Triangle Mamas

Just a Cheesy Girl in Love With the Hillsborough Cheese Company - RTP

By Ilina

 

If there's one thing in my life that's telling and appropriate, it's that I married a man from Wisconsin. America's Dairyland! Home of the Mars Cheese Castle! I love me some cheese. There's one ad that is more truthful than all others - the one that proclaims cheese makes everything better.

 

I got to take a little field trip to the Hillsborough Cheese Company. It was quite an honor because this is not a factory kind of place where the general public can don a hair net and wander in. The boutique creamery operates on a small family farm where Cindy, cheese maker extraordinaire, grew up. Considering I've only been to the kind of boutique where you try on silken dresses that run up your credit card bill, I had no idea what to expect. On a rainy gray day I showed up in my galoshes, having been warned to wear something with rubber soles that could get goopy. The small creamery where all the hands on labor is done is quite refreshing in this age of factory grade rubber that passes as cheese. Don't even get me started on the stuff labeled "cheese product."

 

I got to actually go to work and get my hands dirty whipping up a batch of jalapeno chevre. It was a tactile pleasure to get in there mixing up the grated bits of pickled jalapeno and black pepper. The green flecked snowball that was the end result tasted magnificent. I used it in sweet potato quesadillas that night and polished off the rest on some simple wheat crackers.I also bought some of the aged sweet ash. It was a marvel to see the little round glob of cheese in all its stages and then bite into the finished product. I served the sweet ash to guests outside by our patio fireplace one night. We had a simple fireside nosh of cheese, Italian bread, and grapes. I was up and down refilling drinks and opening wine so I didn't even get to enjoy my sweet ash! Damn my share the wealth spirit.

My other favorite was the ricotta. Banish any thoughts of grocery store ricotta you have. This is nothing like it. I have been dreaming about fresh ricotta since we returned from Italy. In July. I had it every morning for breakfast and have searched all over for a decent stand in until our budget takes us back to Sorrento. Well, folks I found it! The Hillsborough Cheese Company's ricotta is simply divine. It's creamy and rich without being grainy or leaving remnants of a weird after taste like the whole milk stuff sold in the super market. This ricotta, my friends, is the real deal. My sons clamored for it as an after school snack, and I had no choice but to share the wealth. Needless to say, it was devoured in minutes. Next time I shall buy two containers and stash one for myself. And no more sharing for this girl!

 

I am a devotee of the Hillsborough Cheese Company. It stands for all thing values I embrace - local, fresh, good food made with passion, zest, and flavor. Cindy, the cheesemaker, is so knowledgable and humble. She makes a superb product and is driven by quality, not images of grandeur. I'll be making a special trip to some farmers markets a good hike away from me to buy up some Hillsborough Cheese Company Cheese. But I can't promise it will even make it home.

Here's where you too can relish the flavor:

South Estes Farmers Market in Chapel Hill
Eno River Farmer's Market in Hillsborough
Weaver Street Markets (in Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Carrboro)
A Southern Season in Chapel Hill
Western Wake Farmer's Market in Cary
Saxapahaw Farmers Market in Saxapahaw

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You can find Ilina talking food, politics, and everything in between on her blog Dirt & Noise. You can also catch her in snippets on Twitter.

An Open Letter to Harris Teeter at North Hills East

By Cyndi

Dear Harris Teeter --

You had me at $20 off.

Every time I would start to wander, begin to think that your new North Hills East store was too crowded, imagine that I could save more at Kroger, get annoyed about not being able to find things as you shuffled the shelves around -- somehow you always knew. And every time, those magical $20-off-a-$50-purchase coupons would appear in my mailbox. They worked like a charm.

So given that you seem to have such a keen understanding of your shoppers' minds, how is it possible that you built a two-story store and put the cereal and juice upstairs? And then seemed surprised when people complained? And then spent goodness-knows-how-much money and time remodeling your brand new store to get those items downstairs again? Didn't you know that every mom forced to cram two (or more) children into one of those oversized-yet-still-too-small rocketship carts would have to buy cereal and juice on nearly every trip? And didn't you know that said moms would really hate having to wait in line for the elevator because it's impossible to fit more than three carts at a time?

