Recipes that make you go hmmmm: Blueberry Chèvre and Pear Herb Salad...

Recently I discovered a fantabulous pairing of blueberry and chevre cheese (goat cheese). If you haven't ventured into goat cheeses I insist that you must go out right this moment and purchase yourself a nice hunk.

Chevre is a rich and creamy cheese, a little wild but with soft notes. I guess we could say Chevre is the Marilyn Monroe of Cheeses.

Blueberries,... who ever could have come up with such a wonderful pairing.  I honestly must track them down and kiss them full on the mouth!

One of my goats is of course in milk, so it almost seems sacrilegious to purchase a goat cheese, when I have a goat milk fountain pumping away out at the barn, however our Doe in milk, Sansa, has two darling little doelings Lucy and Annabelle who need the milk far more than we do at the moment.

So there I was at one of my favorite haunts, Trader Joes. I absolutely was not browsing the cheese isle, furthermore I certainly was not looking for goat cheese. There I was minding my own business, grabbing my hormone free whole milk, yes I get the irony of that, and there it was, this bright purple little thing. It was honestly just begging for a once over.

So I am weak and I bought it. Convincing myself that yes indeed, I am just testing for when my little doelings can be flung far and wide from Sansa's udder,... I mean when they are old enough to be appropriately weaned, I by George, will be all prepared with a new fully vetted pairing.

I tried it out first tentatively, just a nibble.  Oh let me tell you this cheese had me at the first crumble. I have had a few very bad bitter or gamey Chevre cheeses in my day. No, not ones I made, well maybe just a few. The point being surely no one wants to do a replay of that. So tentatively is the way to go.
Fun fact number 645: apparently 2014 is the year all the great cooks are in a flurry over the shortage of goat cheese. So grab it up while you can. I suspect it is because all dairy goats are now stockpiled in urban farmers backyards wearing cute little sweaters and smiling for family photos.

So my lovely Blueberry Chevre cheese, after discovering that this was indeed truly manna from the Gods, I quickly started canvasing the refrigerator and I found myself some lovely anjou pears. They  honestly were not even necessary, but why not, sometimes you just gotta let go and indulge a bit.

So simple, so astonishingly good. I snacked on the lovely creamy blueberry chevre with pears.
Yet let me tell you, I was very disciplined about the whole situation. Yes I was. I wrapped it back up ever so nicely in foil and placed it into the refrigerator to ensure I wouldn't be tempted to gobble it all up in one sitting.

So I thought about this cheese, I thought about it all night. Yes, it was that good. The next day I had it all planned out. Sliced Pears and Blueberry Chevre cheese crumbled over an herb salad mix with pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette.  I didn't plan to share, no I did not, not one bite of this divine little salad with anyone, no, I must confess not even my poor unsuspecting husband. Seriously all that was left was a tiny little hunk, or two. What I had not planned on was school vacation and my son Michael being home. I swear he can simply sniff such things out. So we shared, of course we shared, what sort of mother do you think I am?

I will confess that there was an attempt to bribe him with "it's Friday, it's Friday, Yay it's treat night", to no avail.
So the recipe, quite simple:

Blueberry Chevre & Pear Salad

Sliced Anjou or Bosc pears
a handful of Arugula, baby spinach, dandelion leaf, tarragon***
a handul of Bibb lettuce, boston lettuce, red leaf lettuce***
Blueberry Chevre crumbled
Pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette (recipe follows)
Mix your greens and herbs, add sliced pears and crumbled cheese.
splash with vinaigrette and Enjoy!

Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 cup of a nice cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.
2 tbs of balsamic vinaigrette
2 tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tbs pomegranate juice or glaze
A pinch or two of course sea salt and ground tellicherry black pepper

*** An herb salad is a personal thing. This is what I had on hand but feel free to pull together whatever mix of herbs and greens you have available.

Sansa's Little girls Lucy and Annabelle, the little milk thieves!

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