Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Favorite Things

Ahhh, December. What a wet and weary, dreary, dreary December we’ve been having here in Philadelphia. I rant and wail about how much I hate winter-time—and for the most part, its true—but there’s some things that I remember from winters past that stick with me in pleasing memories. Like curling up in a warm bed in the warm darkness of a winter’s morning. Like hot chocolate. Like those beautiful, clear clear clear, blue days that are sunny and bitingly cold. Yeah, you know those days. The kinds of days that we just haven’t had yet.

Winter, I must admit, is getting me down. So here’s a list of my three most recent food favorites:

1) Wisconsin Mammoth cheddar cheese from Whole Foods. I don’t know what it is about this cheese. It is yellow and creamy with enough of a bite to satisfy that cheese craving. It is delightful. Delicious. I can barely keep it in my fridge long enough to share it with my cheese-loving girlfriend.

2) Tuscan bread from Whole Foods. I am actually a very picky bread eater. I don’t often eat it because I tend to be very unimaginative. But when I was grocery shopping at my local Whole Foods last weekend, I decided I wanted a nice loaf. Something freshly baked. Something smooth and delightful—not too chewy—not whole grain. I saw the Tuscan loaf and it looked just perfect. And it was, as light and airy as it was, with a delicious aftertaste of olive oil. Oh, it was. I almost ate half of the loaf when I got home. The Tuscan loaf is well on its way to being a staple.

3) Endless Feasts: 60 years of writing from Gourmet Magazine, edited by Ruth Reichl. What a lovely set of essays. Many of them hark back to ages past with much different theories about food—even as recently as the 1970s. This day and age looks at food so much and often seems to not really see it. You should read this book, though. Its yummy.

Oh! I lied! There’s 4 things on my list!

4) The shortbread recipe that I will be baking tonight. More on that later!

2 comments:

cmoore said...

Excuse me. How, HOW, hooooow did I not know about this??? How/why (why?!) did you BOTH keep it from me?! I am slightly perturbed. Also slightly impressed, but mainly perturbed. Hmph.

Shannon said...

The Wisconsin Cheddar is very tasty, but even better is Maytag Blue from my home state of Iowa. Sweet, tangy, creamy... an absolute dream!