Or maybe you didn't know there were thousands of local moms you could ask who would have told you that valuable bit of information BEFORE you built the store instead of AFTER?

Well then, allow me to make an introduction. Harris Teeter, meet the blogging moms. We're on Facebook and Twitter and lots and lots of blogs -- and we love to give advice (just ask our children). You don't even have to send us free samples or coupons (although I'm sure we wouldn't say no) -- but you do have to ask. We could have saved you a lot of pain and suffering, but (much like our kids) you had to learn the hard way. We hope you (and our children) will consider consulting us in the future.

Best of luck,

Convertible Girl

P.S. I've only got one $20 coupon left, so please send more. You know, just in case I start to wander again.

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Since taking over the grocery shopping at her house and giving up the online ordering service, Cyndi has developed strong opinions about grocery stores. When she's not shopping or cooking or complaining about both, she can be found at My Convertible Life, where she writes about her two children, one husband and a million other things.

Downtown Raleigh: Music on The Porch

By Andrea

Tucked away in the back of the shopping center parking lot of Seaboard Station, there is a little piece of heaven that shines on Downtown Raleigh every Friday night from 6-9pm. It's called Music on the Porch and it is one of Raleigh's best kept secrets. There you will find families of all ages parked in their lawn chairs, eating Chinese food or drinking wine or one of 2 beers on draft, and listening to some of Raleigh's finest musicians play as the sun sets. There is an area marked off for older kids to ride scooters and center stage is reserved for big and little kids alike to dance their hearts out! Regulars enjoy seeing each other week after week and catching their breath after working hard. Kids play, parents laugh and music fills the air. What could be better? 

We weren't able to attend much last year since Oscar was so young. But now that he is a toddler and can handle staying up a bit later, we are SO on it. He absolutely loves dancing to the music and we love catching up with friends. It really is a great way to ring in the weekend!

Check out their site and the official Facebook Page for more info. I hope to see you there!

Andrea is a Raleigh mom of 1 human and 1 border collie, and wife to one exceptionally tall bass player. When they aren't partying to live music, you can find her at her blog Lil-Kid-Things , on Facebook, or Twitter.

Shopping Locally at the Durham Farmers' Market

By Abby

Boy oh boy, did we hit the jack-pot. It is amazing what a little planning and a fantastic cookbook can do to help a beginner navigate the Farmers' Market.

 

On this week's menu:

• Summer Pesto Pizza
• Tofu Stir-fry
• Brushetta
• Green Enchiladas
• Kohlrabi with Peas and Potatoes
• Sausage Asparagus Skillet

We spent $55 and got at least half of our grocery shopping done at the Durham Farmers' Market. We could have gotten more (like eggs, bread, yogurt, and additional cheeses) but my husband's arms were reaching their maximum carrying capacity (bulk, not weight... he's manly, after all).

Considering that $10 dollars of that was for intoxicating soaps, I think we even did decent financially. (And let's not talk about our tendency to purchase expensively delicious cheeses.)

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How about you? What foods do you try to purchase locally? Do you have any secrets for serving healthy foods on the cheap?

 

(Bottom photos taken by Linus while browsing at the market.)

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Neither Abby nor Triangle Mamas was compensated in any way for links contained in this post. It's just good stuff we like to share.

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Since becoming a mother, Abby continues to work towards a greener, less toxic environment for her family and the world. She blogs about some of the changes she's made at her personal blog, My Sweet Babboo. This post is crossposted over there.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank Update

By Sue

We all know how excited I was when I was asked by the North Carolina Food Bank to be a Media Sponsor for the Kids Summer Stock Social Media Mixer and I hope you have taken the time to read about it and get excited too.

I will be attending with my whole family and I hope to see you there with yours. It will be a fabulous time to mix, mingle and show your support for the people in our community who need our help. In addition to all the warm and fuzzy feelings you will in no doubt feel for just attending, I received an update about some fabulous raffle prizes that you could end up going home with.

• An official NHL Hurricanes hockey puck signed by Cam Ward
• An "I Love Hockey" kids t-shirt signed by the entire Hurricanes team
• A 3-Night stay at Alderhorst; a beautiful mountain cabin near Boone, NC
• A whimsical wooden marble chaser by Whimsy Two
• A beautiful set of jewelry from the Treasure Trove 

Get involved! 

