I took a little cheese retreat
I have a thing for hermitages. They’re where hermits live. Just outside of Philadelphia, there is a retreat center called Clare House with five hermitages in the woods around Aston, Pennsylvania. I went there earlier this spring to write and to spend a few quiet evenings sans gmail. I needed a g-break. I felt Twitter-sick and [...]
Brandy Old Fashioned Bread Pudding
If you’re anything like me this time of year, you can’t get your nose out of cookbooks. Every morning, I wake up with a new vision and a more beautiful plan for, say, a cheese board that reflects winter botanicals — and then my whole holiday schema has to be doctored. I suffer from acute [...]
Affairs with Wisconsin Gruyere
A few weeks ago, my friend Mike Geno received an 18-pound wheel of Grand Cru Gruyère from Wisconsin in the mail. The American Cheese Society (ACS) had commissioned him to paint a series of award-winning cheeses, but after he finished the portrait, he was left to scratch his head. What does one do with a [...]
All About Evalon
Officially, August is National Goat Cheese Month, but let’s agree: we’re past campaigning for goat cheese acceptance. Back in the 1970s, when the first goat-cheese pioneers were emerging from their milking barns in coveralls, Americans found chèvre exotic. Today, you can find chèvre in scones, sandwiches, and soups—there’s even a new goat cheese and cherry [...]
Wisconsin: Hidden Cabins, Heavenly Cheese
While the cheese world gathered at the largest dairy competition in Raleigh last week, I was on a ramble through Wisconsin with Frau Fromage. Every summer, my Swiss-born mother and I make tracks through our home state to sniff the dairy breeze (me) and birdwatch (she). Frau wears her binoculars, I carry my cooler, and [...]
