Recently, I took a normal Saturday afternoon snack and turned it into a fancy appetizer, fit for a party. I try to make a nice presentation of the food I prepare, just because it makes the meal just a little more exciting. When the groomer attaches a little bow to Samantha's collar, I leave it on for awhile (much to Sam's dismay) because it's so darn cute. My mother encouraged my love of all things fancy by using cookie cutters to cut out most of my sandwiches as a child (at the very least, she would remove the crusts), so my memories of childhood lunches include egg-salad sandwiches shaped like bunny rabbits and bolonga (I know, eEven today, in my much more grounded 30's, I still try to be fancy on occasion. It goes all the way back to when I was four and I insisted that all of my swimsuits have ruffles.
You can store them in the fridge as is, or put in the oven at the lowest setting with the door slightly ajar to create a “rind.I like to be fancy sometimes. (If you don’t have a dehydrator, no worries. I have a couple of good vegan friends that I CAN’T WAIT to surprise with these little treats. They had a sleepover in the dehydrator, and are perfectly tangy and decadent today. Once all of the cheese were flavored, I molded them into flat disks and put them in the dehydrator to harden a little bit (at about 105 degrees). The almond cheese was destined for spice city with chopped fresh basil, rosemary, dried oregano, dill and pepper. For the lavender-honey, dried lavender and a drizzle of local honey were absolutely perfect– this was my favorite flavor. For the berry, I added chopped dried cranberries and orange zest. I split the cashew mixture in half, and made a lavender-honey cheese as well as a berry variety. Of course, talk to your doc before trying any new supplements.)Īfter the cheese mixtures drained for about an hour in the cheesecloth, I packed each one tightly to remove as much mixture as possible. (Note: you can also blend probiotic powder like acidophilus into your nut cheese mixture to get probiotic power you’d find in traditional dairy cheeses. I thought it would be fun to do a sweet cheesy mix with the cashews, so I wanted my base to be plain. The only thing that went in was 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, juice of 1/2 lemon,1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and 1 cup of water. I did the exact same thing with the soaked cashew mixture, but left the flavors fairly basic. In the morning, I peeled the almonds -on life’s PITA list I’d rate it quite high, but it’s worth it- and added the almonds to a blender with the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, 1 clove of minced garlic and 1/2 cup of water.īlended it up, and then poured the mixture into some cheesecloth in a bowl: I soaked 2 cups of cashews and 1 cup of almonds overnight. (supplies: high speed blender, cheesecloth, large bowl, lemon, nuts of choice -cashews, macadamia nuts and almonds all work well- and seasonings) Since they didn’t have the nut cheese in stock, I decided to make my own.Īnd while I’m at it, maybe I’ll get into goat string cheese making, too…. I put them in my cart and decided to glance at the price tag. I scoured our Whole Foods looking for some, and even though I had no luck, I DID find goat cheese string cheese sticks.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve had nut-based cheese -it’s particularly incredible with this raw onion bread- but when I was big into my raw kick, it was a favorite snack. It happened recently when a green smoothie -I’ve been thinking about the blended salads I used to make so often!- and again when I read Gena’s post about nut cheese. Whenever I see a food that looks AMAZING, I can’t.get.it.outta.my.mind until I get my fix.
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