A Night of Cheese - Sixth Course

The final course for the Night of Cheese was the simplest course to assemble. A play on a classic dessert offering, Seaver Brook Blue (from Bonnieview Farm, South Albany VT) was plated next to a dollop of buckwheat honey. Traditionally, chestnut honey would accompany this style of cheese, but chestnut honey can be tough to come by here in the States. Buckwheat honey is a comparable alternative and is just as tasty.  It's gentle earthiness and rich flavor help to balance the pungency of the blue cheese. The sweetness of the honey compliments the sweetness in the cheese.

The Churchill's 10 Year Tawny Port was paired alongside the Seaver Brook Blue. The port's rich and complex taste is typical of a tawny port, but it's unique brightness balanced the other heavy textures of the cheese and honey.

No recipe here. It was all about simple, delicious ingredients and easy assembly.

A very special thank you to Eric Paul, The Cheese Traveler, for his expertise. Without him, this night would not have happened! Be sure to follow him on Facebook. Bonnieview Farm cheese can be purchased through The Cheese Traveler, online, or at regional farmers markets.

A Night of Cheese - Fourth Course

Sorry for the bad picture here... I had to snap it just before someone ate it! I always forget to take pictures :)

The fourth course for the Night of Cheese was probably the most savory of the offerings, even though it was still on the sweet side. Featured was the Battenkill Brebis cheese from 3-Corner Field Farm (Shushan, NY), paired with a 2008 Syrah from the Magnificent Wine Company (Columbia Valley, Washington) and fresh pears with balsamic-steeped cherries.

I can't lie - this course took a little fanagaling to get it just right. The cheese is a superstar and most definitely deserved a spot on the menu, but getting the right combination of accompaniments and accouterments was somewhat challenging (for me, certainly, more than Eric). Battenkill Brebis is an aged raw sheep milk cheese that has a firm texture (like Parmesan, but smooth like an aged cheddar). It is nutty and has a particularly gritty texture towards the rind. The richness of the cheese called for a bold yet smooth wine.

Enter the Syrah. It was peppery with notes of cherry. Slightly oakey, it coated the entire palate highlighted the earthy qualities of the cheese. We took a cue from these existing flavor profiles and steeped some dried cherries in balsamic vinegar and coupled that next to pears from the Silly Goose Farm orchard that were cellared over the winter (the cherries highlighted the flavors of the wine and cheese, while the pear helped cut the richness of it all and brightened the plate). Keep some of these cherries on hand to add as a quick topping to lots of different cheeses or pureed up and added to salad dressing.

********************

Balsamic-Steeped Cherries

Makes approximately 3/4 cup of cherries and balsamic syrup

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/3 cup good balsamic vinegar (I used a little bit of fig balsamic, as well)

1 tablespoon honey

1. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the balsamic vinegar and honey. Once it just boils, reduce heat to medium/medium-low and add cherries

2. Cook for about five minutes (until cherries appear to soften slightly). Remove from heat at allow to steep for 10 minutes

3. Serve immediately or allow to sit in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to a month

A very special thank you to Eric Paul, The Cheese Traveler, for his expertise. Without him, this night would not have happened! Be sure to follow him on Facebook. 3-Corner Field Farm cheese can be purchased through The Cheese Traveler or online.

A Silly Goose Farm Thanksgiving - 2011

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. It's hard to believe that 2011 is almost over, but I'm very much looking forward to saying au revior to this year and welcoming 2012 with open arms. Until then, how about a little retrospective on the 2011 SGF Thanksgiving celebration?

This year's dining crew was the same as last year's, except Eric was big enough this year to sit at the table with us (well, sort of at the table -- he kept trying to stick his hands in the mashed potatoes and dump the gravy boat over his head).

I made place cards out of cardstock, vintage bird images, and alphabet pasta (yes... alphabet pasta. Listen, I had to get some Martha OCD out at 2am on Thanksgiving while the pumpkin pie was cooking, okay?). I used a similar method to make a "pie banner" (see pictures below). I got my inspiration here.

I tried to keep the tablescape relatively un-fussy. Some pumpkins and gourds for centerpieces, plus my turkey candlesticks I thrifted from Goodwill, paired with fresh-pressed linens. My $30 collection of antique china, vintage silver, and wine glasses topped of the look.

