Cheese is Good

Celia,

We seem to have had an accidental hiatus from this lovely blog, which is not good. Part of it was because of the Sister Visit - yay! - but part is just because we are lazy! I know we both have tasty things to post about. I'll work on getting my backload taken care of, but first I wanted to show you my excellent cheese plate.

A few weeks ago, I talked the boyfriend into throwing a little party so I could cook for people. One of the things I really wanted to have was a cheese plate on a piece of slate. I have no idea where I first saw such a thing, but I thought it was great - the slate keeps the cheese cool, you can cut the cheese on it, and use chalk to write the names of the cheeses right there!

Thus began the Semi-Great Slate Quest. If it had been full-on great I would have actually gone to a tile store and asked for some sample slate tiles. I did not. I did, however, try to unearth a piece of slate the boyfriend said was living by the side of the house. When I saw that the slate was bigger than out countertop (mild exaggeration) I ditched that idea and just bought a slate tray. That one was crooked though, so I returned it and bought another one, which is the one you see here. Everyone thought the idea was good, and I thought it looked lovely!

I chose four cheeses from Spain, because I had one in mind that was Spanish and I wanted to keep a theme. I tried to choose a variety of intensities, although I hadn't tasted most of these so I had to go based on the Wegman's cheese department descriptions. The cheeses are:

Drunken Goat: This was the one I had tried before, and really liked. It's a Spanish goat cheese cured in red wine, and is medium-soft and tasty.
Miti Cana de Oveja: This is a sheep cheese that was supposedly like brie but with three different textures per slice, but I thought it tasted like Crayola crayons smell and couldn't get that out of my head after I first thought it.
Campo de Montalban: This one was a harder cheese, like a Manchego, and was quite tasty.
Torta la Serena: And this one tasted like death. It was softer and also smelled bitter and strong. One party-goer diplomatically described it as "brawny." I sent it home with a cheese-lover who said she would like to try to appreciate it.

I know this post wasn't about baked goods, but we both like cheese, so it's close enough. I am currently roasting beets for some red velvet cupcakes. Expect those soon!

Amanda