Dancing and Le Bon Fromage

So, Kylie was a little disappointing last night. Not even sure what I expected, but it wasn't what I saw. Sad that Steve Gutenberg is gone, because he cracks me up, but oh well. Kinda wish Marisa would go......

So, I love cheese. All different kinds. Right now, in my cheese drawer I have some Boursin (which I'm eating right now), Holland Gouda, Smoked Gouda, BabyBel red cheeses, string cheese, two kinds of goat cheese (my favorite pizza is goat cheese pizza with the huge slices of goat cheese on it with just a sprinkling of mozzarella or Gruyere cheese), blocks of mozzarella and cheddar, and a small wheel of Brie. I really like cheese. And so do my kids and my husband. The sad thing is here in podunk Fayetteville, a good baguette is hard to find. You know, crispy on the outside, nice and soft on the inside. In France and Germany, you will see people touching and squeezing their baguettes to see how crispy they are. Unless you go into the bakery and they just hand it to you. People are very picky about their bread.

When I married my husband and he saw me buying baguettes and cheese from Trader Joe's, he thought I was crazy. Until he had some. Now, if I don't eat it soon enough, my cheese is gone, as is the good bread. When we were in Germany we ate good cheese all the time. When we would go to France, we would literally only eat bread, cheese and french ham (which is SO much better than American ham) for almost every meal. We would get sliced Gouda, and some good baguettes...so yummy. I also love babybels with tuna and a baguette. I just like good cheese. I wish our commissary carried more cheese. They actually have a decent selection, but I'm so used to paying French or German prices for things that when I see how much a small slice of Gruyere is, I just want to laugh. In France we get bags of that stuff shredded and it costs hardly anything. My brother and I both love raclette too. My sisters and I bought him a raclette for his wedding, now he just has to find the cheese to go with it. And since he is exactly like my dad, getting him to put out the money for it is going to be hard. OK, so it is expensive, but if you really want it... (note that the two links for raclette are different because the cheese and the doohickey that you cook it on are both called the same thing!!)

Why am I talking about cheese? I don't know. Because I like it, and I think most Americans don't eat much more than cheddar and mozzarella regularly. It is good to try something different. I would highly suggest smoked Gouda. OH SO GOOD!! On some good crackers, or if you have some decent bread.

So, try some new cheese the next time you go to the store. Babybels are a good start. Not too strong. But goat cheese can be really strong (when I was in France some people took us to a farm to eat and you could go and see the goats that made the cheese you were eating. the male goat smelled like the cheese before you even went into his little pen.), so you might want to work up to that. And it can be expensive, but for us cheese people, it's worth the extra money.