The menu wasn't too complicated, either (and almost all ingredients came from within 150 miles of our table). Here's what I made:

Maple and Cider-Glazed Turkey

Mashed Potatoes

Apple, Onion and Sage Stuffing

Pan Gravy

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Grapes

Roasted Carrots

Cranberry Sauce

Biscuits

Herb Compound Butter

Pumpkin Pie

Chocolate Cream Pie (made by my mom)

Vanilla Whipped Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

Rub some herb butter under the turkey skin and roast it breast-down for maximum juiciness

Brussels Sprouts - Best part of the meal

The feast came together pretty well! Except that my oven went on palliative care mid-point in cooking the turkey, so I had to microwave the poor bird. Based on how moist and tender the gobbler actually turned out, I might nuke the turkey every year! Thankfully, that was the only hiccup of the day (unless you count my temper-tantrum in the kitchen when I noticed the turkey was uncooked and the fact that the dog almost ate half the meal off the table before we sat down). We paired the meal with a lovely Sparkling Riesling. A few more pictures to illustrate:

Based on this face, the meal was either really good or completely awful

Edith playing with her food...

...and Grammie threatening her.

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving feast, too, and that you have counted all your blessings many times over. This year, I'm especially thankful for my independence and will to always strive to be better and achieve great things. I think that theme will continue into 2012 (and of course, I'm always thankful for my family, friends, and lovely readers like you! Thanks for reading along :-). I posted some ideas for a secular grace over on the Eat Local blog, if you'd like to take a look. If you have questions or requests for recipes, please leave a note in the comments or find me on Twitter or Facebook. Now... bring on December!

A Silly Goose Farm Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone! Are you all turkeyed-out yet? I certainly am, but I still think I might be able to pack away a little turkey soup, turkey pot pie, and turkey a la king, if necessary. We had a very lovely day here at Silly Goose Farm, and I thought I'd share a few snippets with you.

I try to wake up around 5:30a every morning, just because I like the quiet and peace that this part of the day allows me. And nowadays, it's still rather dark outside at that point. Lucky for me, I was treated to the most spectacular sunrise Thanksgiving morning, something I am most grateful for.

I love the contrast of the black trees against the orange and purple sky.

My parents, grandmother (GG), and the family dog (Baron) made the two-hour trek East to the farm, and we were so happy they did. It was great to have my little family together, even if for a small window of time.

Miss Edith enjoying her food... or at least playing with it. 

My mother and GG - see that lovely milk glass compote dish? This lovely gal gave it to me.

My father and GG

Edie caught mid-smile, or mid-"crazy face," can't tell which

Our menu was simple - just the basics. Let me start off my saying that letting my father watch Food Network is almost never a great idea. He gets a little ambitious (that is to say, he thinks my mother or I should make some ready-for-TV meal, and is very pointed in what he wants). We love him very much anyway. I think as long as I keep him fed, he turns up useful in other ways (fixing stuff, mainly). Anyway... back to the menu. We enjoyed a lovely turkey and roasted chestnut sausage dressing, as prepped by my mother per Dad's request, roasted Blue Hubbard squash, made by GG, gravy (also made my GG, also found via Food Network - it must run in the family), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls (mom's recipe), cranberry bread, some wicked good wine, and pie. Lots of pie.

Pumpkin Pie (I burnt the crust a little, whoops!)

Chocolate Cream (Mom made this - just as Dad likes it)

Apple Pie

Another shot of the apple pie.

All the apples for the pies came right here from our little orchard. I think that's very cool, and I'm very proud of that. One of these little beauties wasn't consumed, and made it's way to a friend, which I heard he enjoyed with a glass (or two) of McCarthy's Whiskey. My kind of man. Typically, I enjoy mine with a lovely steaming cup of french press coffee and a slice of cheddar cheese, but whiskey sounds wonderful. I think the cheese thing is a Pennsylvania Dutch/Central New York/Finger Lakes tradition, which is where I grew up. No one in the Albany area seems to have heard of this.

I kept the decor pretty simple (plans were sort of last-minute, so I just made due with what was around). Some flowers in a pressed-glass vase and pumkins and gourds from the garden seemed to do the trick.

We had to burn off all the holiday calories somehow. This was Edie's preferred method.

All in all, it was a great day. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, as well! Looking forward to sharing some holiday-inspired ideas, gift guides, and one special little girl's second birthday with you all soon.

