aged havarti and thyme cheesecake bars

hello from a quick little trip to chicago! eggboy and i are chillin in the suburbs like the suburban human i used to be, complete with long picnic-y evenings spent at ravinia and later evenings spent at the steak n shake. i like being here this time of year, when everything is sprinkled with basil from mum's garden and we can sit outside with our morning iced coffees and hole-in-the-middles while george and gracie roll in the grass. tomorrow we're going to my friend's new mezcaleria and the next day i'm...*wait for it* going to australia!

i'm so excited! and a little cold just thinking about it because my sources are telling me that it snowed in sydney last week...??? but that actually makes me really happy because i like wearing my new brightly colored patagonia fleece at all hours of the day. do you have any sydney recs??

today i've got some little cheesecake bars for you that are perfect for a picnic (or a non-picnic. or whatever doesn't fall into the categories of picnic or non-picnic...). they've got two magic ingredients: aged havarti and thyme, which, as i learned at cheese school last month, pair beautifully together. i'm using a similar recipe here to my mini parmesan cheesecakes since aged havarti is a tiny bit like a tangier, creamier parmesan. i love how sharp it is and it lends a great little salty snap to these cheesecake bars, while the thyme makes for a pretty green sprinkle-ish situation! and it's a stylish garnish accessory. i'm using castello's awesome aged havarti and pairing these with napa cellars' zinfandel because the only thing better than a wine and cheese party is a wine and cheesecake party, amirght?

with this recipe, you can go the bar route (pictured), or make little cupcakes, or make a standard round cheesecake. also please take note of the crust-to-filling ratio, which is just barely 1 : 1. i am proud of this. 

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aged havarti and thyme cheesecake bars

makes 16 bars

ingredients

crust:

18 large rectangles (that is, 36 squares, or 2 full  pouches, or just under 10 oz) of graham crackers

a good pinch of kosher salt

10 tb unsalted butter, melted

filling:

2 tb flour

1/3 c sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/3 c shredded castello aged havarti (found in the deli section of the store!)

1 tb fresh thyme leaves

zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

15 oz whole milk ricotta

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

assembly:

honey for drizzling

fresh thyme

clues

preheat oven to 375 f. line an 8" square pan with parchment and set aside.

crust:

in a food processor, process the living daylights out of your graham crackers. add the salt and process a little more. we want a nice fine crumb. with the processor running, drizzle in the melted butter and process for a few seconds until the mixture clumps together. pour the mixture into your tin and press it down firmly and evenly. 

set the tin in the fridge while you make the filling.

filling:

to make the filling, you're gonna use your food processor again. don't worry about cleaning it out, it just has butter and graham cracker residue in it and that is ok.

add the flour, sugar, salt, havarti, thyme, and lemon zest and pulse it a few times to combine everything and break up the havarti. add the ricotta, lemon juice, and vanilla, and process it until smooth. two minutes-ish.

with the processor running, add the eggs one at a time, processing a bit after each one.

pour the mixture into your tins. and bake for 30 minutes, until the outer edges are set but the center is still a little jiggly. turn the oven off, open it about halfway, and let it be for about 45 minutes. remove from the oven and let completely at room temperature. cover and chill  for an hour or two, or overnight. 

cut into bars. drizzle with honey and sprinkle with fresh thyme and enjoy!

these will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

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-yeh!

thank you, castello and trinchero family estates for sponsoring this post! 

labneh grilled cheese

Since I was in middle school, Tuesdays have been ingrained in my brain as grilled cheese and tomato soup day, thanks to my summer camp and its weekly celebration of American cheese and glorified tomato juice. No matter how hot it was outside or how strict we were being about our preteen “diets” in advance of the 4th of July dance, on Tuesdays at lunch time it was universally understood that we would take no prisoners as we ravaged through platters of buttery Wonderbreaded triangles of grilled cheese dunked in styrofoam bowls of tomato soup. It’d all get washed down with ice cold bright blue punch and then we’d roll ourselves Violet Beauregarde-style back to our bunks for an hour of digesting and writing letters home on Hello Kitty stationary. 

