Mother's Day Cheese Party with Baked Brie

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's out there! We all have a Mom in our life, whether biological, or another woman we look up to. My relationship with my Mom has strengthen over the last couple years, as I have gotten older, and I look forward to spending time with her on the weekends (and I am not just saying that because she reads my blog). This Mother's day instead of buying her something she really didn't need, I thought I would spend money on something we could do together.

Last weekend I was walking down Locke St. in Hamilton when I passed the Cheese Shoppe on Locke. I had been in a few times and it is a wonderful store. It has a great atmosphere, and fantastic products. These include cheese (obvi), jams, marinades, spices, vinegars, oils, pasta, pies, lots of locally produced as well as imported goods. My Mom has not been in the store before but I knew she would love it, since she loves cheese just as much as I do, so I picked up a gift certificate.

Today we took a trip to the store together and Mom picked out 3 different cheeses and a jam. To go along with the cheeses we picked up spelt flatbread crackers and a multi-seed sourdough baguette from local De La Terre bakery. The bread from De La Terre bakery tastes amazing, not to mention it is local and organic. (can be found at Goodness Me as well as the Hamilton Farmer's Market).

Our platter of goodies:

Starting from the left we have the sliced sourdough baguette. Going clockwise, the first cheese is Asiago. It was very mild, especially compared to what I am used to. The Zerto Asiago is from Wisconsin and is aged for 6 months naturally. This short aging time makes it more soft and mild. I enjoyed it but it wasn't the star of the plate.

Beside the Asiago we had some spelt flatbread (was excellent with the baked brie). Now here was the show stopper. 9 years old raw milk cheddar from Ontario. Never have I had raw milk cheese, nevermind cheddar aged 9 years. I think the most I've had is 5 years. It was strong, but delicious. I loved this cheese on the sourdough bread and found that while the cheese was very strong and overcame the flavour of the bread, the aftertaste of the cheese was generally pleasant and not too overbearing.


Beside the cheddar was some Que Pasa chips (coloured with beet juice!) which was enjoyed with Summer Fresh spicy chili pepper topped hummus. While all this was being assembled, the Brie cheese was baking in the oven.

To prepare the baked Brie the rind was removed from one side of the wheel. Then an Apricot and Jalapeno jelly was spread on top.

This was then baked in a 350 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.

We chose this jelly after trying a strawberry and jalapeno jelly at Whole Foods which was sooo good! Should have bought it when we had the chance! This one was delicious as well though. I love the sweet and spicy combination.

We also had my Mom's favourite Sangria and a green salad.

It was nice to have some time just my Mom and I at home, and sample some new cheeses. I think she enjoyed her "cheese tasting" Mother's Day gift...Mother's Day success!