Goat Cheese!

I tried this new cheese that we started getting in at work, called Humbolt Fog. There's a specialty cheese company, Cypress Grove Chevre in northern California, check out the website: Cypress Grove Chevre. They have several cheeses and we started carrying the Humbolt Fog kind. It's ripened, strong, soft and delightful. It looks like cake, fluffy white cake with chocolate filling, it's so cute! And you can taste the goatiness of it, which I love. Lovemuffin doesn't like goat milk or goat cheese because of the goatiness, but I think it's great. Besides, what's so great about cow's milk? Here's a picture that I took before I demolished the wedge. Mmmm.....  Even if you think you don't like goat milk cheese, if you see this stuff, you should try it. But I should warn you that it starts melting after about 4 minutes at room temperature, which is why the edges are weirdly gooey in this picture, so if you are going to serve it at a party or something, you'll have to figure out how to keep it very cold.

Trying a New Kind of Sugar

Whenever Lovemuffin and Pricklypear move somewhere new and have to restock the pantry, we always have a discussion at the grocery store about which kind of flour and sugar to get. I want to get the national brands, because it just seems like they would be better, and he's all for the store brands, because they are cheaper. He figures that they are a commodity in economic terms (whatever that means), they are going to have the same quality no matter whose name is on the label, after all, flour is flour and sugar is sugar, right? Well, I finally found a way to back up my argument that the national brand flour is the right kind to buy, and it's right there on the label when you look at the amount of protein they each contain, but I kind of back down when it comes to sugar. It did seem that all granulated sugar is created equal. But a while ago I found this sugar, Zulka, and convinced Lovemuffin that we should buy it. It looked so good, so sparkly and pretty, and it sounded better than typical refined cane sugar. Listen to how they describe this stuff: "Zulka Azucar Morena is all-natural sweetener produced from the crystallization of fresh cane juice. Azucar Morena is 100% unrefined which preserves the nutritional value of nature's minerals and delivers a golden color with a mild molasses flavor." Doesn't that sound great? I am a little concerned because they say on the package that there is a website, but it doesn't actually exist, so I wonder if this stuff is still going to be produced and sold.

Here's a picture of three sugars, dark brown sugar on the top, regular granulated sugar on the left, and Zulka on the right. The crystals are a bit bigger than either granulated or brown sugar crystals, but I'm not sure how much that matters in baked goods. I used Zulka tonight for the first time to make cookies, and they were delicious! The dough was grainier than usual though, I suppose because of the larger crystal size, but the final product was no different in texture than regular cookies. I supposed I'll have to be all scientific and do a real double blind taste test, to see if there is a noticeable difference between cookies with evaporated cane juice sugar and regular granulated sugar. So far, though, I've been impressed with the flavor and I feel good about using this sugar.

The big difference that I noticed immediately when I opened the bag is that this sugar smells really good. I don't know if you've ever smelled regular granulated sugar, it smells kind of like stinky feet. I read on Rose Berenbaum's blog about why that is, apparently it has to do with the chemical refinement. The blog post is very interesting even though it is very long, and there is quite a bit of good information, including a bit about xylitol, which I've noticed is in Trident gum, but had no idea what it is or where it comes from. Anyway, here's a picture of my cookies that I made, chocolate oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. Darling Lovemuffin ate four of them in 5 minutes and then said that I may have convinced him that there is a difference in sugars... :)

More on Charred Peppers

This is how the roasted/charred peppers look when you peel off the blackened skins. The charred skins have a papery texture and pretty much slip right off the flesh. When you roast the pepper like this, the flavor becomes super intense, really sweet and peppery at the same time. I don't even like peppers, but I love them like this. You could also do this to spicier peppers, not just sweet bell peppers. Put charred and peeled peppers on hamburgers (or veggie burgers) or other sandwiches (see below).

You can also use this technique with tomatoes, but unlike peppers, tomatoes start disintigrating after 5 minutes of intense heat, and I haven't yet learned how to keep them contained when they are falling apart like that. But they would make a fabulous sauce for pizza or spaghetti.

This is my amazing sandwich that I made with roasted red peppers, eggplant, cheese and pesto. Someday I will maybe make it for you. I am salivating over it all over again.....