Cheese

Last weekend, we had a couple people over for an April Fool's Day gathering. It was more low-key than expected, but there was still an ill-advised piñata (filled with liquor and inflammables and glass things and candy and tinned meat products) that we busted open with swords and a broken tail pipe.

There was also cheese.

Image by Michael CotéEarlier in the day, I stopped by my favorite local cheese counter. This is always a dangerous proposition. The prime danger, of course, is that I would buy some St. Andre. I did. I also saw one of the most beautiful cheeses I have ever laid my eyes on. It looked like it was made of stained glass, with a rich, dark brown leading between panes of cream. I asked about it. It was an Irish cheddar, Cahill's Porter Cheddarto be specific. I'm occasionally a sucker for presentation, so I snagged some of that, too. I did taste it first. It was good, but subtler than I expected. The porter taste is definitely there (look at it - how could it not be?), but it is far from overpowering. It was a cheddar, but not a super-sharp one. I wanted a third cheese for the plate, something with bite. I might have gone with a goat cheese, but Angela is (sadly) allergic to such things, so I got a really nice, intense fontina.

When I got home, I made an ill-advised cheesecake. I needed to make something that I was ashamed to like. I decided to hide it. So I made a cheesecake, inside which I placed eight Cadbury creme eggs. It was somewhat gratuitous and wholly appropriate.

A few days later, the leftover porter cheddar was turned into the grilled cheese sandwich of the gods. Have you ever seen dark brown melted cheddar? Beautiful.

Also, Yoo-hoo can be used as the base of a damn fine White Russian variant. Do not contradict me on this.

It's that time of year when minds turn to seduction via food. The question is, which old standby do you turn to, cheese or chocolate?

Just to be safe, I humbly suggest both.

Image by Jacob EnosI love tips from old cookbooks. I particularly like it when I can figure out whether or not they actually work and why.

Recently, I saw a tip on Lifehacker that caught my attention: to store cheese (keeping it soft and preventing mold growth), spread a thin layer of butter on it. In the comments, someone one-ups this by suggesting that the butter be spread on cheesecloth which is then used to wrap the cheese.