Share the event and experience with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or your Blog!
 
On Twitter, use the hashtag #SummerStockSocial and on Facebook, share the Social Media Mixer Event Listing

Register Now - Space is limited!

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This is a cross post from Sue Robinson over at Motherhood and Me. You can also find her at Deep South Moms Blog and on Twitter.

Kid's Summer Stock at the NC Food Bank

*This is a cross-post from Sue's personal blog Motherhood and Me

As my son grows, I find myself looking deeper, wondering how I can change to be a better person in order to teach my son that there is good in the world.

How do you do that?

People can go their whole lives bitter, angry and full of hate. How to you even begin to teach your little wide eyed 3 year old boy about how his place in the world can be a peaceful and kind place?

You start small.

You teach him to share his toys with his friends, you teach him to say please and thank you, you teach him patience, respect and hold your breath when you see him interact with the world around him. Holding your breath in hopes that what you worked so hard to teach him is somewhere deep down inside him.

I was so excited when I decided to take this lesson of kindness and the greater good one step further. I had planned to have a food collection on behalf of the North Carolina Food Bank for his 3^rd and my daughter’s 1^st birthday in lieu of gifts. I told him all about how and why we were doing this and tried to get him excited about going to the food bank to make our donation.

He was excited and everything was set until the dark cloud hit our family and I had to cancel their birthday party. I was so sad that our excitement came to a screeching halt, but glad that I had started to plant the seed of awareness in my little man.

Then the email came.

The North Carolina Food Bank contacted me asking me if I would like to be a Media Sponsor for an event they were having to raise awareness about their facility and hunger in North Carolina. I immediately said yes and was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself again.

II am proud to announce that Motherhood and Me is a media sponsor for the North Carolina Food Bank’s Kids Summer Stock!

The kid’s Summer Stock is an event to raise awareness about hungry kids who fall short during the school summer breaks. Kids that normally rely on two hot meals per day provided by their school’s lunch program are left on their own. Once the school year ends these kids fall through the cracks and don’t get remembered until the school session resumes in the fall.

Please take the time to come and celebrate the gift of giving at the North Carolina Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh. Show your support by engaging with your local community and donating what you can personally, monetarily and via canned goods.

I will be there with my kids and my husband, so feel free to tap me on the shoulder and say hello!

 

Thursday, June 3, 2010

6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Food Bank Warehouse in Raleigh

3808 Tarheel Drive
Raleigh, NC (map)

Register now for your free tickets!

Click Here

I hope to see you there!

When Sue isn't trying to change the world with kindness, she can be found at home with her two kids at Motherhood and Me.

Margaritas

By Sue

I had the pleasure of grabbing margaritas with some girlfriends the other night and the topics of discussion were about the same as they always are when we get together.

We catch up, tell each other about what recent events may be going on in our lives and with our families. We talk about our kids, compare stories and ask for advice. We then move on to current events and things of that nature, but the conversation always rounds it’s way over to husbands.

This evening the common theme to the husband topic was equality. Each and everyone of us discussed how we felt care giving equality fell short.

Now don’t get me wrong, don’t get the idea that we get together to bash our husbands. I was just surprised at how each one of us were bothered or annoyed by the same exact things.

Our husbands range in age, height, weight, race, educational background, you name it, but it was surprising to me that all of our stories sounded identical.

Each one of us felt like we were left to carry the weight of care giving. Working mom or stay at home mom, the complaints were the same.

Examples:

"I take care of the kids all day and all week by myself, but when he does it for a couple of hours, I feel like he is acting like he deserves a medal!"

"I love when he wants to spend time with the kids and let me relax, but coming home to a house that has exploded and having to be the one to clean it up is not my idea of relaxing. Why can’t he take care of the kids and pick up after himself at the same time. I am not asking him to clean the whole house, just pick up after lunch, block time, etc."

"I work too, but how come the majority of the house and child care falls on me?"

Sound familiar?

This left me thinking, are we asking for too much or not giving our husbands the benefit of the doubt? Not exactly, but I do think we can cut them some slack. This, especially for me, is easier said than done.

