One of my favorite summertime pairings is figs with goat cheese. We first had this over at Rob and Maria’s house and try to make it every year. There are a few ways you can make this up and I’ve also done it warmed which is a special kind of delicious.

This week, the mister picked up some chevre at the downtown farmer’s market from Briar Rose Creamery. They are located in Dundee, Oregon, and are kind of new on the scene.

This plain chevre was slightly tangy and plenty barny. I usually love that but I felt like it was missing another note… we puzzled over that for awhile but ultimately decided that it would definitely suffice for our purposes!

These figs were ripe and ready to eat so I just washed them, cut off their stems and sliced them in half.

I love their mysterious insides! And the little seeds when they pop in your mouth are divine!

Then I carefully added little scoops of chevre to each half and finished it off with some balsamic. I had both white balsamic and your standard red. My red was nothing special but I sampled both and decided the white was the perfect note. Something about the flavor combination here just works.

I used just a little dribble, carefully spooned over the chevre for each one. Yum! They were so good! I have a few more left so we’ll do the same tonight.

Do a google search if you’re interested in this — there are lots of variations, some add honey, some choose other kinds of cheese. All delicious! Don’t wait too long — figs are a short season!

I did a writeup of the cheese and tea pairing workshop that we attended at the Oregon Cheese Festival. Check it out over at Beer + Cheese!

I’ve started up a new blog (Beer + Cheese) with my beer-loving husband and we’ll be posting about cheese and beer pairings plus other great food pairings over there. Last night we went to Steve Jones’ new Cheese Bar and wrote up a little review.

Check it out!

Lake Chelan and vineyard view from Benson Winery

My husband and I went for a long weekend at Lake Chelan in Washington. It’s the shoulder season so the lake was low, the sky overcast and the vast orchards and vineyards bare. However, we had a great time. We did a little cross-country skiing on the last snow of the season at the Echo Ridge Nordic Ski Area which luckily was just up high enough that the trails were open. It was literally bare dirt all the way up the hill until, suddenly, snow! Then we availed ourselves of the many wineries in the area and had a fantastic time. Cabernet! Viognier! Gewurztraminer! They grow a huge variety of grapes here and are very excited about the new Columbia Valley AVA designation.

To get there, we drove up near Seattle on I-5 and then over, passing through the little Bavarian town of Leavenworth. Did I say Bavarian? Yes, I did. Sometime in the 1960s in an attempt to save their town from financial ruin, some enterprising folks decided that Leavenworth could become a destination. They invented the Bavarian concept and ran with it — all the places on main street are tarted up like hearty Alpine Volkesmarchers with Willkommen! signs and gingerbread filigree and excellent murals. However, they managed to stay just this side of a total Disneyland spectacle and we were pretty charmed by the ingenuity of it all.

On the way into town, I googled up some recommended places to eat and to see if they had a cheese shop. I wouldn’t be writing this post if they didn’t!

The Cheesemonger’s Shop promised Bavarian cheeses, beer and wine. It was crowded with people and had a fairly good selection. If you’re looking for some cheeses for your après-ski fondue pot then you have come to the right place. However, I was looking for Washington or local cheeses. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are too many cheese makers in this area of the state. I was steered toward some Oregon and California cheeses which were, of course, delicious but didn’t satisfy my craving for local. I think this is just not quite that kind of cheese shop.

However, the staff there was great and eager with the samples. We walked out with three cheeses, two meats and a six-pack of beers both local and European. (We really liked the Leavenworth Whistling Pig Hefeweizen from Fish Brewing Company.)

Who wants samples?

One of two cheese cases at the Cheesemonger’s Shop

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Tragically, there were no cheese shops in Lake Chelan…while we were there. On our last day, we noticed a brand new sign in a window that read: “Coming Soon! Handcrafted and Artisan Cheeses! May 2010!” So, there you go. Perhaps next time we go to the lake, we’ll swim in it, get a tan and gobble up some artisan cheeses. If anyone in the area knows more about this future cheese shop, please let me know!

Click here to see how we plated our Leavenworth bounty.

Boerenkaas from Willamette Valley Cheese Co, a 2009 favorite

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FUCheese started off the year with a revelatory cheese and beer tasting put on by Saraveza and Steve’s Cheese. It kicked off a true obsession with pairing these two fine items and I spent most of the year trying new combinations and doing my best to spread the beer/cheese love.

In March, we packed up the car and stayed in a yurt in the Rogue River Valley to attend the 5th Annual Oregon Cheese Guild Cheese Festival in Central Point. We had so much fun at the festival and met some awesome people. We also visited Vern and Gianaclis at Pholia Farm which kicked off a love of goats. I still haven’t been brave enough to milk one yet. New Year’s resolution?

