Marinated Feta

Rachel here.

Ok, so somewhere in my house is the camera that a dear friend lent me after I had posted too many picture-less posts here. Perhaps it's in M's train or lost in the shuffle of what has become my endless kitchen reorganization project. Wherever it is, I can't find it right now (worry not, dear lending friend...it's here and I will find it!) and right now is when I have time to post so, you know, pardon the fact that there's no picture.

About a month or so ago, there was this marinated feta on sale at the grocery store. At a steal, we bought it on a whim and promptly devoured it. Everywhere we went people were talking about this incredible marinated feta. This got me to thinking. Maybe I should try marinating feta on my own! And so I went to buy feta and try my hand at this nifty little concoction.

Did you know that there are like, no joke, a million different kinds of feta? Because there are. And I think that I had known this before and just refused to become ensnared in an endless inner debate about which one to buy, but not on the day that I went to pick up feta to marinate. All of a sudden the stakes felt BIG.

So I bought French feta. I think I usually buy French when I'm not sure what my options really indicate. French folks make good food so I figure I'm in safe territory. I brought it home, put it in a little bowl, and doused it in olive oil. I smashed a clove of garlic and put it in along with a big bay leaf. Some chives, fresh rosemary and cracked pepper finished the mixture off. I wrapped the bowl in saran wrap and put it in the fridge overnight. We had friends coming over and about an hour before they arrived I set the cheese on the counter to let the oil return to its liquid state. Everyone kept exclaiming about how wonderful the cheese was and I've made it a few times since for John and me.

It's so simple, right? Marinate some feta! But it makes it feel that little bit special that can go such a long way sometimes.