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INTRODUCTION

My Journey to Cheese

They say we are the sum total of our experiences. For most of us, that is quite a lot of stuff, some random, some planned. But if we are to “begin with the end in mind,” do we ever really end up where we thought we would? I know I didn’t. And for that I am truly glad.

When people ask me how I became a cheesemaker I jokingly say, “In the usual way.” I think I am being clever because there is no usual path to becoming a cheesemaker. I am pretty sure there isn’t a major one can declare for it, nor is it a vocational choice given to children, such as a fireman or nurse— at least not in the U.S. I didn’t grow up, for instance, telling my first-grade teacher that I was going to be a cheesemaker. Honestly, I didn’t even know something like that was a life choice when I was thirty, much less six.

The only thing I remember saying that I was going to be— and I felt a bit serious about this in high school, although entirely blind as to how I might accomplish it— was the first woman Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. I knew that it was a high aim, but I was always told that I could be anything in the world I wanted to be, and I believed it.

I studied English Literature in college not because I knew where it would lead but because I loved it. I was certain that if I got a good liberal arts education I could do anything I wanted. Anything. Cheesemaking still wasn’t on the list.

I ended up building a successful and fast-paced career in internet technologies that challenged and kept me busy, but when I thought about what really made me happy, what I was really passionate about, it was, without a doubt, food and cooking and the simple act of sharing it with friends. Chefs were my heroes— the golden kind like Alice Waters and Daniel Boulud— and I wanted, I thought, to be like them, dedicated to making simple things elegant and more delicious than one can imagine.

That passion for food led me, mid-career, to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). It was like being plugged in— how a new appliance must feel when it connects with power for the first time. Electric. I was surrounded by people whose sole purpose was to elevate and celebrate food, this source that keeps us alive, to an art form. I loved it!

So after what seemed like a professional attempt to deep dive into the food world, I still couldn’t articulate what I wanted to do with this knowledge. Nevertheless, my passion for food, its mysteries, and its power only intensified.

I can see now how my experiences have shaped who I am. I am an Alabama girl with a Greek heritage.

While I was enrolled at the CIA, I went into Manhattan to my all-time favorite food store— Dean & Deluca— and was happily taking in the incredible bounty and variety of surreally beautiful foodstuffs. I wandered the aisles touching and smelling and exploring honeys and cookies and cakes and produce. Then I stopped to linger over the marvelous cheeses from around the world. I picked up a goat cheese labeled Fromagerie Belle Chèvre, and on the label it proclaimed, “Made in Elkmont, Alabama.”

The End. That’s how I became a cheesemaker.

Okay, there is a little more in between that “chance” finding in Dean & Deluca and my becoming a cheesemaker, but that really was the moment— the time and place— where it all started.

After my stint at the CIA, I was lured back into my previous career, because even after culinary school and finding the cheese that was both renowned and made in my backyard, I still hadn’t put two and two together.

I lived like this for some years more, on and off planes each week— sometimes with nanny and child in tow— until I was finally ready to get off the merry-go-round. Then, despite knowing nothing about making cheese or the market into which it is sold and distributed, I called the founder of Belle Chèvre and said, “I just quit my job, and I’m coming home to make cheese.”

All it took was everything

My favorite T. S. Eliot poem, “Four Quartets,” which had no small part in luring me to where I am today, states in the most beautiful of ways that the exploration which seems like the end is really the beginning, “costing not less than everything.”

Everything included quitting a job and leaving an industry I knew, getting a divorce, learning a new trade, buying a business (with very little resources), and finding a new home.

I can see now how my experiences have shaped who I am. I am an Alabama girl with a Greek heritage. I am a daughter. I was a wife, and I am a mother. I was an executive, and now I am a cheesemaker. I am a cook. And I am fortunate to call myself friend to many wonderful people who have guided me along the way.

All of these roles have been combined like one of my recipes to create me. Appreciable yet very ordinary. The “me” that is my experiences-to-date had a notion to write a cookbook to share what I love about my life as a cheesemaker, my recipes from my Alabama and Greek heritage, and my joy for playing in the kitchen.

It seems presumptuous of me to write a cookbook, which is really none other than a how-to book, especially since it comes from a woman who never really likes to measure anything. My hubris in trying to teach you how to do something that I most often make up as I go, or rather, as I am inspired, seems overreaching. I rarely ever follow a recipe; I find that my experiences often send me in slightly divergent directions from other cooking authors. Spontaneity and improvisation drive me in the kitchen— all with a nod to classic technique.

I am okay with this.

