Say Cheese!

Do you like cheese? I love it but am ashamed to say that I know very little about it. What I do know revolves around my love for goat cheese, brie, blue cheese, and melty, ooey, gooey cheese in my grilled cheese sandwiches and on top of my nachos. Yesterday, Chef Anthony Hassel had five types of cheese flown in for us to try. He gave us short lesson on cheese. It was about an hour long, but honestly, I wish I could take a whole course in cheese. There is so much to know! Here is some information for you, as well as the cheeses we tried and my own thoughts on each.

There are 5 styles of cheeses:

Fresh cheese: aged 1-3 weeks. Mild and light in taste. Usually rindless and minimally aged. Examples: Mozarella, ricotta. The appearance is smooth, snowy and snowy. There is very little aroma. Wet and smooth in texture.

Bloomy Rind Cheese: These develop a soft, white mold over a thin skin that developes through ripening. Aged several weeks. Example: Brie

Semi-Firm/Washed Rind Cheese: The most pungent of the types (Stinky cheese!). After they develop a rind, they are bathed in salt water, wine, or liquer. They develop a creamy interior and a hearty aroma.

Firm/Pressed Cheese: Granular in texture. They are aged and allowed to develop a thick rind. Firm, but never flaky. You can also have a cooked presssed cheese which is crumbly and sharp.

Bleu Cheese: Aged for 3-4 weeks and then pirced, to allow air in. This forms a mold inside. Blue mold is good to eat. NEVER EVER eat pink mold.

And there are 3 main milk types:

Cow: The most versatile

Goat: Lowest in fat. In fresh styles, the taste with be tangy with citrus notes. As it ages, it gains a more barn-yardy (goat-like) taste.

Sheep: Very concentrated, high fat content. Rich and round flavor. Prone to gamey flavors when aged.

Old Chatham Kinderhook from Old Chatham, New York

Fresh Cheese with a Bloomy Rind

Milk: Pasteurized Sheep

Aged 2- weeks

Light, mild flavor - sligtly meaty

My thoughts: A smooth cheese that works extremely well spread on a fresh piece of bread. The taste of this cheese is light, but has a musty, meaty flavor that lingers in your mouth. Visually, it looks like brie cheese, so I was partly expecting it to taste like a brie. It is much lighter, and almost refreshing.

VBC (Vermont Butter and Cheese) Coupole from Websterville, Vermont

Semi-Soft Bloomy Rind Cheese

Milk: Pasteurized Goat

Aged 5 weeks

The rennet is ambient mold that grows in caves. It looks like a brain!

The flavor of this cheese is light and mild.

Pairs well with citrus and mushrooms.

My thoughts: The rind on this cheese is crazy to me! It looks just like a brain. Call me strange, but this made me very excited about biting into the rind. Mold is not something I am scared of. I am use to goat cheeses that are more pungent thanthisone. This one is a goat cheese that even my mom would enjoy! This was only aged 5 weeks, and therefore does not have the "barnyard" flavor that we usually associate with goat cheese. So light and mild, it taught me that all goat cheeses are not created equal.

Hudson Red from Gent, New York

Semi Firm cheese with a soft washed rind (semi-firm cheeses are the most pungent)

Milk: Raw Cow

Aged 2-4 months

This is a very strong cheese. You can smell it while it is still wrapped in its parchment paper. This is the type of cheese that most people hate. They are too scared to try it. Or they do try it and get blown away from the pungent smells and the abrasive taste. This is not a cheese for the faint of heart.

My thoughts: Me? I adored this cheese. It was my favorite cheese of the 5 types. Even the rind, which is strangely grainy and salty, was delicious in my mouth. I have always heard of the terrors of stinky cheeses. That most people won't taste them, let alone enjoy them. This is my first stinky cheese, and I am left wanting mre and more of this velvety paste. If I am ever met with the chance to ty another semi-firm cheese, I will jump at it.

Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar from Blue Mounds, Wisconsin

Firm cheese, aged with cloth (bandaged)

Milk: Pasteurized Cow

Aged 16 months

This is a great cheddar, much firmer than the cheddars I am use to. This one is mossy, musty, and meaty with a nice sweetness to it. It makes for a great apple pie cheese.

This cheese, unlike the Hudson Red, is enjoyed by most. If you enjoy a nice, sharp cheddar, you will LOVE this Bleu Mont Bandaged Cheddar.

My thoughts: I have to admit that most of my experience with cheddar can be summed up with 5 letters - KRAFT. This cheddar taught me that there are intense flavors that can come from a "Simple" piece of cheddar. I now want to pair this withsome cinnamon apples. I think that would be such a decadent and beautiful dessert.