V-formation (The Geese Travel): Geneva, NY

So, you might be thinking that this is a travel/food only blog. It's not intended to be. However, that wouldn't be such a bad life, would it? Just baking all day, gallivanting around the world and whatnot?

For the long weekend, Dave and I decided we needed a break - from work, from volunteer and charitable obligations, from house projects,  and (I feel so guilty saying it) from kids! I grew up near the Finger Lakes region of New York State, and it feels like Dave and I have been talking about doing a wine tasting trip for ages. On Friday we packed out bags and off we went. We made a quick pit-stop at my parents' house to drop of the kids (both the two-legged and four-legged varieties), kissed them goodbye, and were well on our way for three days or R&R.

via 

We decided to stay at Geneva on the Lake. I had heard many good things about the inn, and one of my very dearest friends worked there during college. Nestled on the northern tip of Seneca Lake, it was the perfect setting for a romantic get-away. A wine and cheese tasting was held at the inn that evening, but (as usual with kids) we got a later start than anticipated and missed it. After checking in we were shown to our suite (a Landmark Suite).

The living room of our suite

The nice thing about Geneva on the Lake is that all rooms are suites, and are decorated with Stickley furniture (the people who now own the inn also own said furniture company - how convenient). Our bed was already turned down, and a bottle of Cayuga White wine and chocolate-covered strawberries were awaiting us. I realize this is totally cheesy, but i don't think a little "cheese" ever hurt a marriage.

After freshening up and putting on "nice" clothes, we made our way down to the Dining Room for a lovely four-course dinner. Wowie. The food was out of this world, as was the dining room.

The ceiling of the dining room

We booked a package that included our dinners and breakfasts, and it was well worth it. (Author's note: please excuse the vivid details of the food you'll be witness to... I love to eat) When we sat down, we were presented with a beautiful bread basket and three types of butter. A small crudites platter with a Dip du Jour was also placed on our table (roasted red pepper that evening). I ordered a glass of Riesling (my favorite wine), Dave stuck to water. For the first course, I had the jumbo shrimp cocktail and Dave had the cream of mushroom soup. Second courses consisted of a black tea-smoked duck breast on micro greens with a champagne vinaigrette (me) and a baby spinach salad with cremini mushrooms and baked goat cheese in phyllo-dough shells with mustard vinaigrette (Dave). We were served an intermezzo of champagne-soaked melon balls with a relatively generous helping of caviar. I had a bourbon-glazed pork chop with mashed potatoes and fall harvest stuffing for my main course, while Dave opted for the Raspberry-reduction filet mignon. Both we delicious. We could barely finish them, so we had them wrapped for a "midnight snack" in our room. We also took dessert to our room. Dave chose the caramel-pumpkin cheesecake while I enjoyed a genoise with fresh berries and a vanilla sabayon. Before heading up to our room, we walked around the property and enjoyed watching the twinkly stars in the black sky. We made coffee in our suite to accompany the dessert (we dove into those strawberries, as well), and enjoyed them in our bathrobes. I think my dress was about to pop anyway. We called it an early night, as we knew there was a long day of boozing it up awaiting us in the morning.

On Saturday, I woke up bright and early, as I had a fabulous in-suite massage awaiting me. I tried to convince Dave that we should have a couple's massage, but he insisted he'd rather get a little more sleep than have his kinks worked out (no, not those kind of kinks you dirty people... sheesh!). So, I had a massage and Dave slept in. We had a delicious breakfast in the dining room (some of the best pancakes I've ever had!), and worked off some calories with a mean game of Bocce on the lawn (Dave won... that is to say, I let him win :-).

We took off for our first tasting stop, Three Brothers. This winery is a bit unusual, as it has a brewery and three wineries all in one location. Whenever given the option of beer or wine, 9.5 times out of 10, I choose beer. So I bellied my way up to the beer tasting bar. I'll admit it was quite the scene - me in a dark pink sweater amongst a sea of manly plaid. I tasted the Riesling Ale (the best of wine and beer in one glass), American Black Lager (tasted like chocolate and coffee), and the East Coast Amber. I was impressed with all three, but decided to go buy a growler of the Ale, Lager, and one of Root Beer.

Rows of wine grapes at Three Brothers

We decided to venture to Cayuga Lake and visit an old favorite, Swedish Hill. Dave and I have been here before (Dave did a tasting, I was preggers with Eric, so I only sampled the grape juice), so we knew what we liked. Being that Columbus Day Weekend is the busiest weekend for tastings, we decided to forgo the sampling and just grab two bottles of Doobie Blues. We already have two bottles of this vintage at home, so this purchase was a thank-you gift for my dad. We also grabbed some artisan cheddar cheese to snack on. While at Swedish Hill, we of course had to pay a visit to Doobie himself!

