and now for something different: how to host a cheese and beer tasting party

If anyone is still out there, you may have noticed that I am going through a bit of a blogging dry-spell. I have not lost my enthusiasm for cooking or writing, I am simply having a bit of trouble getting adjusted to my new schedule of work, life, blogging, etc. and somewhere among all that I’ve found myself lacking in the motivation and momentum departments. That said, I’m excited to jump back on the right track in the coming weeks. I have a few latent recipes I’ve been hanging on to to share over the next week, and we will also be hosting a party this weekend that will involve me cooking tons and tons of autumn party/holiday food, which means you can look forward to a wealth of posts to come detailing the highlights and pitfalls of my second ever attempt at an enormous, coordinated dinner party of autumnal delights.

In the meantime, I’m going to post something a little different today. A couple of months ago, Stephen and I attended a cheese and beer pairing class, during which we ate our weights in cheese and consumed more beers than I can remember. What I took away from the class, apart from a happy stomachache and serious buzz, was that tasting parties are totally fun, and much more art than science. The main rule for determining good pairings? Taste the beer, taste the cheese, and if you like the combination, it’s a great pairing. It’s as simple as that, and it’s fun to do with friends (and much more low maintenance than hosting a regular dinner party). Put out some cheeses, put out some beers (or have people potluck it!), taste, and discuss. Everyone will leave happy, full, and buzzed, without you having to cook or bartend. To read more about it, continue on for some tips about cheese selection, beer selection, and ways to make the party more or less formal depending on your crowd!

kitchen firsts: rangpur gin cocktails

This week my kitchen firsts series is taking me into as-yet-uncharted blog territory: mixed drink recipes! I’ve never been much of a mixed drink recipe person (er, mixologist?) before, nor have I really been a gin drinker before, but in the last few months a couple of really delicious-sounding mixed drinks involving gin have popped up and tempted me, and it became clear that the time was ripe for a little experimentation.

These two cocktails, the Cucumber-Lime Gin and Ginger and the Rangpur Refresher, were inspired by drink combinations that I saw around recently (one online and one in a bar) but did not get a chance to actually taste, so we went in search of some gin and got to mixing and recreating! Both drinks are amazingly refreshing (with ingredients like lime, ginger and cucumber or strawberries, orange, cucumber and mint!) and make me look forward to the coming of warmer weather and the chance to sit on a deck in the sun with a cold drink.