Say CHEESE!

One reason that I know Mike is my soul mate is because we both LOVE cheese. Love it.

We have different experiences with cheese, however. Mom cooked a lot with cheese and we definitely snacked on it, but marrying Mike really opened my eyes to the world of cheeses, and the great news is that I know I've only cracked the surface!


Funny side story... Right after college one of my best friends C and I traveled to Europe. Our tour visited a little town called Edam, Holland to do some cheese tasting. Naturally, C and I had one too many spirits the night before and woke up about .5 seconds before the bus was leaving our hotel. I'm not kidding. We furiously got dressed, secured our fanny packs, and ran downstairs to get on the bus. I won't drag C into this, but I at least was a sight for sore eyes. I may have announced to the entire bus that neither of us brushed our teeth or combed our hair. I might have smelled like the club in Amsterdam that we visited the night before. I might have. Either way, by the time we got to the cheese farm I was HUNGRY. C and I sent home about $300 worth of cheese and bought a big hunk for ourselves.  It was delicious, and I don't even remember what it was. We kept it in our room. I think we literally just took bites out of the hunk until we had stomachaches. And were probably extremely constipated. C you hate me, i'm sorry.


C is obviously not her real name.

This is a bad picture, but me with this cute dog I met outside the cheese farm. Looking lovely.

Anyway, watching Mike pick out cheese for us to snack on while we cook or entertain is like watching a little kid in the candy store. In honor of how it is the weekend and this mental image of my cute hubby picking out his cheese is making me smile and getting me through 6th period, I have decided to recommend some of my favorite cheeses for your weekend! 


These are great cheeses that you can find at any grocery store and seeing as Mike and I are having to learn to budget and save money (i.e. only buying one cheese instead of three or four,) they are reasonably priced and in my opinion, don't quite put me in the cheese snob club yet. Here they are, in no particular order:


1. 1000 day aged gouda


Beautiful golden orange color--- like amber. This is a hard cheese (which are my favorite) and perfect to eat when cut into small squares by itself. The after taste is delicious-- almost like caramel! I will say that perhaps it is an acquired taste, some people aren't as fond as others. But I LOVE it and this is my blog so there.

2. Manchego

I've had a wonderful love affair with this cheese. This was the first cheese that Mike introduced to me at Malaga in Austin, and I've demanded it with my Tapas and on weekends ever since! It pains me just a bit that it is becoming so popular because it really is so special. I don't know how to describe it. Again, it is a hard cheese, but in its own way it is creamy and very pleasant. It comes from Spain which I think is my favorite country, so Manchego earns bonus points for that. You can serve Manchego cut into thin triangles (to serve on top of crackers or with antipasto) or you can shave it. 

3. Cambozola 

Mike would kill me if he knew I was writing about cheese and didn't include his favorite. This is Brie filled with Blue Cheese. It is obviously a soft cheese and is GREAT on Thin Nut crackers. This cheese is very heavy and therefore filling, but don't let that stop you from eating the entire wedge.

4. Camembert

Camembert is very similar to Brie--- it is soft, however I don't think it is as creamy. It is REALLY great with jam and is also tasty on sandwiches. As I was choosing a picture, I also happened to notice that it is lower in fat than Brie... but it is cheese, who am I kidding? It comes with the rind in tact, so be sure you don't eat that!

5. Havarti

I'm assuming most of you have eaten Havarti. It is great on thin, sea salted crackers. It also comes in different flavors such as jalapeno, garlic, red pepper. This is a good cheese if you're REALLY tight on cash and just have to have some decent cheese!

However, the real reason I wanted to include this cheese is because I have a good story to go with it.

Labor Day Weekend, 2010. Late evening. Smith/Nelson family cheese craving after an evening of wine and football games at Abel's on the Lake. Dad demands a cheese plate and Mom reluctantly gets up to make him one (my liberal friends are rolling their eyes.) Mom brings it back and I grab this tool 

and the Havarti. Slice!

Oh no. This is bad. That really, really hurt. That REALLY HURT. AHHHHHH. I grab my thumb. Blood everywhere, Mike and Mom run me to the sink. Blood, more blood. I'm bleeding out! Mom looks at it, " oh my GOD part of it is gone!" Mike "Oh $%@$."

Being the child of a doctor and a nurse (and probably the fact that it is really late)  my parents decide to wrap it up and see how it looks in the morning...

We arrive at the ER and they tell me that there is no way to reattach it. Seeing as we never found the part of my thumb that was missing, I'd say so. One painful cleaning later:

Muahaha. Have a great weekend :)

Oh, and for your information jerks, it grew back ALMOST normally.