A beautiful (but easy) ramp up to dinner, that was what I was trying to create.
My dear friend, Kerry, was our house guest for the better part of a week and two of the nights we had planned to cook at home. I imagined us puttering around the kitchen chopping vegetables and prepping dinner and I wanted to have an easy-breezy something we could snack on.
I decided to choose one cheese that I know I like (a Spanish Manchego that is nutty and mild) and another cheese that I had never tried, but was intrigued by. I saw this British cheese called "Wensleydale with Blueberries" and I loved that the blueberries were incorporated into the cheese and thought it would compliment the Merlot. This Wensleydale with Blueberries (by Ford Farm in Dorset, England) is dry, crumbly and sharp tasting. I really enjoyed the taste of blueberry and know that I will break up the balance of this block into a salad with dried cherries and a tart vinaigrette. Yum!
I placed a really cute "wine & cheese platter" cheese button into huge block of Manchego (to steady it while slicing), pulled out some crisp wheat crackers, filled a miniature trifle dish of olives and we were ready!
Having company is so much more relaxed when everyone is participating. Kerry made the salad and set the table, I worked on the sauce and vegetables and we nibbled on our little cheese platter all the while. Success!
You know what I love about modern life right now? Scanning. And then Printing. And then Crafting.
I love that I can take vintage items, scan them and then print them a million different ways without hurting the original. This process preserves the value and charm of the antique, but allows me to use the image over and over again.
At Christmastime, I was trying to think of a unique way to package some of my handmade necklaces as gifts. I decided that if I decorated a small round black tin, it could serve as both the "gift wrap" and "jewelry box" for the necklace later.
I scanned this antique French cheese label that I bought in Paris at the flea market and then printed the image onto clear sticker project sheets. All I had to do was cut out the round cheese label "sticker" and adhere it to the top of the tin. (I did add a touch of copper glitter to the dirt road to add some depth, but it was a piece of cake.)
I decorated three tins this way and they turned out beautifully - the tin was a gift in itself! And I still have the original cheese label and the cheese label image stored on my computer. It is a win-win scenario, over and over again.
Have you ever scanned something precious and then felt free to experiment with the printed copies?
Have you ever tried raclette? It is a delicious and mild semi-firm cheese that originated in Switzerland.
The Leelanau Cheese Company, located at Black Star Farms, won the American Cheese Society "2007 Best in Show" for their Aged Raclette. What an accomplishment!
Raclette is from the French word "to scrape." I was at a northern Michigan food & wine event and saw the prized cheese-maker herself cranking a Girolle Cheese Cutter around the wheel of raclette. She was serving individual blossom-like tastings with crackers and a glass of wine. Can cheese be gorgeous?
