Gouda and Good Looks
Pairings, stone fruit, and makeovers this way.
Good morning! We’ve got quite a few new subscribers here, so we thought we’d reintroduce ourselves and the frivolity-fest that is Creamline.
Taylore: Full-time drinks editor, sometimes beauty/lifestyle writer living in Brooklyn. Lately, you’ll find her making spicy things in her tiny kitchen or redecorating her apartment.
Christine: Writer, cheese professional, and part-time pastry cook. Currently based in Burlington, Vermont and was in New York City before that. Currently deep-diving into the world of perfume, and spending lots of time in her community garden plot.
We crank out Creamline twice a month. Today’s letter is free for all subscribers (yay!) and for future letters, we’re offering 20% off paid subscriptions if you subscribe within the next week. That will ensure you get all of our cheese, beauty, booze, and food content.
Without further ado, this week’s Creamline.
Part I: Forget the Wine, Pair that Cheese Board with a Summer Cocktail
CC: Okay, I don’t really want you to forget wine. I love wine! I love wine with cheese!
But, “pairing experts” can get pretty far up our own butts when talking about the combination. For instance, will a big red wine technically overpower a creamy brie-style cheese? If you’re combining them in the typical cheese-classroom-proportions, yes.
But, does that mean you shouldn’t enjoy those two things together? Of course not. We’re rarely pairing wine and cheese for academic purposes; we’re enjoying them with an array of food and beverages, while (most importantly) spending time with people we enjoy. Who cares if a pairing technically doesn’t work if it’s working for you?
Which is why I love pairing cheese with a cute cocktail. Just as much potential for pairing magic, but far less snobbery. Below, a few of my favorite combinations.
Paloma with Young Manchego
A paloma, particularly a mezcal paloma, is my summer cocktail of choice. Buttery, musky Manchego with its lovely brown sugar notes rounds out the grapefruit and gives whichever agave spirit you choose a silkier finish. A foolproof pairing if there ever was one.
Painkiller with Goat Gouda
Think of a piña colada as Liam Hemsworth and a painkiller as Chris Hemsworth. Are they both good options? Absolutely. But the painkiller, made with dark rum and traditionally topped with fresh grated nutmeg, is a bit brawnier and, dare I say, sexier. Once you know Chris exists, Liam kind of fades into your memories of the early 2010s, ya know?
Pairing-wise, the deep rum flavors in the drink bring out the caramelly notes in the gouda (whether you go aged or younger with the gouda), and the lemony top notes in the gouda play beautifully with the pineapple. So good!
Aperol Spritz with Piave
Aperol Spritz is my least favorite drink on this list, but even I will knock back a few when they’re paired with salt + umami. Enter Piave, Parmigiano Reggiano’s second cousin from the Veneto region of Italy. Whereas Parm tends to give big beef brothy flavors, sometimes with a pineapple-y undertone, Piave is a little more chicken brothy, with a hint of marcona almond. It’s way more snackable than Parm, IMO, and its round, refined flavors make an Aperol Spritz all the more elegant.
Mojito with Cabot Clothbound Cheddar
Weirdly, this is such a great pairing. Mint isn’t the easiest note to pair with cheese, but Cabot Clothbound has this beautiful “eating toffee in a cave” vibe to it that brings out the greenery of the mint. The lime in the cocktail and the cheese’s acidity play well together too. Cute and unexpected.
Part II: Apricots, Three Ways
TG: One thing about me: I’m a sucker for an afternoon tea. I love the ceremony of it; I love lingering over a long lunch. I also enjoy the prep: sandwiches, scones, the works. It’s a multi-day project that culminates in a cute little tower of delights — and a bunch of leftovers ready for the rest of the week. So yesterday, I did a post-D&D high tea with chilled pea soup and some tea sandwiches: cucumber and chive cream cheese; turkey, cheddar, and green goddess mayo; coronation chicken salad.
That curried chicken salad was actually the inspiration for most of the meals I ate this week. I’ve been craving it for months, and when I passed by a pile of gorgeous apricots at Eataly on my way home from the office, I took it as a sign. I grabbed a giant bag and got to work. First, I blended the two least ripe into a dressing with harissa, honey, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, and cilantro. I spooned that over a tomato, cucumber, and feta salad, then saved the rest for salads and grain bowls. Then, the crown jewel of my little tea party: the chicken salad. I chopped up a few more apricots and added them to a big-ass bowl with celery, chives, golden raisins, greek yogurt, mayo, SOS Chefs Madras curry powder, and two shredded, poached chicken breasts.
