"C" Is For: _______

For many years, people have teased me about being a walking advertisement.  I hear about a new restaurant on the radio and I will repeat the ad verbatim and go try it.  I read about a chef doing something totally unique and cool and I will go check out their place.  Along the same lines, I am very receptive to what I see on Travel Channel, Food Network, and Discovery Channel.

This past summer, while job hunting furiously, I took to watching Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" every afternoon.  Since then, my appreciation for this Jersey boy, turned New York City Chef, turned writer, turned travel television foodie (and probably turned many other things as well) has continued growing exponentially.  Besides having what I deem to be a super cool job, an amazing repertoire of culinary experiences (some of which I, admittedly, would not touch with a 10-foot pole), and a group of *extremely* talented chef friends, Tony has the privilege of influencing what I do with my weekends.

Okay, so maybe that is not one of the top bullet points on his resume, but it is, nonetheless, the back story for the story I am about to share with you.

Several years ago, Tony did a show about his hometown state: New Jersey (Collection 1 of "No Reservations").  Beyond the amusing cliches surrounding the Jersey Shore, the mafia, and Italian bakeries, this episode really caught my attention when Tony headed for "middle of no where New Jersey" to Bobolink Dairy & Bakehouse.

Accordingly, so did I this past weekend.

"C" Is For: CARS.

Mid-morning this past Sunday, me and my two travel companions set off southbound for Bobolink where we would join two other friends.  Bagel in my lap, piping hot coffee in the cup holder, I was happy as "a pig in mud". 

Drive, drive, drive did I.  After some good length of time, I was struck (not physically, but rather, mentally) by something I saw on the road.

Wait.

I thought we were supposed to be heading south?

Why does that sign say "Albany"?

For those of you who are either unfamiliar with this area of the country or are directionally challenged, Albany is *not* on the way to western New Jersey. 

Somewhere along the way, I had missed the giant, concrete web of merging freeways that I should have taken to continue southbound.

All right.  No problem.  We will just turn around and head back.

Wait.

That doesn't sound right.  Fifteen miles to the nearest exit?

Yes.  Yes, that is *exactly* right.  On I-87 North, exits are very few and far between.

Drive, drive, drive.

Thirty minutes later, we were back en route to Bobolink...

A mere should-be-only-2.5-hour-drive from Connecticut you can find serious farm land.  If you are unfamiliar with the areas surrounding New York City, you might find it surprising that an hour or so outside of The City (as folks from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut refer to NYC, despite the fact that there is also Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia relatively nearby too) you will find, well, cows.

"C" Is For: COWS.

Bobolink Dairy, run by Jonathan and Nina White, and located in Milford, New Jersey, is a mecca (albeit, smaller) of what "natural", "fresh", and "wholesome" means.  "The Ladies", as their intern, Richie, who gave us our tour, called their cows are 100% grass-fed, free ranging, hormone-free, milked only when naturally producing it after birthing a calf, and, well, happy as "pigs in mud" as well.  (By the way, Bobolink also has several large, very pink, curly-tailed pigs).  Jonathan and Nina, along with a group of interns, make a variety of beautiful artisanal cheeses from this delicious, fresh milk.  And in fact, their cheese was the first American-made artisanal cheese to be exported *back* to Europe (that is to imply, Europe always sends *us* *their* cheese).

But I digress...

Before we were allowed to get anywhere near the amazing cheese, we had to earn it...

...in the cold.

"C" Is For: COLD.



So we set off to tour the farm.  We started off with five companions, a large herd of cows, 1 dog, 3 chickens, and 2 pigs.

No more than 20 minutes in, complaints along the lines of, "I can't feel my feet", had reduced our group to 2.  If I didn't know better, I would have thought they were just heading back to get to the cheese early...

Well, I stuck it out and am really glad I did.  It is a very humbling experience to see how hard small farms work to maintain themselves.  Most impressive though is a reluctance to get too big for fear of losing product quality as well as the integrity with which they run their farm and treat their animals.

After quite a hike up and down knee-deep, snow covered hills, hopping electric fences to avoid being run over by an errant cow, and visiting the milking, room, cheese making room, and cheese aging room, we finally made it to the cheese!

"C" IS FOR: CHEESE!

Drumm Cheese

The day we toured Bobolink, they had 5 cheeses available for tasting, pictured here.  I learned two interesting things while tasting them: 1) cheeses are best served at room temperature because it gives the fat a chance to evolve so that the cheese will melt in your mouth; and 2) the rinds are all edible and are considered by many to be the best part because the natural pro-biotics found in cheeses like these are in the rinds.  Rind, however, is not for everyone, which was demonstrated by a story we were regaled with about the naming of Camembert, which had something to do with some king "poo poo'ing" the cheese rind fed to him by the monks who made it. 

Cheddar Cheese

No matter whether that tale is true or not.  The bottom line to my cheese story is simple: yum. 

There really is something to grass-fed cows and the milk they produce.  Each cheese had a beautiful earthiness that was fresh, not overpowering.  With or without the rind, these cheeses are just plain good, and they are made with a love for the purity of things that come from the earth that make them unique.