Not only am I okay with it, I heartily encourage it. My hope is that if I introduce you to a new recipe that I really have given you not one but ten new ideas on how to create a particular dish. Feel free to take any soup recipe you find here and substitute the vegetable for one you like better, or for something you just happen to have in the fridge. Take the technique of braising or the concept of frittatas and play with them. Create something that suits your own taste.

My son has a game he plays in the kitchen, something he has been doing for years, which is making a “potion.” I put an extra-large mixing bowl in the sink and, as he stands on his stool to hover over it, he is allowed to put anything into that big bowl that he can find in the kitchen. Well, almost anything— I won’t let him open a bottle of champagne! I normally end up acting the role of surgical assistant as he cries for soy sauce with his palm out waiting for it to be handed to him.

It isn’t my hope for him to be a cheesemaker or a cook. My hope for him is that he will be creative and daring in all that he does. That would also be my hope for you with this cookbook, with these recipes serving only as a guide.

I have a tradition at my table. It is my personal take on saying the blessing or raising one’s glass with a few words at the beginning of a meal. It is inclusive and communal, as everyone at the table or standing in wait for a buffet brunch is required to participate. It is also a sign of respect to the cook and to the abundance we are so very fortunate to have. At my house, around my table, we say “Three Things.” Before the first fork is raised, everyone, whether it is only my son and I or thirty guests, goes in turn to say the three things he or she is thankful for.

Ever since my son could speak he has said his three things before eating. And always, to this day, it has been the same three things— “I am thankful for you, me, and the beautiful day.”

I cannot recall the exact moment, but I believe the tradition of Three Things started at a time when I was reexamining my routine behaviors. I was a new mother of a young son and wanted to be very conscious of how he would grow up at the table— how the ceremonies of partaking of a meal could and would shape his life.

I had been particular, if not downright zealous, about food traditions for a long time before I became a mother, however. In fact, my thoughts and interests orbited around food well before I was self-aware enough to realize that it was my “passion.”

Passion-driven pursuit

Calling my interest in food, and its tradition and culture, a passion is, I think, an adequate description. If passion is “a strong or extravagant fondness or desire,” then that is my bent toward food. I learned early that food meant love. I learned this from my grandmother (as a lot of us do, no doubt). I dotted my early life’s landscape with food-centric thoughts: cooking for my boyfriends’ families— winning not just the boy’s heart but the entire clan’s— reading food-centric books, and following chefs and food writers in the same way that some teenagers follow rock stars. Yet I never thought about food as a career choice. I just didn’t think that my “interest” could be coined as anything like a passion or a calling.

Now I am at home, both literally and figuratively, with my pursuit of food, with how it shapes my life and the lives around me, with the friends I have made, and how I have settled into this interest, this self-proclaimed passion. Beyond being comfortable with it, I hold sacred the power of food; how we share it shapes our world in ineffable ways. Through my journey I have become not only a mother concerned with her child’s food traditions— like saying the Three Things— but a producer of a food item that is served at tables across the country. What a responsibility! What a beautiful responsibility.

When I first became a cheesemaker, I was asked what I ultimately wanted to achieve: what was my five-year plan, what was my goal? Those were great questions and ones that took a good deal of thought to answer, because I had to ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” I became a cheesemaker primarily because it is fun. I find immense joy in it because it feeds me— both literally and figuratively— and because I get to share that joy with so many people through the products I create. Those are the same reasons I cook and share food at my table. At the beginning of a meal or even before, as I start cooking, I think of that wonderful gift.

The why in cooking is the most important starting point in choosing what to cook. The reasons are plentiful if you think about it— to romance, to love, to celebrate, to honor, to sustain, to share ideas. And then I ask myself which foods and settings will help me to arrive at that destination. My feelings about cooking are perfectly described in the Story People artists’ collective “Real Reason” prints: “There are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat each other’s cooking and say it was good.”

I start my days now in contemplation of foods and traditions that I— Southern first, American second, and somewhere in there Greek, too— enjoy. I also think about how you might start your day, what will happen around your table, and how I, the products I make and the recipes I share, get to participate in that. It is a magnificent thought that I may extend myself into your life and enjoyment of food just by crafting a product or sharing a recipe.

Before my tradition of Three Things, I still had a propensity for beginning a meal with some form of reverence. I would often read a poem at big, over-flowing meals at the lake, particularly “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo. Harjo depicts every great moment of our lives taking place over a table. She shows how a table can bring people together in joy and sadness and closes with my favorite line: “Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.”

From the beginning of my day to the “last sweet bite,” I will share with you in this book more than the traditions at my table, more than my stories of how I believe food shapes our lives: I offer you my life history through some of my favorite recipes. As you can imagine, quite a few of my creations will feature cheese, but as importantly, they will feature the region that I once couldn’t wait to escape but eventually embraced wholly: it’s my grandmother’s legacy on my hands and now on your table.

