Book Review: The Year of the Goat: 40,000 Miles and the Quest for the Perfect Cheese

When I saw this book on a table at Barnes and Noble I had to buy it. Being the cheese lover that I am, I was intrigued by what I might learn about goat cheese. I wondered if some of my favorite local cheese makers would be written about in there. On top of the cheese aspect of the book, I was excited to learn more about the dairy goat industry. My family has a 400 acre ranch in Northern California, and my dad (a fellow cheese lover) and I often talk about how great it would be to move up there, raise goats and make cheese. I picked it up and bought the book immediately.

I enjoyed the book, but definitely felt a bit misled by the title. I learned more about the meat-goat industry than I did about making goat cheese and raising dairy goats. The book takes you on the cross country journey of a young NY couple as they try to learn everything there is to learn about goats in order to determine whether or not they want to quit their jobs and move to the country. It was a fun read and I definitely had moments of great envy. If I didn't have a house, two kids and a dog I would be all over my husband to take a similar journey with me. Somehow the thought of taking such a trip with two little boys seems far less romantic.

The only local cheesemaker that is written about extensively in the book was Redwood Hill Farms. They are well known for their goats milk yogurt, which is surprisingly tasty. The day after I finished the book I headed off for my weekly farmer's market shopping trip, and was delighted to see Redwood Hill Farms represented there. I bought a round of Camelia, in my opinion their best cheese. It is similar to a Camembert, one of my all time favorite cheeses! I also bought a little container of fresh chevre. We ate the Camelia with a nice Acme baguette and tomato salad for lunch that afternoon. Perfect!

I would recommend the book if you want a fun read, but don't expect to learn too much about goat cheese. Instead it is more of a well rounded goat education, which is also useful.

Quick and easy dinner

Monday night...hard to get back into the swing of things sometimes. This was one of those Monday nights that I just couldn't deal with an elaborate meal. My original plan was to make little pot pies with leftover chicken and veggies. I finally cooked my CSA Soul Food Farm chicken after 30 minutes of talking to it outside as I cut off its head and feet. My sister was in the kitchen with the baby and the dog, yelling at me "its already dead! it won't feel a thing!". Anyway, I didn't have it in me to make the pot pies tonight so I dug around in the freezer and pantry for something else to make. I came up with some nice local treats! I found an open box of lasagna noodles, which I broke up and cooked. I was cooking for a two year old and a 10 month old, so they didn't need to be pretty, and they weren't. I also found a package of Fatted Calf Breakfast Sausage and Happy Girl Kitchen pesto sauce. I cooked up the sausage, drained it, poured the cooked pasta on top and stirred in the pesto. Voila! A lovely dinner! I also gave the boys some peach Kefir to drink. The baby especially loved it. He had three helpings of pasta and sausage, plus an entire container of Little Bug Nectarines and Oats, and some Kefir from his sippy cup.

Lamb Breast and Eat Local Challenge

As a part of my meat csa box for September I got a little package labeled "lamb breast." I was intrigued but not sure how to cook them, as I'd never eaten them or seen them prepared before. I searched online for recipes and didn't find much that sounded appealing. Most recipes involved stuffing them and I just wasn't in the mood for that big of a project, especially since its been so hot where I live. On Friday I had my parents over for dinner and decided to make the lamb breast as an appetizer. I followed a recipe that I found on Jacques Pepin's website, figuring it couldn't be TOO bad if it came from him. They were delicious! They were like little spare ribs. I served them with a bowl of the tomato flip I made a few weeks ago with the tomato surplus from my CSA produce box. What a treat!

For the rest of the meal we had Marin Sun Farms chicken breast roasted in the oven with Bariani olive oil, csa garlic, backyard thyme and backyard meyer lemons. I also roasted some of those wonderful csa tomatoes with basil and garlic and we had an Acme baguette. My father brought over some local wine and my mom made an apple crisp with apples they had been given by a guy who my father recently bought bees from. It was a totally local and totally delicious dinner! All in keeping with the Eat Local Challenge.

