I’d never turn down a grilled cheese sandwich for lack of innovation. In its most fulfilling, basic, loving incarnation, bells and whistles would just get in the way. Sometimes all you want is a heck of a lot of melted cheese between two incredibly buttery pieces of toasted bread.Other times, you want a little extra oomph with your cheese.
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Stinky is relative. My fainting friend — who admits the only cheese she’ll eat is fresh burrata or mozzarella and who made me keep all cheese I purchased while visiting her on the balcony where she couldn’t smell it — has a very low tolerance level for stinky cheese. Let’s classify it as zero on a scale of 1 to 10 (I still love her though; she sends me home with jars of her granmother’s quince jelly). My stinky tolerance level is 8. Another friend’s level is 13.
Read MorePeople ask all the time, "how does one write a book?" Well, to start, it's correct to ask "how does one," because one writes it- alone. Holy bejesuses it gets lonely writing a book. During the last two months while I was writing the first draft of my manuscript, I didn't go out, I pretty much ate only the recipes I made for the book, and only saw people when they came over to test recipes. I
Read MoreIt’s been a while since I posted recipes on “It’s Not You, It’s Brie.” When I get busy, as freelancers often do, I fall out of the habit. It’s not that I haven’t been cooking or cooking with cheese, it’s just that sometimes when I’m absorbed in cooking, especially as a release, I forget to wipe off my cheesy kitchen fingers and record what I’m doing.
Read MoreSouthern cheese, my friends, has arrived. Or rather, it has been thriving, and the rest of us are finally noticing its presence. This last Sunday I taught the Cheese School of San Francisco's first Southern Cheese & Spirits Class. Quite an honor. It was great. We ate. We drank. We marveled at the jug of corn whiskey.
Read MoreAlas, it's been a very full couple of weeks. So in the middle of this fury, I'm very happy to announce today two things.1 I'm teaching a ton of classes this spring (some listed below, more on way). 2- The California Artisan Cheese Festival is back. Yay local dairy and cheese education!
Read MoreNo offense to my other great dessert loves, carrot cake with orange-cream cheese frosting, or peanut butter and chocolate ice cream, but I’ve never been of the mindset that one needs to end the night with a sugary bang. Maybe just a light ka-boom. For me, cheese supplies enough of that ka-boom. A little sweet, a little salty, and creamy and loving to everyone that it meets, cheese is its own dessert. Plus, it requires less time than carrot cake, souffles, cupcakes, tarts, and even fruit salad (if you count that as a dessert) to put together.
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