To polish off the apricots, I stewed them down with a vanilla bean to serve warm with rye buttermilk crepes. (I consulted a few different crepe recipes because I’ve somehow failed to put the gigantic bag of rye flour in my pantry to good use.) They gave me trouble — it’s time for a new non-stick, folks — but I made it work in my teeny egg pan. I topped both bowls with cinnamon sugar butter and maple syrup and all frying-related struggles were promptly forgotten.
Part III: Frivolities
If you’re new here, this is a section you can expect to find in all of our letters moving forward. Fun or femme-coded things tend to be dismissed as unimportant, but we take fun seriously. This is also where Creamline’s guests take over when they join us.
Here, a few things that brought us joy in the past couple weeks.
CC: The Makeup Tutorials: Though I’m pretty lazy with my daily makeup (and, I suspect I’d be fined if I wore makeup more than once a week here in Vermont), I looove a good makeup tutorial. And, there’s no one doing more fun-yet-practical tutorials than Zoe Kim Kenealy. Some favorites of hers include Monica Bellucci makeup, 90s Bubblegum Bombshell makeup, and a No Makeup Makeup Smoky Eye. My makeup, when I do it, is so much more fun and refined, thanks to her!
The Musk: I’m exploring more gothic fragrances, by which I mean ones that feel elegant, slightly old-fashioned, and like something dark might be lurking beneath. “It’s a beautiful house, but is it haunted?” is the vibe. Xerjoff Apollonia, a powdery, musky iris scent has been hitting that spot for me lately. It smells kind of like a combo of Chanel No 5 and baby powder, but like Jareth the Goblin King cast a spell on them. Strange, ethereal, and weirdly comforting.
(Sample here, if you wanna. None of our links to date are affiliate, just trying to be helpful!)
The Maizy: My almost-six-year-old chocolate lab is basically just a cartoon character.
TG: The Burning: I’ve been tearing through more candles, because nothing makes New York extra dank quite like a heat wave. That means breaking out candles that up the apartment’s fresh factor. Here, some of the hits:
The Maker Gardener Candle: I was obsessed with a book called Grandpa’s Garden Lunch as a kid, and this is what I imagine that garden would smell like if grandpa happened to live in the French countryside. Big basil, mint, and bergamot position it as the ideal kitchen candle, but it’s just too chic to burn anywhere but center-stage in my living room.
Boy Smells Rinder: Watermelon rind, orris, lily, cedar — this is the low-key, white flower-forward, cleansing kind of candle to light while you’re tidying up after a messy dinner.
Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato: This is one of the most true-to-plant examples of the many tomato candles I’ve owned. I burn this one when Stephen isn’t around because it reminds him of weeding his childhood garden. (Christine, I imagine, cannot relate!)
The Braised: An Resy notification led to an impulsive dinner at Ci Siamo last week, and I returned laser-focused on two of my favorite pasta dishes in Manhattan: the brothy, parm-rich stracci with braised rabbit and cracked black peppercorns and the tagliatelle with tomato, buffalo butter, and a hearty dusting of Calabrian chili powder. I’ve been hankering to re-make them both at home for months, so we’ll call this dinner research? Pomodoro season approaches, after all.
The Budge-Proof: What made me slap on a full face on a 93 degree day? Procrastination. But this shit held up in ways my deodorant did not. NARS’ liquid liner pen didn’t turn my eyelids into impressionist art; Benefit’s 24-Hour Brow Setter kept my brows fluffed and in place. The lip combo (Peripera Ink Velvet in Fuchsia Red layered underneath Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Cinematic Red) also held strong through a Piña Colada and the sweaty walk home.
The Knee-Baring: I’m coming to all of you for help with this one: I’m in desperate need of some good denim shorts and have reached peak decision paralysis. I'm looking for something that can accommodate an ass without leaving a gap in the waist, maybe have a little stretch to them, and will look cool and adult with myriad the tops and shoes. Fashion friends and otherwise, please drop your recs in the comments.