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Jun 23
2008
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Easy to be CheesyPosted by cheesymommy in Untagged |
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It was EASY bein cheesy…
So you and your friends have decided to break out of your coffee-and-catch-up routine and have a proper gathering….Cloth napkins…un-interrupted streams of conciousness….wine… Like, er, actually sitting down to eat. F-U-N! But I feel that in the vortex of time-sensitive kids meals I have forgotten how to do something quick and fabulous in the kitchen! I recently saw a beautiful photo of a cheese board in a magazine, complete with marcona almonds, honey, chutney and dried apricots to compliment the nutty, sweet, or smokey flavors in the cheeses. It all looked so wonderfully simple yet elegant and robust with different textures and nuances one will taste when leisurely nibbling on cheeses in this way. But I didn’t know where to start! Now I remember why I avoid these things, the cheese in my fridge is individually wrapped! I know about as much about cheese as I do about the mating habits of the tsetse fly. For all I know a Cheese Board is a group of men in suits who sit around a table and judge the mold density! So rolled up my sleeves, pulled the laptop into bed with me and Googled “Cheese Course” during the commercials of American Idol…I got PAGES of different tips and ideas about how to put together my spread. The nice thing is I found is there are no formal rules. There are guidelines for buying and presenting cheese, but the best piece of advice I got was to try as many different cheeses as you can to learn about the incredibly delicious varieties being made today. Once you figure out what you like and what you'd like to share with your friends, you can narrow your choices to three or four for a particular cheese course. Oh, and cue the sommelier! Wine is imperative. So I served up what I considered a lovely little variety of fromage and accoutrement's. We relaxed and savored the cheeses, sipped the wine and the conversation flowed. Yes, it was an excuse to hang out like grown ups, but the cheese board offered a unique focal point. It was a cheesy experience I highly recommend. We were startled from this dreamy state, only to find that an hour or two has slipped away and it was time to go back to the hectic pace of our busy lives where we eat in our cars or are too busy to taste our food.
So you and your friends have decided to break out of your coffee-and-catch-up routine and have a proper gathering….Cloth napkins…un-interrupted streams of conciousness….wine… Like, er, actually sitting down to eat. F-U-N! But I feel that in the vortex of time-sensitive kids meals I have forgotten how to do something quick and fabulous in the kitchen! I recently saw a beautiful photo of a cheese board in a magazine, complete with marcona almonds, honey, chutney and dried apricots to compliment the nutty, sweet, or smokey flavors in the cheeses. It all looked so wonderfully simple yet elegant and robust with different textures and nuances one will taste when leisurely nibbling on cheeses in this way. But I didn’t know where to start! Now I remember why I avoid these things, the cheese in my fridge is individually wrapped! I know about as much about cheese as I do about the mating habits of the tsetse fly. For all I know a Cheese Board is a group of men in suits who sit around a table and judge the mold density! So rolled up my sleeves, pulled the laptop into bed with me and Googled “Cheese Course” during the commercials of American Idol…I got PAGES of different tips and ideas about how to put together my spread. The nice thing is I found is there are no formal rules. There are guidelines for buying and presenting cheese, but the best piece of advice I got was to try as many different cheeses as you can to learn about the incredibly delicious varieties being made today. Once you figure out what you like and what you'd like to share with your friends, you can narrow your choices to three or four for a particular cheese course. Oh, and cue the sommelier! Wine is imperative. So I served up what I considered a lovely little variety of fromage and accoutrement's. We relaxed and savored the cheeses, sipped the wine and the conversation flowed. Yes, it was an excuse to hang out like grown ups, but the cheese board offered a unique focal point. It was a cheesy experience I highly recommend. We were startled from this dreamy state, only to find that an hour or two has slipped away and it was time to go back to the hectic pace of our busy lives where we eat in our cars or are too busy to taste our food.
