Cheese, Glorious Cheese! And Prosciutto

As we were standing behind the counter at Rob & Karen Lawler's cheese shop, The Truffle, one of the tour guests and I eyed the last beautiful piece of the pinkish prosciutto laying by itself on the stark white plate. I picked it up and handed it to my newest foodie friend. She was too kind and said, let's split it. It would have been rude of me to decline, so, like two school girls, we shared.

I offered, before we tasted this lonely piece of Italian cured ham, that we should close our eyes and then enjoy the salty flavors of what was to come. I wish I could repeat what she said because it cemented our food fodder friendship forever. Suffice it to say you need to go to The Truffle and buy the Prosciutto di Parma.

I would love to have in season cantaloupe to wrap the prosciutto around. I would probably also get some manchego cheese thinly sliced and wrap this yummy ham and cheese around some prawns and grill those as I enjoyed the sweetness of the melon and the saltiness of the ham - excuse me, I need to catch a flight to the southern hemisphere.

The selection of cheeses at The Truffle are fantastic as well. Rob and company do a great job of selecting interesting cheeses from not only Europe but in our own backyard. I loved the selection of cheeses we tasted from creamy brie's to stinky blues to wonderful goat cheeses.

Rob was amazing with the information he had to offer about his little stores treasures, infusing stories about how the cheeses were made, the people who make them and what makes them special.

The Truffle is a great cheese store with owners and employees who know what they are talking about, just ask them. They'll help you pair cheese with wine, dinner, dessert; they have the knowledge and more importantly, they have the Prosciutto!

Chocolate You Dream About

One bite of the divine chocolate that William Poole so expertly crafts and you will understand why the Dean Brothers from FoodTV included them in their show, Road Tested, and in their follow on cookbook.

I could spend hours waxing eloquently about the different truffles at Wen Chocolates and I've tried nearly all of them - I'm not kidding, just ask Stephen. I think the Citrona is my favorite in all of it's champagne and citrus glory or is it the spiciness of the peppered vodka and four different peppers in the Savannah (which is the chocolate that promoted the Dean Brothers' visit)? It's impossible to decide, they're like your children, you can't pick a favorite, you just love them all.

The passion that William has about what he makes comes shining through when you talk with him about what goes into each truffle; chocolate from all over the world, unique ingredients from chili peppers to champagne to the molds from the turn of the century.

These are no ordinary chocolates, these are sublime creations of cocoa love. All I have to say, is thank you William for creating passion you can taste.

Tour guests trying chocolate with fried onions.

Cheese, Wine & Chocolate - Oh My!

Where do you buy great cheeses from Europe to Colorado, undiscovered wines from around the world or chocolates that would make you propose to the chef?

We have the answer, or answers as it would be, and the first tour participants on our Gourmet Culinary Tour enjoyed all the purveyors had to offer. On our tours you spend four hours tasting, learning and laughing your way through seven gourmet shops and one restaurant.

We started our tour at Highlands funky tea (and bike) shop, Urbanistic Tea & Bike, where Michelle and her brother Ethan sell some amazing teas (and fix bikes - it works, trust me), we tasted a lovely Earl Grey that showed a beautiful floral aroma - a perfect afternoon tea. Chef Cristino (that's him leaning over the display case) talked about how he uses tea to steep vegetables and that it is important to taste the tea - as in eating the leaves so you know the ingredients you are cooking.

We all loaded into a huge SUV and went to our next stop at Savory Spice Shop where Kate, that's her in the picture handing out spices, treated us to aromatic mulled cider made with the mulling spices they create in their store (do yourself a huge wintertime favor and go buy some, take it home, and make it, it's amazing). We then had a short class on spices, including tasting real cinnamon, not cassias, but real cinnamon - in a word - wonderful. All I could think of was making coffee cake with a strudel topping and drinking the mulled cider. We all enjoyed tasting new spices, learning about how they grind all their own spices and knowing each one of us would be back.

We visited six more stores, so, come back and learn more about a wonderful chocolatier and an amazing little wine store and the owners that run them - they are as amazing as the stores themselves.

I will leave you with this, the tour was wonderful for so many flavorful reasons. The best was the connection made between the people on the tour and the purveyors of the store. Food is so much more than providing fuel for our bodies, it fuels our relationships.

Ciao!

Becky

http://www.culinaryconnectors.com/

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