Melancholy with avocado on toast

Maybe returning from vacation is more difficult than I remember. I've always thought it was a bit of a downer to return to work, to face up to the fact that I can't continue with the anything goes attitude I adopt on holiday. But I don't recall re-entry ever being quite so tough.

I've tried to be good, to deal with the blahs by hitting the gym every day, but it doesn't seem to be working. I cried myself to sleep after watching the final episode of Six Feet Under on DVD last night. It's a touching episode, sure, but my body chemistry must be wonky. Or I need a major life change. Or something.

What to do in the meantime? I sought a food pick me up. Not in the douse-your-sorrows-in-vats-of-ice-cream-and-brownies-way (though it sounds good, doesn't it?), but in the comforting-yet-good-for-you-way, finding foods that are healthy and good, that fill me up and leave me satisfied. Something delicious and wholesome and wonderful.

I turned to avocado on toast for today's lunch. Thin slices of ripe avocado atop toasted whole grain bread, sprinkled with kosher salt, doused with a bit of lemon juice, and garnished with baby pea shoots. You can mash the avocado if you prefer a guacamole-like texture, add tomato, substitute lime juice for lemon, skip the pea shoots.

It may not warrant a recipe, but avocado on toast is my idea of great comfort food. And with any luck, it may chase away the blahs.

Geitost!

I feel obligated to offer a "gesundheit" after using Geitost as a title, but no one familiar with Geitost would ask for a blessing. They would ask for more. Geitost is an amazing Scandinavian goat's milk cheese.

Sunday started off innocently enough. My friend Lisa and I hiked through Duke Forest with my dog. We had lunch at a local Asian restaurant. We bought yarn, so I could teach her to knit.

Somewhere along the way, Lisa mentioned a favorite food from her Iowa upbringing. After elementary school she would go home with her buddy Nina. Nina's mother was Norwegian, a blond beauty who made terrific after-school snacks in her yellow, sun-filled bungalow. The typical after school goodie was a slice of dark bread slathered with butter and topped with a piece of Geitost (sometimes spelled Gjetost).

Lisa's description of this cheese made me rethink my afternoon. I had to try it. Immediately. We headed to our local gourmet grocery and bought of block of Geitost, along with a package of imported pumpernickel — one of those perfectly square, dark brown slices of bread found in a specialty market or the international food aisle of your local grocery.

At home, the knitting needles came out and I (tried) to teach Lisa to cast on and knit. Then it was snack time. Geitost and butter on pumpernickel for everyone! And, wow, was it good. Geitost is a rich, creamy, dark brown cheese (alarmingly brown) with a remarkable caramel flavor. It's borderline sweet, but not off-putting. The dark bread provided great contrast to the cheese, and the butter served as a nice neutral buffer with a soft, creamy texture.

Now we just need to learn how to make the stuff. A brief bit of Internet research reveals that we need a lot of goat's milk whey (the by-product of cheese production) and a lot of spare time. It takes about 6 hours of stand-by-the-pot time for the milk sugars to caramelize. This will be Lisa's job, as she works from home. Wish us luck.


Note: If you can't find imported pumpernickel, use rye bread or rye flatbread.