Cheese

Remember when mozzarella meant a brownish-yellow cheese that was low-moisture rubbery? A firm, cut-it-with-a-sharp-blade lasagna ingredient? Thanks to cheese pioneers such as Paula Lambert, now fresh mozzarella cozies up next to cheddar and Jack in the marketplace. Its soft texture and bedsheet-white appearance have become commonplace, sold refrigerated floating in whey-and-water baths in small plastic tubs. Twisted into braids, balls or knots, fresh mozzarella has musical, polysyllabic names like bocconcini, ovolini and ciliegini.

* Item: Tombstone Half & Half Pizza* What you get: 4 servings* Cost: About $4.59* Preparation time: 14 to 16 minutes in oven* Review: Modeling itself after your neighborhood pizzeria (where you can split your pizza toppings as you see fit), Tombstone has come out with a series of double-flavored pizzas. They may need a little more fine-tuning, however. We tried the Pepperoni/Cheese flavor and found the grease from the pepperoni migrated farther than expected. All of the cheese slices tasted faintly of pepperoni, not just the ones that were next to the pepperoni side.

Fruity dish gives calcium boostThis recipe for Blue Cheese-Stuffed Figs and Apricots (pictured above) not only tastes good but also boosts your calcium intake for the day, the American Dairy Association says. Halve 3 fresh figs (or plums) and 3 apricots (seeds removed), and top with 6 ounces crumbled, domestic blue cheese. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon honey and sprinkle with 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped, toasted hazelnuts. Serves 12.Buying antiques for the holidaysAs the holidays approach, the kinds of food we serve may not be our only dilemma.

Along with disco balls and lava lamps, one more retro item has made a comeback: the fondue pot. And just in time to take full advantage of this nostalgic trend, the Baltimore area has a new fondue restaurant.The original Melting Pot opened in Florida in 1975. In that more innocent time, no one would have imagined that the '90s paranoia about raw meats and seafood would delay the opening of Towson's franchise for more than six months.The Melting Pot did finally open in February after the owners satisfied Baltimore County officials' health concerns.

* Item: Dole Great Restaurant Salads* What you get: 2 1/2 servings* Cost: About $3* Preparation time: Open bag and serve* Review: I'm definitely a fan of pre-cut salad greens. But I'm not sure these new bagged salads from Dole are worth the price. The Triple Cheese Toss consisted of mixed greens with a small envelope of grated cheese you could just as easily come up with yourself -- even if it was pre-grated from a can in your refrigerator. No other dressing was included. The Mediterranean Marinade offered a similar mix of greens with a dressing spiked with peppers and mushrooms that honestly tasted more like a thick marinade.

Edward Lewis Byer, who presided over a Cross Street Market cheese stall for a decade and was on a first-name basis with the divas of opera, died Wednesday of an undetermined cause at his South Charles Street home. He was 60."My favorite cheese," he said in 1983, "is whichever one I'm eating at that particular time, just as my favorite opera is the one I'm listening to."Customers at the Cross Street Cheese Co. bought their goat cheese while savoring gossipy tidbits of the musical stage during his tenure at the popular South Baltimore market.

* Item: Toaster Breaks Melts* What you get: 6 sandwiches* Cost: About $2* Preparation time: One to two cycles in toaster* Review: Television commercials for these bake-in-the-toaster snacks seem to be aimed at the after-school set. If so, the Hot Pockets people who make them have hit their target. While my husband and I liked the meat-and-cheese-filled turnovers, my 13-year-old baby sitter and her 11-year-old sister loved them. We each tried three flavors. My husband enjoyed the Ham and Cheese, but would have preferred something a bit more substantive.

Imagine indulging in a softly ripened Camembert instead of creme brulee, a blue-veined Stilton instead of apple pie or a creamy goat cheese instead of chocolate mousse. xx Forget traditional gooey sweets for dessert. This is the year to say "cheese."The after-dinner cheese course, long considered a European tradition, is making a comeback on the American dinner table. Even the 1998 Zagat Restaurant Survey includes a first-time listing of where to go for the best cheese trays."Cheese is returning.

Editor's note: Wallace P. Flynn loves smelly cheese so much that his family leaves him, his pets can't stand to be around him and even the skunks have to move.There was an old man named Wallace P. FlynnWho lived in a house in the trees --You could smell him for several miles downwindBecause of his fondness for cheese.For the cheese that was dear to W.P.Was not the mild kind, such as Brie,The cheese of polite society --No, he liked cheese that was in your face!That smelled like socks from a marathon race,Cheese that really stank up the place!

"I have been thinking of a recipe which my Mom used to make oh so many years ago," wrote Cynthia M. Dills of Havre de Grace. "I can't recall the ingredients but it was called Meatzza Pie and was a delicious variation of a pizza using lean ground beef and Parmesan cheese, I think. Hope someone out there has a good memory for the original recipe."Responses included recipes from Barbara P. Barry of Towson, ** Regina Motter of Chestertown, Mira B. Campbell of Watertown, S.D., Patricia L. Frakes of Luverne, Minn.

