Copycat Cheese

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery?

In order to further my wine studies, my boyfriend and I made a pact to go to the wine bar at the Ritz every Saturday (see last Saturday). We went once and 200 bones later decided that our goal may have been a bit ambitious. Um, whoops. So much for every Saturday. Darn you Ritz with your expensive, classy cheese plate and your fancy wines!

Long story short, as an effort to be more frugal, this week I tried to recreate the cheese plate of my dreams at home.

I mean, there was no organic pickled sweet potato jam and it wasn't served on a three-tiered platter, but it wasn't half bad. I am not a cheese expert (I've decided to get into cheese after I conquer wine, so talk to me in 25 years), but I can offer you one tip: cheese tastes a million times better if you serve it at room temperature. Pull it out a bit before serving your cheese plate. You won't be sorry.

From the bottom, we had wild boar sausage, raspberry jam (my aunt made it!), fig, basil, and balsamic compote (I brought this little jar back from France), and olive tapenade. The cheeses were pecorino sardo, point ryes blue, and Carolina Moon Cheese from Chapel Hill Creamery. We also had some olives and cornichons, as well as baguette and sesame crackers.

Ok, enough cheese on here! I've been so busy at the restaurant that I haven't been doing much baking at home. I tried to make banana muffins and they looked like yellow hockey pucks with chocolate chips in them. I'll spare you a picture. I ate them anyway and realized that they were banana cakes and not banana muffins because when I was mixing ingredients I put the sugar in twice. A delicious, but hardly nutritious, breakfast. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm more adjusted to my new schedule at the restaurant (which is not bad -- I work from 8 until 4 or 5 pm) so with any luck, I will no longer be preparing muffins, meals, etc in a zombie like state.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!