Something Tasty: A cheese pairing to try

Cheesy Birthday Snacks

My birthday was last weekend! For the first time in years I had a party on my actual birthday, and this year I was determined to have a bunch of tasty (and cheesy) snacks that I could prep in advance to spend more time with my friends during the party.

Most of my snacks came from Barefoot Contessa recipes, and two of my favorites are her blue cheese-stuffed prosciutto-wrapped dates and her fig and goat cheese toasts. All ingredients I adore, and all things that don’t need to be cooked-just assembled. Perfect.

There is great power and versatility in always having some form of blue cheese and some form of goat cheese always around.

The goat cheese I used was Shabby Shoe, which was the perfect balance of familiarity for people who normally only go for fresh goat logs, and a gooey creamline with texture from the rind that gave it some oomph.

The blue cheese I used was Point Reyes Original Blue. You can use any type of blue cheese you have depending on what you like, but I really enjoy that it’s on the milder and creamier side of blues, which makes it great for parties with lots of different palates.

It’s also still American Cheese Month so I had to honor some of the greats.

Something True: A truth about myself

Embracing Your Cringe

Here’s the truth.

What I’m finding as a fresh 32-year-old is I am starting to really embrace who I am and what I like, sometimes in the silliest ways.

Last year, the theme of my birthday was “Hobbit Disco”, and this year was “How Swampy is That?” which was another double theme mixing Barefoot Contessa with…Shrek.

Because honestly?…WHY THE HELL NOT?

My 20’s were all about trying to figure out life, and looking everywhere to try find myself. So far, my 30’s are all about looking at, and embracing all the different parts of me. Creating myself and who I want to be with intention instead of looking somewhere else. It’s all here.

The reason I created The Trust Your Taste Workshop is because in it are all the lessons about learning and owning who I am that I’ve needed the most…and it’s cheese tasting and journaling so if you’re gonna do some memory mining, why not do it with cheese?

There will be an announcement of the first VIRTUAL TYT Workshop next week so look out for that!

Helping people discover what makes cheese (and themselves) weird and cool is a constant reminder that what makes me unique is a superpower to share- not hide.

If you were to have a themed party with two things that are SO you (even if they’re insanely different), what would it be? The weirder the better.

Farm to Fable: How food shows up in storytelling 

Weedrats and Eating Alone in Shrek

So many food moments in Shrek that have stuck so viscerally with me, but two in particular: when Shrek is eating alone (maybe slugs and stuffed pumpkins?) with the earwax candles, and when Shrek cooks weed rats for Fiona. There are many more, especially in the other movies, but I’ll save them for other posts.

Until next time,

Anne-Marie

P.S. - Sunday Scaries

A terrifying AI image to help us all rest knowing AI bots could never replace a real human artist:

This week the prompt was “Shrek hosting a cheese party”

Yikes.

www.annemariepietersma.com