A Few Of My Favorite Things

For Mother’s Day this year, Dan and I welcomed his local extended family over to our new home. He’s from a large Irish Catholic family, most of which live relatively nearby, so these are always lively gatherings. And you know what a family party means, right? The perfect excuse for another Christina Fabulous Cheese Platter!

For this shin-dig, since I was hosting and preparing almost everything else, I told myself I would put together a more modest spread than at Easter and grab a few more traditional choices. But, wouldn’t you know, I found my way over to the South End Fromaggio, died, went to heaven and then returned home $40 later with my arms full of stinky, artisanal beauties. I did, however, cut back on the amount of assisting accoutrement (nuts, dates, cranberry-pomegranate pepper jelly, etc.) and only put out plain French baguette crostini – sometimes the cheese just needs to speak for itself, and whisper sweet nothings in my ear.

My selections for this occasion were:

Brie de Nangis (cow’s milk/ France)

Andeerer (cow’s milk/ Switzerland)

Brebis des Collines (sheep’s milk/ France)

Mont Enebro (goat’s milk/ Spain)

The Brie de Nangis had a firm, nuttiness that I really enjoyed and tasted a bit different from the more common Brie de Meaux. As for the Mont Enebro, the rind was quite pungent and bitter; and while I’m usually a proponant of the rind experience, I’d advise the weary to stear clear on this one. The guts of the Mont Enebro, however, was sublime. In general, I am a huge fan of goat based cheeses. There is a goat’s milk selection available at most Whole Foods called the “drunken gouda” that I am absolutley mad about – try it if you haven’t. I like it so much that I have to make myself not buy it all the time so that I’ll taste new ones.

The Andeerer was on special at the Fromaggio and was the most unexpected of the bunch. I can’t recall tasting a Swiss cheese (other than the obvious Jarslberg) before. It has a firm then creamy texture with a complex flavor that ranged from sweet to herbal. The Brebis des Collines was a bit mild for my taste, it would probably be a great melting cheese for a fondue. It needed any accompaniment and came much more to life with a glass of red wine.

Speaking of which, I have a quick wine recommendation. A new wine shop just opened around the corner from my office, a fancy-pants boutique, Brix. There’s no other wine shop on my route home from work so this has become my go-to place for grabbing a bottle or two for the weekend on my way home on Friday nights. It’s hard to find anything under $10, but the selection is clearly so well considered that I’d feel confident grabbing almost any bottle and believe it would be, at worst, decent. A few weeks ago I picked up the House Wine cabernet blend. I will admit that I was initially drawn to the casual, folksy name and label (c'mon, for lack of other knowledge, who doesn't pick their wine mostly, if not wholly, on the label?). The store clerk gave it a ringing edorsement so I brought it home and fell in love. I tend not to buy the same bottle again in a short time span, because I like pick out new ones to try but I’ve already purchased this three times since then.

The Mother’s Day cheese platter was a big hit. Not five minutes after I set it down on the table it looked like a tornado had struck; rind and cracker bits were everywhere. Times such as these I know that I've married into the right family. It was very exciting to show everyone our place and it definitely made living there feel more real once we’d hosted a big, family party. The weather held up quite nicely and everyone enjoyed congregating in our backyard. Extra credit goes to Dan for smoking a fabulous pork shouldar for delicious pulled pork sandwiches and for picking up our new patio furniture (on the cheap from Craigslist) and assembling it all. An added bonus of hosting the family was that knowing 15+ people were coming over gave me the perfect incentive to clean up, hang pictures and get everything looking somewhat "finished". Of course, it is still a work in progress, but so far so good. (Yes, I will post pictures – my goal for the weekend).