I think we need to realize that the majority of care giving falls into our laps because we (as stay at home moms at least) do it 99.9% of the time already. It comes easily to us and we are used to doing it. When we ask them or they want to do a majority of the tasks we do on a daily basis, it isn’t going to come as easily to them, mainly because they don’t have that much practice time.

I see this in my house a lot. It is a piece of cake for me to wrangle the kids, make dinner, clean up the playroom, fold laundry, and talk on the phone at the same time because that is what I do all day everyday. I am trying to learn to cut my husband some slack when it comes to multitasking at this magnitude.

The only time I have a problem is when a time comes that requires him to do everything, it leaves him stressed, resentful and ill-equipped.

This conversation with my girlfriends stayed with me, because I think this is an argument that will never be resolved. It will never be equal, or at least it will never feel equal.

Our husbands most likely feel the same way as we do. Do we understand what it feels like to have the stress of the family’s financial wellbeing fall solely onto us? (Now, I am not a working mom, so I can only tell my side of the story. Working moms, chime in and give me your side!) I know I think I do, but in reality I don’t.

I believe it all comes down to balance and I am finding that balance is not so easily accomplished. I personally find it difficult to find balance between being a mother, a wife, a friend and then squeezing in time for just me.

Balance is what we all strive for, because when we are balanced we feel that things run smoothly, our lives are less stressful and we are in a mindset to really enjoy those around us.

One of my many goals for 2010 is to take steps towards feeling and being more balanced.

What do you think?

Will this argument ever be resolved?

We will ever really be equal?

What is it like for all the working moms out there that have to balance even more than I do?

When Sue isn’t trying to balance her kids and the rest of her life, she can be found blogging at Motherhood and Me  or chatting away on Twitter.

Pizza Nostalgia

Even though Thomas Wolfe, himself a Tar Heel, said you can't go home again, I always like to try anyway when it comes to Chapel Hill. I spent four years there as an undergrad, then returned five years later for graduate school.

Over the years, one restaurant retained my unfailing loyalty:
Pepper's Pizza.

A couple weeks ago I had a work-related meeting in Chapel Hill, so I took the opportunity to head to the Hill early and treat myself to lunch at Pepper's. It's been a few years since I had eaten there, and I knew that the restaurant had changed locations, moving up Franklin Street a few spaces from its original site (shown here). I was nervous, hopeful, a little skeptical -- but I needed to know if it was still My Pepper's.

As I enjoyed my lunch (my "usual": diet coke, side salad no peppers no onions with ranch dressing, and a slice with zucchini and feta) which was thank goodness exactly wonderfully like it had always been, I had to laugh about how much things have changed.

Of course, the space is new -- much brighter and less grunge than the old space, with four televisions mounted on the walls. The wait staff still looked college-town-quirky, but none of the employees had multi-colored hair, large tattoos or excessive piercings. And even the music was different -- instead of head-banging alternative noise, I actually heard "Walking on Sunshine" (although, to be fair, that is one of my all-time favorite songs -- seriously, click the link and thank me later for putting that feel-good tune in your head and a skip in your step).

But what had really changed? Me.

Instead of walking up to Franklin from class or the dorm with a group of friends, I drove to the parking garage and ate alone with a magazine (and enjoyed it! how else would I get to read The New Yorker in peace?). Instead of wearing jeans and a t-shirt with birks, I was in suit trousers, dressy top, pearls and heels -- professional attire for my meeting, of course. After lunch, when the waitress shooed me back to my table (apparently you don't pay at the counter in Fancy Pepper's), I handed her my AmEx card instead of a wad of change and bills out of the pocket on my backpack.

But the salad was still the right balance of lettuce, tomatoes and mozzarella with just the right amount of dressing. And the pizza still has that perfect-not-too-thick-not-too-thin crust with just enough sauce, thinly sliced veggies and salty feta cheese. And the diet coke, refilled at exactly the right moment, still comes with that delightful pebbly ice.

So I decided I'm okay with the changes at Pepper's because the food is what matters most. And I'm more than okay with the changes in me because it's a good life I've got here -- even if I did look a bit dorky at lunch.

