Bosky Acres Farm with Heidi Billotto

Heidi Billotto has been teaching cooking classes and reviewing restaurants longer than I've been in Charlotte. Both Dee Dee and I have been to several and had a blast, but I've really focused on her "On The Farm" classes and they are really great. They have the side benefit of getting me my "farm fix" so I don't go out and foolishly buy a farm and change careers... for now.

This past weekend she presented at Bosky Acres Farm, whose head farmer and our host was the curiously-named Michelle Lamb. Also, Josh, the official Snoofaldafter from Common Market, paired some wine to go with our meals. They were all really great.

Michelle started off with the full tour. She's had something like 50 or 70 kids (goat babies, not grade schoolers) in recent weeks, all but a few of which will be sold off. You can see in the pics below we got to do everything from play with the kids to milk one of the does.

THEN, we started cooking in the cheese making area. Michelle demonstrated how to make a batch of cheese and Heidi cooked, while Josh imbibed us.

Mushroom cap stuffed with goat cheese and parsley, and some other stuff that escapes my memory.

Spinach and goat cheese stuffed pasta, smothered in cream sauce & more goat cheese:

Salad topped with chicken, and you guessed it, goat cheese:

Our fearless leader caught off guard:

Apples and nuts smothered in caramel with ... goat cheese (this was really good, and I don't like sweets, so that's saying something):

I brought wine (Barbera Asti, spelling?)and cheese home, but my wife didn't like the cheese (or any goat cheese, in general, apparently) and thought the wine from the next town over in Italy (Alba) is much better. Always the critic! ;-)

Garden Prep Done

Way behind schedule this year, but got the raised garden boxes tilled, chopped down dead plants and a few overgrown mixed greens. Ready to plant next week.

We're doing a few things different this year:

1. Lakeside Garden Boxes - no squash, cukes, or other gourds will be in the Upper Garden Boxes this year. We're going to give it a rest this year and plant these in the boxes down by the lake (which haven't had gourds in two years) to try to combat the vine borers that destroy our crop each year.
2. We're planting a LOT more carrots this year - they were great last year, all 6 of them ;-).
3. We're planting a lot more mixed greens this year - I also have a bunch in my office in a planter. Need to eat more leafy stuff.
4. Tomatoes and tomatillos are getting moved down to the lake as well. We're going to replace that area with some herbs and more mixed greens. We had 0 tomatoes last year, and only a handful of tomatillos. I don't know what we did wrong last year.
5. Corn - we definitely are going to plant pink corn again this year. It actually doesn't taste bad, but my 1st Grade teacher mom and the kids really liked it.

Café Montè Bistro @ Philips Place

Café Montè was great. My wife and I first met on February 26th 2005 at a complete dive bar named Jeff's Bucket Shop, which is located down an alley and underneath a restaurant in the basement level of a building - great place, but we chose to celebrate our anniversary of this meeting at a place she had been trying out for lunch with some friends, Café Montè.

I don't have any pictures, but the food was absolutely wonderful. She ordered the Trout Amandine, and ate half of it and saved the rest. I had the Beef Short Rib Bourguionne, which was sitting in a bowl in a cradle of mashed potatoes and tiny little onions - this is one of those places where you leave remembering how good mash potatoes can really be.

The only disspointment was their crème brûlée, which obviously did not have a freshly done "brûlée", but the top layer was also thin and hardly crunchy at all. It may have been the worst crème brûlée I've had. BUT, the desert was a stark contrast from the otherwise excellent meal!