Goat cheese

Goat cheese is amazing. I want it on everything.

Back up.

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When I was 15, during my second year of high school, I was The Queen of the House of Norway in Balboa Park, San Diego. I don't think I ever completely understood the purpose of this, but I was asked so I did it. There are these cute cultural houses on the Prado in Balboa Park, near the San Diego Zoo and the Organ Pavillion, and my Norwegian grandmother got me involved in this girl's fraternal organization where "queens" and "princesses" would represent the houses from all the different countries and do service projects. I went to meetings early on Sunday mornings a couple times a month, and listened to the minutes and plans for the group. Yea, it was weird and confusing and sometimes the mom's who were there would argue loudly. But I wore a purple dress to the "coronation" (and a sweet crown that was real Norwegian silver) and never did much else except learn traditional dances and show up for some events in the park. Once I showed up to the big Norwegian Independence Day parade without the right shoes and got in trouble and had to wear my mom's shoes. I wore a bunad and waved a flag. I hope my parents didn't lose any money on this experience.

Anyway, the House of Norway itself is kinda cool. There's a picture of the King of Norway and he sends them letters sometimes. Every Sunday when the House is open, volunteers come in and host for a couple hours and make Norwegian waffles with jam and it's delicious and delightful.

But sometimes, they serve brunost.

Brunost is brown goat cheese. I haven't had it since I was young, but I remember it being awful and tasting like barf. Sorry, my Norwegian genes didn't overcome this one. Wikipedia says "It is often sold in the USA under the name Gjetost, which means goat cheese." So don't be fooled. It's a caramelized whey cheese, and it's brown. And old Norwegian ladies eat it on crackers that taste like cardboard. 

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This week, I made delicious chèvre and scrambled egg breakfast burritos. Oh my. I used the French goat cheese which is white, soft and crumbly, and sometimes has spices already mixed in it. I made this for breakfast two mornings in a row because it was so delicious. The cheese smeared on a warm tortilla and then loaded with soft eggs is a great way to start my day. I don't have any photos because there just wasn't time. 

So what I should have said at the beginning, I guess, is that I want chèvre on everything. 

Salmon with soy glaze

Thankfully, tonight's dinner turned out much better than Monday's. Nothing exploded! Nothing caught on fire! No ingredients were missed! Nothing stuck to a pan! Um...yea...

Minus all the gunk that husband is now cleaning out of the rice pot and off the baking sheet, everything turned out delicious. Once my hard-as-rock brown sugar was chipped away into the soy sauce for the fish glaze, everything came together. I've never actually broiled anything before, and I still don't have a good concept of what broiling actually does, but there's a setting for it on the oven, so I broiled the salmon, and apparently broiled the crap out of the onions that were on the baking sheet with it. The glaze was tasty (of course, there's a quarter cup of sugar in it) and it went well over the fish and broccoli and rice without overpowering either the fish or broccoli. It was a pretty simple dinner, still with good flavour, and got healthy fish into our diet for the day. The onions were almost completely black, so I could have done without those, or just kept them raw. I also probably should have loaded up on more broccoli (I think I didn't put in as much as the recipe called for), but I liked that I could just put it in with the rice for a few minutes and it cooked so quickly. Overall, we're happy and full.

See what I mean about the onions? We shared the fillet, and the pear was a tasty side!

Little kitty got some yummy salmon! Earlier this week, she discovered that she loves bacon, too. 

Wife, 0; Blender, 1

Last week I made some super boring enchiladas, but don't worry, I learned a lot. Then husband made some pretty boring stir fry, but it was better than the one he made before that. Then there was last night: corn chowder Monday.

Let me set the scene that husband came home to.

Him: *opens door* Hey! Oh...
He has the most incredibly concerned look on his face.

Me: bursts into tears of hysteria that I was trying to hold back before he walked in the door, but now cannot contain incomprehensible sobbing and crying.

Him: still with concerned look comes over to investigate, finds blender with top off, wife covered in corn chowder, corn bits spewed all over kitchen.

Me: still crying, but also realizing how ridiculous this is, I manage to spit out an apology for ruining dinner.

He: asks if I'm crying or laughing

Me: Both!

As I try to calm down from my hysterics, I explain that I am laughing and crying and that the recipe told me to blend half of the soup, but when I tried, my powerful blender exploded its top off (even though my hand was there!) and projected corn chowder ALL over the kitchen, most notably into the toaster and on my face. Lesson: don't spew hot soup all over your face; it isn't pleasant and you will let out a distinctive yelp before realizing you still have to turn the blender off!

Just a few minutes before all of this, I had sent husband a loving text telling him dinner was almost ready... April Fools!

Husband cleaned up my mess while I cleaned up my face and when we finally got to sit down to dinner, it was actually, dare I say, pretty tasty! I topped off the soup with bacon (which he was particularly excited about because I hardly ever cook it) and avocado, and had some whole wheat bread on the side.

All in all, a successful night. Good thing I followed the recipe this time.