My sister has been sending me regional food and drink from her new home town of Blue Hill, Maine. Like me she was born and raised in California and uprooted a few years ago, floated for a little bit and then settled in Blue Hill.
First it was beer, which I posted..I think. Then it was live lobsters. I got an e-mail over the weekend saying she mailed me something. Yesterday I received the bread and cheese.
There was a box on my door step when I got home…yay!! Upon opening it I found..wads of paper (paper from Maine, what a nice surprise), a foil bubble pouch and two (2) zip-lock style bags; one small and one large. The large bag contained what appeared to be an adobe brick in a paper bag. it was heavy and firm, but it yielded slightly when squeezed with enough pressure. The smaller baggy contained what appeared to be dirt with some little weed specks; reddish in color with dark and light specks and upon closer inspection it is a salty dirt. The foil pouch had what appeared to be warm tofu wrapped in cellophane and stuff in a baggy, and enclosed with a soft white, doll size waterbed mattress. The foil pouch had the faint odor of old gym socks, which became more pungent when I opened the zip-lock type bag.
The gym sock smelling tofu was the cheese and was placed in the refrigerator right away. The adobe brick required further investigation. opening the plastic bag released the earthy odor of dirty paper bag. Once dirty paper bag was removed it was confirmed that I did not receive an adobe brick, it was a sod brick that was over baked. Standing on end it now does a wonderful job of being a plant stand. If I ever decide to work on cars for a living it will also be a great device for chocking my wheels. Being that we are having another water shortage, I moved it to the bathroom to help displace water in the toilet tank…it has many uses.
OK it was the bread…as if you didn’t know… I had to taste it..
Let me tell you, slicing that bread was the equivalent of cutting a 4-inch diameter branch off a walnut tree with a steak knife. Jiminy Christmas that is some tough-ass bread. I could feel the colon cleaning action as I was chewing and swallowing, and this was all untoasted..right out of the bag.
OK, I have got to try toasting this stuff. If it got any firmer I was going to chip a tooth and scrape all my braces from my teeth trying to bite into it, so I toasted it on 1, the lightest setting. It was definitely softer, but only for a millisecond…like when you microwave something too long..it is soft while mouth burning hot, then it turns as hard as a diamond once it is cool enough to eat..it was like that. Thank goodness I go to the Orthodontist tomorrow so he can make adjustments, I think the crust displaced a tooth.
That was enough for now. The cheese needs to firm up a bit.
6:30pm..it was time. Between 6:30 and 7pm I was able to chisel off 4 slices of bread breaking only one knife in the process..Once again, I equate this task to pruning a giant redwood. The four slices of bread actually exceeded the weight limit on the rack of my toaster oven..but with a wire-tie and some sheetmetal strapIi was able to support it. I went upstairs and changed my shirt due to all the sweating while slicing bread.
The cheese was softer than I expected, it may not be fully firm..but it tasted much better than old gym socks smell..also, the cooling of the cheese reduced the odor it was expelling.
As instructed in my sis’s note, I placed a slice of gym sock tofu on the 1/8″ slice of sod brick and sprinkled with dirt and voila..dinner was served. I enjoyed with a Yuengling Lager and I was set.
I will do it again in a few minutes..once I have gathered enough strength to prune a redwood…this time I will drink with something darker, as sis recommends. She likes it with Lost Abbey Judgement Day and Ten Commandments. Of the dark beers at home I decided on the New Belgium’s 1554.
The cheese was Hunters Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese, from Vermont. The bread was Handcrafted , organic sourdough spelt bread, cooked outside in wood burning stoves in Brooksville, Maine by bakers Tim and Lydia. Both the bread and the cheese were a wonderful treat. I’m looking forward to my next package from her.
