La Fête du Fromage - La Tomme Céronnée

France's Savoie region is famous for its rugged snow-capped mountains, clear lakes and gorgeous green valleys. It is a mecca for skiers, campers and hikers.

Tomme Céronnée is also a mecca. For cheese mites.
If you look very closely you could see the little creatures frolicking amongst the hills and valleys that they have created while munching away on its rind.


Tomme Céronnée is produced in the mountains of the Savoie from unpasteurized cow's milk, then aged for 3 months. The cheese is supple, ivory colored and dotted with small holes, and the mites create a powdery, holey rind like Mimolette's.
The slightly salty, milky and hazelnut flavors combined beautifully with the meaty, chewy texture. It was a very enjoyable tasting!

So if the thought of tiny insects crawling around on your food doesn't bother you, and it shouldn't because you cut the hard rind off anyway, this cheese will definitely win you over.


Enjoy with a glass of red Côtes du Rhône or white from the Savoie region.


Since it is obvious that I can't get my you-know-what together and get any writing done on Tuesdays, la Fête du Fromage is officially moving to Wednesdays.

Tuesday is market day in Olonzac, it's the day that I get most of my errands run and we often have friends around Tuesday evening for dinner. Basically, I run out of time for cheese. Of course, one could argue that I could be more organized and have the post written before Tuesday, but I just don't see that happening.

So, Wednesdays it is!

An AWARD!!!

RD, aka as Little byrd vintage, or LittlebyRD, from Protland, has a delightful blog where she talks about things she loves (books, fashion, simple things), and features little things she does herslef and sells (Etsy), as well as some vintage items she finds here and there and sells.

My task here is to give the award to 7 blogs I enjoy. Oh, how extremely difficult!

I have decided to share the I love you blog Award between food blogs and style-fashion blogs, trying to keep it 'round the world.

1. Sarah and her mother run a delicious blog called A Spoonfull of sugar . Sarah lives in Australia, is 11 years old, and is an incredible talented little chef! I have posted one of her recipes in my website.

2. Marie-Louise's Cottage Industries, doing what you love, and you will love what she does. She lives in Connectticut, USA.

3. Laura and her Mas du diable , in France, who believes and advocates, like me, sustainable cooking.

4. Karina, El beso (kiss), what a great name! Karina lives in Argentina and shares her taste for fashion, decoration, and more.

5. Couture Carrie, who out of the East Coast, declares that fashion is her sustenance! I love to scroll down her pictures of fashion.

6. Rina who is a graphic designer and lives in Santiago de Chile. Her last post : Latin American Design is a great one.

7. Mary-Laure for her blog Aurea because I love my daughter's blog!

Now, to work!

Every spare penny

I don’t think I’ll ever get over morels. Even when I’m old, with wrinkles and a cane and clothes that smell like moth balls, I’ll still squeal with glee at the sight of them. They remind me of something I used to say about the Golden Gate Bridge, back when I was in college in the Bay Area. I loved that bridge. I remember telling someone that I could live out the rest of my earthly days without

Summer treats!

Right now all the open markets are tempting, it's summer and I think of all the fresh fruit I am going to long for in winter ... As I am not going to Lafitte this summer, the delicious place near Marmande in south west France, the place where every summer I make my jams for winter, I started spotting my local market for the right fruit at the right price.

I bought 3 lb of cherries. My mother was kind enough to remove the pits, a tedious task I must say. I weighed the fruit and put half the total weigh in sugar. I let the fruit macerate in sugar for a ocuple of hours, then boiled the mix fruit sugar and added .... a few kernels of Sichuan pepper! I will tell you the result ... next winter.

My other jam was apricot jam. I bought round, yellow orange, soft, small apricots. I cut them in two ... and threw away the pits without removing the almond inside ... I weighted the apricots and added half the weigh in sugar, as for the apricot almonds, I boiled a bunch of almonds, removed the skin, and added them in the apricot-sugar mixture. I also added a vanilla bean. I let the mixture boil about 15 minutes and put the very hot jam in glass jars that I have previously boiled.

Getting ready for winter!

Photo du Jour - Welcome Home

A giant display of French cheese greeted me warmly as I rounded the corner at the Olonzac market on Tuesday. It's good to be home.

Arugula Shrimp Salad: Recipe

You may have noticed that there haven't been very many new recipes around here lately. But it's not because I haven't been cooking. I've actually been cooking quite a bit. The recipes I've been working on have been for a wine retailer so I haven't shared the results here the way I usually do. Now that one of the recipes is up on the client's site, I thought I'd go ahead and reprint it here.

It's a fun challenge pairing recipes with wines. You can plan all you like, but ultimately you just have to taste your dish with the wine and see what develops. Sometimes one element can throw the whole thing off. Other times it just sings. When I learned I would be pairing a dish with a Pinot Gris I decided I would put together a seafood salad. I was very lucky that the dressing only took a couple of tries to get right.

Even though I created this recipe almost two months ago, the ingredients are perfect right now. In fact my organic produce box, delivered from the farm this week, featured two of the main ingredients, avocados and arugula. I also happen to have a couple of Meyer lemons on hand and maybe you do too? If you are looking for an elegant salad, I hope you will enjoy this one as much as I did.

Arugula and Endive Salad with Shrimp and Meyer Lemon Dressing

Serves 4

Meyer lemon vinaigrette:
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon honey
1 clove garlic. pressed through a garlic press
1/3 cup fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice
zest of one Meyer lemon
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Shrimp:
28 small shrimp (51-60/lb size) about 8 ounces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil

Salad:
2 1/2 ounces arugula (1/2 of a 5 ounce bag)
2 medium belgian endive, sliced crosswise into strips
1 avocado

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Make the vinaigrette by whisking together the salt, honey, garlic, lemon juice, lemon peel and olive oil.

Peel and de-vein shrimp. In a small bowl toss shrimp with salt, a couple grinds of pepper and olive oil. Place shrimp on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Bake for 4 or 5 minutes or until pink and cooked through.

Toss the salad with about a 1/4 cup of the vinaigrette. Divide salad greens onto four salad plates. Scoop out bits of avocado using a teaspoon and place with shrimp on top of the salad.

Enjoy!

FOOD

Over At Like to Cook

I'm not sure how often Chez Loulou readers go and read what I'm writing on Like to Cook, so I thought I'd let you know what's going on over there. (hey, it's my job, I have to promote it!)

Our most recent wine tasting adventures in the Minervois.

Camp Cassoulet was mentioned on Epicurious! Merci Amy Sherman!

Recipes for Duck Breast With Honey and Apples , Chive Bread and Smoked Salmon Chowder.

Some ideas for your Thanksgiving feast.