What's the Buzz! Beehive Creamery

Being a Utah State Aggie graduate, I've been following Pat Ford and Tim Welsh's cheesemaking at their Beehive Cheese Co. for several years.Their plant which opened in 2005 is set in the beautiful Weber Canyon in a valley between the forested Wasatch Mountains. To me, Utah is such a beautiful state and was fortunate to go to college in the city of Logan with many fun memories of school and friends. Pat and Tim were smart to incorporate Utah State, one of the few remaining universities in the country that has a creamery, to help develop the base for their cheddars.

One of their first cheeses and probably the best well known is Barely Buzzed. It's a traditional

cheddar rubbed with expresso (from Legacy Coffee Co in Colorado owned by Tim's brother) and lavender. This cheese has won 1st place at the American Cheese Society for the past 3 years and just last year in Austin, Texas. What intrigues me about this cheese is that the flavor doesn't just quit at the rind but continues all the way through the cheese. The expresso flavor is not overwhelming, and the lavender notes are subtle. Pairs well with beer and what a great name for a cheese!

I truly like their Seahive which is hand rubbed with their Beehive Wildflower honey and local Redmond RealSalt. Their newest cheese called Butter Bound is rubbed with cultured butter and aged for 8 months. I couldn't stop eating the samples that Pat sent last week of this sweet cheese.

The milk is what makes their cheeses so great, and they buy only Jersey milk from WadeLand Dairy near the mineral-rich Great Salt Lake. Its pure and clean and, they have done their homework locating the right dairy. The evening milk is delivered by the dairy the same night the cows are milked, and the cheesemaking process begins within a few hours. They make 8 batches of cheese per week by hand in their creamery which makes it even that more artistinal.

Sqeeky Cheese Curds are becoming a fun way to serve cheese and Beehive is coming out with many different flavors. Cheese curds are fresh cheddar cheese in its natural shape before being processed into blocks or wheels to be aged. Curds have a mild taste with a slightly rubbery texture and should squeak when eaten. In the midwest they deep-fry them. Sounds like a Texas thing to me. You will find them only at specialty shops like Hubbell & Hudson in the Woodlands and Antonellis's in Austin.

Its great to see these two guys so full of passion about making cheese the artisan way by hand, as well as carry the flavors of their cheeses from the terroirs of their beloved Utah.

Handmade Salami Review: Creminelli and Columbus Artisan - Scordo.com

Handmade Salami Review: Creminelli and Columbus Artisan

Cruising with Cheese

What fun to go on a cruise with family over New Years on the grand Ruby Princess to the Caribbean islands of Princess Keys, St. Thomas, Dominica, Bonaire, Grenada and Aruba. This ship holds over 3000 passengers and was built in Italy just two years ago. She certainly is a beauty.

Its great to have family on board and especially if you haven't seen everybody over a year.

Here Katherine is dancing to music from one of the many bands playing on ship. Lots of parties, champagne and fun to ring in 2010.

Katherine with her New Year's hat sitting at dinner before the parties began. Kids sure make you laugh and entertain you when cruising!!

Elizabeth with her father sitting down for a lobster dinner. Did I say she ordered a burger and fries?

New to the ship is a international cafe and coffee bar. Across the deck was the wine and cheese bar. I was impressed!

Elizabeth at the dinner table after a day at the beach. I don't think we would get away with this at our age although I did see some 70' ish folks on deck snoozing before we even went to breakfast at 9 a.m.

Another pose of Elizabeth at the table...

Every night the menu included a cheese plate with bread and nuts. Cheeses available were: Morbier, Emmental, Brie, Cheddar and Stilton. What no Spanish Manchego or American Barely Buzzed from Utah?

Katherine loves brie so although the chocolate ice cream probably tasted better than the brie, she was a trouper who made room for alittle cheese.

We love chocolate.... napkin and all

Sam was our waiter for 10 days and would love somehow to get him this picture as he really catered to the kids and family. He has a family of his own in Thailand and am sure 9 months on a boat is a long time to be away from them. Sam said he will probably take 6 months off this time around.

Final day before disembarking the boat. Elizabeth is wearing her cowboy hat and holding a baa (sheep) which I gave her when she was one year old. She still is attached to baa and goes nowhere without it.

Vacation over and back to h-town. My tan is peeling but memories are great with pictures!!

Houston Wine School

November 9, 2009 was the beginning of my five week wine course taught by master sommelier, Guy Stout of Glazier Distributing and Eric Hasting, advanced sommelier from Eddie V in Houston. It was held at Peter Garcia's El Meson restaurant. Peter himself, is a certified sommelier and has two extensive wine cellars that he built at his popular Spanish restaurant in the Rice Village. He is so passionate about his wines which he is well known for, and it reflects in his extensive wine list.

Our sessions were divided into areas of the world where most of the varietals of grapes are made for wine. The first week started with the American wines from California,Oregon etc., and ended with wines from the French Champagne, Burgundy, Alsace, Rhone Valley and Provence region.

I was glad to help Peter and Guy out with some cheeses we had open in our refrigerator at work along with olives, nuts and fruit provided by El Meson. Such fun doing this!

Here we tasted some great wines from the Southern Hemisphere like Wolf Blass Shiraz from New Zealand and Dona Paula Malbec from Argentina. My, there are so many wines to learn and decided to keep it simple and write a diary of which wines I liked. Fun were the wines of Italy especially the Mionetto Prosecco and Bonfi Brunello which retails for $60 in the stores.

