Cheddar cheese is one of the most popular types of cheeses of all time and it is absolutely my favorite. Did you know, the orange color of cheese dates back to the 16th century England when cheesemakers would pass off a lower quality of cheese by adding saffron, then eventually, ANNATTO. In former times, only affluent Cheddar lovers could afford the expensive full-cream cheeses with its creamy-yellow color. By adding the coloring agent, cheesemakers could take low-fat cheese and sell it as full-fat cheese. It is the fat that gives the color to the cheese. ANNATTO is derived from the seeds of the Achiote tree, which is native to tropical…
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- Appetizers/Snacks, Breakfast, Chicken, Entertaining at Home, Main Course, Meals For Two, Pasta, Pork, Recipes
4 Recipes to Use Leftover Holiday Ham
I have four recipes to use your leftover holiday ham from Christmas. Do you plan to make a ham for New Year’s dinner? You are going to have some leftover ham at some point. Don’t throw it away! Strategically plan dinners and snacks, with JoAnn’s Food Bites, and you can rid your fridge of that leftover ham. Inspirational Holiday Ham I was perusing through a Facebook Foodie Forum and stumbled upon a home chef’s post, which read, in most part… “I need inspirational recipes to use up all the leftover ham I have from the holiday.” Which inspired me to do some brainstorming and come up with at least FIVE…
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Egg and Pepper Brunch for Two
Wanting to find new Sunday brunch ideas, I was inspired by a recent episode of America’s Test Kitchen. They constructed a brunch recipe named for the northeastern region of Spain, the Basque region. Dividing France and Spain, the Basque region is known for their vast produce choices, including six different varieties of peppers. Although my recipe does not include these exotic peppers, I wanted a recipe which would stimulate my sense of smell, taste and sight. America’s Test Kitchen developed an Eggs Piperade recipe. It suggests cooking the vegetables separate from the eggs; a method that prevents the eggs from being stringy and wet. The peppers are able to retain…
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National Grilled Cheese Day: What is cheese?
To honor National Grilled Cheese Day, I thought I would talk about cheese and the process of making cheese. With over a dozen organic dairy farms making cheese in South Carolina alone, it has become more easily accessible. Specialty and small farm brands can be ordered online. What is cheese? Cheese can be broken down into two broad categories, fresh and ripened. Within these two categories are a multitude of subdivisions, usually classified according to the texture of the cheese and how it was made. Some of these categories can overlap because cheese can have an entirely different character when young than it does when aged. Most cheese begins as…
