I'm going to pull a few loose threads together from the last segment before I go on this week... in terms of what we can find to buy second hand I mentioned I have had the most luck with books ... I now have to include media especially CD's! A big portion of my re-purchasing history has involved buying cassette tapes to replace albums... and then CD's to replace cassette tapes... (don't even get me started that now vinyl albums are making a comeback)... so I've found most of what I wanted to replace but a few important previously owned albums are still missing... after years of looking for Stephen Bishop's "Careless" (Probably one of my favorite albums of the 20th century) I finally broke down and ordered the remastered in Japan CD from Amazon... for a whopping fifty something dollars plus tax and shipping... Probably one of my favorite songs written by Janis Ian is 'Stars' she recorded it on an album of the same name in the mid 70's and Barbara Cook recored it on the album 'As of Today' in the late 70's! I have the Barbara Cook CD... but alas the Janis Ian replacement has been elusive... I finally went to look for it at Amazon...
OK that is not happening... the day that you hear that I spent close to $1,000.00 for a used or even a new CD is the day that you can be 100% certain you have been pulled through a portal into a parallel dimension... OK I know I'm a little old fashioned because I don't want unlimited streaming I want to actually own the CD in the same way I want to own a book and not download it on a device... well I'm glad I held out because I found it at one of my second hand haunts for... are you sitting down?... $2.00!... and that is what patience, faith and determination get you when you shop second hand.
What I really wanted to impart with all of this is that I mentioned that we donate things that we no longer need or want and hope that someone else will appreciate them... but It got me thinking about the people and situations and experiences we discard because they no longer suit us for one reason or another... I wrote in another segment that sometimes people and places are for a finite period that we may share and or learn some important life lesson or simply be an inspiration or help each other in one of the most simple ways in just being a friend... and we have to move on eventually... but the important friendships and relationships endure even if separated by miles, years or death... the others fade because perhaps it becomes too difficult to continue a friendship for a multitude of reasons... The majority of the people that I don't have room in my life anymore are simply because they are not nice people in that they have evolved to be morally and ethically bankrupt... in all the ways possible from greed and selfishness to just being "mean"... on the flip side of this there are people that for one reason or another we have simply slipped away from each other for no other apparent reason than we went in different directions and we were not able to find the common ground we once shared... in close examination of some of the other people and those issues it has boiled down to...
So there it is... sometimes we simply grow apart from people so we can grow and become who we are supposed to be and who we are supposed to be with... and we have to leave them behind.
I've been listening to Barbara Cook and Janis Ian and going through old photographs and post cards... I love music because it is like a time machine in that it can take you back to a place that maybe you forgot about in your heart; it is sometimes important to reconnect to a person and/or place even briefly and by doing so bringing something back of who you once were to who you are now and what you have become because of it... while looking through old photos I recalled how many times the person pointing the camera said "Say Cheese!" and in one of them I remember at a party saying "Fromage" as I had recently returned from France... and it reminded me of all the collective memories we save and the photographs tied with ribbons in boxes that it's important to save what is important and suits you or will serve you well and get rid of the negative and anything else that may be holding you back from happiness and living your very best one and only life.
All that aside ... one of my very favorite things in life is.... Cheese! No matter where I go in my travels if there is a place that makes cheese I'm there and I want to sample it...
I've written many segments here about my travels around the world but I would be remiss if not including that almost all of them have involved eating and enjoying local cheese. If you ever have a chance to visit a cheese maker and take a tour I can't recommend it highly enough... But the basics are that cheese is made from coagulated milk and separating gradually the solid constituents of milk from from the water that they are dissolved in... the solid parts still contain water and the liquid the whey... in modern cheese making the raw milk is subjected to mechanical purification and pasteurized by heat and cooled and ripened and then clotted with acids and heat; the smaller the curds you get the firmer the cheese will be... they are then separated and cut, salted and pressed and repressed and ripened and packaged. You classify cheese by water content% in the fat-free cheese matter--- Extra-hard cheese has less than 51% water, Hard cheese has 49%-56%, Semi-hard cheese has 54%-63%, Semi-soft cheese has 61%-69% and Soft cheese has over 67% water. There is so much more involved in cheese making... but this is the basic gist of it!
I love to cook with cheese but like everything else in life... too much of a good thing is not so great for you so I practice moderation... but when you induldge you can include it in almost everything from bread to dessert. My favorite ways to enjoy cheese are in a souffle or in a quiche or with pasta... or simply sliced with fresh fruit.
Here is my simple and easy quiche recipe...
For the crust
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 pinch of salt
about 1/4 cup cold water
Put the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor and add the butter and blitz until it is sandy and add the egg yolk and blitz a few times and add slowly through the feed tube the cold water until it forms a ball and process for about 15 seconds and remove and form into a disc and flatten and refrigerate for about an hour wrapped in wax paper.
The filling is where you can be creative ... typically I use
1 medium onion finely chopped sauteed in 2 tablespoons butter and add about a cup of finely chopped mushrooms and cook until wilted (set aside) For the meat I use about a cup of finely chopped bacon cooked slightly or a cup of finely chopped ham and if I have it on hand chopped chicken or turkey. Mix your meat with the onion and mushrooms and set aside.
Meanwhile roll out your crust on a floured surface and place it in an ungreased fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Add the meat mixture and top with 2 heaping cups of Gruyere or Swiss cheese.
In a mixing bowl add the yolks of two eggs and 1 cup Half & Half and 2 tablespoons flour and whisk. In a separate bowl beat the two egg whites until foamy and mix gently with the milk mixture and pour over the cheese evenly add salt and pepper to take (I usually sprinkle with paprika too) and bake in a 400 degree oven for about a half hour or until it's golden brown.
(I've made this with seafood like shrimp, and lobster or crab but then I use about a cup of Gruyere and a cup of Fontina)
I think that too often in todays world we forget about the importance of a kind word or an honest compliment, a smile or a caring touch that has the potential to change how your day is going or the potential to help turn someone else's life around.
See you in two weeks and remember this...
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