Linnea feeds a baby goat at Pholia Farm

In April, we made mascarpone, more yogurt and had some iffy cottage cheese. I also attended a hard cheese class at Kookoolan Farms which convinced me that we needed to get back on that horse and give hard cheeses another try. Did we? No. Another resolution, perhaps.

Nicole and I hit the road again, this time north to Seattle for the cheese festival at Pike’s Place Market. We went as volunteers and worked at the Peterson tent taking in money and handling out samples. It was a total blast and we may do it again this year. This time we’ll have to walk out of there with more cheese. We were just so overwhelmed after finishing our shift that it was all we could do to visit some of the smaller cheesemakers for samples and then go collapse in the park.

Nico attacks the mimolette @ Seattle Cheese Festival

In the summer, I was too busy camping, BBQ-ing and drinking beer to spend too much time in the kitchen. I got my first paid gig doing a pairing of cheeses and beers. Profits, admittedly, were a bit low because I bought waaay too much really awesome fancy cheese and paired it with incredible (and expensive) beers. It was a total blast, though, and everyone had a great time and – bonus! – we had enough cheese left over to put together a handsome platter for a dinner party of 6 the following weekend. I have done a couple more pairings for groups since then and my portioning is getting more under control.

I also spent a fair bit of my summertime involved in putting together the Portland Cheese Festival. I somehow wrangled my way onto the planning board and met some great people in the process. The festival went off really, really well. Feedback was – and continues to be – incredible. The cheesemakers brought amazing stuff and the location turned out to work pretty good. Hopefully when it comes around again, I’ll be able to get involved and build on what I learned with the last one. You’ll be there, too, right?

* * *

Sadly, this is where an already bumpy year for personal reasons got downright depressing. My father passed away at the end of October after a fierce, year-long battle with cancer. He was a good military man and, really, still too young to go. He loved hearing about the cheese festival and all our adventures with cheese. He was a big cheese fan (also smoked anchovies, hot mustard, oysters and other Scandinavian treats and terrors) and it was really tough to lose him. However, his death opened my eyes to what it means to have people in your life who truly care about you and for that I am so very thankful.

* * *

The end of the year rounded out with more goats, excellent cheese plates and a beer/cheese pairing challenge! My friend Bruce, a die-hard beer nerd and curator of fine brews decided it was time to pull up some beers from his cellar and do a tasting. He asked if I could pair some cheeses with his eclectic collection. Since I couldn’t pre-sample these beers due to their rarity and age, I went off of tasting notes from the brewers and other beer writers and his own recollection of what these tasted like or should taste like.

A 3-decade vertical of Sierra Nevada Celebration – 2009, 1999, 1989! – paired with a pungent and footy Canadian cheese called Charleudix.

The pairings turned out really well and everyone had their favorites. The one pictured above was a huge hit. That cheese was incredibly stinky and I made everyone take a good sniff before I portioned it out. They were scared, for sure. However, it was a wonderful and creamy cheese with a lot of flavor and balanced with the hops notes of the ’99 and ’09 quite well. Poor, old ’89 tasted like it had almost no hops left at all. I couldn’t have asked for a better cap to the year, surrounded by some of my favorite things in life: good beer, great cheese and fantastic friends.

So, to more of that in 2010!

For December, we went back to Foster & Dobbs and put together a tasty cheeseplate of some European heavyweights.

The cheese case at Foster & Dobbs.

The staff there is so helpful and are excellent at listening to your likes and dislikes and recommending something that hits the mark. They’ll also keep track of what cheeses you’ve purchased before! We were all in the mood for some hearty, stinky, battle-the-frigid-winter cheese and were not disappointed in the least.

Starting with the semi-soft cheese on the bottom left that Linnea is pointing to, we have Le Porteaupre from Belgium. It’s a cow’s milk cheese that is delightfully stinky and is pretty creamy and spreadable – we put it on baguette. It’s a bit on the salty side, tangy and very satisfying. Seems like a good pair with meats.

At the top, is Jura Erguel from Switzerland. A raw cow’s milk, this was firm, stinky and a little sour. Definitely hearty and quite good. Next, clockwise, is Blu di Bufala, a buffalo milk from, of course, Italy! This was a moderate blue with distinct mushroom notes and I wrote down “cardboard” but I don’t mean that in a bad way, there was an earthiness to the rind that was good. This was a stout flavor without being overwhelming.

The large wedge in the center was a big favorite for all of us, the Bastardo del Grappa Nero, another raw cow’s milk from Italy. This one from the Veneto region which is in the Northeastern part of the country, a stone’s throw from Austria. The Bastardo was light, firm, creamy, tangy and lemony. It hit all the right notes for me and I’d get that one again anytime.

