Archive for May 28th, 2008

I’d been watching the vacant spot between Kick Ass Cupcakes and When Pigs Fly Bread for a while, and just last week it bloomed into the Dairy Bar at Kick Ass Cupcakes. But I’m just going to call it the Kick Ass Dairy Bar. It’s now official – Davis Square is the Paris of Somerville. We have a bakery and a cheese shop.

I popped in today on my way home and checked out the selection of “farm fresh and local dairy milk, cream, butter, eggs, cheese, hand packed ice cream and more.” They also have some chocolate and other odds and ends, but let’s be honest, I was there for the cheese. I picked up a bright white brick of Myenberg aged goat milk cheddar and a package of adorable thimble-shaped “tiny artisinal cheeses” called Hanabells from Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA.

With a little help from a pear, some crackers, the omnipresent loaf of When Pigs Fly pumpernickel and some mizuna and arugula from J’s garden, I put together a couple of tastings for myself. There was a Marlborough (NZ, not MA) Sauvignon Blanc in there too. The Hannabells were creamy and mild with a nice note of sea salt and barely any rind. We’ll have to see if they last long enough to get more. I bought the plain kind, but they also come in herb and spicy formulae. I think the brothers should consider a variety pack.

The goat cheddar was something I’d never seen before. I didn’t know it was possible. I think it’s successful, but have to wonder if most people wouldn’t prefer cow cheddar or more traditional forms of goat cheese. I also made a sandwich of this cheese with some greens and pumpernickel. Will have to consider this for the next cheese sandwich challenge.

Since Universal Hub tagged me with the “locovore” “locavore” label, I wondered how close this spread was in terms of food miles. I did better than average, but ultimately not that well, since the Myenberg is from California. If I had made the sandwich with the Shy Brothers cheese, it would have done — bread from Maine, cheese from Massachussets, and greens from a Cambridge garden. But the Hanabells were better taken as canapes with a cracker (corner 7-11) and a slice of pear (organic from Harvest Coop, but probably from the southern hemisphere). In any case, Locovore Locavore Sandwich is a good name for a band or a blog. You read it here first.

If you’ve been following me on twitter (or in person for that matter, but that would be even weirder) you know that I’ve been craving a good savory scone. Heck, I would have settled for a bad one. I stuck out at several local outlets, but my craving was picked up by a good friend and local celebrity chef, <plug> who has a new food blog you absolutely must read. </plug> She made a couple of batches of cheese bacon and scallion scones, and I’ve been lucky enough to stow a few in my freezer. Hint: don’t bake them all unless you’re going to eat them all – freeze them individually and bake them on demand. You can read her side of the story and score the recipe at Grow Cook Eat. Here are some photos from the second (or was it third?) batch this weekend.

Well, that’s only part of a long techno-story developing on my desk. But it’s true. I raved about the Time Capsule in one of my last Ipswitch blog posts, and now I actually own one. It delivers on all its cool features, at least the ones I’ve tried (haven’t upgraded to Leopard yet) but it also runs disturbingly hot. I could have bought a USB coffee warmer for about $5 but instead I got an excellent access point and print sharing thingy. That also keeps my coffee warm. Viva Magnifica!

What’s more interesting, at least to the techie in me, is that I had a near-total hard drive failure on my iMac, and despite some inconvenience and expense, I lost very little data. And that was before I bought the Time Capsule.

Emails? Stored online with my email provider. Music? Stored on the ipod. Pictures? Well, that’s the weak link – some on flickr, some on CD, many on this blog, but a lot were on the drive. Documents? Those I actually backed up to a separate computer. So why buy a backup device like the Time Capsule? Because the drives used by those online providers are no better than the one I just bought, that’s why. Online backup is attractive too, since theft or disaster could wipe out both computer and backup, but the magnitude of media – photos and music (I don’t have many videos) – seems to make that impractical.