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Janet Fletcher

180 Stonecrest Dr
Napa, CA, 94558
(707) 265-0404
{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

{ Janet Fletcher / Food Writer }

Janet Fletcher

  • Home
  • About
    • About Janet
    • Media
    • Client List
    • Contact
  • Planet Cheese
    • Planet Cheese Blog
    • Planet Cheese Signup
    • Cheese Library
  • Store
    • All Items
    • World Cheese Tour
    • Books
  • Classes
    • World Cheese Tour Classes
    • Other Classes & Events
    • Custom Class/Event Request
    • Cheese O'Clock Video Archive
  • Recipes
    • Spring
    • Summer
    • Autumn
    • Winter
    • Comfort

Board Game

January 24, 2023 janet@janetfletcher.com
Ricotta Board

Butter boards had their 15 minutes. Now, meet the ricotta board—which, naturally, I vastly prefer. Channel your inner artist and make a masterpiece with whipped ricotta and the toppings you like. (I have some suggestions.) I love how creamy ricotta becomes in a food processor, making a luscious canvas for toasted pistachios, briny olives, tapenade, pesto, prosciutto or whatever strikes your fancy. Add little knives for spreading and bread or crackers to spread it on.

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In Milk: Sheep Tags ricotta, ricotta board, whipped ricotta, butter board, Bellwether Farms, Calabro, Valentine’s Day, dinner party appetizer, hors d’oeuvre, spread recipes, dip recipes
6 Comments

One-Bite Wonders

November 29, 2022 janet@janetfletcher.com
Olive stuffed cheese balls

They’re back! Or maybe they never left. But I haven’t seen olive-stuffed cheese balls in decades and now I’ve baked multiple trays of this marvelous 1950s hors d’oeuvre. I spotted the recipe recently on another blog, A Well-Seasoned Kitchen, and it almost made me tear up. My mother, an unapologetic non-cook, had only one party appetizer in her repertoire and this was it.

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In Milk: Cow Tags cheese balls, olive-stuffed cheese balls, hors d’oeuvre, holiday appetizers, madeleine moment, cheese appetizer, cocktails, cocktail hour
17 Comments

Margrit Mondavi’s Blini

December 28, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
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I’m looking forward to lowering the curtain on this no good, very bad year. At my house, we’ll be celebrating quietly with Margrit Mondavi’s blini and a bottle of bubbles. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Margrit on two memoirs, and her buckwheat blini recipe is in one of them. The wife of vintner Robert Mondavi, Margrit was a fine cook but, by her own admission, not a patient one, so she made her blini with baking soda, not yeast. She put crème fraîche on top, but I have labneh in the fridge and like the tang.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags blini, New Years Eve, Margrit Mondavi, Robert Mondavi, appetizers, hors d’oeuvre, labneh, smoked salmon, smoked fish, caviar, buckwheat blini
4 Comments

Relish Tray Reboot

November 16, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
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Crème fraîche makes the most luscious deviled eggs, a discovery I made only recently. For a client who needed some holiday recipes, I was playing around with ways to dress up stuffed eggs without resorting to budget-busting caviar. I landed on crème fraîche, which gives the filling a subtle tang, and smoked trout on top to make them festive. Eureka. Open a sparkling wine or a Riesling and reboot your Thanksgiving relish tray with these two-bite beauties.

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In From: U.S., Milk: Cow Tags deviled eggs, stuffed eggs, crème fraiche, Thanksgiving recipes, relish tray, smoked trout, appetizers, hors d’oeuvre
8 Comments

Move Over, Avocado Toast

September 1, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
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This is fig week in Napa Valley, where I live. Seems like everyone’s backyard crop matures at once. Ripe figs wait for no one. Use ’em or lose ’em. Poking around online for inspiration, I stumbled on an appealing Greek recipe that I would be making for dinner guests if only we could have dinner guests. Oh, well. More for me. Roasted figs, feta, honey, thyme, lemon, sesame seeds—plus my secret ingredient. Soooo good.

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In Milk: Sheep, From: Greece Tags figs, feta, toast, bruschetta, ouzo, appetizers, hors d’oeuvre, mezze, meze, Greek food, Pastis, Pernod
6 Comments

Time for a Dip

August 25, 2020 janet@janetfletcher.com
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Summer veggies just wanna be dipped. Faced with a deluge of tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers from my garden, I remembered a goat cheese-onion dip recipe that a chef shared with me recently—an update of the sour-cream classic. I dug out the recipe, made it and thought: Hmmm. Good but too cheffy. I can simplify this.

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In Milk: Goat Tags dip, goat cheese, summer vegetables, appetizer, hors d’oeuvre, onion dip, Lipton’s Onion Soup
8 Comments
 

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Welcome to my world: a fragrant, fascinating universe devoted to great cheese. In this and future Planet Cheese posts, you’ll find profiles of the world’s best cheeses plus insights into everything cheese: shops, recipes, interviews, pairing discoveries, classes, videos, travel. If you haven’t already done so, sign up here - it’s complimentary - and join me in learning something new about cheese every week.


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     Photographs: Douglas Fletcher, Ed Anderson, Megan Clouse, Faith Echtermeyer, Eva Kolenko,
Victoria Pearson, Sara Remington and Meg Smith
Design: Jennifer Barry Design | Props: Tangerine Prop Shop | © 2024 Janet Fletcher, All Rights Reserved