Tag Archives: snacks and party food

June 10, 2014 · 11:13 am

Cheese Toastie Renaissance

001

You don’t hear about cheese toasties much these days, do you? They’ve all been rebranded as paninis and grilled cheese sandwiches. So recently, when I was invited to take part in a cheese toastie-making competition by the Barber’s Cheddar maestros, it triggered all manner of culinary flashbacks. I used to love a toastie growing up and my older sister and I concocted some interesting variations on the cheese classic, most notably banana toasties (very sweet, certainly likely to burn your upper lip) and baked beans (does very pleasant and interesting things to the bread inside, trust me on this one).
Continue reading →

45 Comments

Filed under cheese events

Tagged as , , ,

June 4, 2014 · 10:01 am

Cheddar Cheese Pasties with Sorrel and Elephant Garlic

cheddar cheese pasties with sorrel and elephant garlic

Down in the West Country recently, I found myself with a large amount of Barber’s Cheddar cheese (there’s a story behind this but that’s for another time). I’ve written about their cheese before here: not only do they make a really good block Cheddar, they are also the oldest Cheddar-maker in the world and the guardians of Britain’s traditional starter cultures, which is a pretty big deal for many of our farmhouse cheese-makers.
Continue reading →

25 Comments

Filed under Cheese Recipes

Tagged as , , , , ,

June 2, 2014 · 8:23 am

June’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Blog Challenge – Herbs

garden herbs for bread

There are bus stops that are bigger than my back garden but we make the best of it and at this time of year both flowers and vegetables are starting to have a stretch and a yawn in preparation for the big summer show-off. The herbs, however, are already lush and fragrant and so served as the perfect inspiration for this month’s Cheese, Please! Challenge.
Continue reading →

19 Comments

Filed under cheese please challenge

Tagged as , , , ,

April 30, 2014 · 10:07 am

April’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Challenge Round-Up – Blue Cheese

Taste is a funny old thing. It’s easy to assume that if you love something with a passion that everyone else does too. But, of course, it doesn’t work that way. Children are a prime example: you think that your children are inestimably clever and funny but the person sitting next to you on the train for two hours thinks they are badly-behaved and precocious. And so it seems to be with blue cheese. I adore it and my fridge is never without a hunk. We consume kilos of the stuff and even the precocious children like it. So this month it was a shock to discover that lots of people don’t like blue cheese. Not only were there less recipes than usual but many people prefaced their blog post with ‘I don’t like blue cheese but…’ Nevertheless, several people gamely overcame their prejudices to cook up something lovely.
Continue reading →

16 Comments

Filed under cheese please challenge

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 8, 2014 · 12:03 pm

Stilton, Rosemary and Walnut Shortbread

stilton walnut rosemary shortbread

As you can probably tell, I love pretty much all cheese. I get asked a lot what my favourite cheese is or which cheese I would take to a desert island (which are completely different questions; halloumi isn’t my favourite cheese but that’s what I’d take to a desert island). There’s no one answer for it, as it depends on what mood I’m in, what the weather’s like and who’s paying. But Stilton would have to be up there in all its creamily piquant loveliness.
Continue reading →

33 Comments

Filed under Cheese Recipes

Tagged as , , ,

April 1, 2014 · 8:26 am

April’s Cheese, Please! Recipe Blog Challenge – Blue Cheese

The Big Cheesy Barbeque: Shropshire Blue Burgers cheese

It was always going to be hard to follow March’s home-made cheese spectacular. I thought about taking advantage of today’s date and asking fellow bloggers to perhaps milk a pet for cheese-making purposes or cook up a dish specifically with Casu Marzu (more popularly known as Sardinian Maggot’s Cheese). But in the end I decided to plump for something more inclusive – because everyone loves blue cheese, right?
Continue reading →

26 Comments

Filed under cheese please challenge

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 30, 2014 · 9:33 pm

March’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Fresh Cheese

I wondered if asking people to make their own cheese and devise a recipe around it would be a step too far. I envisaged the tumbleweeds blowing across my blog throughout the month, as I frantically made cheese myself and cooked it up to make things look busy. But I under-estimated my fellow bloggers big-time and the sound of whey dripping through tea-towels echoed across the globe. A couple of them in particular (no names mentioned… ;)) seem to have become quite hooked on the entire process and I look forward to some magnificent creations clogging up their fridges and cellars very soon. But onto the round-up…
Continue reading →

23 Comments

Filed under cheese please challenge

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

March 18, 2014 · 2:12 pm

Possibly Poutine

Poutine

Am I a food blogger? Well, I write about cheese which is, after all, one of the major food groups. I cook stuff and stick photographs up of each excruciating chopping, stirring, braising stage for all to see. So I guess I must be.

But on the other hand, some food bloggers always have beautiful photographs of perfectly cooked dishes quivering on vintage china with flowers in the background. They never seem to have disasters where their pie crust cracks down the middle or they leave a sauce simmering to go and break up a row about a mouth organ and come back to find it’s burnt to the bottom of the pan. I’m certainly not one of those food bloggers. And this post bears testimony to that. So before an angry hoard of Canadians takes up arms and heads for the suburbs of Tooting, look, I know it’s not worked out perfectly, okay?
Continue reading →

35 Comments

Filed under Cheese Recipes

Tagged as , , , ,

February 27, 2014 · 10:42 am

February’s Cheese, Please! Challenge Round-Up – Cheesy Romance

It could be argued that February’s Cheese, Please! Challenge was cheesy in more ways than one. But with Valentine’s Day smack in the middle of the month like a big, glowing red beacon plus Godminster giving me some lovely heart-shaped cheese to give away, it had to be a romantic theme. Normal cynicism will be resumed in March. But without further ado, onto the round-up and the announcement of the lucky winner…
Continue reading →

21 Comments

Filed under cheese please challenge

Tagged as , , ,

February 11, 2014 · 11:41 am

Chocolate and Cheese Truffles with Stilton and Goat’s Cheese

chocolate-cheese truffles with blue cheese and goat's cheese

I love cheese. And I love chocolate. But, just like a husband and a gigolo, some loves should be kept apart – or at least that’s what I used to believe. A few months ago, I started coming across the odd choc-cheese combo and not just the usual cheesecake suspects; people were combining goat’s cheese with chocolate and even having a go with soft brie-type cheeses. Bringing my two loves together had to be worth a shot and I thought I’d throw blue cheese into the mix, although the internet was fairly quiet on this one.
Continue reading →

43 Comments

Filed under Cheese Recipes

Tagged as , , , , , ,