Our last class was exciting as we went thru the French region of Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy and Rhone. Our tip was to buy the Perrin Bros. Cotes du Rhone 05,06,07.
Guy brought a bottle ofVeuve Clicquot 1998. Never thought I'd be drinking a $200 bottle of bubbly!

As I leave my classes on wine, I know I need to take a few more courses which will help sink some of this knowledge in. Do I have another 10 years to learn wines like I have cheese???

A old Iowa love...

I was in Waterloo, Iowa (home of John Deer tractors) Oct 8-11 for my class reunion at West High School. I couldn't leave without having a maid-rite which I enjoyed as a kid growing up there. Back then, I remember having the ones in Clear Lake where we spent our summers. Across from the Surf Ballroom (famous as its where Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper played the night their plane crashed north of Clear Lake) was a little place where you would walk in and order your maid-rite which they'd put on a bun with a ice cream scoop. The really famous maid-rite is Taylor's in Marshaltown, Iowa, but was just glad to see two in Waterloo.

Time looks like it hasn't changed this place. Annie's is on Logan Ave across from Allen Hospital in Waterloo.

A maid-rite, fries, coleslaw and coke was $5.00 Loved it....

Made with 100% Choice beef with only pickles, onion and mustard.

Ketchup is available but you must ask.

I love Alison Cook's friday burger blog in Houston as she visits burger joints and blogs about them. I wonder if she has ever had a maid-rite? I should get Taylor's in Marshaltown, which does ship anywhere, to send her one and see what she thinks. Hopefully, she'd give it a A+ like I did.

YouTube - Wrapping Cheese 3

YouTube - Wrapping Cheese 3

Cheese in Austin

The American Cheese Society (ACS) conference was held this year in beautiful downtown Austin. Walked every morning to the conference at the Hilton from across the Congress Bridge which connects to the bustling downtown. The bridge is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America. Yes, at 7 a.m the bats make it back to the bridge to rest before forging out for food around 7 p.m. No mosquitoes here in Austin!

Michell Buster from the Forever Cheese Company showing the wonderful small farm cheeses that she and Pierluigi Sini find in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Your probably asking why they are there-well they kinda started the cheese revolution and the artisan movement in 1998 by bringing in such wonderful cheeses from small farmers in Europe. They have the best marcona almonds, carmelized walnuts, fig cakes and mostarda that compliments your cheeses. Forever Cheese was the only imported cheese company allowed at the Festival of Cheeses which showcases all the American cheeses for us to sample at the end of the Conference.

This is Forever Cheese table in the ballroom full of Mediterranean

specialities which they do so well.

Its me after one of the great seminars on cheeses ranging from

affinage to microbrew and cheese tasting. I wasbeing good as I let

Helen go to the beer tasting and Joyce indulge in the chocolate seminar. Was I crazy?

This seminar brought a panel of Mexican cheesemakers to the conference, and through an interpreter, they told us about their artisan cheesemaking companies. Only three producers got visas to come here out of seven, and their cheeses were pretty interesting. Right now, there are two markets in Mexico for cheese and one is imitation cheese for the millions of its people, and the other is its traditional handmade cheeses for the local folks. The competition they face is from the us (Kraft & Nestle) who export millions of tons of so called cheese to Mexico. As consumption is up with cheese South of the border, am hoping the cheeses and their cheesemakers win over the big bad guys!

Did you know Mexico makes a cheddar? Tasted a 6 mo cheddar which I thought was pretty darn good.

Ah, the famous Stubbs Barbeque Restaurant in downtown Austin.
My, at 100 degrees, the beer didn't stay very cold. Our party was outside...

Waiting for the country music band from Dallas.

Barbeque, potato salad, coleslaw and of, course white bread.

Our friend Maria Walley just launched her new biscuits which compliment all cheeses. Great going Maria!

The Festival of Cheese which is what everyone waits for on Saturday showcases the cheeses sent in by cheesemakers to be judged. Over 1,300 entries this year.

You can only eat so much.

The best of show, raw cow's milk "Rogue River Blue" from Oregon.

Good luck trying to find this wonderful blue as it is only made at a certain time of year. Hopefully we will see more of it.

The displays were awesome. Lots of volunteers from all over

Texas coming to cut cheese. You guys were awesome.

Flavored cheddars, in fact, lots of cheddar cheesemakers.

Can't say we have very many here in Texas. Tough work

milking and taking care of cows! Goats are much easier.

Our favorite guys from Utah, Beehive Cheese Company and their

Barely Buzzed Cheese which has won three year in a row for its

wonderful cheddar rubbed with expresso grounds and lavendar.

I'm a Aggie graduate (Utah State), and its agriculture department helped these guys with their cheese making.

Come on Texas A & M, we need another awesome cheese here in Texas with your help.....

Being from Iowa, I was so excited to see Milton Creamery win 1st in their category. Its a wonderful raw milk cheese made using thistle as its rennet. The cow's are hand milked by five Amish farms, and milk is delivered three times a week to the creamery.

Congratulations to Kathleen Shannon Finn for winning the lifetime achievement award from ACS. Don't think there was a dry eye in the room as her daughter accepted the award and told everyone how she aspired to be just like her mother. Kathleen works for the Columbus Distributing Company which makes great artisan salames.

See ya next year in Seattle!