costco & crackers

living in a teeny apartment leads to a different lifestyle than what we were used to in nashville suburbia. we joke, more often than once about only having enough room for a few rolls of toilet paper in our bathroom and no more, due to the lack of storage. the joke even led to my sister handing down to us a little rack that sits on the side of the toilet to hold two more rolls….ahh the precious real estate of storage in an urban 1 bedroom apartment (with 2 human size roommates, even!).

since moving here, we’ve temporarily said goodbye to costco. we just can’t buy anything in bulk or large quantity for now…but with a gift card from christmas burning a hole in our pockets, we trekked out to portland suburbia to see what we could find. even with the excuse of a small home, we still managed to further the truth about not being able to spend less than a hundred bucks, and came away with some prized items…including a big hunk of choice beef, and some massive hunks of cheese. as we weaved down each aisle, we daydreamed about our future as we passed oversized metal storage racks and 30lb bags of rice. while most normal people think about how cool a basement could be with a big screen, sectional or pool table…we hope to have a basement some day for food. a giant walk-in pantry for storing root vegetables and wine and for wil to take on some charcuterie challenges.

anyway, upon arriving home i realized we didn’t have much to eat with our cheese. and to keep myself from going to the grocery store for the 10th worthless time this week, it was time to hit the cookbooks to make some crackers of my own. wil’s made some crackers a couple times in his classes, and he assured me they were easier than you’d think. and i can assure you, they were. with only 5 ingredients, they have a nice balance of buttery-ness and crispy-ness, and as for this batch, it was a perfect excuse to clean out some of the random things in our kitchen.

the original recipe was a cheddar and walnut cracker…but since brie was one of the main cheeses we bought, cheddar wouldn’t have really worked as a base cracker flavor. we had some feta and gorgonzola, both partially used containers, on the last turn of their lives. we had some rosemary that was also almost ready to hit the dust, so i chopped that up to throw in. take advantage of the fact that you could alter the cheese and/or herb to whatever you’ve got floating around… a different cheese? yes. or sesame seeds? yes.  or cracked pepper? yes!

take note…these are very similar to shortbread, and even called ‘icebox’ crackers…because they are basically only butter and flour, chilled, then sliced to bake. they are softer and crumbly…not crunchy like most store bought kinds. to prevent them breaking all over you when you enjoy them, i’d recommend a presliced piece of cheese, a dollop of an interesting relish or jam (wil was muttering ‘mmmm fig jammmm’ as we brainstormed), or of course by themselves. i hope to try another recipe that has a bit more gluten developed in them for a stronger cracker, for variety.

feta & rosemary icebox crackers

1 stick (4 oz) butter
6 oz flour (about 1 1/3 cup) flour
8 oz (about 1 cup) cheese; i didn’t have this much, and they turned out fine. make sure if you use a hard cheese like cheddar, that it is grated.
1 tsp salt (this may vary depending on the saltiness of your cheese and butter)
1 tbs chopped rosemary

1. cream the butter. add cheese and mix well. add flour and salt and mix well. then mix well… (kidding). add rosemary (or nuts or whatever other internal garnish you decide).

2. form into a log. you can either roll into a log to create round cookies; i formed it into a rough log, than wrapped in plastic to smooth into a more rectilinear log.

3. chill in plastic for at least an hour.

4. cut into 1/8″ slices, place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 370 degrees for 8-10 minutes. just keep an eye for the last few minutes, as mine needed to go a bit longer. do not be afraid to let them brown a little, otherwise they’ll stay too soft.

5. let cool and place in airtight container if you aren’t indulging right away!