Caribou and Cheese

A cheese plate, or course, to many is still something akin to cubed yellowish/orangish/whiteish cubes of cheese in a pile–perhaps with frilled toothpicks to assist in their retrieval–left for hours to sweat and then dry out. To others, like Erik at PFH, it’s both art and ritual.

This Thanksgiving, for as tender as the venison was..

(And we’re talking ‘melted away like sashimi grade tuna’ tender..)

..the part that stayed with me was the cheese.

Starting from the top position, working clockwise:
Longfellow Creamery’s Camembert–past. cows milk–k. hortons
Wild Boar Sausage from Cheese Iron
Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve–raw cow– from Cheese Iron
Landaff–raw cow–from Whole Foods
Herve Mons Tomme de Berger–raw goat/sheep–from Whole Foods
von Trapp Oma–past. cows milk–from Cheese Iron
Duck Proscciuto from Cheese Iron
Rolph Beeler ForsterKase–raw cow milk- from Cheese Iron
Raw Honey from Sparky’s Maine
Adriadic Fig Spread

Normally, I would have a little more balance in the plate–not so many washed rinds, some solo representations of goat and sheeps milk cheeses–but couldn’t resist the offerings I came across at the Cheese Iron and WF. But, the increase in flavor, which was perfect as we worked our way clockwise around the plate, made up for the lack of diversity.

The charcuterie, particularly the wild boar salami, paired amazing with some of the stronger cheeses on the plate, even standing up to the hefty earth of the Forsterkase. The duck proscuitto, however, lost the slight sweetness it had the day we tasted it as it sat in our refrigerator and became stronger than we cared for. If you do pick some up, I recommend eating it that day or the next.

The next day, we headed to Boston to catch an AMAZING show from the Pixies for the 20th Anniversary of their ‘Doolittle’ album. We were invited to the private after show from a friend, but too tired and a bit too hungover to handle traveling across town, we called it a night early and headed back home the next day.

1. Dancing The Manta Ray
2. Weird At My School
3. Bailey’s Walk
4. Manta Ray
5. Debaser
6. Tame
7. Wave of Mutilation
8. I Bleed
9. Here Comes Your Man
10. Dead
11. Monkey Gone To Heaven
12. Mr. Grieves
13. Crackity Jones
14. La La Love You
15. No. 13 Baby
16. There Goes My Gun
17. Hey
18. Silver
19. Gouge Away
20. Encore:
20. Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
21. Into The White
22. Encore 2:
22. Where Is My Mind?
23. Caribou
24. Vamos
25. Gigantic

It was a tiring week, but a thankful one.

(the most colorful Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever made–and a shitty plate job )

Hope yours was as good as mine 🙂

Things About This Week

1)Going to see the Pixies in Boston on Friday.
2)Celebrating my 5th Anniversary of moving to Portland this Saturday
3)My Father’s 65th Birthday is Saturday.
4)My partner officially becomes unemployed again on Wednesday, as her temp job comes to an end.
5)Thanksgiving.

I’m looking forward to 4 of these things and I’m sure you can guess which ones. As our finances crunch once again, we’re going out with a bang this coming week. Because of getting food poisoning last Thanksgiving, from a raw oyster that never made it into the stuffing, I decided to go a different route this year and cook a rack of venison that I purchased when I was home last month.

While I’m still unsure of the preparation of the venison, I know I’ve got a killer Cranberry Apple and Pear sauce to go with it.

Before hand, to avoid having to do anything for a pre-meal snack, we swung into the Cheese Iron after hearing Vince had brought in some duck prosciutto. I am a bit conflicted about even mentioning it because it’s good enough to horde for yourself–in fact, it’s a bit mind blowing. Sliced perfectly thin, the thin line of fat at the top simply dissolves the second it hits your tongue.

It will be coupled with a boar salami, Rolf Beeler ForsterKase, Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve and the von Trapp Family Oma, which I first had at Evangeline.
And, like every other time I’ve walked through their doors, I had a set budget… and to stay true to form, I spent twice as much. But, really, who can blame me when something like this:

is put in my face.

This week is set to be a truly hectic, gluttonous and thanks filled one and I’ll probably post about how it truly went sometime next week… until then, a happy one to you.