Simple gourmet things to have on hand: Vermont Creamery [classic article]

Do you and your partner have conversations like at my house: “What do you wanna do for dinner?” These tend to go round-robin while each person cagily ascertains what the other one is up for preparation, time-wise, financially, health-conscious, mood. Many times, the passive-aggressive response is, “Well, we have stuff in the house . . . ” It’s good to be able to take “what you have in the house” and craft it into a delicious repast or snack. Vermont Creamery has products that will help you do that deliciously! I was happy to be hosted to experience it.

Want something that is just as good with tea bread as with hard-to-season veggies like cauliflower, succotash, carrots? What about something to baste game birds with or to use as a baking ingredient? Maybe you just have bread in the house and can only toast it? Cultured Butter Blended with Sea Salt and Maple may very well be the next best thing to and since sliced bread! That sweet/salty combo continues to be hot in food trends. The butter is very rich, dense. It would be incredible melted on popcorn! Here’s what they say about it:

Two iconic Vermont products just got married — Vermont Creamery Sea Salt Crystal Cultured Butter and Pure Vermont maple sugar from Butternut Mountain Farms.

This regional combination of Vermont Terroir highlights the contrast of salty crunch with the sweetness of late harvest maple. It is a mouthful of texture and goodness. Use on pancakes or toast for breakfast, melt on squash or harvest roasted vegetables or top a seared pork chop with a medallion of maple butter.

There are nights when all I wanna do is sit in bed with a stack of new glossy magazines, click on the tv and have a simple little dinner. That doesn’t mean I don’t like delicious flavors! Au contraire! For those times, a little cheese board, a cheese knife and a Bijou crottin is spot-on perfect. It’s a portion controlled jewel that’s a French-style ripened goat cheese. I tasted sweet dairy notes, with some tang and some salt, then some goatiness in the back of the palate. Then, it evolves into fresh milk flavors. It has a drier, firm mouth texture. I paired it with some dried cherry bits from Door County, Wisconsin and some Survival Cookies — because they suggested dried cherries and hazelnuts, Survival Cookies have raw hazelnuts. You could garnish it with a bit of dried herbs or edible flowers. It would be gorgeous on a full cheese tray. Here’s what they say about it:

Made with fresh pasteurized goats’ milk from family farms, Bijou curd coagulates overnight, drains in cheese cloth and is then shaped into little buttons. Dried, and ripened for one week, Bijou evolves with time, gaining a sharpness and complexity after thirty days. Serve toasted on baguette with a salad for a traditional French Bistro Chevre Chaud or on a cheeseboard.

Going on a picnic? Olive and Herb Cream Goat Cheese was perfect when I hit the road head to Kentucky and Indiana recently. Spread it on bread or crackers by itself for a snack or use it as a flavorful sandwich spread! It’s mostly spreadable goat cheese with just a tad of olive. It’s cute with a little garnish, like a cherry tomato half. It has a clean, mild goat cheese flavor. Here’s what they say about it: