Snow Balls

I know, I know, it is spring, and the snow has melted there are no snow balls. I must beg to differ, and my goodness they are delicious! Our reenactment season is starting again, and with it comes the annual "Cast Iron Chef" competition. John and I have decided to enter this year, so the practice begins. We have been pouring over our 18 century cookbook (the recipes have to be accurate for the period). For desert we decided to try Carolina Snowballs. They are actually easy to make, it is plating them that is tricky. You take a piece of cloth, on it you place about 3 tablespoons of rice. On top of that you place an apple that has been peeled and cored. Place a little lemon zest in the hole, and tie the cloth tightly around the apple. This is far easier to do with two people, and I found that it helped to push the rice up, and around the apple (smoothing it out a bit). These pouches (Parker said they look like money bags) are placed into a pot of cold water. The water is brought to a boil, and then left to boil about 25 minutes. The tricky part is removing them from the cloth, without breaking the layer of rice that has formed. There is a sauce that is poured over this snowball. It is made with a 1/4 pound of butter, a cup of white wine (we used white grape juice), cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. It is so tasty, I think this will be one of our favourites for quite some time. We have learned that the recipes of old were very rich and had an extremely high fat content, it reaffirms how different life really was. This one though, is not too bad for fat. If you choose to try it, you won't be sorry. I best go, I think I want to try to get the last snowball.

Blue Cheese!

I seem to have recollections of liking blue cheese as a child. I have vague memories of going to visit Rodgers, and eating it with Chris. At the time, I was also on a schedule of getting two needles three times a week, to keep my allergies under control. As I grew, I somewhat outgrew my allergies. That is, until I went to high school, and they started construction. Going to school in that environment, had brought my allergies back with a vengeance. What brings seemingly meandering thoughts? I went out to dinner with my dear husband last night. I decided to try the veal cordon-blue. Not thinking things through, it did not occur to me that it had blue cheese in it (I know, the name says it all). I thought nothing of it until later in the evening, when I started to break out in hives. I know I have been told that cheese mold is close to penicillin, so I guess I have to pay more attention to what I eat. It sometimes amazes me, how seemingly small things can become big things, yet we take it for granted.