Easy Elegance

Sometimes a lovely meal doesn't mean a whole lot of trouble.

You know those little rounds of brie and camembert you see contained in balsa wood boxes in the "specialty cheese" section of the supermarket? Pick one of those up, sometime. Grab a loaf of french bread and an apple or pear, while you're at it.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Discard the top of the cheese box, and remove the wheel of cheese from its protective plastic. Put the wheel back in the bottom of its box, place the container on a baking sheet, and shove the whole thing in the preheated oven for half an hour. This should be enough time to adequately melt the cheese, but you can check for meltiness by piercing the top horizontally with a knife, and cook longer if necessary. You want it to be of cheesy "dip" consistency. (If cooking longer is necessary, I suggest going at 5 minute intervals.)

In the meantime, slice up your apple/pear, rip up your bread, and put on some coffee or open some wine.

Slice off the top of the cheese when it's done, season the inside with garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper, and serve.

This is a perfect meal for a couple - I might even say a light meal for a couple, depending on your appetites and the weather. Everything besides the balsa wood box is edible. Devour that cheese rind like there's no tomorrow.

(Btw, may I recommend Ida Red apples? They are delightfully red on the outside, bright white on the inside, firm and crisp, the perfect balance between tart and sweet, and unbelievably juicy. I and other fans will fight to the death anyone who claims they're just for cooking.)

Thirty-Minute Cheese

So.

Here we have a new food blog.

And for the subject of my first post in my new blog, I would like to address the love of my life: Cheese.

But Mia, you say, what about your darling husband?

I do not, to my knowledge, talk about my husband in my sleep. Or wonder what variety of my husband would go with everything else I consume. Therefore, I must deduce that while I might possibly love my husband more than cheese, he does not occupy nearly as much room in my consciousness. Ergo, etc.

Cheese.
How I adore thee.
In every form, soft to hard, mild to pungent, fresh to age-ed.

*le sigh*

I have taken to making my own, at least as far as mozzarella is concerned. While it is recommended to use the freshest, most local brand of milk available for this process, I have found that I get good results from cheaper local store-brand milk, as well. One gallon of milk makes one pound of cheese, and I usually make a batch every week or two.

It takes thirty minutes.

It's thirty minutes of constant work; measuring, timing, checking, tweaking. Adjusting the process to your equipment; your experience guiding your decisions. It is totally worth it.

At the end of the process, if you're lucky, you end up with these otherworldly orbs, which taste of complete, pure, simple cheesey goodness:

I did this yesterday afternoon. My (beloved) husband brought home a jug of milk, and thirty minutes later there was cheese. It never ceases to amaze me; it's like an act of magic. Better living through chemistry.

Pluswise, you can dress it up in olive oil, basil, and pepper flakes, and pair it with homemade pickled carrot sticks for an afternoon snack! Bonus!

(I need a better camera)