Lastly, I am thankful for “you, me, and the beautiful day.”

Bon appétit.

My favorite T. S. Eliot poem, “Four Quartets,” which had no small part in luring me to where I am today, states in the most beautiful of ways that the exploration which seems like the end is really the beginning, “costing not less than everything.”

Homemade Goat Cheese

I submitted a recipe to ReadyMade magazine for making goat cheese at home. It truly is a fun thing to do. My goal with this cookbook is to have you realize how lovely and healthy and versatile goat cheese is— whether you make your own or use one of Belle Chèvre’s goat cheese or any other goat cheese. I want you to enjoy and feel at home with this beautiful cheese! Note: Don’t toss out the whey when you are done. Whey contains milk sugar, albuminous protein, and minerals. Leftover whey can be used as a liquid substitute in bread-making. Additionally it can be frozen to use at a later time.

Serves 2

1 quart goat milk

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Fresh chives, chopped

Cheesecloth or cotton kitchen towel

In a heavy-bottomed pot, bring goat milk to a boil over medium heat. Take off the heat. Immediately stir the lemon juice into the milk. Let stand for a couple of minutes, so the milk can curdle.

Lay out a cheesecloth (or a cotton kitchen towel) in a bowl. Pour in the milk-lemon mixture. The curds simply resemble curdled milk at this point so don’t worry that they will pour right through the cheesecloth— it will catch them. Tie the ends of the cloth together so it becomes a bag. Hang it on a wooden spoon over the bowl or over your sink and let the bag hang free. The whey should strain out of the cheesecloth for at least two hours.

Before taking the cheese out of the cloth, squeeze the cloth to extract more liquid from the cheese. Transfer the cheese from the cloth to a bowl and season it with salt and pepper and fresh chives. Ready to serve.

A NOTE ON TECHNIQUE

My Food Rules

I have a friend that I fussed at so continually about “technique” that he now says, instinctively, after any recipe question, “I know, I know, it is technique!” Another friend will roll her eyes at me when she asks, “How long do I leave it in the oven?” She is searching for an exact time, and I will undoubtedly respond with, “Until it is done.”

I am a firm believer that if one masters a few solid techniques then recipes will forevermore take a back seat to that concept of technique. If you know the technique for a great omelet, for instance, then you don’t need a recipe— just creativity to put in whatever strikes your fancy. The same is true for techniques and principles of grilling, sautéing, braising, poaching, pickling, soup making, etc.

This book is a collection of some of my favorite things that I like to bring to the table to share with family and friends. It is my hope that if you learn how to make one of the frittatas in this book that you will have learned the “technique” to make any kind of frittata, limited only by your own creativity and availability of ingredients. My favorite cornbread recipe is a foundation for you to understand how you can improve it or make it your own by adding jalapeños, cheddar, or, of course, goat cheese.

My philosophy is Food Is Fun— being playful in the kitchen is a requisite to creating great memories at the table. Experiment with these recipes and have fun!

EASY SUBSTITUTIONS

How I Use Goat Cheese at My House

Goat cheese is one of the most versatile cheeses on the planet. It’s soft, easy to work with, and its mild flavor makes it perfect for use in a wide variety of dishes, from breakfast to dessert.

You can also feel very good about using it in various ways because of its unbelievable health benefits. Goat cheese is lower in fat and calories than cow’s milk cheeses, higher in protein, lower in lactose, and actually supports a healthy digestive system. And if that wasn’t enough, goat’s milk is said to be good for your skin, hair, and even libido! Armed with all of that great information, I see very little reason for you not to enjoy it every day in more of your favorite dishes.

Here are few ways that I use it and substitute for the old stand-bys that call for:

1. Mayonnaise— Try a BLT with a delicious goat cheese spread on your bread instead of mayo. I use it on rustic French bread for my leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches.

2. Sour Cream

3. Cream Cheese— My favorite shrimp dip now has goat cheese as its base instead of cream cheese. Add a healthy twist to cream cheese with pepper jelly dip by using goat cheese instead. Want a truly delicious cheesecake? You get the idea.

4. Butter— Crumble goat cheese on your favorite steamed veggies instead of butter; add a little lemon zest to it to make it even more special. Love a compound butter on top of grilled meats? Make herbed compound “butters” with goat cheese instead.

5. Make whipped cream by using half the amount of cream with goat cheese for a gourmet twist.

6. Spread goat cheese on your bagel with smoked salmon, capers, and red onion.

7. Use goat cheese in your icing for a favorite cake or cupcake.