Cheese Board

I think I come by my love of cheese honestly, my mother verges on being a cheese scholar.  And I like to think I know a thing or two about it now... So every once in a while we have a cheese tasting for dinner, with fruit, home made pickles and jams, bread and crackers, cured meat and so on. The wine can't be forgotten either, there's always quite a bit of wine. This time we had a Sancerre rosé that I brought back from the region a couple years ago when I studied there.  My sister and I had bought it (and quite a few others) after a wine tasting we went to where the buying was encourage after rather a lot of tasting, not that we're complaining! The bottles have sat in our cellar, waiting for a special enough occasion which it occurred to us recently was never going to come. So a few lovely evenings later and we've wiped out our supply, but again, no one's complaining.

This was our second cheese night recently, held partially to use up anything left from our first, so it was made up of the hodgepodge found in our fridge : English Stilton, Danish Rosenberg blue, smoked Gouda, 3 month old Manchego, chevre rolled in herbs, Brie with truffles, Trappiste, and jalapeño Monterey Jack. I'm afraid there wasn't much of a theme to what we could find, but that didn't make it any less excellent! We also had some of last years home canned pickles and jams; pickled banana peppers, dill pickles and pickled beans, red pepper jelly, roasted garlic and onion jam, fresh cherries, almonds and store bought olives too.

Then there was my cherry clafoutis for dessert too and a dessert wine, also from Sancerre; Vendange de la St. Charles. It was a lovely and sweet ending to our meal.

Les Fleurs - Minnie Riperton