Cross-posted at Junius & Pippi Take the Cake. When Cyndi isn't eating in Chapel Hill, she likes her pizza from Lilly's or Moonlight.

You mean I'm supposed to chew food?

I don't know how many times I've spent a morning dreaming of a day when Starbucks will add a train table if not an entire play area to their coffee shops. I mean, it could just be open for the mid-morning and late afternoon hours when caffeine-addicted moms need a place to get a hit while still entertaining and socializing their kids. Wouldn't it be great?

I know, I know, McDonald's now has McCafe's and Barnes & Noble even has Starbucks and train tables, but I hate McDonald's and Barnes &amp; Nobles has shelves and shelves of books just taunting my toddler to destroy. I'm talking a gated play area where a coffee bar is within sight distance. Wouldn't it be loverly?

What I don't understand is why more places don't follow the lead of one of my favorite local restaurants, Blue Corn Cafe. This place has a separate rooms for patrons with kids and patrons without. It's so nice to not have to worry about your toddler throwing a tantrum because he wants his own bowl of guacamole to dip in because there's another one loudly demanding his quesadilla at the next table.

As if separate but equal dining spaces weren't enough, the with-kids dining room has a play area stocked with toys, a chalkboard covered wall, a play mat, and a full library of VHS kids tapes. While you are getting sat down and offered a menu, your preschooler is digging out a fire truck from the toy basket. I can't even remember another restaurant where I've been able to actually read the menu rather than just randomly selecting an entree.

Now I understand the importance of teaching your child to sit politely at the table, but there are just some nights I would like to sit and sip a really yummy Mojito without slurping it down between reiterations of "Sit down. Be patient." We work on manners at home and at other restaurants, but at Blue Corn, I prefer to sit back, munch on tasty fried plantain chips, and watch as my son lies on someone else's floor rolling cars back and forth.

If you're like me and could sometimes use the "dining out" option that really is a bit of a break, or if you just like really good Latin-American food, then Blue Corn Cafe on Durham's Ninth Street is the place for you.

Who knows? We might just see you there.

Crossposted at Abby's personal blog My Sweet Babboo where she doesn't just write about food. Although come to think of it, she does write about food a lot there too.

Good Neighbors Are Worth Their Weight in Ice Cream

The following essay was my entry for the Edy's Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute. I'm so excited to be a grand prize winner, which means I'm one of 1,500 people across the country who get to throw an ice cream party for their neighbors courtesy of Edy's. Hooray for free ice cream!

In August 2003, my husband and I bought our first house, located in the Lakemont neighborhood of Raleigh, N.C. Over the next few years, we had our first child and became good friends with our neighbors. Our neighborhood group quickly became our community support network – the people who brought dinner when you'd had a family illness, watched your kids in a pinch, offered hand-me-downs and holiday treats, donated to your causes, cheered your talents, celebrated your successes and mourned your losses.

In July 2007, we sold our house in Lakemont to move to Greensboro for a great job opportunity. We didn't want to leave Raleigh, but felt like it was the right decision for our family. Long story short, over the next 11 months, the job opportunity fell apart, we had our second child, my husband found a new job in Raleigh, we sold our house in Greensboro, moved in with my parents for two months, bought a house back in Lakemont (a few streets over from our first home) and moved back to Raleigh in June 2008. Phew.

When our friends from the neighborhood showed up in the front yard of our new house at the same time that the moving truck pulled up to the curb, we knew we'd made the right decision to return. It was an exhausting year – both emotionally and physically – but we felt that coming back to Lakemont was coming home for us, returning to our "family."

Our neighborhood isn't fancy, the houses aren't glamorous, the residents aren't making millions. But we have a wealth of community that I think is rare in a time when people are so transient and keeping up with the Joneses is more about the car you drive than about what sort of help the Joneses might need.

We’d love to host an Edy’s party to say thank you to all our friends and neighbors, new and old, and to celebrate how wonderful they are – they’re what makes Lakemont home for us.

Crossposted at Junius & Pippi Take the Cake. When she's not blogging, Cyndi can be found clearing out space in her freezer for 15 quarts of ice cream. And thanks to Spry on the Wall for her comment, which led to the title of this post.