Sunday, February 22, 2009

Vermont Cheddar, Week 8

I'm betta', so here's my post about chedda'!

Thank you for your well wishes, I am feeling a lot better now and happy to be back to blogging.  Last week, I tried out a new shop for cheese, Roots.  I had been to Roots before, but only because I had tried out the neighboring yummy organic restaurant, Great Sage.  After the cheese blog was mentioned in another Maryland blog, HowChow (all food Howard County), I decided to give it a go for cheese.

I was craving comfort food, and nothing says comfy cheese like Mac & Cheese.  Especially when a new recipe is involved AND there are amazing root beer and sarsaparilla floats for desserts. (Especially then!)

That being said, there really wasn't that much Chedda' at Roots.  I will definitely be back for local Maryland cheese and arguably the best root beer on Earth, but I was glad to snag some Vermont Cheddar for my Mac.

Vermont Cheddar
Price: $13.98/lb
Smell: Waxy, like a red chedda' wrappa'.  (Or, nice and sharp)
Step One: Surprise! Cheddar cheese is not all orange and Kraft-like.

Step Two: Back to the shredda'!
Step Three: Badda' bing, badda' boom!  I tried using De Cello's Orecchiette (pasta by number=91), and it was delicious.  I would definitely use it again in any dish in need of sauce-grabbing noodles.
Step Four: Bake it! I used double the garlic (like any respectable member of the Cheesekate clan) and bought bread crumbs.  The idea of crumbing my perfectly good bread in my food processor seemed a little ridiculous to me.  However, The Martha's idea to use egg, rather than flour to thicken the cheese sauce was great!

Step Five: Enjoy!

Last week's blog mentioned a salad with pears.  It was so tasty- d'anjou pears, red onion, and slivered almonds covering baby spinach with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Mmmm happy dance in my stomach.

End tally: Midnight Moon > Manchego > Paneer > Comte > Vermont Cheddar > Delice d'Argental > Stilton > Pecorino Romano > Monterey Jack

The Vermont Cheddar was tasty, but it wasn't as exceptional as the Comte.  I rated it higher than last week's Delice only because the Delice tasted oddly like a strong blue cheese when I had it later in the week.

3 comments:

  1. Hopefully the southern chedda mac and cheese will cure you of all your ails and make you bedda ;) It was sooooo a-Gouda!

    7=^ )

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hope the cheese-meistress is feeling betta, the tea-obsessed one has strep D:

    this has not impaired my intake of tea, only stopped me from being able to taste it xD

    ReplyDelete
  3. :O the chedda looks fantastic! comfort food at it's best :3 reminds me of something paula-deen would serve up ;D

    ReplyDelete

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Kate