The mark of every good relationship is that you can still be surprised by the one you’re, um, relating with.
Maybe I have a good relationship with food, then, because last Monday, I was more than surprised… I was *shocked*.
If you’d asked (and I might have even offered this if you hadn’t), I’d have said “down with chèvre!”
Amusingly, when I first had my cholesterol explosion in 2006, I was told “no cheese. Well, except cottage and goat.” And I thought, “win!” and also “lose!” Love cottage, but goat cheese, to me, is chalky, and it tastes like goats have run miles across my tongue. <<shudder>>
Last Monday when at dinner in Calgary with my friends, an appetiser came to the table, which was oh-so-very Patti and oh-so-very NOT S. Since Patti ordered it, that sounded fair. 
It was crostini… bruschetta… and GOAT CHEESE.
At first, I cringed, but I was super-hungry and didn’t want to be tipsy after 3 sips of wine (have I mentioned that I’m a lightweight? I am.), so I spread the cheese. As much as chalky chèvre spreads, that is.
I piled on the bruschetta.
I took a bite.
And I did a double-take. “Is that *goat* cheese?!?!”
Yes. Yes it was.
And I liked it!
I needed to know if that was a flash-in-the-pan, so I decided to recreate the experiment in my kitchen. Step 1: make bruschetta. How is it that I’ve never *made* bruschetta before?!?
I Googled and read a variety of recipes, and decided to wing it… it seemed simple enough—use a 2:1 olive oil to balsamic vinegar ratio. Salt and pepper to taste. A whack of chopped fresh basil. Some onion. And—yeah—tomatoes.
So! 3 Tbsp EVOO and 1.5 Tbsp vinegar: check
And add the S&P, and 1/4 cup of basil (yay, basil!)… as well as the beginnings of 4 diced Roma tomatoes: check
plus a handful of diced red onion (about 1/4 cup) and all stirred up… check
Bella bruschetta! (Well…. I’m gonna half the onions next time!)
In my cupboard I found a wayward box of these, aka GROCERY STORE TRAVESTY!!!, or Raincoast Crisps.
Seriously: somewhere, Lesley Stowe uses hundred dollar bills as kindling, and laughs, laughs, LAUGHS at us, poor suckers, spending $7.50 on 150g of *crackers*.
They’re tasty, but they’re also just unsweet biscotti, right? Must devise a cunning plan to recreate at home CHEAPER. 
And the end result was this:
My bad photo doesn’t do it justice: WOW. I like goat cheese.*
A happy surprise!
Weigh in! Pro-goat? Pro-bruschetta? Pro-TOO EXPENSIVE crackers?
*as long as it’s underneath bruschetta, of course…
November 17th, 2010 at 10:54
I love Love LOVE goat cheese. I want a goat… we have the room for one!! Jason says no, and I suppose Basil would as well…
Bruschetta is one of my Very Favorite Foods. We eat a lot of it in the summer, when I can walk out in the yard and pick a few romas, some basil, and oh my, the freshness!! Superb.
*sigh* yep. I’m guilty of coveting Too Expensive Crackers. They’re my crack almost (see what I did there?). I am lured and then sometimes they are forgotten. Then I am pleasantly surprised when I discover them later in my pantry!!
November 17th, 2010 at 11:09
@ Kristina: I’m imagining that you get a baby goat, so Basil feels some kind of bond of parentage towards it, raises it as his own, and then you have a goat that acts like a Dachshund—TOO AWESOME FOR WORDS!
I’m going to work on to have the crackers, and eat them too… (see what I did there?
We are so painfully clever!) 
November 17th, 2010 at 11:24
You are so funny!
I love most cheeses, but for some reason goat and cheddar have been hard for me to get into.
I think goat cheese is great when mixed with other flavours though, because it is an interesting cheese. I just don’t love it on its own.
However, I want to attack your bruschetta!! I am generally pro-delicious.
November 17th, 2010 at 11:47
@ Alina: Hear, hear! Pro-delicious all around! And I’m not wild about Cheddar, either—when I hear it called “Canadian cheese”, I feel sad. SURELY we can do better!
November 17th, 2010 at 13:16
I loved this post! So much humor in it (again) – the “um” in the very first sentence, and the kindling …
And I’m very happy for you because it’s always great to discover something new that you really enjoy, especially if you are restricted with regard to other things that you actually love.
I think it’s scary to spend so much money on a certain food. What’s even scarier is the fact that a high price makes me assume that there must be something special about that food. And the scariest thing of all is that I’m a psychologist and I know all those psychological theories around marketing and attitude formation, but I fall for it nevertheless. So I know I’d also buy it.
November 17th, 2010 at 13:19
Oh, and your tomatoes with onions and basil look devine! 100 % love.
November 17th, 2010 at 13:32
@ Kath: why thanks! I’m blushing! That’s a lie—it’s SO COLD in my office I couldn’t muster the blood to blush… it’s too busy trying to keep my vital organs from failing. We’re having a snow storm and it’s COLD!
Lesley Stowe crackers are a lifestyle choice, absolutely. The tricky think is, they *do* taste good, but it’s not like they make you a better person, which they’d *have* to at $7.40 a pop!!!
November 17th, 2010 at 18:03
Gah, poor you! Working in a cold office suuuuuuuuuuuucks!
November 18th, 2010 at 11:15
I LOVE bruschetta and I LOVE goat cheese
I love almost all cheese, to be honest.
The worst thing was when my doc told me “no cheese, only fat free / light cheese”. It was a black moment, how would I survive? then I made a decision that I was allowed to eat full fat, real cheese but in moderation and I would not even look twice to light or low fat cheese. Loving this decision and it’s not that hard to do this in moderation even though.. I must admit that sometimes I do eat more than I should. UUUPS.
November 18th, 2010 at 12:48
@ Kath: Luckily, I’m enclosed—so when I get cold, I do jumping jacks, or lunges, or some kind of exercise to get my heart rate up… so maybe the cold office is good for my health!
@ Anne: oh, they told me about the fat-free cheeses too, and I said “I just won’t eat cheese until my levels are under control”. I don’t think low-fat / fat-free cheese is even *food*, so I just won’t.
It’s hard to do wonderful things in moderation, and cheese is definitely that—I don’t think I could ever be vegan…
November 18th, 2010 at 21:20
it’s funny when we *think* we don’t like something and end up really liking it. this happens to my husband ALL the time. he never wanted to try fish. now, not only does he like it – he likes it RAW. another example is people with wine. imho, if people don’t like wine, it’s probably because they haven’t tried a good one. wine at weddings is usually crap. :p
November 18th, 2010 at 21:49
@ Angela: LOVE this one.
@ Rachel: I’m SO with you on the nutmeg, at least—and fresh is bestest!