Jasper Hill Farm Bayley Hazen Blue from Greensboro, Vermont

A firm blue cheese

Milk: Raw Cow

Aged 90 days

This blue cheese has a smooth taste with notes of licorice, hazelnuts, and dark chocolate. This would be a wonderful cheese to have with a nice dark beer, such as an oatmeal stout.

My thoughts: Apparently there is a blue cheese out there to make anyone happy. This particular blue cheese was firmer and drier than other blue cheeses I have tried. It paired amazingly well with apricots as well as with beets.

All five cheeses laid out for us to admire. I hope that everyone else felt as lucky as I did to be able to learn about these great cheese from all across our country. These cheeses were flown into Colorado just for us to learn about and taste. This means that they were stored correctly and that we were able to experience each one in the way it was intended to be experienced. This sometimes is not the case in even the most upscale of restaurants.

This is Chef Tony's cheese knife. Why does it have three holes? The holes allow the cheese to breathe as you cut it. This air passing through prevents the cheese from sticking to the knife.

The cheese plate, with the cheese arranged in the order described above. You work your way clockwise along the plate. You see, if you start off with the more pungent cheeses like the final blue cheese, your palette will be so overwhelmed by those flavors that you will not be able to fully appreciate the subtle flavors of the mild and fresh cheeses.

Thank you thank you thank you Chef Tony for bringing these cheeses for us to try. It was an eye opening experience for me. I will be getting my hands on a cheese book in the near future. I want to learn more and try more. Bring on the cheese!

Until there is more cheese, here is the amazing family style meal we created last night.

Thin slices of cantaloupe with olive oil, coarse sea salt, and cracked black pepper.

Pork meatballs with a cherry and veal/chicken stock reduction.

Maybe the best meatballs I have ever tried. However, I was too excited by all of the veggies and the cheese plate. So I took most of this home with me.

A simple arugula salad with really delicious wine vinegar and olive oil.

Apricots, mushrooms, and not seen, beets, kale, fresh baguettes.

Beignets with lemon curd.

To be honest, the dessert was delicious, but completely unnecessary. I know appreciate what cheese can accomplish as the ending of a meal. It satisfies beyong belief and leaves your mouth exploding with so many flavors that there is not a craving for a sweet dessert. Of course, I am never one to pass up dessert, so I had a small donut and was very happy. A little sugar rush is exactly what I needed to get the energy for cleaning the kitchen at the end of the night.

Hopefully you enjoyed the cheese information!

No apologies

Here's to living without apologies.

The most interesting part of the Chef Track program at the Culinary School of the Rockies is the second half of the program where we have the opportunity to work with guest chefs. These chefs are successful and acclaimed in the Boulder/Denver area, if not beyond. They have experienced the trials of working their way up the ladder. Some young, like Chef Jesse Yoh from Happy Noodle House (read recaps here and here). Some after achieving a bachelors in English, and then using that education to propel his dishes and culinary talent even further, like Chef Anand Chaturvedula from 240 Union (read recap here and here). These Chefs have giving me an insight into the professional culinary world that is difficult to see in the classroom kitchen.

This week, we have the opportunity to work alongside Chef Anthony (Tony) Hessel from The Med and Brasserie Ten Ten in downtown Boulder. This man has some differences to the previous chefs we were exposed to:

He is candid and insanely honest. He described the culinary career as being great because you get to wear PJ's and a straight jacket to work. Sign me up!

His culinary passions: Vegetables (!!), cheese, and coffee. Instead of meat and booze. Pretty awesome.

He is the tallest Chef I have seen in the kitchen so far!

He is also the only one that showed up without a planned menu for us to create. He had ideas, and from that we ran around like crazy people creating an amazing meal.

He talked about his "weaknesses" in the kitchen, like making pasta. However, he never apologized. Not once.

I admire him for that. No apologies for "winging it" in the kitchen.

No apologies for not being able to create beautiful pasta with his own two hands.

No apologies for being  himself.

We created beautiful pasta with herbs inside. This parpadelle was fresh and although most found it too thick, I found it to be virtually perfect. What can I say, I am a sucker for more rustic elements on my plate.

Asparagus with Parmesan Pudding. This got topped with poached eggs.

More of the Parm Pudding. Super rich, but such an interesting taste and texture. Think polenta meets cheesecake and you have this savory, rich, goodness.

Pasta with pesto and mushrooms.

Seared tuna with zuchinni.

The zuchinni was salty and tender. The ideal complement for a mild fillet of tuna.

My plate with all of the beautiful elements we created. I appreciated the simplicity of this meal. Nothing on the plate was fussy. Noting was super heavy. It was incredibly ligt in comparison to wat we created with the oter guest chefs. The ingredients in each component were allowed to sine without being infused with butter and cream (although there was a lot of cheese!).

