Category: Uncategorized

Cristal Ortiz  is the winner of  the 2009 Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipe Contest called GRILLED SUDS N’ CHEESE Serves 4. From WSU blog per Julie.

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter softened
• 8 1/2 inch slices of Grand Como
• 1 pint of good German beer
• 1 large Walla Walla sweet onion
• 4 ounces German Chiantino shredded
• 4 ounces Irish Invernia shredded

Story from jat –about Washington State University (WSU) grad Kurt Dammeier ’82 — the cheese evangelist and making cheese who owns Beecher’s Handmade Cheese at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Written in winter 2004-2005.

J&J brought us specially aged (3-year) Cougar Gold cheese, but security slowed them down when they carried on at the Spokane airport. They made it through, but it did take extra time.

“Morbier” means “small market town” in French.  Morbier (full name Morbier du Livradois) is a mild-tasting cheese with a white pine ash layer in the middle of it. The cheese has a golden-brown rind. Inside, it is pale yellow, and semi-firm yet creamy and supple. It is made from unpasteurized cow’s milk. The milk is heated, then curdled. Traditionally, Morbier Cheese was made from leftover curd that wasn’t wanted for other cheeses or uses. The curd was put into a mould, then ash put over it to stop it from drying out and forming a rind until the next day, when there would be more leftover curd, enough to finish filling up the mould. Today, small producers will make the bottom layer from the evening’s milk, then the top layer from the next morning’s milk. It is then salted and pressed by law, it has to be aged a minimum of 45 days. Many, though, age it for two months. After this initial aging, it is then washed with brine, then aged another two months. Brought at local Brookville. It’s softish, and I was afraid a bit stinky at first — but it is actually pretty mild. They don’t know how cheesemakers learned to start adding the ash.

We went to hear Frank Gohlke, a landscape photographer and subject of the exhibition Accommodating Nature Now through March 3, 2009 at the American Art Museum, presented a selection of readings from his catalogue essay entitled Stories in the Dirt, Stories in the Air. Learned more about Wichita Falls, Texas than I ever knew — his hometown. Both black and white and color photos. Cowgirl Creamery sponsored the reception afterward, and they did an excellent job. Very cool cheese cutter — and they had to change the wire several times. They had Mt Tam (Brie like — one of our favs from there) and St George (parmesan like). The photo is after I started eating it, but they had a nice combo of the 2 cheeses, some nuts and a toasted fruit/nut bread. Much prettier than other cheese events where they just let people dig in — and the cheese gets messy. The usual cheese foursome attended this free program.