Brave Baker, Dough Master: DIY Crusty Bread
March 15, 2013 - 11:25am | by amanda
Bread, cheese and wine—could there be any other perfect trinity for relaxing after work and rendezvousing with friends?
This DIY series is meandering a little off the beaten path and spotlighting cheese accompaniments, beginning with warm, wholesome, crusty bread.
But instead of fantasizing about munching on bread and cheese with a tall glass of wine, people tend to take on the frightened façade of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” when they hear “bread baking.” Yeast just has that effect on even the bravest little baker. Maybe it’s that scene from I Love Lucy we can’t get out of our heads, the one where our beloved and kooky red-haired heroine keeps adding flour to a ball of dough, and after baking it in the oven, out pops a ballpark-long sub.
Meeting the Staff: Amy Scheuerman
March 14, 2013 - 1:46pm | by kate e.In this blog series intern Kate E. interviews the staff here at culture: the word on cheese to give you an inside look at a day in the life of this goofy group of cheese-lovers and their work on the magazine you've come to love. Have specific questions for or about our staff? Be sure to send them to staff@culturecheesemag with the subject line, "Meet the Staff".
Food with Love is food for thought
March 13, 2013 - 11:03am | by stephanie
Yesterday our Love with Food box arrived. I love getting them every month. It's a surprise and a present every month. And with each one I think about Lassa, who gave it to us as a Christmas gift.
Love with Food is a subscription service in the form of a box of unique and mostly new specialty food products (no perishables) - giving producers trying to break into distribution a chance to catch on virally, and hungry consumers the chance to discover them. Then, (and here's the Love with Food part) they turn around and donate a meal to a hungry child for every box sold.
Tasting Tuesday: Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery Cheeses
March 11, 2013 - 4:05pm | by AmyEach week we taste a sampling of cheeses in our Cambridge office and discuss their flavors, textures, and our general impressions of them. Yum!
Bonne Bouche
Goat's Milk - Vermont
Week Five of Our Winter Cheese Plate Winners: The Balanced Plate
March 6, 2013 - 12:58pm | by lauren
We’ve arrived at the fifth and final week of our Winter Cheese Plate Party! So far you’ve heard from a few new voices in the culture community about our Winter 2012 Cheese Plate, but we’ve got one more for you! Our final guest post comes from Caroline Kaufman, RD, offering a thoughtful take on nutrition and healthy eating at Sweet Foodie.
Visit to Everona Dairy, Virginia
March 5, 2013 - 7:45pm | by kate
Recently, Elaine and I took a trip to Rapidan in Virginia to visit Dr Pat Elliott at Everona Dairy, where she has been producing both raw and pasteurized sheep's milk cheeses for the last fourteen years.
Dr Elliott is now in her eighties and in addition to making some award winning cheeses, is still a practicing MD at her doctor's office adjacent to the farmhouse. Her adventures in the dairy world started after first buying a small number of sheep to keep her Border Collie occupied. Then, while researching ways for the sheep to earn their keep, she tried her hand at milking them with a view to making cheese on a commercial scale. In the late 1990's, after taking a cheesemaking course and traveling overseas to learn more about cheesemaking, Dr Elliott began cheese production in earnest at Everona.
A new name! Yeah!
March 1, 2013 - 3:07pm | by stephanie
I am stupendously pleased that NASFT has today announced they have changed their name to Specialty Food Association. It makes sense. I could never remember the acronym, or what it stood for. It's just simpler, sleeker, and more appropriate.
It also reflects the growing importance specialty food has in our diet and food conscience. "Sixty-six percent of US consumers purchase specialty foods {in 2012}, up from 59% in 2011." (Specialty Food Magazine, October 2012, Annual Report: Specialty Food Consumers, p.34.)
Give [DIY] Cottage Cheese a Chance!
March 1, 2013 - 12:12pm | by amanda
Of all things cheese-related, almost everyone loves to hate cottage cheese. I admit, I was a part of the cottage cheese-hating fan club—and why? What did cottage cheese ever do to me?
Was it the lunch snack mix-up in grade school, when I mistook cottage cheese for rice pudding?
Was it my arachnophobia and the Miss Muffet nursery rhyme convincing me cottage cheese (i.e. curds and whey) must be a spider sentinel?
Or is it because I just fell in with the same boat as everybody else, the “wrinkle your nose without giving ‘ol cottage cheese a chance” cruise line?
Whatever my qualms were, they disappeared once I gave cottage cheese the college try. (Really—it took me until college to try!) Since then, I haven’t gone back.
With the popularity of frozen yogurt, Green yogurt, kefir and anything else wonderfully tart, you should give cottage cheese another chance as well. Trust me on this.
And the Oscar Goes To …
February 27, 2013 - 10:58am | by lauren
As an indiscriminate media zealot and avid snack lover, nothing pleases me more than the mash-up of food and pop culture. For this week’s Tasting Tuesday at culture, I thought it would be fun to play director, imagining some of this year’s Oscar nominees in the role of a lifetime, as one of Point Reyes’ amazing cheeses. Here are a few of my picks to invite for a (snack) session on the casting couch.
Tasting Tuesday: Point Reyes Cheeses
February 27, 2013 - 10:17am | by AmyEach week we taste a sampling of cheeses in our Cambridge office and discuss their flavors, textures, and our general impressions of them. Yum!
Point Reyes Original Blue
Cow's Milk - California
