Lavender Goat Cheese

So, here it is. Lavender Goat Cheese from Soledad Farm in Mojave, CA. This is the goat cheese I drove 17 miles for, and it was worth every mile of it. You can spread it on a slice of French baguette, put it in a sandwich, or my favorite is to drop a small spoonful in a bowl of carrot soup. This creamy goat cheese has a hint of sweetness with a light lavender fragrance and it melts perfectly in carrot soup (or any root vegetable soup such as beet soup or butternut squash). It will be a perfect treat in the fall season.

Carrot Soup

2-3 medium to large carrots

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

handful of uncooked rice

2-3 cups of water

1 cube of vegetable bouillon (I use Rapunzel's vegan vegetable bouillon with no salt added)

1/2 cup of heavy cream

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Lavender Goat Cheese (optional)

Parsley (optional)

Dice onion and garlic. In a large pot (I use Le Cruiset's oval dutch oven), sauté them together in olive oil, until tender (about 5 minutes).

Cut carrots 1/4 inch wide and add to onion and garlic in the pot. Sauté some more (about another 5 minutes). Carrots do not have to be soft but should look shiny and bright orange.

Add uncooked rice and saute until rice is translucent (about 1 minute).

Add vegetable bouillon in the pot and stir it constantly not to burn it. Bouillon should loosen and coat vegetables and rice (about 2-3 minutes).

Add water and let it boil. Reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer until Carrots are soft (about 15 minutes).

Turn off the heat and let the soup cool down.

When the soup is cooled completely, transfer soup into a high speed blender. I use Vita Mix but handheld blender or regular blender will work. Turn on the blender high for about 1 minute until the soup is smooth and creamy. If using a regular blender, soup might not be as smooth and creamy.

Transfer the soup back to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add heavy cream and turn the heat on until the soup is hot (or warm, however you would like).

Pour the soup in your favorite cup or bowl, and drop a small spoonful of goat cheese and add chopped parsley for decoration.

Bon Appetite!

Weekly Sweet Baking

My husband has this rule about having only one sweet per week. About a month ago he was 20 lbs “overweight” from the ideal weight he likes to be. So he decided to eat salad everyday, and gives himself only one day to savor sweets. There, my weekly baking began.

This week, I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies:


Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: adopted from marthastewart.com

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all purpose flour
2 table spoons all purpose flour
½ cup toasted wheat germ (I toasted raw wheat germ in the oven for about 5 minutes)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (leave it in the room temperature for 15 minutes to soften)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pore vanilla extract
1 ½ cups raisins

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir dry ingredients (rolled oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt) in a big bowl and mix them well.

Put butter and sugar in a bowl and mix it until puffy and fluffy . (the website tells you to use electric mixer with paddle attachment. But I don't have one so I used a big whisk -- butter needs to be pretty soft to do this with a whisk)

Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.

Add oat mixture (add a third at a time, and mix it until just combined.) Add raisins

Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly. (again, if you don't have ice cream scoop, just use your bigger spoon in the drawer like I did!)

Bake until golden and just set, about 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes.

voilà!

Fresh Local Produce

My husband is rolling his eyes again... Because I told him that we need to go to a farmer's market that is 30 minutes away... to get goat cheese... He would say, "so why do we have to go to that market again?" "and what do you want to buy there?" "does it have to be that market?" My answer was "yes, I have to go there and I am buying goat cheese".

I have joined the movement recently. It is like a "slow food nation" local style. I have just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle", oh boy! I am inspired. Even though my husband may complain and look at me like I am going a bit too far, he is very supportive of my dedication to local fresh produce. After all, I am the cook and he loves what I cook, so in the end he benefits, too. The other day on my facebook, I wrote, ‎"If every U.S.citizen ate just ONE meal per week (ANY MEAL) composed of LOCALLY and ORGANICALLY raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." by Steve Hopp. I got two comments about how Organic food is expensive and people cannot afford it and they end up eating cup noodles (!!). Yes, they are right. Organic produce at a supermarket is extremely pricey and many people cannot afford it. And many people living below poverty line do have to rely on "cheap" food at a chain supermarket. How sad... However, I beg everyone to re-think of the way we eat and the way we buy produce. I beg everyone to re-evaluate where your money really goes to. And those of us who CAN afford to buy organic food at a local farmer's market where produce are much cheaper and fresher than at a supermarket, what is stopping us from going to the market? Why do we keep going back to supermarkets? Familiarity? Convenience? Lack of information? Plain laziness?

We started going to farmer's market every chance we get about two years ago. Slowly, our food purchase moved from supermarket to farmer's markets. We still use healthy food chain stores for dairy products and staple food. But much of our fresh produce we get from CSA and farmer's market. We learned a lot from the farmers about seasonal produce. Our Avocado man Jimmy taught us different types of avocados and how we store them, cut them, and eat them. Our Jujube farmer taught us about organic produce and its certification. Another farmer taught us how to choose a pomegranate (cracked and bruised the best!) We get to know the farmers and we started to care for the produce more. My husband would say, "I can't let this avocado go bad... I feel bad for Jimmy..." Indeed. We connect to the farmers and therefore to the produce we buy. It was challenging at first but soon it became normal and easy.

You may not want to drive 17 miles just to get goat cheese from a farmer who raises and attends the goat. But surely, you can check out if there is a market close to your home and start going there. Try their samples and savor the sun through their fruits and vegetables. If you don't know how to cook, grab some fruits that you can bite into. Taste the difference. and keep going back. Soon, you don't want to go back to your supermarket any more.