Milestones

On October 31st, 2009 the doors to C'est Cheese Please! opened for the first time and the adventure began.  I would like to thank all my loyal customers for their support and of course my family and friends who have been there when I needed a few positive words of encouragement.  I would also like to thank my daughter who has written a beautiful piece for my blog which I will share with you now.

With the change of the season it seems like the right time to sit down and reflect on what has happened in the past and what is currently happening as of this moment. It becomes a time, in my life in particular, when I start to think of where my life is heading over the next little while, what I want to accomplish and how to get there. However, at this moment, I don’t find myself thinking so much about only me, but instead my mother. The end of October will mark her three year anniversary as the owner and creator of C’est Cheese Please! Three years she has been passionately running her store in Galt, Cambridge and from what I can see has never looked back. This is where my mind has been over the last little while. It inspires me to think that she took such a leap of faith and did what her heart told her to do. Yes, she works hard, yes she is there day after day ensuring that her business succeeds, but when you do something you love, does it not just become a labour of love?

            Over the past three years I have been privileged to witness her hard at work, interacting with the customers, sharing her wealth of cheese knowledge, and daring those who are willing to try, incredible cheeses that one would not find in the grocery store aisle. She has built her business on something that is hard to compete with, knowledge. She truly walks the talk, sharing stories about where the cheeses originate, why they were named the way they were, health benefits, pairings, and so much more. She never rushes a customer, only taking the time to educate them on their choices, offering something new and different to try, and making sure they walk out the door satisfied and excited about their experience at her store.

            I know this may seem like some sort of sales pitch for C’est Cheese Please! But in fact, it is a sort of ode to the store, and my mother. There is something so incredible about this store, I get that feeling inside me that makes me so proud to be her daughter. I can only hope that one day I find a passion as strong as hers and have the strength to go after it, make it my own.

            Lastly, I want to congratulate her on her three year anniversary of C’est CheesePlease! It has been a lot of work, but I know that this is what she was meant to do.

 

Big news is coming in a few days!

 

Bon Appétit!

Smokin'

I love smoked cheese and I have lots of selection here at C'est Cheese Please!  Of course there are the usual suspects - Applewood Smoked Cheddar from England and also Applewood Smoked Cheddar from Scotland but I also carry some fabulous cheese that I have custom smoked for C'est Cheese Please!  These include Gouda and Spiced Gouda, Ontario cheddar and the Red Hot Chili Pepper Cheddar as well as a low fat Mozzerella.  One of my person favs is the Smoked Spiced Gouda.  The gouda is spiced with cumin and that combined with the smokiness is in one word, yummy!  I really enjoy this melted on the fresh asparagus that is just hitting the local markets now.  I add some slices of toasted Asiago Pepper Bread ($4.99 a loaf) that I stock in the freezer along with my favorite red wine, Ripasso as my "Spring Has Sprung!" treat.

Try the smoked Red Hot Chili Pepper Cheddar melted on your nachos and the C'est Cheese Please Custom Smoked Cheddar is amazing on a bowl of chili.
I also stock a smoked blue cheese, Blue Haze.  This is a Québec blue cheese from the Abbaye Saint-Benoit-du-Lac (this is a link to a previous blog that I did on the cheeses made by the monks of the Abbaye) which is then smoked in Ontario using a blend of Ontario hardwood chips.  Burnt carmel notes on the outside contrasting with the creamy, piquant interior - great on your next hamburger or steak!

For something a little different, here is my recipe for Cheddar Biscuits - you could easily substitute the cheddar for Applewood Smoked Cheddar or the Smoked Red Hot Chili Pepper Cheddar.

Cheddar Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening (cold)

3/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

1 egg

2/3 cup of milk

In large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in the cheese.  In small bowl, beat together the egg and milk.  Add to the flour mixture mixing lightly until the mixture just comes together into a soft ball.  Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead gently 20 times.  Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 an inch.  Cut with a floured round cutter approximately 2 inches in diameter.  Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven 8-10 minutes.  Will make approximately 2 1/2 dozen.

Bon Appétit!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Well, I have a treat today!  My daughter, Ainsley has asked to do a guest blog and I am so pleased to introduce her to you.  So without further adieu, take it away Ainsley!

After another beautiful weekend in the city, biking, picnics, friends, wine and of course a fair share of cheese, I am sad to see it go, although it is already Monday evening.  I am lucky to have a mother that owns such a beautiful little cheese shop, and lucky that I live relatively close that I am able to get down often to visit. I was down in Galt at C’est Cheese Please! a few weekends ago and walked away with some lovely Mozzarella and some fresh Parmesan. However, since being down that way I haven’t found a moment to use it. Thus, until tonight, while slowly slipping back into the memories from the weekend. I was determined to take a moment for myself tonight, an action that is rare, as with most others I can only imagine. I had decided while feverishly working away today that I would come home, relax, read, cook and go for a long walk, and I am happy to say that is exactly what I did, mission complete. So back to what I cooked, I have been craving pizza ever since stumbling upon a small pizza place in the East side of Toronto, and even though I cannot cook pizza exactly like that place (no stone oven in this small apartment) I can sure try. I picked up a thin crust (yes store bought unfortunately, I mean it is a Monday evening…) some lovely pesto sauce, some crème fraiche, and some wild mushrooms. I mixed together the pesto and crème fraiche to create a lovely creamy pesto to use as the sauce then sprinkled the mushrooms on after I first sautéed them in some sesame oil (also from C’est Cheese Please), and finally being very forgiving in the layers of the fresh mozzarella and parmesan. Such a simple dish yet I feel like I have achieved so much. A lovely evening at home with me, myself and I, and well The Bachelorette of course.

 

            Sometimes taking a night for yourself, evening though the city is still running around me outside, gives me a sense of calmness and content.

Eat Well.

Et Bon Appétit!



Does Anyone Know How To Pronounce This??

Happy New Year!  I will make a few predictions:  The sun will rise despite economic difficulties.  The grass will grow regardless of global warming.  And cows, goats and sheep will produce milk that will be made into a plethora of cheeses many of which will find their way into "C'est Cheese Please!" this year.

Take this one for example, Millefoglie a la Marzamino, or like I say "Drunken Cow".  This beautiful raw cow's milk cheese comes from the alpine area north of Venice, Italy from the Latteria Perenzin who have been cheese makers for 4 generations.  Millefoglie is the Italian word for the French pastry, Mille-feuille which in English means "a thousand sheets".  During production, this cheese goes through a special treatment designed to produce a paste that has flaky stratification's.  The cheese is allowed to age for 6 months.  After the first aging, the cheese maker then inserts long needles into the cheese (this is called "needling" and is commonly done to blue cheese prior to the introduction of "penicillium roqueforti", the culture which then creates the traditional blue veining). The cheese goes through a second aging, this time in a regional red wine, Marzamino di Refrontolo for 10 days.  The stratification process allows the wine to be infused between the layers of cheese.

This cheese is not just another pretty face, it is fabulous with a piquant flavour melded with the sweetness of the wine.  It is sure to be a hit on your cheeseboard and excellent with an Italian red!

Millefoglie al Marzamino (Drunken Cow) is in stock at C'est Cheese Please! 

Buon Appetito!