Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘goat cheese’

Fancy Toast

Posted by terrepruitt on November 26, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaI am beginning to bet you don’t believe me when I say I was not going to post a recipe and I do. I WAS going to post a picture of the first toast I made on my Facebook page, but then when I sat down and started eating it I changed my mind. Then my hubby made yummy noises the entire time he was eating it and it confirmed my “need” to post it on my blog and tell the whole story. In my last post I talked about my fabulous day in Santa Cruz after teaching a Nia class. I mentioned two restaurants. The one we love, Rebecca’s, is closed. I was very sad because it has really yummy food and is a very nice place to eat. But, I also recognized this as an opportunity to try a new place. Having other things to do I didn’t do any research, but my student did. Yay! She suggested River Cafe. It was on the way to where we were going. So we went there. They have a menu item called “The Daily Toast”. When we were there it was supposed to be Humboldt Fog*, Pears, walnuts, and the woman behind the counter said they would drizzle honey over it. Sounds good, huh?

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaI ordered that. A few moments later a woman came to our table and said she could not find the pears, but she said she had persimmons or jams. She suggested the jam, but I declined and requested the persimmons. I had some on my counter I didn’t know what to do with. I thought this would be a great way to experiment. Well, even though the persimmons weren’t ripe, they forgot the walnuts and the honey (as you can see in the first photo), it was still VERY good. So good that I wanted to try making it the next day.

We didn’t have any salty cheese so I decided not to. But then the NEXT day I decided who cares. I wanted to try it anyway. I asked my hubby if he wanted cheese toast. He said yes. Then I asked if he wanted regular cheese toast or an experiment. I have mentioned before he is pretty good about eating whatever, but he does have some food “dislikes” so when my experiment includes some of them I like to ask first.

Anyway, this turned out very yummy. It is easy to make but comes out – in my opinion – kinda fancy. I have noted the recipe as I made it, but, I think the idea of the River Cafe is better in regards to the cheese. A nice soft salty, flavorful cheese seems best, but I used what I had.

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Fancy Toast

2 pieces sliced sour dough
2 pieces wheat bread
slices of marbles Colby Jack (enough to cover all four pieces of bread)
one ripe persimmon
2 tsp of shredded parmesan cheese
a handful or two of chopped walnuts
honey (enough to drizzle over the toast)

Toast the bread, not all the way (at least with my toaster oven.  I have to leave it a little “undone” so it will be perfect after the cheese melts). Top the bread with the sliced cheese. Melt the cheese on the toast. While the bread is toasting and the cheese is melting peel and slice the persimmon. After the cheese has melted, place the persimmons on the toast, sprinkle the parmesan over the persimmons. Allow to warm a bit in the toaster oven/oven. Then sprinkle the walnuts on the toast. and drizzle the honey over the top.

Serve with a fork and knife!

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaI was thinking that this would be an easy type of toast to serve for brunch. Toasting the bread in the oven on a cookie sheet. I also thought it would be a nice toast to serve at a tea. Yum. I used the parmesan as the “salty” and it turned out pretty good. I was surprised my husband liked it so much. He is not fond of bread, especially toast. Not like me. He also doesn’t care for walnuts. So it is a testament to its yumminess that he loved it.

I loved it so much I had it again the next day!  (I forgot the parmesan.)

Well?  What do you think?  Sound yummy?

*Humboldt Fog is a specific type of cheese:  Cheesemaker Mary Keehn of Humboldt County, CA invented this cheese, so named for the Pacific mists, in the early 80’s.  (According to Wiki).

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

Dirt Is A Flavor

Posted by terrepruitt on September 20, 2012

You might have read in my blog I am having an organic box of produce delivered to us.  I love it.  It is so nice to have produce and not have to go to the store.  It is nice to have organic produce.  So far I really like this.  You might also know that part of the reason I decided to have a box of fruits and vegetables delivered is because I was hoping I would be “forced” to use produce that I normally wouldn’t buy.  The last box I received had figs in it.  Turns out I am ok with figs.  I so enjoyed the salad with figs I had made, I tried to order the next box that had figs but I waited too long.  I only have delivery every other week.  Farm Fresh To You posts what will be delivered in a week the week before so I had known for a whole week, but I waited until the day before to decide that I actually wanted an additional delivery.  It was not enough time for them to do it.  So I missed out on another delivery of figs.  But . . . in addition to the figs you might have noticed in the picture I posted on the first fig post that I had beets delivered.  Now, I KNOW I don’t like beets.  I have tried them, and I don’t like them.  They taste like dirt.  For those of you that don’t know what dirt tastes like, eat a beet and then you will know.  So here I was with dirt to deal with.  I was wondering, “WHAT DO I DO WITH A BEET?”

In the same conversations I had with people about figs I had asked about beets.  One person said to boil them, peel them (the skin will come right off), and then put them in a salad.  I think she said she cooks them then uses them as she needs them (within a reasonable amount of time.  A couple of days or so.).  Another person said she didn’t like beets, so she had no suggestions.  Again, I was faced with a salad.  That was the only thing I found that sounded remotely appealing.  I was thinking I would boil the beets and then put them on a salad with goat cheese.  Goat cheese seemed to be what I was finding as the cheese of choice with beets.

But you might have read that I was thinking about making a salad with figs.  The recipes I was finding for figs in salads called for feta.  But for me, I was thinking that the goat cheese would go better with the figs as it is creamy and mild — almost flavorless.  And the feta — which to me is firm and much more flavorful — would go better with the beets.  I was thinking the beets needed a strong flavor to help drown out the “dirt” taste.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaOne recipe I spotted said to roast the beets.  Well, heck, why didn’t I think of that?  Perhaps you know roasting is my prefered method!  Geez, can’t understand why I didn’t think of that.  Especially since I mentioned roasting beets in Borscht is Beets!  Well, just as I did with the figs I didn’t read the recipes because I thought I could figure it out.  I skimmed them and I saw some say, roast on a pan without foil and some say use foil.  One recipe said the skin will come right off.  Well, it didn’t so much for me, but it turned out ok.

