Day 892 : Let us pause for a second.

11 years ago today the world was changed forever. On this Tuesday September 11th, I wanted to step away from our musings on cheese and take a moment to pause in honor of the men and women whose lives were lost and all of those who helped in the following weeks and months. Now 11 years later, we look at the new One World Trade Center and think towards the future -- a future full of hope and promise, remembering the past with an overarching sense of unity, and grounded in the present.

So my Fromagical friends, let us treasure our lives, cherish our loved ones, enjoy every moment, and seize the day!

Day 891 : It's feeling quite like Fall...

You know that moment when the air changes from the summer warmth to a slightly brisk Fall chill? The light gets this rich autumnal glow, the leaves start falling off the trees and your mind wanders to cozy nights in with red wine and dark deep beers and warming ooey gooey cheese dishes? Today surely felt like the beginning of Fall here in Manhattan so in honor of this seasonal change, I thought I'd suggest one of my favorite Fall and Winter dishes -- ratatouille.

Warming and comforting yet simple and delish -- its perfect with a nice Cotes du Rhone or even an Oktoberfest beer, I quite like it with Harpoon's Octoberfest but feel free to chose your favorite seasonal brew.

What goes into our ratatouille here?

1-2 eggplant - sliced thinly

1-2 zucchini - sliced thinly

1-2 bell peppers - sliced thinly

1 clove of garlic

4-5 tomatoes

1/2 of a fennel bulb

1/2 of an onion diced up 

Basil

Marjoram

Bay Leaf

Dried Oregano

Thyme

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

EVOO

French Feta - less briny than its Greek cousins, its round and creamy and the perfect bright citrusy manner in which to cut through 

So how do you prepare everything?

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating up, dice up your garlic and onions and saute with EVOO in two different pans over low heat for five to seven minutes. In pan number one, toss in your eggplant, sea salt, black pepper, thyme, and oregano for five minutes and in another pan your zucchini, basil, and marjoram. I like to infuse separate flavors in each of the veggies before combining them into a baking dish. Start with layers of your eggplant on the bottom separated by a layer of tomatoes then fennel then peppers then a layer of crumbled French feta and basil leaves. Then repeat the tomatoes, followed by zucchini and then a sprinkling of your herbs and another layer of French feta and of course a drizzle of EVOO over the top. Bake in the oven for twenty to twenty five minutes or until the feta is golden brown and all of the veggies are cooked through. Enjoy folks!

Here's to a lovely Fall season!

Day 890 : Post race fuel...

This morning was the kickoff of my fall racing season with a 10 mile run on Grand Concourse in the Bronx -- an easy out and back course with the fall breezes in the air was a great way to get the day started. After the race I was definitely in the mood for a nice home cooked end of summer omelet -- full of tomatoes and crumbled goat's milk cheese. There's something so incredibly satisfying about a warm home cooked meal after a race -- it just warms and comforts you from the inside out.

So what went into today's omelet?

Heirloom Tomatoes
Sundried Tomatoes
Onion
Chives
Basil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper
Humboldt Fog - to add a little bright citrusy milky bent to the herbaceous aromatic vegetables.

For prep - start by sauteing the onions, heirloom tomatoes and sundried tomatoes with EVOO, chives, basil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Cook over low heat covered for approximately eight to ten minutes. Then add in your eggs and cook until the eggs go opaque. Top with your crumbled humboldt fog and take off and serve. The perfect post race fuel!

Here's to an excellent Fall racing season and a great weekend.

Day 889 : Murray's Cheese Bar

Earlier this summer, Murray's went brick and mortar and opened a cheese bar down the block from its original Bleecker Street location -- sleek, clean, and bright when you walk in off the hustling Bleecker Street entrance. There is an extensive offering of cheeses and meats along with a selection of prepared foods under the headings of Spreads, Griddle, Dunk, Bake, Fry, Between Bread, Pasta, Nibble, and Greenmarket.

When you order the cheeses - you can choose your own for $5 a morsel or select three or five cheesemonger choice cheeses. But instead of trying cheeses, we decided to try three different prepared dishes.

From the spread section we got three of their spreads:
Pimento Cheese, a taste of the South composed of Prairie Breeze Cheddar, pimento, and paprika.
Obatdza, a taste of Bavaria composed of Romadur, Vermont Butter and Cheese's Butter, horseradish, and caraway.
Fromage Fort, a taste of France composed Fromager d'Affinois and Bleu d'Auvergne, white wine, and shallots.

I especially loved the fact that the spreads were served with old fashioned knives with the type of spread engraved on them. 

The spreads arrived with a clothbag of crackers, perfect served as a backdrop for the dynamic decadence of each spread. The pimento cheese spread sure tasted like you were in the south - round and rustic, big and bold. I could easily see enjoying this with a beer while watching football. The Obatdza was fragrant and flavorful, aromatic and herbaceous. Great with the crackers and a nice dark German beer. The Fromage Fort was definitely strong and was not for the faint of heart -- this was stinky cheese spread done well. 

Next up from the Griddle section of the menu -- we had grilled halloumi with mint, lemon and olive oil. A classic grilling cheese whose flavor nuances blossom when heated. Although the bright citrus jolt of the lemon was an interesting flavor combination I think the cheese would have been better enjoyed with olive oil and mint. 

