07 January 2013

The Twelve Days of Christmas Cheese -- wrap-up

Epiphany -- 6 January, or the day after Twelfth Night, which was the last day of Christmas -- has come and gone. And so has the last of the Christmas cheeses. Here are a few of my favorite solutions for using up the odds and ends of cheese:

  • Homemade pizza with spinach and robiola -- Heating up the robiola in a 500-degree oven brought out a creaminess and goaty tang that didn't come through when we nibbled it cold on crusty bread or crackers. Win!

  • Grilled Livarot cheese sandwiches -- Not as successful. "A" for effort, but it's just not a cheese that seemed to enjoy being served heated. Livarot worked much better simply served at room temperature and paired with a few varieties of apples.

  • Blue cheese crumbled onto spinach salad -- This was a no-brainer. To let the flavorful cheese shine, I dressed the salad with a very light vinaigrette (olive oil, white vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried oregano) instead of a heavy cream-based dressing. Yum!

  • Pecorino freshly grated onto pasta with red sauce -- Another no-brainer, and a zippy change from the usual.

    And of course it was just delightful to have a selection of interesting cheeses kicking around for the Twelve Days of Christmas. I hope your holidays were delightful, too.

    Next topics at Rowhouse Livin': Cheap wintertime dinner recipes; a check-in with some of the items I pressure-canned in 2012; and a discussion about home-made pizza, which I like to make for friends when I host a semi-potluck dinner about every other week.
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