Our two-pound loaf disappeared in a week. Photo courtesy Tillamook Cheese.
April is National Grilled Cheese Month (Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day was April 12th).
Here’s a wonderful everyday cheese to head up the celebration: Tillamook’s Monterey Jack cheese, voted America’s Best Monterey Jack Cheese at the 2011 United States Champion Cheese Contest. (The company’s Colby Jack–a blend of two cheeses–was also a winner, taking Best In Class honors.)
This Monterey Jack’s fresh, buttery flavor and creamy texture are spot-on. Its meltability gives it the versatility to work with just about anything – it’s a Jack of all trades in the kitchen. Here are 25 suggestions from Tillamook and THE NIBBLE:
Ideas With Shredded Monterey Jack
1. Wrapped with potatoes and eggs in a breakfast burrito.
2. Mashed into potatoes with butter.
3. Melted in an omelet with vegetables.
4. Stuffed into grilled peppers.
5. Paired with sausage and mushrooms in a breakfast strata.
6. Mixed into salads—try grilled chicken, green chile, avocado, tomato and romaine, with a side of tortilla chips.
7. Mixed into mac and cheese, by itself or in combination, like in this three-cheese recipe.
8. Made into cheese soup.
9. Sprinkled atop tortilla soup, or used as a garnish for other soups (try corn chowder with shredded Monterey Jack and crumbled bacon).
10. Baked atop enchiladas; in fajitas, tacos and other Tex-Mex favorites.
11. Rolled into meatballs.
12. Grated onto garlic fries.
13. Sprinkled onto roasted vegetables.
14. Melted into cheese fondue.
15. In a baked potato.
16. On a pizza (try a Buffalo Chicken pizza, blended with crumbled blue cheese—here’s the recipe).
17. In a manicotti recipe with salsa (try this chipotle manicotti). Ideas With Sliced Monterey Jack
18. Layered on a ham or turkey sandwich, or any favorite sandwich.
19. Grilled between sliced bread for a superior grilled cheese sandwich.
20. Fried on an egg sandwich.
21. Broiled on bread with a slice of roast beef.
22. As a snack right out of the package.
23. As a general garnish.
24. On a cheese board.
25. With a glass of white wine.
Don’t think that a two-pound loaf is too much. Between recipes and snacking, it might last a week. Other sizes are available, including 8-ounce chunks, 12-ounce slices, and 1- and 2.5-pound loaves.
Tillamook County Creamery Association is a cooperative of 220 farming families, known for its award-winning Cheddar and other dairy products. Learn more about Tillamook at Tillamook.com.
Of all the recipes we tried with our recent shipment of Harry & David Royal Riviera Pears, the simplest and perhaps most satisfying has to be poached pears with chocolate sauce.
Along with the pears, we also had on hand jars of the new flavors of The King’s Cupboard dessert sauces: Bourbon Caramel, Chocolate Crème De Menthe and Chocolate Irish Cream. Voilà!
POACHED PEARS RECIPE
Ingredients
1 bottle fruity red wine, Port or semi-sweet white wine such as Muscat or Riesling (Gallo Muscat is terrific, only $5.00 a bottle, and you can drink it alongside the pears)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4-6 firm pears, peeled and cored with stems intact
Optional garnish: mint leaf, raspberries
Poached pears with chocolate sauce. Photo courtesy The King’s Cupboard.
Preparation
1. Combine first five ingredients in a 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to a simmer and add pears to the poaching liquid.
3. Simmer pears for 30 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork.
4. Remove pears and chill standing upright for several hours or overnight (we keep them in the poaching liquid to infuse more wine flavor).
5. To assemble, place pears on individual serving plates. Warm chocolate sauce in microwave (start with 20 seconds). Spoon sauce over pears. Garnish with mint leaf or berries.
Alternate Sauce
Instead of using chocolate sauce, you can reduce the poaching liquid to one cup, and spoon over the pears. Garnish with crème fraiche, crumbled blue cheese or blue cheese ice cream.
Alternate Recipe
A related dish, Poires Belle-Hélène (in English, Pears Belle-Hélène), combines a poached pear and chocolate sauce with ice cream and slivered almonds.
Of all the healthy nuts, walnuts are the healthiest. Photo by J. Eltovski | Morguefile.
Last week we discussed why pistachio nuts are good for you.
Pistachios are just one of seven healthy nuts recommended by the USDA for daily snacking.
The “Magnificent Seven” healthy nuts include:
Almonds
Hazelnuts
Peanuts
Pecans
Pine nuts
Pistachios
Walnuts
You can have one or one-and-a-half ounces per day—as a snack, in salads and yogurt parfaits and mixed with rice and other grains. There’s a place for nuts in every meal of the day.
More about the seven healthy nuts, how to incorporate them into meals and why walnuts are the healthiest nuts of all.
First there was peanut butter, a creamy spread made from ground peanuts.
Then there was Nutella, a brand-name spread of chocolate and ground hazelnuts.
Completing the trio is biscoff spread, relatively new to the U.S. It was invented in 2007 on a Belgian reality tv show. When it was introduced commercially, it sold out in three hours.
Biscoff spread is made of ground spice cookies called spéculoos in Europe and biscoff in the U.S. If you like ginger and cinnamon, you may find it even more delicious than peanut butter and Nutella.
Check out our Top Pick Of The Week, biscoff spread from Lotus Bakeries.
As with PB and Nutella, you can use it on everything from bagels and toast to dips and frosting. The review has plenty of ideas and recipes.
Biscoff and cream cheese frosting on carrot cupcakes. Delicious! Photo by Rixipix | IST.
Hot cross buns: an Easter tradition. Photo courtesy Amy’s Bread.
Hot cross buns are sweet yeast buns made with raisins or currants and decorated with a cross. The cross was originally made with knife cuts in the dough; today it’s piped or spooned on with icing.
The cross symbolizes the Crucifixion, and the buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday. The first recorded use of the term “hot cross bun” appears in 1733.
However, the buns have much earlier roots. As with some other Christian traditions, this one is believed to predate Christianity. Similar buns were eaten by Saxons to honor Eostre, the goddess of spring, whose name is probably the origin of “Easter.” In pre-Christian times, the cross is believed to have symbolized the four quarters of the moon.
Celebrate Easter—or celebrate spring if you don’t celebrate Easter—by baking a batch of delicious hot cross buns with this recipe.