As soon as the first snowflake falls in Garrett County, basil plants in Baltimore fold for the season. That is an exaggeration, but only a slight one. Basil is a weather wimp, the first plant to swoon when the temperatures dip near freezing, if only for a few hours. One day it is green, leafy and verdant and the next it is black, woody and kaput. Cue the leaf pickers. As soon as there is a slight chill in the air, they start plucking basil leaves from the plants, turning them into a variety of dishes but mainly pesto.

Buffalo taste, Polly-O budget. I don't know about you, but this recession has done nothing to curb my appetite for fancy cheese, just my ability to buy it. So I set out to make the stuff at home. That explains why I soon found myself pouring curdled milk into an old pillowcase, on purpose. Dialing up the cheese-making equivalent of the Butterball Turkey hot line. And, eventually, eating some very good and not-so-good cheese. "You make a lot of bad cheese before you make good cheese," Kate Dallam, owner of Broom's Bloom Dairy in Bel Air, said when I'd consulted her at the outset.

Early signs are promising at the Terra Cafe, Terence Dickson's sweet new eatery and coffee shop in lower Charles Village. The place is comfortable, with colors and surfaces meant to evoke the natural world. Dickson told me that his first guests were members of his church, who blessed his restaurant. It feels that way. Terra Cafe opened in early December, but a steady crowd streamed in on a recent Saturday morning and afternoon. I went for breakfast and went back for lunch. (A few days later, Dickson described that Saturday, when he was unexpectedly short-staffed, as "bananas."

There will be a corn crop next year and farmers will continue plowing their fields, milking their cows, feeding their chickens and selling their goods at market. But I won't be around to report on it. The newspaper is ending this weekly farm column. As I look back over a long career, I think about the respect I developed for farmers. They work hard and work smart or they don't survive. They are part of the largest industry in the state. They feed us at a fraction of the cost of food in other nations while constantly battling the uncontrollable threats of Mother Nature.

Bob and Suzie Thieblot know how to throw a holiday party. They have been inviting crowds of merrymakers into their home for 47 years for a feast that consumes cases of wine, 25 pounds of cheese, plates of smoked turkey and seafood, and hundreds of homemade sugar cookies. For a time, they put on two holiday events: one for their neighbors, one for members of Bob's law firm, Thieblot Ryan. As a neighbor who over the years has benefited from the Thieblots' hospitality, I was curious how they engineered this large party.

Mini pumpkins are both decorative and delicious in this easy holiday recipe. The souffles, which use the cooked flesh scooped out of their pumpkin-shell holders, come together quickly and with just a few ingredients. They'd be a festive Thanksgiving appetizer, or a main dish (serve two to each person) for vegetarians or kids who don't want turkey, or a fun morning-after brunch dish. Serve with steamed green beans. shopping list Mini pumpkins: $7.92 Eggs: 73 cents Flour: 15 cents Baking powder: 4 cents Cheese: $1.50 Green beans: $1.50 From the pantry: salt, pepper TOTAL: $11.84* Note: Prices are calculated based on the amounts used in the recipe.

Often when a restaurant reinvents itself, it smacks of desperation. But, it turns out, not in the case of Corks in Federal Hill. Before it closed at the end of the summer for renovations, Corks was one of those fine-dining restaurants that have a good reputation but people forget about because newer, trendier places get all the buzz. When it reopened after two months, it had a nifty redo by Patrick Sutton Associates and a more casual, less expensive, cheese-centric menu. When I last ate there six years ago, the back dining room was a private room.

Both kids and parents tend to start each school year with resolutions. Kids vow to do their homework on time, keep their backpacks neat and never oversleep. Parents say this is the year they'll master the art of providing healthful and interesting lunches. Concerns about childhood nutrition, food allergies and cost are shaking up the packed school lunch. Even the bag it often came in is becoming outdated. "Waste-free" lunches, packed in reusable containers and served with cloth napkins instead of paper, are becoming popular alternatives, thanks to efforts from a California group called wastefreelunches.

Gratins have a bit of seasonal affective disorder. They turn up in fall and winter but disappear when the sun comes back out in springtime. That is surprising considering how well everything at peak of green right now goes with cheese and sauce, and how easily a quick pass through the oven makes them all rich and bubbly together. Asparagus, artichokes, green garlic, dandelions, even not-so-green new potatoes can be transformed by the gratin treatment. The super-fresh aspect makes gratins especially tantalizing once you start to feel a little bored by the vegetables that tasted so new just weeks ago. A steamed artichoke is always a thing of satisfying beauty, but if you pare it to its heart, combine it with many more and bake them with green garlic and cheese, you get a whole new taste sensation.

Saag paneer, a dish that blends chopped spinach, spices and cheese, is a fixture on the takeout menus of many Indian and Pakistani restaurants. The three dishes I retrieved from Baltimore-area restaurants were all bargains, delivering large servings of basmati rice, topped with vegetables and chunks of cheese. All served up enough food for two meals. Indigma Address --802 N. Charles St. Phone --410-605-1212 Hours --Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; dinner 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Sunday.