GG Mora

Here's what really sucks about Vermont, and all US, cheeses: Federal regs on young cheeses made from unpasteurized milk. Some of the best cheese I've tasted have been the contraband young, raw milk cheeses that these cheesemakers make and keep for themselves and a lucky few who know when and how to ask for them. Clearly, I'm not about to out any of them in such a public place. But until the Federal Gumment lightens the fuck up on the issue, the really good stuff won't be available to the masses. Oh, and here's a Chevre alert: There's a new goat cheese producer in town. Consider Bardwell Farm's fresh goat cheese is tangy, bright and creamy without the chalkiness that sometimes comes with the territory. Maybe a tad on the salty side, but worth looking for. Mostly available only around SoVT at farmer's markets and small specialty food shops, it's been picked up by Murray's Cheese in NYC. Peter Kindal, the cheesemaker, spent several years back-and-forth to Europe learning the craft. He's working on building an aging facility; aged goat cheeses soon to come. He's also planning on moving into sheep's milk, and then cow's milk, cheeses. One to watch.

My eldest stepdaughter is a waitress there... My husband and I had breakfast at Margo's when we were up north for his daughter's graduation. Huevos Rancheros looked like optimum fuel for a 30-mile bike ride around the islands. They were good, and performed well as fuel, but they weren't like any Huevos Rancheros I've ever seen, made, or eaten before. Baked in a small casserole til the yolks were crumbly, with lots of cheese and roasted corn, and if there was a tortilla in there, I missed it. And the service was agonizingly slow... Stepdaughter assures me that it ain't always so, and I owe the place a return trip for dinner. Also, the torte ordered from Margo's for SD's graduation party was quite good. If you go, and your waitress is a gorgeous young brunette with dreadlocks ( ), tell her GG sent you.

I got very good vanilla beans from Golden Gate. They also have excellent saffron. I kept my beans tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and rolled/sealed in a Ziploc bag, stored on a pantry shelf. They lasted well for nearly two years; the remaining few beans got dry and hard, but I was able to resuscitate them nicely. Read about my method for bringing them back to life. An article I read somewhere (Saveur maybe?) discredited the commonly held practice of storing vanilla beans in the refrigerator or freezer.

Even Continental's back-of-the-bus service was, until recently, far better than many other carriers. I've flown KLM, Air France, British Airways and Continental to Europe, and for coach, Continental was top-of-the-heap by a long shot. Last April, I had to go to Birmingham, UK, on business and found the cheapest fare on Continental. Maybe it was just that specific route, but the food was just as rotten as airline food can be, there was NO FREE BOOZE (not even wine or beer) and the 2 movies (no channel-surfing here, my friends) were both crap that had gone straight to video on release. And because both flights (out and back) were crammed to overflowing, the flight attendants were overworked, harried, and even short-tempered. With most domestic airlines either in bankruptcy or teetering on the edge, I don't expect things to improve any time soon.

Butter – always unsalted. Oil – as neutral as possible. Grapeseed oil when I can find it. Call my a wierdo, but I find EVOO too strong for anything but dipping bread. And I'd prefer butter on my bread anyway. Duck fat when it's around for sautéing potatoes. Lard for making tamales and refried beans.

Me. Count me in. I'll bring something sweet for afters (tart or cake), and something snacky-dippy-hors-d'oeuvres-y for befores. And who knows what else. When confabbing with eGulleteers, one cooks up a storm, no? What timish is this shindig sposed to go off? I'd love to bring Mr. GG, but need to drag him away from work early.

Looky here.

This probably isn't what you're looking for, but... Since cooking peaches changes their flavor so much, a raw peach pie is a delicious alternative. Just toss peeled, sliced peaches with a little sugar & let sit for 15 minutes or so. Drain off excess liquid, pile into pre-baked pie or tart shell and cover with whipped cream. It's such a nice way to treat really good peaches.