We stuck with our Europen theme and rounded that out with the St Cosme Côtes du Rhône syrah. So delicious and a pretty perfect accompaniment to some stick-to-yer-ribs cheeses.

Thanks again Foster & Dobbs! What cheese theme should we explore in January?

We booked a guided weekend tour with Outdoor Odysseys on San Juan Island and had a great time. Our guide, Kaitlin, was totally wonderful and the other couple on our trip happened to be Portlanders and also winemakers! We loved chatting with them about outdoor adventures and the making of beer, wine & cheese. We paddled out from San Juan State Park and across the channel to Stuart Island which was our base camp where we slept in tents and paddled during the day. Total, we paddled over 30 miles on the 3-day trip and it was tiring but amazing. We saw harbor seals, porpoises, stellar sea lions, jellyfish and lots of kelp. The coastline of the islands is gorgeous and the weather was great.

Our kayaks at the ready in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island

So… kayaking, blah, blah, blah. This is a cheese blog! To make a short story long, it’s a good thing we did all that kayaking because we were then more than happy (and hungry) to partake in the local cheese scene!

* * *

Before we got out to the islands we headed straight up to Vancouver, BC, to visit friends and see the city. Neither of us had ever been to Vancouver before and other than a stopover on a flight to Europe, I don’t think I’ve ever even been to Canada. That seems really weird given that I’ve lived in the Northwest now for over 10 years. We had a great time in Vancouver — it’s a warm, welcoming city and very similar to Portland in a lot of ways. The vibe is very casual but it was nice to hear more languages and see a little more diversity than we have down here.

First thing, we made a beeline for Les Amis du Fromage which is near Granville Island to pick up some BC cheeses. I had my trusty red cooler with some ice from the hotel.

The cheese cases at Les Amis du Fromage

We let the ladies there guide our choices and ended up with a really nice array of cheeses from around the area. Goat is pretty prevalent but there was quite a variety. We ended up with two firm, aged cheeses and two softer cheeses. Clockwise from left, an aged Goat gouda from Farm House Natural Cheeses, a chevre button from Goats Pride Dairy, an aged sheeps’ cheese called Montana from Salt Spring Island Cheese Co., and Moonstruck, an ash-ripened Camembert from Salt Spring Organic Cheese.

Thom loved the goat gouda which had a well-balanced flavor. The sheep was also very good, a bit stronger than the others but really quite nice. The button was delicious! The standout, though, was that Moonstruck camembert. Oh my. It was so fantastic, it was hard not to eat it all in one sitting. We held off, though, and were able to enjoy these for another picnic once we got to Orcas Island.

After some excellent sushi, drinks with friends, biking the seawall at Stanley Park, a visit to Chinatown, a thrilling step into an actual Fluevog store and a killer meal at Vij’s, we left Vancouver and headed to the San Juan Islands. We spent three nights camping at Moran State Park on Orcas at the edge of Cascade lake which was just so pretty. The park was fantastic and has plumbing and showers which makes all the difference. I highly recommend!

Then we headed off to San Juan for our kayaking adventure. And for that camping, we roughed it a bit — no showers. Which, for three days is entirely do-able. However, I was so happy to get back to the island, check in to a hotel and wash off the salt water and be like the starfish on a fluffy, king-size bed. Heaven. After a good night’s sleep we went hunting for more cheese.

* * *

Now, I knew, because of Tami Parr’s excellent book, that there was a cheesemaker on San Juan but she seems pretty elusive even to locals. I would occasionally ask people if there were any cheesemakers on the island and no one knew of any. Of course, I was secretly hoping someone would say, “oh, yes, my best friend on the island makes cheese — join us for cheese and wine tonight!” Sadly, that did not happen. I tried to call her but only got voicemail with instructions that she would only return local calls. But, luckily, the Friday Harbor grocery, King’s Market, had her cheese! Quail Croft farmstead cheeses are made on San Juan island from surely the happiest goats in all the land. That area is just so beautiful. I bought two of Quail Croft’s chevre, one plain and one herbed — both were excellent, creamy and slightly tangy but very light and lovely. We also picked up some Samish Bay (Bow, Washington) nettle gouda and a puck of my beloved Mt. Townsend Seastack.

The Samish Bay gouda was quite tasty though I’m not sure nettle is my favorite flavor. If you didn’t know it was nettle you might think to yourself, “just what IS this slightly bitter herb?” The Seastack was just as lovely as I remembered and the Westcott Bay (home of delectable little San Juan oysters) dry cider was a sweet accompaniment.