It was the life. 

Ah, I love a good camp memory and you know I’ll take any chance to relive it. But now 15 years later, since blue punch has been replaced by kombucha (ok fine, and wine) and Hello Kitty stationary has been replaced by emails littered with emojis, I’ve updated my grilled cheese game. It might not have the nostalgia of butter and American cheese, but it’s got the nuttiness of seedy wheat bread, the tanginess of labneh and za’atar, and the sharpness of white cheddar and parmesan. Which is to say that it’s fancy enough to eat as a grownup and good enough to write home about. And obviously it’s not complete without a little swim in hearty tomato soup. 

You can use homemade or store-bought labneh here, or in a pinch you could also sub out plain full-fat greek yogurt. It doesn’t melt down like a harder cheese, but when it’s sandwiched between melty cheddar and parmesan, you get a nice oozy center in your toasty grilled cheese.

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Labneh Grilled Cheese

Makes 2

Ingredients

Olive oil
4 thick slices seedy wheat bread
2 ounces shaved white cheddar
2 ounces shaved parmesan
1/4 cup labneh
Za’atar
Sumac
Tomato soup, for serving

Clues

Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Toast the bread slices on one side until lightly browned and then flip them over. Top two slices with cheddar and two slices with parmesan and then spread two of the slices with the labneh and sprinkle with a pinch of za’atar and sumac. Carefully sandwich them together, cover with a lid, and cook until the bottom is toasted. Flip, cover, and cook until the bottom is toasted and the parmesan and cheddar are melted. Transfer to a plate, cut diagonally, and serve with tomato soup. 

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-yeh!

The soup in this post is Progresso’s Hearty Tomato Soup! Thank you, Progresso, for sponsoring this post! 

grape and ricotta latkes

i’ve just returned from about 40 hours in new york and i feel like a blob that just ran a marathon. not that i would know what a marathon hangover feels like, but when you adjust to a stationary life in a driving town and then briefly return to your city lady semi-roots that are heavily influenced by a complete aversion to riding the subway so you spend a ton of your time walking and eating and walking some more, and because shoe shopping is not your favorite you do it all in terrible shoes that lack proper arch support, you feel a little hurty the next day. it’s ok! i got this new matchy katniss everdeen sweat suit that feels like a continuous hug so i think i’m going to be just fine!

most of my time was spent with the deeelightful humans at apartment therapy and the kitchn for their 10 under 40 maker talk! we built gingerbread houses (here’s the glittery one i built with gaby and 1/2 of sir kensington!) which was easily some of the most fun i’ve had collaboratively building an edible dwelling since sunday school when we made pretzel sukkahs. and then at night we had to give speeches in front of an audience and i did not barf on stage even though i was almost positive i would, therefore i consider the event a success. 

the rest of my time in the city was spent eating bagels with jonah hill (rather, splitting lox with donny and siobhan while we stalker stared across the room at the back of jonah’s head while he drank orange juice), hummus with 1/3 of my bridal party, condiments in the facebook cafeteria with talia, popcorn with lior at the beautiful food52 holiday popup, shakshuka focaccia with a side of triumph at breads (because do you know how many times i have been to breads looking for that shakshuka focaccia and they’ve been sold out???), and a kasha knish from yonah. 

now i am back just in time for the last few nights of hanukkah, so i’m squeezing in one more latke for you! it’s nothing too crazy, just a simple twist on a classic. it’s the same combination of crispy/salty/sweet/creamy elements that you get with the traditional sour cream and apple sauce latke, but i’ve subbed out sour cream for ricotta and apple sauce for grape jam to give you another way to keep the eight nights of latkes exciting.

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grape and ricotta latkes

1. make a batch of ex-boyfriend latkes

2. top them with a healthy plop of ricotta and a sprinkle of salt

3. make a divot in the ricotta to hold the jam

4. fill the divot with grape jam (i'm loving this ancho chile grape jam!)