Once again, no apologies for the lighter elements and the vegetables. I want to be as unapologetic in my life. In honor of my experiences so far this week and, I will be unapologetic, too. I am saying NO to feeling guilty about treating myself to a coffee and treat in the middle of the day or to buying myself fun bath and body stuff at LUSH. After all, if I can wake up super excited about my routine morning shower, that only makes life that much sweeter.

San Antonio

This weekend was spent enoying Stephen's company in San Antonio. We had some great food adventures. I am sorry, but if you date a foodie, especially one who is in culinary school, you will gain a great appreciation for food. Thankfully, Stephen has always been an adventurous eater. And, like me, has an affinity for beer over wine. So to start off our vacation, he put together (by himself) a beer tasting for us to enjoy in the comfort of our bed and breakfast.

Three distinct and equally wonderful brews. If you haven't tried these, try them. Seriously.

Left: Rogue Chocolate Stout If you enjoy a good stout, this one will impress. It has a nice amount of hops to add a great bitter taste to the beer, very reminiscent of chocolate.

Center: Racer 5 IPA by Bear Republic I am a huge fan of IPA's, and this one has to be one of, if not my favorite IPA that exists. It has won awards, and these awards are very well deserved. Words cannot do it justice; try it for yourself!

Right: Paulaner's Heffeweisen A friend of mine made me try this since he knew I was a fan of Heffe's and wheat beers like Blue Moon and Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat. The citrus notes in this one are more reminiscent of lemon and therefore less sweet than other wheat beers out there. It is such a crisp and vibrant beer.

For food: Fruit and veggies. They make me happy.

Meet and cheese. Summer sausage. Gouda, sharp cheddar, provolone, and havarti.

Wheat crackers and wheat tortillas.

It was a great meal, all prepared by Stephen. We were both full of food and definitely on the tipsy side of the world. Those beers have a great kick and leave you happy, giggly, and ready for...well...anything. This was so much more fun that a wine tasting. Beer has a lot to show for how far it has come and definitely should not be snubbed by even the biggest food and drink snob. If all you have had is PBR or Miller and Coors and you dislike beer...well, there you go! Try some great beers. The three mentioned above are a fantastic start.

And now for restaurant in San Antonio that truly impress and won't leave (too much) of a dent in your wallet.

Boudro's Texas Bistro on the Riverwalk. One of the few restaurants on the River Walk that are actually worth it. Not much of a wait and actual good food.

House made veggie chips. Including beet chips! These were wonderful and great to have on the table to munch on. My apetite has been HUGE lately, so it was nice to have these prior to the meal.

I was craving a good burger. This patty was great, as was the shredded chedder and pickled onions. My one complaint...a little too much bread. I find myself deconstructing the more gourmet burgers, because they try to impress with a whole lot of fancy bread. When I eat a burger, I am there for the meat and toppings, I don't know about you. The bread is there to hold everything together, not to intimidate me and make it impossible to take one big bite of the burger.

Nosh

This little place is attached to Silo, and is a great place to go when you don't want a fancy meal, but you want some well thought out food. Actually, when you want up-scale bar food, this is the perfect place.

A wonderful menu of appetizers and small plates.

Asian chicken wings. Grilled. Flavorful, with a cilantro cream dipping sauce.

Flat bread, which changes daily (I think). This day's flatbread has pancetta, goat cheese, and fig.

Huge pieces of fresh fig. This flatbread was all toppings, which is the way I like it. I prefer to get my fill from the toppings without feeling that I have to devour the entire crust to make a dent in my appetite. This flatbread was incredibly satisfying. I am curious to see what other topping combinations the chef comes up with.

Stephen got the fish tacos. These looked great, too.

And for dessert...fresh donut holes with white and dark chocolate truffle sauces.

These balls were like a fried cake. They weren't doughy and almost flaky like fried dough. Instead, they had a great crumb that made for a soft interior, while the exterior was hard and crispy. Great for dipping into the chocolate sauces.

Tre Trattoria

Come here if you want to spend a little extra money. You will need to try to $10 cocktails, like The Refresher shown above. They use high quality spirits and great flavor combinations like melon and mint.

There are many great vegetable and sides options that make for a great starting course if you are trying to save your money by avoding getting a zillion courses, while still trying the best elements of the menu. I ordered the marinate portobello mushrooms. Perfectly cooked, these stips reminded me of escargot. This portion is certianly enough to share, but they didn't stand a chance again me. Stephen does not like mushrooms and usually refuses to even try a bite, so I did not have to share one morsel of this plate!

