Le Bleu d'Elizabeth

The perfect cheese to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee; Le Bleu d'Elizabeth

Le Bleu d'Elizabeth is an award winning blue cheese made by La Fromagerie du Presbytère. The cheese is made with thermized organic cow milk, it has a thin amber natural rind with lovely blue and greenish coloured veins running through the pale yellow paste that is semi-firm.

Bleu d'Elizabeth has a soft rich creamy texture with a well-balanced salty taste leaving a slight caramel flavour on the tongue. Bleu d'Elizabeth is not an overbearing blue cheese it can be served and enjoyed alone, as an attractive and well appreciated addition to any cheese platter or added to your pasta dishes or salads. Here's a tasty recipe for a Waldorf salad using Le Bleu Elizabeth.

Le Bleu d'Elizabeth is the second gold medal winning cheese to come from Fromagerie du Presbytère run by brothers Jean and Dominique Morin who are fourth generation farmers. The family farm named Louis D'Or (also the name of their other gold winner cheese) is located in Ste. Elizabeth de Warwick in central Quebec near Drummondville. The organic milk used to produce their award winning cheese come from the farm's mixed herd of Holstein, Jersey and a few Canadienne cattle.

http://www.fromageriedupresbytere.com/

Mozzarella di Bufala

Mozzarella di Bufala  is a fresh, stringy textured cheese made exclusively from whole water-buffalo milk from Campania in Central-South Italy. The cheese has a porcelain-white colour and a very thin rind.

Mozzarella di Bufala  has a delicate taste, with a creamy soft texture. I find it is best with a drizzle of olive oil and combined with tomatoes and basil. It can also be added to any vegetable dish, pasta or pizza to add a nice rich and delicious consistency.

Mozzarella di Bufala is very nutritional. Buffalo milk is rich in calcium, high in protein and has a high vitamin content.

Mozzarella di Bufala received the DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata) status in 1993.
 

Heatwave 1980

This past Saturday the staff from La Fromagerie Atwater  and other vendors of Montreal’s Atwater Market conglomerated to enjoy a cold ale after a busy day of work. The atmosphere was quite pleasant with the funky rhythmic beats of Talking Heads being played at the Satay Brothers stand as they were closing down. David Byrne singing "Take me to the river" got some of us talking and reminiscing about bands that we saw live.

 

Yes, I did see Talking Heads live and it was quite a memorable experience.

I remember my partner Chris and I, driving down the 401 in his 1964 Chevy pick-up truck to attend one of the biggest outdoor New Wave music concerts of the summer - Heatwave Festival held at Mosport Park on August 23, 1980. Heatwave live performances included Teenage Head, The Pretenders, The B-52's, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and the Attractions among others. Although The Clash who was also booked to play at the festival cancelled at the last minute, the line-up for the day did not disappoint. Though Heatwave was over 30 years ago, there are numerous songs and moments that will forever remain with me.

What is one of your favourite or memorable live performances?

 

I Love Cheese Graffiti

"Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

The earliest forms of graffiti date back to 30,000 BC in the form of prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs using tools such as Animal bones and pigments."

From Wikipedia 

 

Over the past several years quite a few graffiti drawings and tags by a 'cheese lover' artist, someone after my own heart, have popped-up here and there around Montreal.
 

I find these drawings so charming that I am actually using one of my favourites "I love cheese" graffiti as my own avatar.
 

Here are examples of some of 'I love cheese' graffiti found in Le Plateau, Old Montreal and downtown Montreal.

 

 

Un Chèvre À Ma Manière

A delightful new cheese has arrived at La Fromagerie Atwater that I'm quite excited about. It is a new Québec artisanal pasteurised goat milk cheese called Chèvre À Ma Manière.

My first impression is that it looks so similar to a Saint-Félicien. Chèvre À Ma Manière weighs around 200 grams (7 ounces), measuring 9 cm (3 1/2"), round shaped, it has a pale golden natural mold rind and a very creamy runny white pâte. It is a fairly young cheese with an affinage of a couple of weeks. It has a nice balanced sweetness, sourness and acidity with a pleasant caprine lingering flavour. 

When trying to describe how I feel about this cheese the lyrics of the 1991 song “What Is Love?” by the group Deee-Lite comes to mind; “ How do you say delicious? How do you say delovely? How do you say delectable? How do you say divine?”

Chèvre À Ma Manière is fabricated by Simon Hamel of L’Atelier Fromagerie in Ste-Hélène-de-Chester in the Centre-du-Québec region.

