In the spirit of all things food (which have sparked my interest more and more of late), I wanted to share with you a web-site that a friend of mine found recently: Foodzie. Essentially, it’s Etsy for food. It’s an on-line market-place for small (and generally, indie) vendors and artisans to sell their edibles. Sauces, spreads, jams, oils, vinegar, nuts, cheeses, chocolate, candy — it’s a treasure trove of off-the-beaten-path foodstuffs! I have yet to order anything from them, but here are a few of the things I’ve found which are going on my to-eat list:

Cinnamon Basil Tea Cookies from the Botanical Bakery.

Lavender Hanahbells Thimble Cheese from the Shy Brothers Farm. I’m such a sucker for Lavender!

Grenache Wine Vinegar from Allure Estates.

Scenic City Sizzle, Grilling Pepper from Alchemy Spice Company. I’m imagining this getting slathered all over a grilled halibut. Whoa.

Mint Chip Macaroons from Emmy’s Organics. The “chips” are not semi-sweet or even bitter-sweet chocolate chips, but raw cocoa nibs sprinkled throughout. I love chocolate in its regularly consumable forms, but there’s something so totally pure and perfect about nibs, they’re so dark and bitter but with their own natural sweetness and oiliness that fills your mouth with the smallest amount.

Mmmmmmmmm, cheese. I’ve always liked nibbling on various sorts of cheese, but it’s only recently, as I’ve become significantly more gastronomically adventurous (I blame Anthony Bourdain), that I’ve become really interested in trying and enjoying cheeses that I previously would’ve found too stinky or scary-looking. Oh, I’m not abandoning my old favorites: fresh mozzarella, a simple swiss, and a soft chevre all have permanent places in my heart. But I’ve found some others that are pretty excellent contenders. Here are some recent, favorite discoveries:

Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam - probably the best Triple Cream I’ve had. I couldn’t get over this stuff. It weighs in at a somewhat balk-worthy $18 for a small round, but a little goes a long ways, and every bit is worth it. It’s buttery, nutty, and subtle, and has a flavor that somehow blossoms as you let it melt in your mouth. It’s also got an extremely creamy, soft texture (even moreso than your average brie). Slice up a good baguette with it, open a rosé,* and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal. If you like creamy, brie-style cheeses, you’re going to love this.

Cypress Grove Midnight Moon - This is an aged, firm goat’s milk cheese with a lot of zingy, goaty flavor. It’s better with fruit or preserves than with bread or crackers, because the sharpness of the flavor and drier texture plays well against sweet, juicy things; I could see it going well in certain types of pasta sauces or in salads, though.

Beecher’s Blank Slate (Honey) - From Beecher’s (Seattle shout-out!) comes this very soft, very mild honey-flavored cheese. It’s really spreadable, and goes beautifully with sourdough, though I’ve also used it in salad (see recipe below). It’s remarkably friendly, and will go with practically any fruit or soft bread… and I’d like to try making a cheesecake of it one day.

Blank Slate Salad
This is a sweet, summery salad, which makes a nice end to a meal.
Makes: 4 side salads | Prep time: 30 mins.

1 6 oz. tub Beecher’s Blank Slate (Honey) cheese
2 medium red onions
2 soft, semi-firm peaches
1 head green-leaf lettuce
1 1/2 Tbsp champagne vinegar
3 Tbsp walnut oil
2 Tbsp almond slivers
1 Tbsp olive oil
dash of salt
salt and pepper to taste

1) Heat olive oil in a large frying pan on medium-high heat. Slice onions into semi-thick rings, and throw them into the pan. Throw a dash of salt on top of them. Break up the rings and let them start to fry; keep moving them, but give them plenty of time to cook down. The goal is to cook them until they’re cooked through and don’t have too much spicy-onion flavor, but not to the point where they’re limp and browned all over.
2) In a separate, small pan, heat about 1/2 Tbsp of the walnut oil on medium-high heat and roast the almond slivers in it. These will brown fast, and you want them to get golden-colored on the outside, but not to smoke or have any burnt flavor, so make sure to have a small bowl ready so that you can get them out of the frying pan as soon as they have reached the right color.
3) Wash and tear lettuce; wash and slice peaches.
4) Mix together the remaining walnut oil and the champagne vinegar as a dressing.
5) When the onions are done cooking (it takes 20-30 mins), assemble salads: a bed of lettuce, then the sliced peaches, then the onions, and the almonds. Crumble the cheese on top of each, dress them, and salt and pepper them to taste.

* This post wasn’t supposed to be about wine, but I can’t let this go without mentioning that I’ve recently fallen hard for rosés of pinot noir. Pinot’s such a meaty grape, but dry enough that when you make a pinot from it, you get a light, friendly, but entirely tasty (and not too sweet) lunchtime-y wine. In this field, C.R. Sandidge makes a reliably good Great Gams, although earlier years have been better. This weekend, I also tasted a lovely pinot rosé from Elk Cove, which makes such an amazingly fine reserve pinot (warning: that one’s not a $20 bottle) that you know they have a good feel for the grape overall.