More Recipes, Please

Americans love cheese. We love grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, sauces and salads. Mostly, we eat these amazing concoctions at restaurants. We indulge when we are out and save in-home cooking to simpler foods.
COVID-19 has changed our lives and most likely will continue to do so for quite a while. Unfortunately, the restaurant industry has suffered, as people are hesitant to go out and mingle in groups. In some areas, local regulations have restricted restaurant access. In other areas, masks are required, and many people do not see themselves donning masks when eating out.

Because of the dangers of mingling, home cooking has seen a revival. People are experimenting, often with recipes from their childhoods using easy-to-find ingredients at mainstream grocery markets. Folks are also cutting back on the number of stores they will visit. If their main supermarket does not carry the items they want, they will not make an additional trip.

Another problem is people are just looking to cook simple recipes and favorite meals. Polenta with Gorgonzola is not on the menu. Every family member may not be a fan, and the ingredients may not be easy to find. Then again, in many simple recipes, the addition of a fine cheese may elevate the dish to a sublime meal.

Sautéed mushrooms in butter over chicken breast is delicious but adding crème fraîche to the mushrooms will add a level of richness and sophistication. Crumbled blue cheese on top of a grilled steak is a restaurant classic, and homemade blue cheese dressing is amazingly simple to make and tastes nothing like blue cheese dressing in a bottle.

While I find cheese plates easy to make, I have been doing it for years. Consumers may find the task more daunting. Just one featured cheese paired with fruit, vegetables, nuts and condiments is a complete summer meal that is perfect for when it is getting late.

But what is the trick to providing customers with the knowledge, especially when staffing is low and sampling is forbidden? Recipes. It is back to basics. Using print recipes, tear off pads and digital are great ways to educate.

When thinking about recipes, do not think just about the cheese. Homemade condiments are easy, unusual and delicious. A simple blueberry compote spooned over a room temperature, soft-ripened cheese is a sublime dessert.

Since out-of-sight is usually out-of-mind, old-fashioned print may be the best way to reach the greatest number of people. Cross merchandising is also a great way to offer encouragement.
Now is the time to bring cheese home.

Greek Feta: A Cheese as Old as Humanity

Discover how this age-old favorite came about and the qualities that make it so unique

Greek Feta: A Cheese as Old as Humanity

Feta cheese has been a part of Greece for nearly as long as humanity itself. It comes from the very first cheese around 8,000 years ago, which was made soon after people began domesticating animals. Historians believe that milk began to ferment while being transported in the stomach of a goat or sheep. The shepherds noticed that the new product lasted much longer than fresh milk—and cheese was born.

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Savory Bread Puddings Make Comforting Sense

This affordable treat provides an outlet to use a variety of leftover ingredients from other dishes.

Savory Bread Puddings Make Comforting Sense

For years, I’ve served dishes that were spontaneously created from my refrigerator or made with food—sometimes slightly dried or in need of trimming—that otherwise might get thrown away. My kids ate countless minestrones, chilies and even tossed salads that were never the same from one version to the next. The fact is, I disdain wasting food, plus I think those bits can add style, texture, color and taste.

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Save The Emmentaler

Why this Swiss giant needs your attention

Save The Emmentaler

People like to throw around superlatives when talking about the colossus of curd clout, that holey wheel so familiar, it has its own emoji—Emmentaler. It’s been called the world’s largest cheese, Switzerland’s most popular and one of the U.S.’s most imported. And according to Alfred Rufer, vice director of the Emmentaler Appellation d’Origine Protegée (AOP), it’s also the most copied.

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A Different Take On Quiche

Some things old, new and borrowed for this popular dish

A Different Take On Quiche

My first quiche was a voluptuous open-faced tart with smoky lardons, Gruyère and golden strands of sautéed onion baked in custard. It was called a Lorraine, and I was seduced. Later, I learned it was a misnomer according to the French society that defined quiches, saying that only bacon should be in the seasoned custard. With cheese added, it becomes a Vosgienne (referring to the Vosges region of France); sautéed onions in the mix make it Alsaçienne. But Lorraine became the familiar name for many of these savory tarts.

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A Lighter Take On 
Soup

Put some spring in a cold-weather favorite

A Lighter Take On 
Soup

For man of us, winter means repeatedly putting on and taking off parkas, scarves, hats and gloves as a barrier to the damp and frigid temperatures. That irksome chore, coupled with shoveling snow and other cold weather activities, can build up quite an appetite. You crave hearty fare to keep warm. Hibernating sometimes seems tempting.

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Heavenly Deviled Eggs with Cheese

This smart addition turns the ordinary into the extraordinary

Heavenly Deviled Eggs with Cheese

After my family’s annual Easter egg hunt, mom often deviled those colorful little ovals that had been hidden in our backyard. She’d peel and cut them in half, mash the yolks with mayonnaise and minced celery, and spoon the mixture back into the whites. While fairly pedestrian, they were a beloved fixture at our family picnics and barbecues, usually sprinkled with paprika to garnish.

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Cheeses Along The European Waterways

Take a delectable journey down the rivers of Austria, Germany and The Netherlands

Cheeses Along The European Waterways

Everywhere there is milk, there is cheese. The alchemy of an excellent cheese is well known: the skill of the cheesemaker, the species and diet of the milk source, even goût de terroir. Cheese tasting gives the traveler not only the experience of world flavors, but also of culture and place.

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Mac & Cheese: An American Original

Today’s mac and cheese has evolved from elbow noodles and Cheddar to upscale creative versions

Mac & Cheese: An American Original

Macaroni and cheese is as American as hot dogs, burgers and apple pie. You would be hard-pressed to find a citizen in any part of the country that has not spooned up the creamy cheesy dish at least once, with most developing a fondness or downright addiction for the rich dish in early childhood. For many parents, the pasta and cheese dish was the original easy-to-make, nutritious fast food that the whole family could enjoy in just a matter of minutes.

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The Many Occasions Of Mostarda

Its spicy-sweet flavor provides plethora of pairing possibilities

The Many Occasions Of Mostarda

Italian food is ubiquitous across the United States. Mall food courts have a requisite pizza place selling pepperoni-topped slices to hungry shoppers. Lasagna is a staple at the dinner table, and school cafeterias offer minestrone as the soup of the day. Bruschetta is on the appetizer menu at neighborhood bars, and coffee shops stock biscotti in the bakery case. At the grocery store, it’s easy to find prosciutto, gnocchi and dozens of flavors of gelato.

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Grilled Cheese Provides Culinary Comfort

Sandwiches warm the soul

Grilled Cheese Provides Culinary Comfort

Back in the day, the best way to find great restaurants was to look for the parking lots with the most cars. It’s still a good idea to keep your eyes peeled on parking lots, but these days smart shoppers look for parked food trucks with the longest lines for a taste of the new and unusual.

Top chefs sometimes man the busiest food vending vehicles selling creative dishes at discounted prices. Make no mistake, those with grilled cheese, which can be replicated at home, are not serving your mother’s version.

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