I was 18 that summer, the summer before I would move out east to attend college. The summer before everything would change. In the true spirit of my family we took one of our crazy  last minute road trips to Memphis, TN for some barbecue and blues. I didn't think there existed a place more muggy than St. Louis, but Memphis sure had the old STL beat. Nonetheless, the food, the music and the company were great. Walking down Beale Street and eating at BB Kings is a memory I wont soon forget, especially considering the crazy street performers that enraptured me. Fried green pickles are still one of my favorite snacks, when I can get them of course. I remember going in and out of kitschy shops and coming across a sign that said "Put some south in your mouth!" My parents quickly herded my younger brother and I along because of the obvious connotation. But when I was planning this week's meals based on our share, I knew I would be using the cornmeal to make some grits and bringing some south to our mouths here in, what I fondly call, the arctic north.

Special thanks to Lucky Penny Farm for generously providing the goat chevre  for this post!

Shrimp 'n grits
***I originally found the recipe for the shrimp in this dish on Food Network's website. I should have trusted my gut when I had doubts about the preparation because it definitely not my favorite. So this recipe represents what I should have done and will do in the future when I make this again. Because even though the shrimp was a little bleh, the grits and greens were amazing!


1 C stone ground cornmeal (Source: Stutzman Farms, FFM)
1 C water
1.5 C chicken or veggie stock (Source: homemade from the bones from our FFM chicken)
1/4 C whole milk or cream (Source: Snowville Creamery, FFM)
4 oz chevre (Source: courtesy of Lucky Penny Farm)
1 TBL butter
fresh parsley (Source: fire escape garden)
fresh chives (Source: fire escape garden)

Shrimp- try to find some big tiger shrimp, mine were a little sad
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 TBL butter
1 TBL olive oil

Mustard greens (Source: FFM)
Beet greens (Source: FFM)
2 TBL olive oil

Chevre Grits-
Bring stock and water to a boil and lower heat to medium low. Add cornmeal in slowly while whisking to avoid lumps. Stir occasionally and let grits cook for about 5-10 minutes or so. Whisk in the butter, milk, and chevre and remove from heat.

Shrimp-
Heat oil and butter in a skillet and cook onions and garlic until soft. Saute shrimp until pink. Be careful not to overcook the shrimp as they will become tough.

Greens-
Saute your greens on high heat in a skillet with olive oil. S&P to taste

Serve shrimp and greens over grits.

After a recent trip to the Tremont Farmer's Market (held on Tuesdays from 4-7 in Lincoln Park- look for a review in the coming days!) we were gifted a 4 oz container of chevre from Lucky Penny Farm Creamery to try. Being Greek myself, I have pretty high standards for all things "goat" and given that any cheese made with goat's milk is top of the list in my book of favorite cheeses, I was pretty hard on Lucky Penny. And she passed with flying colors! Enough of that slightly musky flavor coupled with a delicate creaminess (I never thought I would be able to use the word "delicate" in describing goat cheese, but it really was) was just about perfect. I say just about because although I could eat a tub of chevre or any cheese for that matter by itself, I knew this chevre was destined for something special. Wanting to avoid obvious uses such as in a salad, on a pizza, as an appetizer, I searched the worldwide web far and wide for dessert recipes that were more complicated than using the chevre as a garnish. Behold the chevre cheesecake! Quite a few iterations exist out there and I ended up adapting them to what I had on hand and my tastes.

Chevre Cheesecake
**I actually quartered this recipe as I didnt have 8 oz of chevre to work with, and halving it used all of the 4oz I did have which I was totally against. The recipe still turned out great even though I had to use a whole egg instead of 3/4 of an egg :) Top with homemade caramel (I was too lazy), chocolate fudge, fruit compote, or jam. The crust was not in the original recipe but I thought it was worth a try. I made sure to taste the chevre on a bit of cookie before I committed to pairing them together and it was great.


Crust
8-12 crushed ginger snap cookies (Source: Ivins' famous spiced wafers) (hand delivered by philly locals)
2-3 TBL butter (Source: FFM)


Cheesecake
8 oz Chevre (Courtesy of: Lucky Penny Farm Creamery, no compensation was received for the writing of this post reviewing their chevre. In fact, I dont even think the lady knew I had a blog and was just being generous after I bought some goats milk soap!)
1/2 C soft brown sugar, not packed! (I used dark brown as that was all I had)
1/2 C creme fraiche, I subbed sour cream as that's all I had and it was great!
3 eggs (Source: Holistic Farms, FFM)


Preheat oven to 350F. Melt butter and mix with crushed ginger snaps and press into the bottom of 6 ramekins. 


Beat sugar and chevre on medium speed with whisk attachment until completely smooth, scrapping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating until incorporated. Fret not when the mixture becomes quite runny, the creme fraiche or sour cream will solve that. Beat in creme fraiche or sour cream until batter like consistency. Divide cream mixture between ramekins. 


Place ramekins in a roasting pan that can accomodate them all and add boiling water to the pan about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 10 minutes and then turn the oven off. Leave cheesecakes in oven while it cools about an hour. When completely cool, tightly cover and refrigerate overnight until serving!