Lastly from the Baked section of the menu Enchiladas with salsa verde composed of tomatillo, lioni mozzarella, pickled vegetable slaw and top with a fried egg. Savory and filling. 

Overall - I loved the design touches like the knives and knitted cozies for the handles of the hot pans in classic Murray's colors and the sleekness of the interior. The cheese selection is tremendous, so make sure you go for cheese and wine or a beer. For those who aren't that familiar with the wide variety of Murray's Cheese selection then this is the perfect place to enjoy and expand your cheese horizons with friends, family, or a significant other. 

Murray's Cheese Bar

264 Bleecker Street

NYC

Day 888 : Location Red Hook, Sixpoint explored

Sixpoint is all about the experience – it’s about the inspiration of the who, what, when, where and how. There’s a sense of creativity, play, and fun that envelopes the brewery, their beers, and anyone who has the pleasure of enjoying them. This is not about big national and international business my friends – its all about thinking outside the box on a local scale and pleasing your community.  Thinking locally -- “beer is culture,” for those at Sixpoint and those who enjoy their nice cold craft brews. Originally started in 2004 as a draft only brewery, they started canning about a year and a half ago so that they could reach more of their home base.  Currently available in cans are the core six – Sweet Action, the Crisp, Bengali Tiger, Resin, their Righteous Ale, and new to the year-round home crew this summer – the Brownstone. Not new to their lineup, but now available on those hot summer days and chilling winter nights and all of the seasons in between. There are seasonal brews as well and location specific brews – meaning that Sixpoint creates approximately eighteen different beers that you can ONLY find at a specific restaurant. Perhaps it’s the perfect beer for a pie at the cult pizza favorite, Roberta’s, or something to soak up all those meatballs at the Meatball Shop, you name it, you can find their homemade location specific brews around town at your favorite joints. It doesn’t stop there! Their Spice of Life series just struck a cord with me! What is it?

Each month, Sixpoint crafts the same single hop IPA with the same recipe, fermentation, yeasts, etc. So what makes this exciting you might be wondering? Well folks – it is the fact that over the course of a year, on a monthly basis, Sixpoint utilizes a different style of hops meaning that the only change is the hops but that change allows you as the drinker to see the differences between each hop style utilized – a fun way to explore the importance of hops on the taste and flavor profile of a beer.

That’s just a brief introduction into the wonderfully magical and creative world of Sixpoint Brews to be explored over the course of this week – each day we will feature a different brew, not just with your typical pairing but the environment that Fromagical envisions it best enjoyed in and more, along with a recipe so that it isn’t just about beer and cheese, but about the beer involving itself in our local culture and life.  

Cheers to the beginning of our Fall for Beer!

Day 887 : Do you absolutely adore butter?

Do you dream of that European style butter but live here in the US? The creamy yet refined and dynamic elegance of European butter is hard to find here in this country unless you get Vermont Butter and Cheese's Sea Salt Cultured Butter. Yes, it's made in Vermont, but boy does it give the classic European butters a run for their money! Thick and round, elegant and playful, tangy and milky, this is butter done right. And from now through September 30th, you and all of your friends have the opportunity to win a year's supply of Vermont Butter & Cheese's Cultured Butter!

How you may ask?

Well all you have to do is share your butter obsession with Vermont Creamery on Facebook and you are entered to win a year's supply of their absolutely fabulous butter. Check it out here:  Butter Obsession App on Facebook at facebook.com/vermontcreamery  or email at win@vermontcreamery.com if you don't do the whole Facebook thing. Feel free to email recipes, favorite butter based or flavored foods, butter experiences, butter pairings and more!

Day 886 : Beaches Galore

This past weekend I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to spend a day down in Margate along the Jersey Shore with close friends and then an overnight in East Hampton with a different set of close friends -- the perfect way to end the summer and kick off the Fall season! Plenty of sun, fun, swimming, and relaxing, just the way I wanted it.

The Jersey Shore didn't bring any fabulous cheese experiences but some quite amusing travel ones. First up, almost missing the 8am Saturday bus from Port Authority because three different people directed me to three different and all incorrect ticket lines. Ok no big deal, right? Well, wait till I got on the bus and had the pleasure of sitting next to a woman eating the biggest Asian breakfast fry-up. That would have be one thing, but coupled with the woman sitting behind me painting her finger nails, it was by far the most odorific bus rides I have had in quite the while. I don't know what was worse, the unpleasant scents on the bus ride down or the completely packed ride back full of drunk people shouting at top volume. Apart from the entertaining trips to and fro, my day at the beach in Margate was lovely and although only two hours away from Manhattan, I felt very far from home.

Next stop -- East Hampton, by way of Manhattan for pool time, plenty of rose, grilling and some of Mecox Bay Dairy's Shawondasee. Mecox Bay Dairy is one of the South Fork's only dairy farms. This small production family-run farm's cheeses are elegantly infused with the local terroir and are quite the delight! Shawondasee, meaning "prevailing southwest wind," is a raw cow's milk mold ripened aged tomme. Nutty, buttery, rustic and round with a grassy fruity finish, it is the ideal end of summer cheese. Perfect with sundried tomatoes and grilled zucchini paired with a glass of medium bodied white wine.

A great way to end of the weekend and here's to the beginning of the Fall! Happy Labor Day one and all!