Doobie shows us his teeth

Then looks at his shadow

Just in case you drink too much and can't remember where you're going... Next stop: Montezuma!

Montezuma was the next on our list. I was impressed with how generous the tasting was and the knowledge of the staff. Montezuma is known for the variety of fruit wines it produces. It also makes Honey Vodka (with great packaging!). We tried the Cranberry Bog, Pear Perfection, Sparkling Mead, Riesling, Diamond, Lake Effect Blush and Blue Moon. I really liked them all, except the Sparkling Mead. We took home four bottles of the Cranberry Bog (two were for mom, it's one of her favorites), and a bottle each of the Riesling, Diamond, Lake Effect Blush and Pear Perfection.

View of Seneca Lake from Fox Run Vineyards

We were hungry for lunch at this point, and had free tasting passes to Fox Run. How convenient, then, that Fox Run has a great cafe! After a long wait, we finally sat down to enjoy a Smoked Turkey, Brie and Raspberry Aioli on Ciabatta. Tasting was next. We tried two vintages of Rieslings (2007 and 2008), Drink New York Riesling, Artic Fox, Cabernet Franc, Ruby Vixen and the Ruby Port. I wasn't very impressed, although, I did like the Cabernet Franc, and I don't usually like Reds. I also liked the Ruby Port. It coated my throat, and I bet it works great as a cough syrup substitute. Needless to say, with the lackluster tasting, we didn't bring anything home with us.

Love this poster (at Fox Run)

Considering my last name is Fox, I had to get this picture

Our inn was right down the road from Fox Run, so we snuck bag to brush our teeth and freshen up. Because we had booked our reservation late, we had to switch rooms in order to stay for two nights. We didn't mind, especially because we were given the Library Suite, which was amazingly historic (it was the Library when the inn was a private home). We were happy to find another chilled bottle of wine in our fridge :-)

The living room of our Library Suite

Because of the inconvenience of having to move rooms, the inn gave us complimentary tickets to the local movie house. We saw "The Social Network." I've heard mixed reviews, but in my opinion, it was a great movie and struck up interesting conversations between Dave and I. We went back to the inn to get ready for dinner. Another fantastic meal. I had the shrimp again, a green salad with horseradish dressing, and roasted duck breast (duck is my favorite food, btw!). Dave had a roasted cauliflower soup, the black tea-smoked duck breast on micro greens, and pork chops. We shared a Riesling-steeped apple for our intermezzo, as well as Bananas Foster for dessert. We took another stroll after dinner, and retired to our room to cozy up next to the fire.

Our fireplace for the evening

In the morning, we enjoyed the breakfast buffet in the dining room (some of my favorites were the ham with horseradish sauce, baked brie and lox). We challenged each other to another round of Bocce - Dave thought we should make things interesting and add "shot put" as an option.

We walked down to the lake and examined all the interesting statues. Dave commented it was kind of like Mr. Potato Head - just pick and choose body pieces (I love him so much, if only for how much he makes me laugh).

Pick a head...

...Then a body

The water was so blue and a stark contrast to the white sails of the small boats.

We bid adieu to Geneva on the Lake and checked out. We took a walk through downtown Geneva and the campus of Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges.

Downtown Geneva

Random photo next to a giant deer

We headed South between Seneca and Cayuga lakes to Ithaca. We stopped at the Carriage House Cafe for lunch (Dave had an Americano and a breakfast sandwich, I had a root beer and juicy cheeseburger).

The Carriage House Cafe

We ventured to Ithaca Commons in search of something sweet (that manifested at College Town Bagels in the form of ice cream). It was only a brief 1 hour drive to my parents house from Ithaca. We were excited to see the kids, who simply looked at us like "who are you?" Glad to know they missed us as much as we missed them. We spent the night at my folks' place and came back to Silly Goose Farm on Monday.

As you've probably realized by now, brevity isn't my strong point. But, only a few people actually read this blog (thanks!!) and those who do know that fact about me already. Either way, thanks for lasting through this long travel post. I'm so glad you stuck around til the end.

Now, back to regularly-scheduled programming of baking and farming and stuff.