Chantrelles & Cheese!

The new Chief, Kevin; Aaron's bike and Aaron after 21 days on the road; Chantrelles! Yumm!

Farm Fresh has begun! After four weeks off I am ready to cook for the tribe one last time this year! And, I hope to make this a specially delightful culinary experience!

After a day and a half of driving, (thank you Jack!), we reached Petaluma on Saturday afternoon. We were greeted by throngs of people attending the Taste of Petaluma as well as the Vietnam Memorial Gathering. Petaluma is the weekend get-away for the people of San Francisco. It is close enough for a day trip and there is no shortage of great restaurants, antique shops, brew pubs, and planned community activities. We had a great lunch at a local pub and then met up with my "cheese connection".

Last year at the Ferry Building's Farmer's Market at Fisherman's Wharf I discovered a small Cheese Company from just outside of Petaluma. I was looking for the "perfect" cheese to compliment the Spiced Pumpkin and Lentil Salad that I was planning to prepare on the trip. One taste of Achadinha Cheese Company's Capricious aged goats cheese, I was sold. Another one of those "Jack tried to keep me on budget" moments! I won. The cheese is amazing and I was determined to track down more for this trip. I met up with Donna, the owner & cheese maker at a booth at the Taste and not only was I successful scoring a wheel of Capricious, I snagged a wheel of their Broncha cheese as well. The Broncha is an aged goats cheese made on 7/21/09, a mild quiet morning on the farm! It is a semi hard cheese that is complimented with a "touch of blue". It has a creamy, semi tart, mildly pungent flavor that lent well to the pasta feature of the night; bow tie pasta with fresh chantrelle mushrooms and grated Broncha cheese. YUMMMMM! You can find the company on line by googling Achadinha Cheese Company, and if you are lucky you to can partake in some fabulous cheese. They also have a goat summer sausage that we found to be subtle in the goat flavor and very very good. Tell Donna that I sent you!

The tribe all gathered quite early in the afternoon on Sunday and we are off! Aaron joined us on the last day of his trip down the coast; looking forward to riding in the truck and eating mom's cooking! Good job Aaron! Our new fearless chief on this trip is Kevin, his first tour on his own! He has a great support staff, including Joe the Mechanic who completed leading the Northern Tier Self Contained ride a couple of weeks ago. Congrats Joe and good luck Kevin!

Tonight's dinner was: Spinach salad with cherry tomato medley in a white balsamic vinaigrette;salmon fettuccine with peppers and fennel, linguine with pesto; artichoke hearts & kalamata olives; bow tie pasta with fresh chantrelles & Broncha cheese; sauteed zucchini & carrots, fresh French breads & Nanaimo bars for dessert. This is going to be fun!

Tomorrow's ride is a bumpy back road adventure to Santa Rosa for a night in the State Park, and then on to two days in Calistoga. The weather is hot: 90's today and tomorrow, then should cool down a little as we head to the coast. So follow along and we'll see what mischief that we can get into!