February 7: Fettuccine Alfredo Day

Today is Fettuccine Alfredo day!  Let's take this in parts, shall we?  Fettuccine is a type of noodle and alfredo refers to the sauce, that I already knew.  I tend to stay away from pastas that use alfredo sauce, since the white color of the sauce generally lets me know it has dairy in it.  So all I really knew was that alfredo sauce was white and probably had cheese in it. 

A little digging turned up some interesting tidbits about Fettuccine Alfredo.

Apparently, this is another food named after a real person.  The story goes that some Italian guy made Fettuccine Burro (fettuccine noodles with butter) for his pregnant wife who stuggled with morning sickness.  Except he increased the amount of butter a lot.  She loved it and after her pregnancy was over, they added it to the menu of their restaurant.  They called their Fettuccine Burro with extra butter Fettuccine Alfredo and it became a popular dish.

I don't know how Fettuccine Alfredo is served in Italy these days, but here in the US, Fettuccine Alfredo is made with lots of butter, cream, white cheese, and can have things likes peas, herbs, and even shrimp tossed in.  Over at Food Network, Emeril has a popular Fettuccine Alfredo recipe.  Kraft, the makers of that easily identifiable blue box mac-n-cheese, also has a popular Fettuccine Alfredo recipe.  And Betty Crocker even gives suggestions to reduce the fat in Fettuccine Alfredo.

Let's face it - all that butter, cream and cheese is not good for the waistline.  Still, after looking at various recipes online, I thought, "Hey, I'll make my own!"  So here's what I did:

• Cook the fettuccine noodles.  Really, just follow the directions on the packaging for this step.
• In the pot you cooked the noodles, over medium heat, melt 1/4 cup of butter.
• Add 1 cup heavy cream.  Stir constantly, reducing to low heat.
• Add 1 cup of shredded mixed parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
• Add about 1/3 cup of Tuscan Sunset blend from Penzey's Spices.
• When all the cheese has melted, turn off the stove and serve the pasta.

Notice I didn't say how much noodles to cook?  That's hard for me to judge - I just kind of went, "Meh, this is enough noodles."   I probably cooked about three servings of noodles, which wasn't enough for the amount of sauce I made.  You can see in the photo that there's a lot of sauce and not enough noodles.   Just check the pasta box for serving size and figure you'll make about six to eight servings.  In my mind, anything that has that much saturated fat should never be the main dish, so after I took photos, I only ate about a quarter of what you see pictured, stored the rest in the fridge, and scraped the dish with homemade bread to get all that cheesey, creamy sauce.

It was tasty and you can chalk one up on the success side of the kitchen scoreboard, but if I make it again, I think I'll add peas so it has a pop of color.

January 20: Cheese Lover's Day & Buttercrunch Day

Cheese Lover's Day

Cheese is tasty and super-versatile.  With cheese, you can make quesadillas for a quick snack, side-dish, or appetizer.  With cheese, you can make a sandwich where cheese is the star ingredient (Grilled Cheese Sandwich) or the finishe touch on a sandwich with other fixings.  Top your omelettes with cheese.  Bake a dish featuring cheese (lasagna, souffle, cheese pizza, etc.)  Pair it with wine.  Or just eat cheese alone. There's just so much you can do with cheese.

Well, I figure most cheese lovers already enjoy cheese in as many dishes as they can and try all the various cheeses at stores, so in honor of Cheese Lover's Day, I've put together a list of cheese factory tours that Cheese Lovers should visit.   (I'm a sucker for factory tours - even if I have no interest in the product being made!  I just like knowing how things are made!)  There are so many places you can go see cheese being made, either on a small scale or on a large scale.

• California: In Petaluma,  near SF, there's Marin French Cheese.  Also in Petaluma, there's Cowgirl Creamery. In Loleta, there's Loleta Cheese Factory.  Or in Hilmar, there's Hilmar Cheese Company.  On the way to Yosemite?  Check out Oakdale Cheese.  In Pescadero, there's Harley Farms Goat Dairy.  In Winchester, there's Winchester Cheese where they make gouda.  (Side note - my Dutch friends have rubbed off on me and now I pronounce gouda as "how-dah.")  You can find more California cheese makers to visit at the California Artisanal Cheese Guild's site.
• Familiar with the national brank Tillamook and in Oregon?  Check out the Tillamook tour.  While there, you could also check out the Blue Heron French Cheese Company.  Can't make it?  YouTube user JCVdude has a bunch of videos about the Tillamook tour.  For more cheese in Oregon, check out the Oregon Cheese Guild.

I'm actually going to stop with the factory tours now.  There are cheese  factories everywhere.  If I list for each state, this entry would be huge!  Just head on over to Google and search for a cheese making tour near you.

