Creamy Cheddar Spread

Do you have a favorite kind of cheese?

I know, it's a tough choice. There are so many good ones, how could you even narrow it down? Brie is so soft and rich, it just makes me feel special when I eat it. Blue cheese has its place in my kitchen, and a little goat cheese can add such great flavor to dishes, especially salads. Then there's all the jacks, and the sandwich favorites, and so on.

If I had a to chose a favorite, though, I'd go with cheddar. Some good, sharp cheddar, preferably made in Vermont. (Even if I weren't required by law to say that because I grew up in Vermont, I still would. Vermont makes good cheese. And ice cream.) I love cheddar for it's flavor, its texture, its versatility, even for how well it pairs with fruit. (I don't know if you've noticed on this site, but I kind of like to put fruit in everything.)

If you are a cheddar fan like me, then this dip is for you. Sharp and salty, it is easy to make and goes with just about everything that cheddar goes with.

Which is just about everything when you think of it.

I like it on apples and pears because I like the sweet/salty flavor combination, but you could spread some on sourdough, crackers, or even tortilla chips. It's like a fancy Easy Cheese that tastes like cheese and doesn't come in a can.

Word is that there is a certain large sporting event coming up this weekend, and this would be a great alternative to the regular herb/sour cream dip. Or in addition to it. Both are so fast to prep, why should you even have to choose? 

Creamy Cheddar Spread

Ingredients

• 8 ounces Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated (about 2 cups) (Depending on your tastes, you might want plain Sharp or even Mild Cheddar. Also, I haven't tried pre-grated cheese and I think the anti-caking coating on it might affect the creaminess of the final spread.)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons salted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2 tablespoons white wine or apple juice
• 1 Large pinch ground mace or nutmeg (optional. Good with fruit)
• 1 Pinch ground red pepper (cayenne)

Directions

1. In food processor, combine all ingredients; process until smooth. (Alternatively, use electric mixer to blend ingredients; spread will have coarser texture.) Serve with whole-grain crackers, rounds of French bread or slices of fresh apple and pear. Note: The spread will be creamy and soft when you first make it. If you decide to make it ahead of time and refrigerate it, the consistency will get thicker. You can re-blend it if you would like it soft again. I usually don't bother.

Prep Time: 5 min Serves: 4-6

Recipe Source: Cabot Cheese Coop (http://www.cabotcheese.coop/)

Marianne's Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

For me, recipes are a great way to remember people. Whether it is a treasured recipe from my grandma, or something my mom made when I was growing up, there are recipes in my collection that are full of memories for me. If you want me to cherish you forever, just share a favorite recipe with me.

Bonus points if it is an amazing cookie recipe.

This recipe comes from my graduate school days, when I lived in a crummy apartment with four other girls. The floors squeaked, the carpets were orange shag from the 70's and the door required a firm shoulder shove to close completely. My younger sister came to visit me when I lived there and I remember her whispering, "Do you have rats here?" as we walked down the hallway to get to my apartment. Yes, it was a classy place.

One of my roommates at this palace was my friend Marianne. I hardly knew her before moving in, but we became instantly close, probably bonding over leaky faucets or loud neighbors. Marianne talked up these cookies for weeks before she actually made them because she didn't have a copy of the recipe and had to remember to get her mom to dictate it to her over the phone. Once she make them, though, they lived up to their hype. I don't think there was a single cookie that wasn't eaten the first night she made them. The recipe makes at least 36 cookies or so, which divided by five roommates is . . . ummm, maybe it's best not to quantify how much we each liked them.

If you are a coconut almond fan, this is heaven. They are like an Almond Joy bar in cookie form, and a perfected cookie form at that. Soft and chewy, they have great almond flavor and the perfect touch of chocolate. In my mind they trump even my favorite chocolate chip cookie any day.

Since that first night when Marianne finally made the fabled coconut almond chocolate chip cookies she had been raving about, I'd say these have become one of my top three most requested cookies. The recipe makes a huge batch, which is perfect for sharing with the many people that will request them. Every time I make them I remember Marianne and wonder what she's been doing lately. Sometimes I shoot her an e-mail, and sometimes I just reminisce about our crummy apartment and wonder if they're finally replaced the orange shag carpet.

 I bet they haven't. 

Marianne's Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups lightly salted, dry roasted almonds, finely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt
3. In a medium bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Beat in the eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix on low speed until blended.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix just until blended. Do not overmix. Add the coconut, chocolate chips and almonds and stir until just incorporated. (Note: if the dough seems thin at this point, I bake a test cookie to see if spreads too much. Sometimes it seems like due varying amounts of moisture in the coconut, I need to add a couple extra tablespoons of flour to keep the cookies from cooking up too flat.)
5. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons on ungreased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until set.

Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 20 min Yield: 3 1/2 dozen cookies

Recipe source: Marianne Tichovolsky

Mixed Baby Greens with Maple Dressing, Cranberries and Apples

One time when I was in college, my apartment was selected to be the weekly "spotlight apartment" at a get-together that was held in the complex every Sunday evening. This meant that someone from the complex would interview us, find out some random facts, and share them at the get-together. Seeing that my roommates and I thought the get-togethers were pretty lame, and that the spotlights were even lamer, we made up some facts about ourselves that sounded interesting and thought we were pretty clever.

At least, we felt pretty clever until someone came up to me afterward all excited to ask how I had enjoyed my time at the Culinary Institute of America. 

And I had to explain to her that it was all a bad joke.

A really bad joke, apparently.

It turns out, people actually did listen to the lame spotlight, and after another person asked my roommate what it was like to meet Prince Harry in person (we had thought Harry was more believable than William, for some reason) we realized that making things up is even lamer than simply telling the truth in a dumb apartment spotlight. It's no fun to have to explain to people why you lied to them. 

That's the reason why I'm not going to share some elaborate story of kidnapping, international travel to remote areas without the internet, or even a coma to explain my long absence from posting here, though it is really tempting. The simple truth is, my husband and I are expecting our first baby at the beginning of June. And growing a baby seems to make my body very unhappy, at least for the first few months or so. I know some women manage to keep up with everything while they are pregnant, but I'm learning that am not one of those women. 

When I first found out we were expecting I had grand visions of how I'd somehow manage to keep posting and cooking even through any kind of nausea that might come. Then morning sickness hit, and all plans went out the window. I remember coming home sick from work the first day and calling my mom to complain that I had been tricked because "morning" sickness actually lasts all day. Then I made the error of watching Steel Magnolias during my hormonal state and ended up with a headache from crying to add to my nausea.

These days I'm feeling better in the illness department, and I'm gradually getting back on top of things. I've been starting to cook more (for which my husband is grateful after living on pizza rolls and grilled cheese sandwiches for months. Actually, come to think of it, he probably thought that was heaven.) Given that I wasn't just away from the kitchen, but the internet, too, I've been trying to catch up on reading my favorite food blogs now that mere pictures of food don't make me ill anymore. And the house has definitely been staying cleaner lately. I want to thank everyone who has been checking up on me while I was temporarily away. Seeing that this is our first baby, my husband and I weren't sure what the protocol was for telling people you're expecting. Or when it was safe to do it. Or who to tell first. So we just didn't tell anyone.

One sign that I knew I was feeling better after so many months of feeling sick was when I found myself craving salad for the first time. I've mentioned before on this site that green salad is possibly my favorite food (it's fighting with cookies for the number one spot) because it is so versatile and I love all the different flavors you can have in a single bite. It felt like an alien took over my body, then, when I was so sick that salads didn't remotely sound good (and when beefaroni did, of all things) so after my stomach started to calm down it was like being reunited with an old friend to be able to eat them again.

This salad is one I love in the winter because it is still reliably good in those months when fresh summer fruit and veggies seem so far away. The recipe is from a book of favorites from Vermont restaurants, and I love that the dressing uses real maple syrup. In my opinion, that alone should make it a keeper. The slightly sweet dressing with the tart apples, dried cranberries, goat cheese and toasted pecans is perfect as a side for soup or as a light lunch. (Or second lunch, as the case has been for my lately.) It's fast to prepare and requires very little chopping - always a win for me when it comes to salads.  

Mixed Baby Greens with Maple Dressing, Cranberries and Apples

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T maple syrup
Kosher salt
2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into thin strips
1 T fresh lemon juice
8 cups mixed baby greens, lightly packed
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup toasted, chopped pecans or walnuts
3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1. Make the maple dressing: Whisk together the oil, garlic, vinegar and maple syrup until well combined. Add kosher salt to taste. (I usually need 3-4 generous pinches, tasting after each addition.)

2. In a medium bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice to prevent browning.

3. In a large bowl, combine the baby greens, apples, cranberries and half the pecans. Toss the greens with maple dressing to taste and divide among serving dishes. Top each dish with remaining pecans and goat cheese. Serve immediately.

Serves: 4-6

Recipe Source: Dishing Up Vermont by Tracey Medeiros