Comfort Food

Booking Through Thursday, Comfort Food:


Okay . . . picture this (really) worst-case scenario: It’s cold and raining, your boyfriend/girlfriend has just dumped you, you’ve just been fired, the pile of unpaid bills is sky-high, your beloved pet has recently died, and you think you’re coming down with a cold. All you want to do (other than hiding under the covers) is to curl up with a good book, something warm and comforting that will make you feel better.

What do you read?

I would get myself a bottle of wine, an Acme baguette and a wheel of Red Hawk and sit down on my couch with a nice cookbook. Probably one of Julia Child's books or some other big book with lots of interesting facts about food and cooking. I find cookbooks to be very comforting reading, and then you can stop at any point for a good cry and pick it up again when you've gotten a hold of yourself again.

Meal Plans

We have been getting absolutely overloaded with basil, peppers, eggplant and heirloom tomatoes from our CSA over the past few weeks. I have been doing my best to keep up and eat them all, but I finally just started roasting them all together, whizzing them up in the Cuisinart and freezing them as pasta sauce for the winter. Tonight my two year old had an absolute fit that there was sauce on his noodles and refused to eat them. His 10 month old brother, on the other hand, gobbled up the sauce on some overcooked noodles and ate a whole wedge of Parmesan cheese (this is how I know that he takes after his mommy where the two year old seems to take after his dad, at least in the food departmetn). I am finally caught up on the eggplant and tomatoes, at least until Thursday when the next CSA box arrives. Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday - Leftover penne with roasted tomato and pepper sauce
Tuesday - Fritatta with carmelized onions, tomatoes and goat cheese, which I plan to buy at the Berkeley Farmer's Market tomorrow afternoon. Green salad with vinaigrette and, you guessed it, tomatoes!
Wednesday - Sloppy Joes made with ground beef from my meat CSA, peas from my freezer (not local but I already had them on hand). This should be an agreeable dinner for my two year old.
Thursday - I guess I will just have to get on with that chicken and roast it with some potatoes and other local veggies, green salad.
Friday - Date night - we're goin' out!
Saturday - Leftover chicken in some form
Sunday - We're goin' out again!

Desert Island Gear

My friend (and cousin's wife), Marsha just posted a fun little contest on her blog. In order to participate she asks that we post on our blogs what three things we'd take if stranded on a desert island. The first thing that came to my mind, perhaps because I've been up since 5 with my two year old, was my French Press and a very large supply of great coffee. They will come in a box together, so I am counting that as one item. I am pretty worthless without my coffee each morning, plus it is nice to have a glass of sweet iced coffee on a hot afternoon. I am sure there would be lots of very hot afternoons on a desert island, right? I would need some sort of entertainment, so my next item is a year's worth of back issues of the New York Times. First I thought maybe I'd bring some great book, but since I don't know how long I'd be stranded, I would probably get bored with that. But it would take a long time to get through a whole year's worth of New York Times papers cover to cover. The last thing I'd bring is a cow. Yes, a cow. Then I would always have milk for my coffee, I could make butter for cooking all of the fish that I'd be catching in, I could finally learn how to make cheese since I'd have lots of available free time, and I'd have a companion. Hopefully it would be a tropical fruit eating cow. When do we leave?

Desert Island Gear

My friend (and cousin's wife), Marsha just posted a fun little contest on her blog. In order to participate she asks that we post on our blogs what three things we'd take if stranded on a desert island. The first thing that came to my mind, perhaps because I've been up since 5 with my two year old, was my French Press and a very large supply of great coffee. They will come in a box together, so I am counting that as one item. I am pretty worthless without my coffee each morning, plus it is nice to have a glass of sweet iced coffee on a hot afternoon. I am sure there would be lots of very hot afternoons on a desert island, right? I would need some sort of entertainment, so my next item is a year's worth of back issues of the New York Times. First I thought maybe I'd bring some great book, but since I don't know how long I'd be stranded, I would probably get bored with that. But it would take a long time to get through a whole year's worth of New York Times papers cover to cover. The last thing I'd bring is a cow. Yes, a cow. Then I would always have milk for my coffee, I could make butter for cooking all of the fish that I'd be catching in, I could finally learn how to make cheese since I'd have lots of available free time, and I'd have a companion. Hopefully it would be a tropical fruit eating cow. When do we leave?