When we camp, it's car camping, with cooler, 2-burner Coleman stove and small 1-burner backpacking stove. Anything I cook has to be made in my #10 Griswold cast-iron skillet. And I have a medium sized stainless bowl for prep. The backpacking stove is strictly for coffee – a thick sludge of Cafe Bustelo cooked up in my 25-yr.-old Moka pot. Thinned with 1/2&1/2. Breakfast is usually french toast, sometimes with bacon, sometimes with sausage. Dinner might be steaks (steak au poivre is pretty easy to do at camp), might be paella, but my fave – and the kids', too – is "campfire choucroute". I bring along a big pouch of sauerkraut, a few cans of whole peeled potatoes, and some knockwurst, weisswurst or bratwurst. Brown the sausages, add the potatoes to brown them slightly, then add sauerkraut. Season with S&P and dump in either beer or white wine to moisten. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

I've been using my duck confit and combining it in a salad (baby lettuces and arugula) with green olives, toasted walnuts and goat cheese. Dressed very simply with a splash of good sherry vinegar, a drizzle of OO (I don't like to use EV in salad...too strong) and S&P (fleur de sel if I'm paying attention).

Rachel Ray, just to show her how it's really done.

Well....that used to work for cheap watches, back in the Dark Ages before battery-operated. Timex not working? Toss it in a drawer somewhere. Come across it a few years later and, Voila!, it works just fine.

Ain't that the truth. For a while there, the Brattleboro Co-op employed the very knowledgeable Henry Tewksbury, author of "The Cheeses of Vermont", as director of its expansive cheese department. One could, indeed, sample piece after piece and get quite an education in the bargain. I spent about an hour one afternoon as Henry's captive audience, tasting goat cheeses from Vermont and France. That fellow is sorely missed. I didn't mean to suggest that Vermont dominates the artisanal cheese scene – though it's a solid player – but that this new program could accelerate its ride to the top, and I do believe there is the potential for that. I've tasted a lot of incredible stuff that hasn't yet been made available to the public or is only available in a very limited regional market. Yes, but do you make cheese?

There's already damned good cheese coming out of Vermont, though a lot of the really good stuff is produced on such a small scale that it's simply not available elsewhere (Lazy Lady goat's cheeses and Woodcock Farm sheep's cheeses come to mind). That said, this program (and what a ground-breaker!) should serve to accelerate Vermont's dominance of the US cheese market. Good new cheeses are cropping up all the time. At our farmer's market this week(West River Farmer's Market, Saturdays 9 -1 in Londonderry), I came across a new goat cheese producer from West Pawlet – Consider Bardwell Farm. Peter Kindall (I think that's his name) worked as affineur at Artisanale in between trips to France, Italy and Spain to learn the cheesemaking trade. Really knows his s***. His fresh goat cheese was delicious – bright, tangy and creamy, if a wee oversalted. He promises his aged varieties in another two weeks, and plans on expanding into sheep's and then cow's milk cheeses. A welcome addition to the fold.

Hmmm. Sorry to harsh your buzz, but that looks like something else entirely. Must be the soft, pinky, color, but it has a distinctly entrail-y feel to it.

Welcome® to Blogworld™. Where's home base?

I often feel as though someone snuck in overnight and stuffed the interstices of my brain with lambswool.

Here's one really really good reason for folks who don't live near a good bakery not to have a side-by-side: you can't freeze baguettes in them. Unless, of course, you cut them in half, which sort of defeats the purpose, IYAM. LG makes a fridge with a double-door full-width top that looks pretty awesome. You go, Brooks. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to hitch my kitchen up to a big old 4x4 and tear that fucker out.

