So the last post on this blog was October 9, 2013 and had I realized it would remain so until the new year I probably would have posted a “GONE FISHING” sign or something. Which is all to say had I been realistic I would have scratched Cheese and Toast off the TO DO list for a bit and sent it on holiday to the south of France instead of letting it languish, unrefreshed for so many months. We have made up– and the blog has accepted, grudgingly, my apology. (Though has threatened to crash without saving my content over the next little while as payback….)
In a nutshell; we were reno’ing our bathroom and the kitchen ceiling (yes just the kitchen ceiling) and that was going swimmingly until a house up the street popped onto the market–and we loved the house–and then we thought maybe we should just put in an offer…and then we had this new house and needed to sell old house which still had hole in kitchen ceiling….and my job situation changed and everything was topsy-turvy. Including my kitchen as we did a few upgrades for the sale–so no cooking for a while.
Anyway–we moved, I was teary saying good-bye to the old home but the people that bought it seem to love it just as much (and they don’t have the mauve bathroom we had for 11 years!) and we have a great new house that has a great backyard that tad has already built a luge track in this winter (you know a sled-luge track). AND……..
Counter Space! My kitchen feels humongous compared to the 1.5 feet of counter space I had before. It’s like a dream, really. Plus it came with a dishwasher (I’ve never had one since I left home for university, I was addicted after the first time I pressed SMART CYCLE)….and an old stove that broke and we had no choice but to replace–so now I have a new gas stove and went with the double oven (GE). Just starting to experiment but think I will love it.
But that is way too much about me. Let me start with a few salad recipes from the “Month of Salads” project that Tad and I have been shooting and creating for the Globe. Each weekday is February we have teamed up with the Life section to create a salad (he shoots them). The link for last week’s five is here….and you can even photograph and submit your own faves…
I could not have done the project without my friend Ally–truthfully a full month of salads after last Fall/Winter’s shenanigans was an amazing opportunity but was somewhat overwhelming– but Ally came over and helped me prep (and offered a couple great recipes) like Asian Noodle Salad and Fennel Pomegranate Salad (coming up for Valentine’s Day!)
And I owe a huge THANK YOU and apology to my friends and contributors Kelsie Parsons (Curds and Eh!) and Joahnne DuRocher (who was also moving yet managed to keep blogging and working full-time!) who have each written an amazing post for me (Kelsie on Grilled Cheese and Johanne sharing her spaghetti sauce recipe) and gave them to me in the fall and so I will FINALLY be posting them still in the midst of winter when we need comfort food. Thank you guys for being so understanding (I think they were understanding, I would be understanding if they were not).
And congrats to Kelsie who has been chose to be one of the two cheesemongers for the American Cheese Society Competition taking place in Sacremento this year. Huge honour.
So in other news, Ally and I have a brand new website in the works for The Cheese Table and we love our new logo–it is pretty exciting–let me know what you think!
We are also testing out a first run at a monthly cheese club, if you would like some more info you can shoot us an email. We have about two spaces left.
Otherwise we are continuing our series of Cheese Talks at McEwans and doing some private events.
And last but not least I’d like to start sharing some articles about food that I find interesting and maybe you would too. Here are a couple pieces from WIRED magazine to get you thinking—first is about PEAK UMAMI
And the second– well— read and see what you think about Monsanto Perfect veggies— and don’t judge yet–its quite interesting read.
So, hopefully we’re kind of caught up–thanks to everyone who emailed to kick my butt into blogging again. It is a pleasure to be back!