You may be asking yourself, "What gives this man such knowledge and worthwhile opinions about cheese?" Here is the answer. I was born on the gridirons of the Midwest where I grew up in a family who would eat cheese with nearly every meal and snack on cheese slices as we stood around the kitchen and conversed about our days. Cheese also replaced dog treats for our small rat terrier which later lead to health concerns and a much larger than average rat terrier. I have fond memories of traveling to Kalona, Iowa to visit the Kalona Cheese House as a child on Saturday mornings. My mother would have to buy two bags of their famous cheese curds, one for the family eat on the half hour ride home and one she would hide in the fridge (usually in the vegetable drawer) to help us to savor them as much as possible. When we would visit the factory, I had two things on my mind: the first was sampling as many different types of cheese and as much cheese as possible and the second thing on my mind was how I would maximize the time I could spend watching the factories industrial cheese making machines mix and make the many brilliant cheeses they served.
As I grew older my love of cheese did not fade. Through my high school days I ate a plain cheese sandwiches on white bread with margarine almost every day. I remember sitting through class and dreaming of the thick cheese slices that would be on my sandwich at lunch. On days that my mother would make my lunch for me I would wonder throughout the morning about the type of cheese that would be on my sandwich always hoping it would be the holy grail of cheese, Colby Jack. Through college my diet was still based around cheese. When I would take my weekly trip to the grocery store I would almost always pick up the largest block of Colby Jack offered (24 ounces). In a week I would use this cheese for everything I ate. My diet had very little variety, but large quantities of cheese are necessary when you only eat quesadillas, nachos, and chili. When I spent a semester of college traveling the wilderness of New Zealand I was relieved to find out that New Zealand's "Fancy" brand cheese could last three weeks in a backpack and still tastes as delicious as it did when it came off the shelf at the store.
My unhealthy intake of cheese came to a halt at the end of my college years when my then girlfriend and now wife sent me an article discussing the health concerns that can arise from over consumption of cheese. I will never forget a fact in the article about how the cheese alone on two slices of a famous pizza chain's pizza had the same amount of sodium suggested for about two and half days by the FDA and enough saturated fat to make your heart stop beating on the spot. It was at that point that I decided enough was enough and cut cheese completely from my diet for about 11 days. During this tremendous stretch of time without the most delicious and important food in the world, my body seemed much happier. I lost noticeable weight and the only thing I changed was my cheese intake but I was not happy without cheese. I knew I needed to find healthy ways to incorporate cheese back into my diet. I was introduced to the deliciousness of "classier" cheese by my now sister-in-law and have grown to appreciate many types cheese.
Now married and living in the south I have noticed people here do not have the same love of cheese as people from the Midwest. My wife reads a number of food blogs and my friends and family write blogs about the interesting things happening in their lives. My life itself is anything but interesting so writing a blog about myself worth reading would force me to fabricate stories to capture the attention of others. Due to the emptiness left in my heart from no longer being surrounded by cheese lovers I decided I could join the blogging revolution and talk about something I feel versed in: and that is cheese. Stay tuned each week for a post and review of different cheeses and cheese recipes.
Peace, Love and Cheese.
As I grew older my love of cheese did not fade. Through my high school days I ate a plain cheese sandwiches on white bread with margarine almost every day. I remember sitting through class and dreaming of the thick cheese slices that would be on my sandwich at lunch. On days that my mother would make my lunch for me I would wonder throughout the morning about the type of cheese that would be on my sandwich always hoping it would be the holy grail of cheese, Colby Jack. Through college my diet was still based around cheese. When I would take my weekly trip to the grocery store I would almost always pick up the largest block of Colby Jack offered (24 ounces). In a week I would use this cheese for everything I ate. My diet had very little variety, but large quantities of cheese are necessary when you only eat quesadillas, nachos, and chili. When I spent a semester of college traveling the wilderness of New Zealand I was relieved to find out that New Zealand's "Fancy" brand cheese could last three weeks in a backpack and still tastes as delicious as it did when it came off the shelf at the store.
My unhealthy intake of cheese came to a halt at the end of my college years when my then girlfriend and now wife sent me an article discussing the health concerns that can arise from over consumption of cheese. I will never forget a fact in the article about how the cheese alone on two slices of a famous pizza chain's pizza had the same amount of sodium suggested for about two and half days by the FDA and enough saturated fat to make your heart stop beating on the spot. It was at that point that I decided enough was enough and cut cheese completely from my diet for about 11 days. During this tremendous stretch of time without the most delicious and important food in the world, my body seemed much happier. I lost noticeable weight and the only thing I changed was my cheese intake but I was not happy without cheese. I knew I needed to find healthy ways to incorporate cheese back into my diet. I was introduced to the deliciousness of "classier" cheese by my now sister-in-law and have grown to appreciate many types cheese.
Now married and living in the south I have noticed people here do not have the same love of cheese as people from the Midwest. My wife reads a number of food blogs and my friends and family write blogs about the interesting things happening in their lives. My life itself is anything but interesting so writing a blog about myself worth reading would force me to fabricate stories to capture the attention of others. Due to the emptiness left in my heart from no longer being surrounded by cheese lovers I decided I could join the blogging revolution and talk about something I feel versed in: and that is cheese. Stay tuned each week for a post and review of different cheeses and cheese recipes.
Peace, Love and Cheese.
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