown. 

Ahhhh… that’s better! 

We’ve just returned from a weekend away in Port Stephens and it was just what we needed.  Things have been crazy around here, so when I saw a rare (like, bald eagle rare… panda bear rare!) empty weekend in our diaries, I decided we needed to get away, tout de suite!

What is it about a road trip??  If we had stayed home in Sydney with no plans we would have been tempted to be busy.  We would have run errands, gone out to the pub, invited people over, something.  But being away allowed us to indulge in a weekend of not much.  And it was fabulous.  We booked a villa with a huge ocean view, a tiny little hire car and we hit the road on Friday afternoon.

Port Stephens is a sunny little area made up of about 4 or 5 towns just north of Newcastle on the NSW coast.  We arrived at our lovely villa on Friday night, just in time to throw some snags (sausages, saucisses) on the barbie and make a quick salad before watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics from Beijing.  (This is totally off topic, but, as many of you know, I love China and thought the opening ceremonies were just fantastic.)

Saturday we spent the afternoon cruising around the area, having a lovely salad for lunch at a cafe on the water in Shoal Bay and practicing with our new camera.  Observe: 

We spent the early evening reading, playing pool and enjoying some antipasti.  Here’s a picture of our sunset snack:

That’s a bunch of mixed olives, some spiced salami, a creamy blue cheese and, the star of the snack, an Austrian (yes, like the European country, not Australia misspelled) cheese called Ambrosia. 

Now, when I think of Ambrosia I think of my grandmother’s famous dessert.  For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, this is the same grandmother who used to cook pork until you could barely cut it.  Grandmama was a gorgeous woman with a huge laugh and a heart of gold, but a gourmet she was not.  The Ambrosia that she made had baby marshmallows, mandarin oranges from a can, pineapples segments from a can, shredded coconut and something else… Cool Whip perhaps??  I hate marshmallows, so I would always just pick out the mandarin oranges and the pineapples and leave the rest.  It sounds yucky, but I loved those little pieces of fruit.  Possibly because they were sweet and covered in whipped cream, but more likely because Ambrosia was made for me by Grandmama. 

But, I digress… as usual.  The word Ambrosia means something very different to me than “cheese”.  So when I saw this little Austrian Ambrosia, a cows-milk cheese, I was skeptical but willing to take a risk.  Dude.  I’m very glad I did.  It was different from most cheeses I’ve tried.  It was firm like a cheddar, but the flavour was not cheddar-like at all.  It was creamy and mild and a lovely pale yellow colour.  In fact, all of those attributes also describe my grandmother’s Ambrosia, so perhaps I should give her recipe another shot now that I’m all grown up?  Or maybe I will just raise my wine glass to Grandmama whilst I enjoy another slice of this lovely cheese?