I love lots of things in life. My family would obviously be at the top of my list, then the other stuff like old cars, spicy food, traveling, wine and...cheese. I'd be a happy guy if all I had for dinner was a baguette and a wedge of cheese. Recently I attended the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco where the afternoon of the second day is dedicated to local vendors who are just dying to showcase their product to a bunch of hungry bloggers.
As I wandered around the taste pavilion drooling at all of the amazing products, I came acrossand their super delicious goat cheese. Thiwinning dairy farm, incidentally fully powered by solar energy, sits in Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco.Redwood Hill is truly a small, family owned and operated dairy... but don't be fooled by my use of the word small- I only use it to give you some idea of the quality and care that goes into making the cheese on a personal level
Redwood Hill really puts the "art" in artisanal. The farm can also boast to being the country's first goat dairy to display the "Certified Humane Raised and Handled" label, which basically means that the goats, (over 300 of them, and all individually named) are living the life! Being able to be able to rest and have enough shelter among other things make for happy animals and I'm convinced happy animals produce stellar product.Redwood Hill Farm also makes goat milk yogurt and kefir too, but my deal is the cheese.
I tasted the Bucheret at the festival and loved it, smooth and creamy, with that awesome tang to it, I thought it couldn't get any better...until I started snacking on the various chevres. Available in traditional, peppercorn, garlic/chive and roasted chili, these are great for cooking with or just eating on some crackers or a baguette. My favorite was easily the roasted chili, I love spicy and this delivers a kick which doesn't wipe out your taste buds but lets you know why it's called roasted chili!
When Redwood Hill graciously offered to send me some chevre, I tried to incorporate the different flavors into a variety of dishes. Yup- it tastes amazing right from the tub but, when mixed into food, it goes to a whole other level. I set my own goal of trying to come up with an appetizer, main course and dessert using these chevre samples and this is what happened...
Goat cheese mini quiche recipe with bacon and sun dried tomatoes
I used the roasted chili chevre for this recipe and the flavor was really good. This would be a great brunch or breakfast munch and the garlic flavor would be awesome too!