Chèvre À Ma Manière pairs well with a Chenin Blanc. 

Check out: Radio Canada's  Bien dans son Assiette' video and article: "Le gagnant du Caseus de bronze".

Les Métayères

Les Métayères is a semi-firm cheese, with a non-cooked pressed paste and washed rind. It is made from non-pasteurised cow milk. The cheese is aged approximately 90 days.

The milk of Les Métayères cheese is thermised but non-pasteurised. Thermised milk is raw milk that has been heated for at least 15 seconds at a temperature between 57 and 68 degrees C. This method helps to preserve the flavours in the milk and at the same time reduces the number of micro-organisms.

Les Métayères is a mild cheese with a smooth rich and creamy pâte with a subtle fruity flavour and nutty aroma. It pairs nicely with a dry white Italian Soave wine.

Les Métayères is produced by La Fromagerie Du Champ à la Meule located in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in the Lanaudière region of Quebec.  La Fromagerie is operated by Martin Guilbault and his family, they also manufacture the popular Victor et Berthold, Fêtard and Laracam cheeses.

Les Métayères cheese was created to help finance the Maison Saint-Gabriel a 17th century school and farm-house run by the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The congregation founded by Ste. Marguerite Bourgeoys is located in Montreal's south-west district of Pointe Saint-Charles. The cheese is named in honour of les Métayères, the name given to the nuns who worked the farm. 

All the cheeses at Fromagerie Du Champ à la Meule come from the milk of Ayrshire cows.

http://www.fromagesdici.com/repertoire/fromageries/fromagerie-du-champ-a-la-meule

Read on my visit at the Fromagerie Du Champ à la Meule

William Baffin Rose

 

The William Baffin Rose is a climbing rose from the Canadian Explorer Rose Series. It has free-flowering, slightly fragrant, raspberry pink semi-double flowers with golden centers.

Like all the roses in the Explorer Series, they are hardy roses that can survive our Northern climate and are mildew and disease-resistant. The William Baffin Rose is not really a climbing rose but rather a tall shrub rose whose thorny canes can be trained to climb.

The William Baffin Rose is very easy to take care and is a vigorous grower; it can easily reach heights of 8’ to 10’ in a couple of years. The eye-catching showy clusters of flowers bloom in June and re-bloom in August.

A real beauty!

Read more on Explorer Roses at The Canadian Rose Society.

Brebichon

Brebichon is a soft artisanal pasteurized sheep-milk cheese. The light wheat coloured rind is washed with apple cider. Brebichon has a soft mild creamy texture that is luscious with a light apple flavour and aroma. 

Brebichon is produced by Les Fromages du Verger operated by Michel Guérin et Brigitte Maillette, situated on a lovely apple orchard located in St-Joseph-du-Lac in Quebec.

Apart from harvesting fourteen varieties of apples, the farm produces a variety of both fresh and refined sheep milk cheeses. The dairy ewes of East Friesian and Lacaune breed of sheep are fed apples from the orchard, which results in a rich and unique milk that is highlighted in their original and consistent cheeses produced at Les Fromages du Verger.

http://www.lesfromagesduverger.com/
 

Corsu Vecchiu

Corsu Vecchiu is a traditional semi-firm unpasteurised sheep milk cheese from the island of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea.

Corsu Vecchiu is aged between 6 to 9 months. The cheese has a washed rind that is light grey with golden overtones and the ivory colored uncooked pâte has a dense texture with a few holes.

Its flavour is rich, buttery, nutty and somewhat sweet with a subtle saltiness that comes through at the end. 

Corsu Vecchiu pairs well with dried apricots and Pinot Noir wine.

Most of Corsica has a Mediterranean climate but in the mountains it has a colder Alpine climate. The mixed climate, varied terrain, robust vegetation and semi-wild sheep are ideal ingredients for a rich variety of cheeses. I recommend you try Fleur Du Maquis another excellent sheep-milk cheese from Corsica.

http://ditesouiauxfromagesdebrebis.com/corsica.php

The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away

The Mavericks is a country music band from Miami, Florida. This hot single is taken from their 1998 album "Trampoline". This track just lifts my spirits up and gets me movin' and I can’t help but want to "Dance The Night Away".

"I just wanna dance the night away

With senoritas who can sway

 Right now tomorrow's lookin' bright

 Just like the sunny mornin' light"

http://www.mavericksmusic.com/