 

Jean Louis Cheese

Unsurprisingly, I came home with 1/4 pound each of the Cheddar, Frolic, Drumm, and Jean Louis.  The Bandolino was a bit strong for my taste, but was bought by others in our group.  Fortunately, if your mouth is watering right now, you can purchase Bobolink's cheese online and have it shipped right to your mouth, err, door. 

Bandolino Cheese

One cool tool that I have never used or seen used before is a cheese knife, which they had--for obvious reasons--in abundance at Bobolink.  From my experience cutting cheese (okay, go ahead; laugh at the perfectly self-set up "gas" joke, LoL), slices of cheese, especially the thin ones, get caught on the blade.  A cheese knife, however, has spaces along the blade, which seem to allow for a smooth cut and the slices of cheese to fall easily away from the blade (as opposed to sticking and having to be pulled off by hand).  This is definitely a tool I will be investing in, and if you are feeling pretty excited about cheese at this point, I would say you should too.  The Prodyne Cheese Knives have good reviews and ratings on Amazon compared to other products, and are not very expensive.



Frolic Cheese



Roasted Garlic Loaf



Now I realize that cheese is not for everyone.  I also realize that many people have never experienced cheese that is not a part-skim mozzarella "string cheese" stick or bright orange hunk of store-bought cheddar (that orange color, by the way, I learned from a cheese maker in Wisconsin, comes from the Annatto seed, and is used to mask the gray-yellow color of natural cheese that people often find unappealing). 

Anyway...if cheese isn't your thing, that's okay.  Bobolink also makes beautiful artisanal wood fired oven-baked breads.  My two favorites were the cranberry walnut stick and the roasted garlic loaf--which was *filled* with whole, soft, sweet, roasted garlic cloves--but they also make many other types of breads.  Indeed, they even make pizza dough and wood fired pizzas for special occasions using, yes, none other than their homemade cheeses.   



Cranberry Walnut Stick

So after a long and lovely day of touring and tasting, it was time to head off to our final stop: a local pub serving up homemade brews and dishes made with Bobolink's cheese.  One of our group asked if I would get her car out of a precarious parking spot since she considers me to be a better driver than her. 

A Reminder: "C" Is *Still* For: CARS and COLD.

Although I appreciate the compliment (and I would say that, yes, most of the time she would be correct), she may re-think her assessment in the future given that five seconds behind the wheel and all I could hear were spinning tires!  Snow, ice, and a heavy, front wheel-drive car makes for a stuck car.

Enlisting the aid of our most talented (and only) man in the group, we scraped with a shovel; hacked with an ice scraper; strategically placed wood; ripped up a shoe box and put that under the tires; and spun, spun, spun those tires in place.

To the scent of burning rubber, a light bulb (of desperation) went off and the group dug up loose gravel from under the snow.  With gravel under the tires and with a little maneuvering, we were finally unstuck after an hour!

By that point, it *really* was time to get a cold brew.  So off to The Ship Inn we went in a blaze of glory!

Several hours later, after warming up over Shepherd's Pie and a Scotch Ale, we eventually arrived back in Connecticut with a little more snow-perience, fully bellies, and a whole lot of cheese!

What more can I say?  It was a super "C"-filled day!

So what can you do with some great homemade cheese?  Here are a few of my favorite uses:

Breakfast Bagel
-bagel, any kind you like (or 2 slices of toast will be perfect as well)
-handful of baby arugula (you could use watercress, spinach, or mescalin greens as well)
-1 egg per bagel
-Bobolick (or other) cheddar, a couple of very thin slices
-olive oil
-Kosher salt
-freshly ground pepper

1)  Rinse and dry the arugula (this is what a salad spinner is good for!)
2)  In a small bowl, toss the arugula with a good pinch of salt, several grindings of pepper, and enough olive oil to coat the leaves lightly (about 1 Tsp)
3)  Heat a frying pan over medium heat and when it is hot, add some grease to coat the pan (either butter or Pam Cooking Spray); crack an egg into the pan and cook it without moving it until the white is just cooked through (no clear, runny whites); then using a flexible spatula, flip the egg over.  Add the cheddar on top of the egg, arranging it so that it does not touch the pan.
4) Toast the bagel, either in the toaster or under your oven's broiler until golden brown
5) While the bagel is toasting, finish cooking the egg and cheese just until the egg is set, but the yolk is still runny.
6)  Top the bagel with the egg, then the arugula, and cut it down the middle, right through the yolk.  Use the bagel to soak up the yolk while enjoying.

Goat Cheese with Fruit and Honey
-room temperature goat cheese (it won't spread well otherwise)
-thin slices of apples, pears, strawberries, or other kind of fruit(s)
-crackers or thin slices of bread (like french baguette)
-honey*

*There are many types of honey out there, as well as fresh honey right from farms.  Get out there and find what you like best!  Due to current fiscal constraints, I'm a good old fashioned clover honey girl myself.

1)  Slice your fruit thinly (I like Granny Smith apples, Barlet pears, and super ripe strawberries)
2)  Spread a good layer of goat cheese on the cracker/bread
3)  Top with fruit
4)  Drizzle with honey