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Would you like some salad with that cheese?

2008-11-19

As Thanksgiving draws near I've been thinking more and more about new and interesting recipes. And being me, I've had a special eye out for delicious new ways to eat cheese. Who's surprised by that one?

While I love and appreciate good cheese, I've also been trying to eat a bit healthier lately. As such, today's topic combines both my love of using cheese in recipes and the desire to eat more healthily. Today's question is...

What's the best cheese to put in a salad?

Bill from New York likes, "blue cheese or parmesan." Jill from Briarcliff Manor, New York prefers, "a really good shaved parmesan." And Ian S. from Boston explains that, "If it's vinaigrette dressing, then feta. If it's bleu cheese dressing, then, well, bleu cheese. If it's ranch dressing, then cheddar."

Ah, two votes already for one of my favorites, parmesan cheese. Fresh parmesan cheese, which, being a hard cheese, keeps for a suprisingly long time in the fridge, can make almost any food better in my opinion. And salad is certainly no exception. I might shread a little parmesan on my cereal in the morning if I didn't think I'd get strange looks from my husband!

After that, I can't disagree with Ian's basic cheese logic. Feta and vinaigrette are certainly a lovely pair, for instance. I'm not a huge fan of ranch dressing, but I have no qualms about adding cheddar to my salads!

One of my favorite simple salads is a basic mixture of greens, cherry or grape tomatoes, strips of honey ham, and, of course, strips of swiss cheese. I often pair this with a nice honey mustard dressing. And the beauty of both the ham and swiss cheese is that they are both strong enough flavors to overcome the sweetness of the dressing. Yum!

On one additional cheese recipe-related notes, I wanted to point out a new cheese product I recently tried and the cool thing I intend to do with it! The brand is President and it's a basic brie cheese, but the novelty is in the fact that it's in a long skinny loaf form (instead of the standard round mold). Besides making it easy to slice and add to crackers, what I think would be awesome is to slather your favorite jam on it and wrap it in flaky dough (I generally cheat and use the ready-made croissants that come in the canister.) Then bake it in the over and it's ready to serve, slice, and serve with bread or crackers. I may just be serving this over Thanksgiving! (And I'm sure my guests will be thankful!)

And stay tuned until next time when we delve into the all important question (well, maybe not ALL important, but it's good to be prepared!): "If you were stuck on a desert island and could only bring one cheese with you, what would it be and why?"


cindy milly said: (2008-12-05)

On Thanksgiving week, our employer Steven Sears Attorney give us a big potlock. We had turkey,cheese and cracker from different countries with different colors. Ones a year at the office located at Sears Law Building we have big seminars and have all kinds of differnt food dishes with cheese. All the clients just enjoy the grate cheese dishes. thank you Cindy Milly

Irvine potluck said: (2008-12-18)

Mike Sears will be at our Irvine Office for the cheese samples. Tuesday at 18 truman Irvine, searsatty, or Steven Sears professional building conference room. Danish Samsoe and Havarti.

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