I roasted them until they felt somewhat soft.  I think it was at least 50 minutes, but I am not sure because I just kept resetting the timer and would run off to do whatever it was I was doing.

I had roasted the beets with olive oil and salt and a little garlic salt and I have to admit that even though while I was cutting them they smelled like dirt, they didn’t taste overwhelmingly like dirt.

Salad with beets:

mixed greens
pecans
beets (roasted with olive oil, salt, garlic salt — 375 degrees F for about 50 minutes)
feta cheese
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

Yay!  Another produce item that I had not eaten before and I NEVER would have bought at a store or farmer’s market.

How about you?  Do you like beets?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Fresh Fig Nutrition, Greens, And Cheese

Posted by terrepruitt on September 18, 2012

Figs are considered a fruit. Most fruit has a lot of sugar.  As I had explained in my Fresh Figs So Unlike Fig Newtons posts, most of the recipes I found for figs were dessert recipes that actually had additional sugar in the recipe.  I didn’t want to make a dessert, so I ended up making a salad.  It was very good.  But as usual after having eaten something I don’t know much about I get curious as to what type of nutrition it has.  Sometimes I actually am curious BEFORE eating it and I take the time to look it up, but this time it was after the fact.

Figs are a good source of potassium and fiber.

According to Calorie Count Two large figs (2-1/2″ diameter) contain about 100 calories and roughly the following:

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaTotal Fat – 0.4g

Cholesterol – 0mg

Sodium – 2mg

Total Carbohydrates – 24.6g

Dietary Fiber – 3g

Protein – 1g

According to an article in 1999 by Dr. Sheldon Margen and Dale A. Ogar:

Figs “have the highest fiber and mineral content of all common fruits, nuts or vegetables. They also have as much as 1,000 times more calcium than other common fruits and by weight they actually have more calcium than skim milk.

Figs are 80% higher in potassium than bananas, and are extremely easy to digest. They also have more iron than any other of the common fruits and are extremely high in magnesium. All of this for about 20 to 40 calories per fig.”

I had an idea I would make a salad when I bought the crumbled goat cheese.  I know, not exciting, but it was really good!

When I went to make the salad I realized I didn’t know what to do with the figs.  My husband said he peeled them and ate the inside.  So I tried doing that, but when I peeled off the purple he said that I needed to peel off the white part too and only eat the inside.  So I tried that and as I was doing it I decided that it was ridiculous and could not be right.  Maybe opening them and eating the flesh works, but it does not work when trying to add them to a salad.  Then I remembered all the pictures I saw having purple (to me it is purple) on them.  So I Googled them again and figured out that they just need to be cut up the way they were and we could just eat the whole thing.  Unfortunately I waited too long to use them and we ended up only able to eat about half.  The other half had gotten moldy.

I just made a simple salad:

chopped up figs
lettuce
crumbled goat cheese
fig balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt
pepper (for my husband)

I wish I would have taken pictures.  It was nice.  Simple and yummy.  Just enough sweet, creamy, and savory.

I saw recipes that said to use feta but I thought the creaminess of the goat cheese would go better with the figs.

Did you know figs are often referred to as the “perfect” fruit?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Fruit | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fresh Figs So Unlike Fig Newtons

Posted by terrepruitt on September 15, 2012

As you may know I’ve been having an organic box of produce delivered every other week.  My hope was in addition to getting fresh, yummy produce I would receive some new things that I normally would not have come home with from the grocery store or farmers market.  Well, up until last week, I think I had received some pretty basic things.  Different varieties of fruits and veggies, but nothing too new, right?  I am asking because I don’t remember.  Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI am thinking I did receive something else I hadn’t had before, but I can’t remember what it was.  Oh, except those Shishito peppers that did end up being thrown away.  After I tasted one every time I just looked at the container I felt like I needed something to drink to get that bitter taste out of my mouth so I couldn’t bring myself to cook them.  In my last box I received a container of beautiful figs.  Mission figs.  I remember I tried some figs last November.  I remember it was November because we had gathered to watch V for Vendetta and one of the snacks was figs on goat cheese.  I don’t remember have eaten figs before because they just seemed icky to me.  I think I had only been presented with dried figs and I don’t like dried fruit.  I actually KNEW I didn’t like figs because of fig newtons.  Now, I know that a fig newton really isn’t a fig and I should have not based my liking of the fruit on such a thing, but I had.  So here I was with a container of figs.  I had no idea what to do with them.  What do you do with a fig?

So I asked a few people.  Believe it or not their response was the same, “Just eat ’em.”  Um . . . no thanks.  My husband likes to just eat them and he ate one.  When I told him I didn’t know what to do with them he said to just give him the go-ahead and he would eat them.  He said they were good.

The bulk of the recipes I found online seemed to be tarts, pastries, desserts, and ooey-gooey things.  And salads.  Sigh.  I thought I would go to the store and get some goat cheese and try making that dish that I had eaten before, but when I went to the store I found crumbled goat cheese and not a “brick” for slicing.

I can’t remember exactly, but I believe the snack was a piece of fig on top of a slice of goat cheese, with honey drizzled on it.  Really rich, but very yummy.  Kind of desserty.

I was happy and excited I received something I hadn’t had before, but I was stumped as to what to do with it/them.  Even though I bragged about Farm Fresh To You having recipes on their site, I kept forgetting to look at it.

Do you like figs?  How do you eat them?  Do you know a savory dish that uses figs?

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