Our picnic on the pool-house lawn in Roche Harbor, San Juan Island

We had such a lovely vacation and it was such a treat to find so many local goods of such high quality. There was a brewery on the island who got most of their hops from a farm right there. The Westcott Bay oysters are, I understand, mostly harvested to feed the local economy of oyster lovers and no longer shipped around the world. It seems that Quail Croft does enough business supplying the fine-dining on the island and putting cheese in the markets to sustain themselves and the product is fantastic. It was an interesting trip into a micro-economy which mostly subsists on tourism and the products of neighborly efforts. There’s something really alluring about that lifestyle. I can’t wait to go back!

Hubs was out with co-workers and I had the evening to myself plus I had just accomplished a small milestone so I was in the mood to celebrate and in no mood to cook. I’d been saving since last weekend a 6 oz. delectable puck called Seastack from Mt. Townsend Creamery — they are located north of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula. I got a taste of it at the Ballard Farmer’s Market the day after the cheese fest and instantly opened up the wallet. It’s a soft-ripened cow’s milk rolled in a vegetable ash.

I hunted through my fridge and cabinets and came up with some walnuts and a handful of nearly overripe strawberries. Then, to make more of a meal of it, I pulled out a pear (also nearly overripe), made a paltry salad and grabbed a beer, Widmer’s 09 Belgian Style Ale — not bad. I grabbed the radio for “This American Life” and headed out to the backyard. Which looks like this (note: new plants to be planted in the background… tomorrow, I hope!):

It was all really satisfying. The cheese is just as wonderful as when I first sampled it. Creamy and a bit runny at the edges with a slightly firm but very edible rind. It also had very slight undertones of fresh grass from the cow but also had that nice touch of blue notes coming from the vegetable ash which I think is one of my latest favorite things.

And now I’ve got to keep an eye open for Mt. Townsend Creamery cheeses here in Oregon as I also took away from the Ballard market a wedge of their Trailhead Tomme which me and the husband polished off right quick. It’s a good all-around cheese that does seem perfect for a hike. It really reminded me of a cheese that I ate a lot of and loved in Italy a couple summers ago — a light, very slightly nutty cheese with a few air bubbles scattered throughout. In Italy, our host called it “nostrana” which means ‘ours.’ So, it was their local, everyday cheese which tasted perfect on a baguette with a bit of butter and some fresh tomato and a shake of pepper. And that’s exactly how we ate up the Trailhead in addition to just cutting off slices and enjoying the flavor. Two thumbs up!

I probably won’t post every time I make another batch of yogurt as it’s so easy and I have a feeling that I have a lot of yogurt making in my future. But, for this batch, we took the yogurt making another step further by using a starter from our last batch.

For our first foray into yogurt making, we followed Dr. Fankhauser’s wonderful recipe, with great results. We used an organic whole milk and Nancy’s yogurt. Nancy’s is an Oregon brand, made in Springfield since the 1960s. It’s my preferred yogurt and I buy a lot of it every year. The first thing I did with our delicious batch after sampling it was to portion out 8 oz. of it into an ice-cube tray to freeze and serve as the starter the next batch. After frozen, I put them in a plastic baggie where they’ve been sitting for over a month.

The day before I was going to make yogurt, I transferred the cubes to a covered bowl in the fridge and let them thaw out. I considered all the whole milk options at my local New Seasons and decided to give Alpenrose a try. They are also a local, Portland metro, dairy who has been in the milk business for over 90 years. In addition to that, they have a wonderful grounds where they have built a replica “frontier town” for kids and families to play in, they have a baseball field and a velodrome where I’ve been a few times for bike races. They are an icon of an era gone by where big companies have a distinct role in the community and a desire to create a legacy that they can be proud of. And, it’s pretty good milk, too!

To make a short story long, I used the yogurt from the previous set as starter and everything proceeded as usual. I took better notes this time and wrote down the time it took to heat the milk to the right temperature — medium heat for 1 hour to 185-F — and let it incubate overnight, at least 12 hours. It gelled really well, perhaps even better than last time. The flavor is somewhat less intense and less tangy than the last batch. I attribute this mostly to the starter but it could be the milk as well. I’m debating saving another 8 oz from this batch and seeing how it goes. Perhaps next time we can do a comparison taste test with an all-fresh batch and one made using previous starter.

Check out this great article that Linnea sent me about making your own yogurt at the NYTimes. It has a really nice explanation of the bacteria and activity in yogurt and how your culture can really affect the taste of your yogurt.

The last of the Willamette Valley Cheese Co. Boerenkaas from cheese festival weekend. Heaven on a plate!