5. enjoy!

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-yeh!

thank you so much to grapes from california for sponsoring this post!

gouda mac and cheese with peaches and prosciutto

to the person who made national macaroni and cheese day deep in the heart of summer: 

hi, what are you on?

national bbq day, which was yesterday, i get.

national gummy worm day, which is tomorrow, i guess i kind of get in some odd garden-related way. 

but a food that usually requires standing over a hot pot of roux while your oven is pre-heating, and which will undoubtedly make a bathing suit the absolute last thing you want to put on?

i mean, ok, i won't fire you or anything because macaroni and cheese is my desert-island food, but i'm going to make some changes here in the name of *summer* (which around here has meant being stickier than an inside out sour patch kid and a couple of tornado warnings, but that doesn't really have anything to do with anything). please meet gouda yogurt mac and cheese with caramelized onions, peaches, and prosciutto. here are some things i would like you to know about him: 

1. this is a stovetop-only situation. when the fall comes, i will be the first to tell you to turn on your oven, make it rain panko, and get a thick brown crust going on your mac. and then when the winter comes, i will be the first to tell you to get a deep fryer going too because fried mac and cheese is better than life itself. but for right now, in this heat, we don't need any of that, just a skillet and a pot. 

2. roux who? ok, until recently i had only ever made mac and cheese with a roux! (you know, butter, flour, add some milk and make a béchamel, add your cheese and there you have your sauce, it takes kind of a while, it's super thick and creamy, it's so rich and good on a cold winter's day.) but then i was inspiiiiiired by diane kochilas' yogurt pasta, which makes an addictive creamy pasta sauce from yogurt and a bit of cheese, that's it. it's shockingly good and the tang of the yogurt is so summery and refreshing, i just can't get enough of it. so that's the sauce i've used here, but with shredded aged gouda. 

3. it is good both hot and cold. how many meals have i spent tiptoeing across the kitchen with a stray fork, sneaking bites of cold leftover mac and cheese out of the fridge? many. i know good cold mac and cheese and i know great cold mac and cheese, and this is a great one. probably because yogurt in its natural state is cold. 

4. i'm adding peaches. peaches and prosciutto and cheese are like hilary duff and dan humphrey and vanessa from gossip girl before things got weird. 

so, there you have it. a truly summery mac and cheese that's sweet, salty, tangy, creamy, and super easy to make. it won't put you in an immediate food coma, but you should still wait 30 minutes before jumping in the pool.

the recipe for this mac and cheese is right this way, on an entire site devoted to macaroni and cheese, nestled next to things like mac and cheese egg rolls and a mac and cheese burger. so in other words, if fall rolls around and you can't find me, i'll probably be lurking on this site. 

-yeh!

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gouda mac and cheese with peaches and prosciutto

makes 4 - 6 servings

ingredients

4 oz prosciutto, chopped

2 tb unsalted butter

1 white onion, thinly sliced

salt and pepper, to taste

2 yellow peaches, chopped

1/2 pound orecchiette pasta

6 oz Gouda, shredded, plus extra for topping

1 c plain Greek yogurt

clues

In a large skillet over medium high heat, cook the prosciutto until crispy, 3-5 minutes. The prosciutto should be fatty enough that you don’t have to grease the skillet, but if the skillet gets to be too dry, you can add a bit of oil or butter. Remove the prosciutto and set it aside. Reduce the heat under the skillet to medium and melt the butter. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and a few turns of pepper and let it cook until very soft, for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the peaches and half of the prosciutto and cook for about 5 more minutes. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the manufacturer’s directions. Strain it. 

In a large bowl, mix together the shredded cheese, yogurt, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Fold in the hot pasta and the onion/peach/prosciutto mixture. Top with additional cheese and remaining prosciutto. The sauce will thicken once the pasta cools slightly.

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thank you, wisconsin cheese, for sponsoring this post!!!!