Other places for cheese lovers to go to:

•  Local farms and dairies (not just those with cheese factories.)  Many farmers love talking about what they do and will gladly tell you about their products and the animals that produce the products.
• Wineries.  Even if you're not a wine drinker, wineries are great places for cheese lovers.  They typically stock good cheeses that pair well with their wines.  Some places will have local cheeses on hand and give you contact info for your local farmer.
• Cheese restaurants.  TIME had an article in 2009 about restaurants for the cheese lover  Or how about a cheese bar?  Cheesetique, a cheese and wine bar in Virginia, even offers classes for cheese lovers.
• Grocery stores.  I know this seems like an odd suggestion, but grocery stores with a specialty cheese section, like Bristol Farms and Whole Foods, will usually let you try a cheese before you buy.  Some stores constantly  have new cheeses out for you to try.  I love buying cheese at Whole Foods because there's always a selection of "Under $4" cheeses.  Sometimes these are familiar cheeses, but most often they're cheeses I've never heard of and may not be willing to buy a whole lot of.  So I buy a small "Under $4"  chunk and avoid the risk of buying a huge chunk of cheese I may not like.

Quick easy way to celebrate Cheese Lover's Day?  Cheese toast!  My friend Carrie loves to have cheese toast for breakfast, while I like to have it as a snack or paired with a hot bowl of tomato soup.  I'm not sure how everyone else makes their cheese toast, but here's how I make mine: toast a slice of bread, sprinkle it with shredded cheese of choice, add herbs if I'm feeling like it (rosemary pairs really well with cheddar), and broil it in the oven just until the cheese is melted and lightly browned.  You have to keep a close eye on the bread when you broil it - you can quickly burn it.


Buttercrunch Day

Trying to figure out what "buttercrunch" is reminded me very much of trying to figure out what English Toffee is.  In all honesty, I'm still puzzled what buttercrunch is, as it seems like it's toffee with butter in it, which is what I thought English Toffee was.  I guess I'll have to find a candy book to figure out the difference.  In the meantime, Better Homes and Gardens has a Toffee Butter Crunch recipe that looks salivatingly good.  Apparently, Almond Rocas are buttercrunch toffees.  I've ate so many of those candies when I was younger that adults always warned me my teeth would fall out.

Of course, after telling me this, they'd eat a piece or two.

January 11: Milk Day and National Hot Toddy Day

Milk Day

I think everyone knows what milk is.  It's that white liquid that you pick up in the dairy section, in plastic gallon containers or in cardboard containers.  In some places,- Britain, I've been told, is a good example- the milk is made shelf-stable and sits in boxes in non-refridgerated shelves.  In class, we've worked with dry milk which was an entirely new experience for me.  You can have soy milk, almond milk, hemp milk...  Yeah, they aren't really milk since they technically didn't come from a mammal, but for people with lactose intolerance or for vegans, they're good alternatives.  And any of the shelf-stable stuff, whether it's the soy milk or the dry milk or the UHT, is good to have in your emergency kits.  (You do have an emergency kit, right?)

So, I figure most people are familiar with milk, so I thought I'd use today's post to talk about a milk many in the US may not be familiar with: camel milk.  Yep, you can get camel milk in the US.  Camels are great sources of milk in areas that are extremely dry with poor forage.  Many desert and nomad cultures place great importance on camels.

Until recently, it was illegal to sell camel milk in the US.  If you owned a camel, you could drink its milk, but you couldn't sell it.  Laws have changed and now, depending on the state, you can get camel's milk.   Some people claim it can cure various disorders, but I haven't read any of the papers and I'm not doing any of the research so I can't make a statement.  In the meantime, I'll keep remaining doubtful that any one food can cure anything.  Be part of a healthy diet?  Sure.  Cure something? Eh....

Still, that doesn't keep me from thinking camels are adorable and wanting to go to a camel dairy.  (Camels might smell, but their lips are so soft and they're adorably comical!)  So where are these mythical camel dairies in the US, you ask?  Well, I can only find one that you can visit: Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona, CA (near San Diego).  It's not producing camel milk for human consumption yet, but they do have tours on select days.  Supposedly there are other camel dairies around, but I can't seem to find any internet presence.  I can only speculate that the other "dairies" are small scale and not really "dairies" but are instead farms with one or two camels.


National Hot Toddy Day

The first time I heard of a "hot toddy" was when I was out in the desert, which gets extremely cold at night, and I asked for a hot tea, honey, and lemon.  When my order arrived, my friend asked if I wanted a hot toddy, explained what it was, and then added some whiskey from her flask.  (I'm still a little surprised at how many of my friends have multiple flasks and use them.)  Apparently, I now had a Southern-style Hot Toddy.

According to Wikipedia ("According to Wikipedia."  I wonder how many times a day that get's said.  That should be a book title.  But I digress!) a hot toddy is any hot drink with alcohol.  That's it?  Psh!  Then I've had plenty of hot toddies!  Another friend holds a huge Christmas party every year and serves delicious mulled cider.  And Swedish glögg?   MMM!  (There's tasty Swedish glögg at the December Nights celebration every year - I highly recommend it!)

But my favorite "hot toddy" would be a drink I learned from a former roommate.  We just called it alcoholic hot chocolate.  I think Chocolate Hot Toddy sounds more distinguished, so I'm going to call it that from now on.  To make a Chocolate Hot Toddy, make your favorite hot chocolate and when you pour it into a mug, leave a little room.  Then add Godiva Chocolate Liqueur to taste.  For variation, try adding Godiva White Chocolate liqueur or some Bailey's.  If you want it minty, you could try a little creme de menthe.  Or a little stronger?  Try adding a little vanilla vodka.  That's the beauty of a Chocolate Hot Toddy - it's customizable.