Stephen ordered the Wagyu Beef meatballs, stuffed with cheese and served on a bed of homemade spagghetti. Stephen doesn't like spagghetti, but he loved these noodles. There is certainly something to be said about fresh pasta.

I also opted for a pasta dish. I ordered the parpadelle, which are large noodles, with pork, fennel, and lemon. The freshness present in every element of this dish made for a satisfying meal.

Waxy O'Connor's

And for some great pub fare on the River Walk, head to Waxy O'Connor's. Stephen ordered the steak sandwich.

And I ordered the Reuben. By far, the best reuben I have ever eaten. What set this Reuben apart: Great rye bread that was nice and thin. I did not need to deconstruct the sandwich in order to eat it. The meat had no fat in it. The saurkraut was thickly piled on, and perfectly pickled. And the thousand island dressing was lightly applied. I didn't feel like I was eating a greasy, dressing soaked sandwich, which is the case with most reubens out in the world.

And the fries? Wow. With some malted vinegar, they also made me very happy. It was very difficult to stop eating all of them.

The food was an amazing part of the trip. We managed to eat at new restaurants for each meal. And even better, we loved every single restaurant we chose. AND...added bonus, we made it through an entire weekend in San Antonio without going to a Mexican Restaurant. Next time, my friends, next time.

The weekend ended on a lovely note. We had an hour to kill before dropping me off at the Austin airport, so we opted for botanical gardens. It was a beautiful day outside, so this was a perfect time to spend some last moments together while walking around and looking at pretty things. Yes, you can do this in a mall, especially n an outlet mall, but I would much rather oggle gorgeous plant life and walk along trails than look through windows at clothes and accesories that I will certainly not be buying while dodigng stressed out people trying to hit me with their shopping bags.

Plus, how can you be sad when you can look at delicate violets and imagine then singing to you as in Alice in Wonderland.

Flowers make me thankful that we live in a world with differences such as colors.

They are so simply beautiful.

We left our vacation feeling sad, but at least we had the impressions of peace and bliss from a stroll through a gorgeous place. I am already counting down the days until I see Stephen again (in one month!) and we have some more nice adventures.

Trial and error

Sometimes life is about trying things out and seeing what works and what doesn't work.

This week we are in the testing process for our dining room event in school. Two weeks from today, we are holding a 3 course meal for three different seatings. The diners have a choice between 3 soups/salads, 3 appetizers, and 3 entrees. It has been fun so far, but also a strange experience.

I am one of the event coordinators, which means that I am not on a cooking station. I am not in charge of a dish. Instead, I just go around making sure that everyone else is on top of what they need to do. I help where I can, but nothing is my own. This is hard for me, and I am constantly looking for something to do.

It is also a great learning experience. It forces me to stay calm and find ways to ocus my attention in a positive way.

Giving what I can give, and being okay with that...that's what I'm working on.

One of our appetizers: Crab cakes with a kohlrabi slaw and a rouille.

The same appetizer, but with one large crab cake instead on 3 small crab cakes. We decided on the 3 small.

Spring vegetable soup made with arugula puree and a potato soup base. There is a dollop of creme fraiche in the middle. We have decided to make a lime creme fresh.

Roasted beet salad with blue cheese. This is one of my favorite salads. The roasted beets are amazing, and the mixed greens are complemented nicely with a nice vinagrette and the blue cheese.

Arugula, fennel, and citrus salad. My oh my, is this salad the epitome of freshness. I adore the flavor and texture combinations.

My favorite of the dishes we have tested. Toasted brioche. Pan seared goat cheese with a pepita crust. Some greens. And the piece de resistance: bacon dressing. I wish there was more of this for me to eat. The goat cheese medallions are made from haystack mountain goat cheese, which is a Boulder favorite.

Soft dinner rolls. A great break from the soups and salads.

Another appetizer: Pulled pork tamales.

This is the presentation we are going with. There are microgreens, and the best part - a vegan pemikin. It has nuts and dried fruits and is the perfect addition to the pulled pork.

I am testing out things in my "real life" as well.

I have quit my job at the caffe, and am moving on to some part time work with the culinary school and hopefuly a restaurant in town.

I am testing my limits as far as daily living goes. Buying presents for myself, having lunches out, but playing it safe when I need to. It's trial and error.

I am seeing if weekends with Stephen every month or so will be enough to keep our relationship happy, or if being in Texas for the summer will be a better option.

No one said life is easy, but sometimes seeing what you do in the face of challenges is fun. Especially when you have said no to your usual coping mechanisms. I am so happy that I am able to keep my head up and see challenges and disappointments for what they are. They are not the end of the world.