Cheese from Mama’s Island
Lately I’ve been eating a lot of bread and cheese instead of cooking. And when I do cook something, it tends to be topped with grated myzithra cheese. There is a reason for this. A lovely, delicious, heavenly reason: artisanal cheeses sent by Mama. One wheel of kefalograviera, and one cylinder of fresh myzithra. The package they arrived in smelled like Greece, and I have no words to describe the taste. All I can offer is a photo:
They were wrapped in illustrated butcher paper. I especially like how the chicken is bigger than the pig and almost as big as the cow:
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make a nice, simple tomato salad to go with tonight’s bread and kefalograviera.
Comment by Sam Sotiropoulos
Lucky Lulu! Enjoy. BTW, that is a rooster not a chicken… :p
Comment by lulu
Thanks, Sam! But aren’t hens and roosters both chickens?
Comment by Sam Sotiropoulos
LOL! Yes of course they are, I was just being silly. I have a thing for roosters… 😉
Comment by Bellini
We can get some very nice Greek cheeses here but wouldn’t it be nice to get a package of all your favourites:D
Comment by lulu
Sam…no, I won’t say it I won’t say it I won’t say it!
Comment by lulu
Bellini, it’s lovely to get the handmade ones. I don’t find them here, although we can get most of the standard mass-produced Greek cheeses. Is that pretty much what you have access to also?
Comment by Laurie Constantino
Oh Sam. I don’t know if I’ll ever think of you the same again! As for the cheeses, you are very lucky women that mama takes care of you so well!
Comment by lulu
So, Laurie, should we publicize this news about Sam? Or just assume he meant that he has a thing about roasters?
Comment by dubaibilly
Lulu, when are you going to do something with meat in it????
I keep checking but no luck so far!
DB
Comment by lulu
Oh dear, I keep feeling guilty about that, DB! How about sausages, would they do?
Comment by FoodJunkie
Hey I love love love eating bread and cheese too. But both need to be of good quality. Do you know what is nice to do with kefalograviera? Saute some runner beans in butter and grate the cheese on top. A friend of mine from Nafplion used to make it with teh first beans of the season and it was lovely!
Comment by lulu
That does sound lovely, FoodJunkie! Thanks for the idea!
Comment by dubaibilly
There is a butcher just down the road from our house on Skopelos and he does absolutely terrific sausages – we always cook them by pouring a little water in the pan and cooking them on the hob with a lid on the pan – when all the water has gone the sausages brown and are invariably delicious. But I’d like to know another way of cooking them, so yes, Sausages will do just fine!
Cheers Lulu,
DB
Comment by Ivy
Lucky you Lulu, handmade cheese is not easy to get even in Athens.
Comment by lulu
Hi Ivy! It seems that fewer and fewer people anywhere are making their own cheese.
Comment by manju
So jealous! Artisanal cheeses by mail?! You are 2 lucky ladies! BTW, are you writing from the US or Europe/UK?
Comment by Lulu
@16 Manju – Yes, I can’t quite believe that such things arrive in the mail! I’m in California.
Comment by joyce
Where can we buy good mazithra in the states?
Comment by Lulu
Eh, good question, Joyce!