goat-cheese salad dressing

I've made this twice now and both times it's gone down a treat. My tummy is fine with goat cheese, thankfully, and so I buy it at Costco (it's from Wisconsin, of all places).

This is very easy to make and even easier to eat. I got it here, and I've changed the amounts slightly.

You'll need:

• 1/4 cup soft goat cheese
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons mixed herbs (I've been using dried because our container garden has not been replenished except for parsley so far)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• coarse black pepper

Do this:

Just mash the cheese and vinegar with a fork till smooth, then whisk in the rest of the ingredients.

Drizzle over some salad and savor the tangy creaminess. The first salad we tried it on had some cubed sauteed pumpkin with the greens, and that was extra delicious. 

matthew goes to germany (in the kitchen, at least)

Matthew is fascinated with the German language and culture! So last week he and I took a little trip to the computer for some research and then a visit to the kitchen to try out some German cooking. Here he is making the Bavarian cream. That was quite a lot of steps (eleven, to be exact). It involves heavy cream, milk, separating some eggs, sugar, vanilla, some cooking, an ice bath, a double boiler, and some refrigeration. Here's the method we used, though we topped it with a mango fruit sauce and not what they recommended (berry sauce or lemon juice). Matthew loves anything mango!

The full meal: Rosti potato pancakes (we cheated by not grating the potatoes ourselves--we bought a packet of ready-to-cook Swiss Rosti from Costco!), currywurst (sausages roasted and sliced with a fantastic ketchup-curry sauce), and German peas with bacon, sugar, and vinegar. Everything was so delicious and Matthew did a superb job.

And don't forget the Bavarian cream...