Deliciously sweet grapes encased in a seasoned goat cheese and a bit of crunch!

It is actually rare now that I do someone else’s recipe. It’s not that I don’t like other recipes! I mean, some of them can be fabulous! But when I spent more time as an active member of certain cooking communities, various promotions and cooking tag events would keep my eye on the local recipe spread. But keeping up more with the blog (I have always been a continuous stream of new recipes) has me committed to cooking my own style even more, and you dear readers, get the harvest of those seeds.

I can’t stop thinking about cooking, or what I will be cooking, or how I will be cooking it.

It really is an obsession.

The way I look at foods at the market has actually changed. I no longer just see stacks of beautiful produce or expertly carved meats. The food actually starts taking shape before my eyes the moment I see it. So you can imagine how hard it is not to buy everything they have.

Oh, and I am not saying this is how expert cooks think. Or even that I am an expert cook.

The day I stop listening to other cooks or thinking I know all there is to know is when I have stepped into a big stinky pile of stupidity. But back to the way I see things when I look at food.

I am also a writer. Fiction. And the way ideas for fiction play out inside of my head is much the same way. The things I think about for writing come alive and almost possess me. Thinking of how a certain chapter in a story is going to go, it unfolds inside my mind like a movie, and I become so emotionally involved with it I have been known to break into tears or have a look of wondrous joy just thinking about one of my characters.

With food it is the same way. But my family gets to enjoy it (at least much sooner than a finished novel).

And back to doing other recipes. I had a similar idea to this that I thought about after seeing a form for a recent grape recipe contest. I wanted to vet it out before proceeding because I wouldn’t want my entry to be mundane and commonplace. And I came across a recipe for these (and what we have here is only a slight adaptation) and when I saw that recipe, I thought:

Well, that just ran my idea into the ground.

I liked the idea for their recipe a LOT. So much that I couldn’t bring myself to put my idea into the contest, and i certainly wasn’t going to scrape their idea off the monitor and paste it onto an entry form. That’s bad form.

But I intended to make it, and make it I did. And Bill and I gobbled these up over glasses of red wine and there was nothing left but the sweet scent of nostalgia in the air. These are good. You will went to have these when friends are over and the wine bottle pops open. Trust me.

And without further adieu, I want to tell you about the original developer of this recipe. Her name is Linda Stradley, and she posts her creations on What’s Cooking, America?

I had never heard of Linda or the website either and wouldn’t have if she had not put together her recipe for yummy grape truffles. She deserves cudos for this one. So go on over and have a look at her recipe

Linda’s Goat Cheese, Grape and Pistachio Truffles

Thanks, Linda. What a great idea!

My recipe is a slight adaptation of Linda’s recipe, simply because i adore the flavor of grapes and curry together and it was what I was going to do before I came across her recipe. I am sure either recipe is fabulous, so make yours however you like.

Sue’s Version of Goat Cheese, Grape, and Pistachio Truffles

Ingredients:

• 24 seedless grapes
• 8 ounces soft goat cheese (chevre), warmed almost to room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon Madras curry powder (mild but you can choose hot)
• ‘3/4 cup chopped toasted pistachio nuts (pista)

Method:

1. Freshly toast your pistachios in the oven or in a skillet; allow them to cool, then chop.
2. Mix softened goat cheese with curry powder. I used the small bowl of the food processor, but you could mix this by hand.
3. Take cheese up by spoonfuls, and encase the grapes inside. It is kind of like wrapping clay around a marble.
4. After all the grapes are covered and the cheese is used up, spread chopped nuts onto a plate and roll the cheese covered grapes in it. If you come up with extra nuts, the grapes do take in the extra amount and by the time all my nuts were used, the grapes themselves felt quite firm.
5. Even so, place them on wax paper on a plate and chill them in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
6. Allow them to come to room temperature before serving, for best flavor.

These are wonderful with your favorite wine. We like red here. Might I suggest pinot noir or syrah?

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Pimientos al Revés

Spanish Stuffed Mushrooms with Chorizo and Manchego

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