Spicy Cajun Queso

After an extended hiatus to have my baby (which is why I’m up this hour) I am back in the kitchen, testing and perfecting cheese inspired recipes. And it is great to be back! To kick off my return, why not go big and bold. This week we are featuring Beehive's Smoked Habanero Cheddar. Just in time for my favorite of all glutinous holidays: Super Bowl. If those little sausages that sit in sauce all day aren't your thing, then allow me to suggest you come by the warehouse.

Believe it or not, you do not need processed, rubber cheese to make queso. We’re better than that! Made with a blend of spicy cheddar and Carmody, this queso is all grown up. In the spirit of Mardi Gras I put a creole spin on this game day fare.

1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 oz Smoked Habanero Cheddar, shredded
6 oz Carmody, shredded (or any melter you like)
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Slap Ya Mama seasoning
peper to taste
Slow Dough baguette, toasted and sliced

Directions:
In medium saucepan, heat oil and saute all of the veggies until tender. Season veggies with Slap Ya Mama, add pepper to taste. In a seperate saucepan, whisk milk and cornstarch together until no lumps remain. Cook over medium heat and continue whisking, until mixture thickens. Stir in cheeses. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted and smooth. Stir in spicy veggie mixture to combine. Keep warm in a mini slow cooker and serve with toasted baguette.

Cheese Don't Leave Us!

We've been away for a while, but we hope our absence just made your heart grow fonder. This week we're featuring some delicious cheeses here at the Dairymaids Headquarters! First up is the luscious Vermont Coupole, a two textured beauty from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery. Next we have a brand new cheese, Holey Cow! No, but really, that's its name. This smooth, creamy Swiss from the central coast of California will have you shouting for joy in no time! We also have a classic, the ever so sly Carmody. This Bellwether Farms favorite is coy, with just a slight note of pungency. Not to be outdone, the Redneck Cheddar (from the Veldhuizen Farms in Dublin, TX) blends St. Arnold's beer into the curds to form a beautiful, subtle hoppy flavor throughout the cheese. We're finishing out the cheese plate this week with the Baby Blue, a creamy, mild goat's milk blue from CKC Farms in Blanco, TX. This week's featured selections are sure to set your cheesy heart aflutter!

This Week's Tasting Plate: A Vegetable Without A Cheese Does Not Taste As Sweet

Who among us has planned a massive holiday meal (be it for Thanksgiving, Christmas or what have you), or merely considered what to bring to one we were invited to, without thinking, "Hmmm. We might need a vegetable side dish. You know, one without cheese." Then, just ended up preparing something with cheese.

Because as surely as you will be eating a turkey next week, you will also be presented with several dishes awash in, brimming with and capped off with dairy. As the saying goes, if you like a vegetable, then you should put a cheese on it. And of course, we have all the cheese you could possibly need or desire.

For your Southwestern sweet potato gratin, creamy squash casserole and plain ol' mac n' cheese, we're stocked up especially for Thanksgiving with Sarvecchio Parmesan, Dunbarton Blue, Bonne Bouche, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar and Reading Raclette. We have Lucky Layla butter and Blue Heron cajeta for your coffee, ice cream and an extra kick to your pecan pie.

If you're like us and serve cheese as its own course, then you might be interested in our showstopper--the Rush Creek Reserve. Made only in the fall, it features the richer texture of hay-fed milk and the delicate ripeness of a soft, young cheese. It's spoonable, and wrapped in spruce bark, making it lovely for special occasions.

Store hours this weekend will be the same as usual: 10a.m.-6p.m. Saturday and Sunday. We'll also be sampling beer and wine, in the likely event you find yourself in need of that, too.

This Week's Tasting Plate: Desert Island Cheeses

Alright, frankly, if we were stranded on a desert island, cheese would not make it into the top five things we wish we had with us. Aside from being calorically dense, it's not really suited for the situation, seeing that it generally doesn't pair well with coconut. We don't think saying that makes us any less dedicated  dairymaids.

However, in a figurative sense, we definitely have a cheese essentials list and it is in fact posted in our shop. We just updated it this week, and if you haven't tried what's on it--Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Dunbarton Blue and Tarentaise among others--you're definitely missing out. All of them are among the best of their type and generally loved by all, so we recommend having a few handy in the cheese drawer at all times. It's like a party life preserver or even a Wilson-like companion, if you're having one of those nights.

In addition to those cheeses, this weekend we're featuring Beehive's Smoked Habanero Cheddar, Pt. Reyes Toma and brandy-soaked Rogue River Blue. Come by, eat some cheese and ask us about our island survival skills. Haley can do like, 10 pushups (ask her to prove it!) and Elizabeth has probably saved several lives by the time you've finished reading this sentence.

This Week's Tasting Plate: Trick or Cheese?

"Dairymaid store hours, spooky scary. Milk becoming cheese, cheese becoming lunch."-- Sung to the tune of Werewolf Bar Mitzvah.

If we hadn't experienced the making of cheese first hand, we would probably just assume that it was created through inexplicable supernatural phenomena. It's so incredible, how grass becomes something so fatty, creamy and delicious, surely some mysterious force must be at work. And so, we invite you to tour our haunted cheese mansion and eat something substantive before pigging out on Reese's Peanut Butter cups while watching Hocus Pocus.

This week, we're featuring one of our all-time favorites, the Smokey Blue from Rogue Creamery. Cold-smoked over Oregon hazelnut shells, the cheese ends up with a slightly caramel-y, campfire flavor that makes it so perfect for this time of year.

We're also carrying La Tur, which is a dense, creamy blend of cow, sheep and goat's milk. Runny and oozy around the perimeter, it's a decadent treat even for a cheese. Dunbarton Blue, Bellwether Pepato and Matos St. Jorge round out the tasting plate. Happy Halloween!