Just a few experiential recommendations: Item 1. Cold water works. Several years ago, I spent some time assisting a glass blower, and on one very hectic afternoon, I mistakenly grabbed the business end of the blow-pipe. Yup. The end that had recently (not just, thank goodness) been in the blazing hot yellow-orange glory hole. Part of what saved me was my quick reaction time, as in, it didn't take me long to realize my error and let go of the damned thing. The Supreme High Dude In Charge was filling a bucket with cold water in no time flat and had my hand plunged into it before I really knew what had happened. For the next hour and a half, I kept my hand in the bucket, refreshing the cold water as necessary. The skin was pretty well seared and it hurt like hell (ibuprofen helped that), but the next day there were no blisters and the burn cleared up in a week with no scarring. Item 2. Aloe vera works. In my haste to pre-sear a bunch of racks of lamb as service was coming on, I flopped batch three into the grease-filled skillet a bit too enthusiastically and ended up with boiling hot lamb fat up my thumb and onto the side of my hand. I had enough time to stand with my hand under cold running water for about 5 minutes, but that wasn't really practical to continue during service. We kept a bottle of aloe gel in the walk-in, so I filled a small ramekin with it and kept it on my station. Throughout the night, I kept applying the gel, liberally, to the burn. As soon as it would start to dry, I'd apply some more. The skin was pretty well seared and it hurt like hell (ibuprofen helped that), but the next day there were no blisters and the burn cleared up in a week with no scarring. Item 3. Vitamin E oil is excellent for the healing stages of a wound. After surgery on my wrist a few years back, I started applying vE oil several times a day once the wound was "sealed". At my one-month follow-up, the surgeon had to ask when he'd done the surgery (he was a little spacey, but an excellent surgeon nonetheless) because what he saw was consistent with a 3-month old scar, not a one-month old freshie. Just my 54¢.

Footwear heads up. I recently went looking for a fresh pair of Danskos, only to find that the style I've sworn by for nearly 10 years - the Piet - has been discontinued. I can't wear the Professional, since my instep is so high. So I went shopping around, and got turned on to the Troentorp Picasso. Now, it took some convincing and a half hour of walking/standing around the store, but I sprung for them. And let me tell you, these babies really rival Dansko for comfort. I don't cook professionally anymore, but I might just as well, for all the time I spend in the kitchen at home. I would almost venture to say that, given my specific construction and issues, these are MORE comfortable than Danskos. The footbed is hand-carved of alderwood and set on a thick sole of EVA with a skid-resistant finish. And the slick-finished leather is great for kitchen work, since the crud wipes right off. But here's the kicker: they're steel-toed. Now, I'm not such a spazz that I drop shit on my feet regularly, but if you've ever, say, let loose a 5-pound can in the stock room and had it land on your toe...well, you can start to appreciate the advantage. The price in the link above is pretty high. I got mine for $100 and change – about the same as a pair of Danskos. The only downside I can see is that the brand was recently changed to Troentorp from Bastad. It'd be sweet if you could still say "I gotta get me a pair of them Bastads".

Filet beans, fresh from the garden. Blanch for a few minutes in salted water, just until they start to pop. Drain, refresh with cold water. Shallot, lots of it, shredded in fine slivers. Sauté in unsalted butter (alot) until lightly browned. Add beans and some S&P to pan and toss just to coat & reheat beans. Best served with roasted chicken.

A forrest? A sugar bush or a sugar lot. Might be many acres of sugar maples, might be the four trees lining your driveway. The little house with the evaporator and the giant stacks of firewood and the trademark vented cupola is either a sugar house or a sugar shack (take your pick). See here.

What's not to like? I love it best stirred into plain FULL FAT yogurt. And darkest is best. That stuff that looks like used motor oil? Yum. Friend of mine makes his own from his family's small sugarbush and boils it in a little tinkered-up evaporator. So the syrup always has the taste of wood smoke. I'd pay a premium for that shit, but...I don't have to. The grading system is sort of confusing, especially since the US - or at least Vermont – did away with the A-B-C-D system and went to just A&B, and Canada uses yet another system (A-B-C maybe?). Apparently the grading systems hark back to the days when maple sugar was competing with cane & beet sugar, and the goal was white sugar with no other flavor. So Grade A was the lightest with the least maple flavor. That doesn't make a whole lotta sense anymore, when so many of us want it to taste like maple. Rule of thumb now is to look beyond the letter rating to the description: Light Amber is for sissies, Medium Amber is a step in the right direction, and Dark Amber is the only real maple syrup.

Hmmm...if Liz didn't like it, you know it's gotta suck.

Velo News online has excellent coverage – including a way-cool Live Update window, with one-line updates on the progress of the Stage, updated automatically every minute or so. Also good background and side info & links to lots of photos and rider journals and stuff.