My Cheesy Excuse: Part Deux

So, I find myself this week without a new recipe for my blog. Unfortunately, the stomach flu hit my son and me, and food was about the farthest thing from my mind. I decided to repost a blog that originally appeared on the Taste and Savor site last year, but never got transferred to my passionate plate blog. Ironically, this blog is about an evening when I was supposed to be home writing, but found myself spending the entire evening with a friend, bottles of wine and a big hunk of stinky cheese. Sounds, like fun, wish that was what I had been up to this week.

The good news is, that we are all feeling better and are moving off of the clear broth and Saltine cracker diet that have been our staples this week. I am already thinking of my recipe for next week and excited about the new crop of spring veggies coming our way.

As always, keeping every plate passionate, even if it is a plate of Saltines.

This blog originally appeared on tasteandsavor.com on Sept 5, 2012.

Despite all of my intentions to write a new and interesting blog each week, there are instances when my hectic schedule leaves me with little time to sit quietly at my keyboard and write. Typically, I have a valid excuse such as, I worked three thirteen hour shifts in a row or I was carpooling the kids all evening. Last week was not one of those times.
Last Thursday, I had every intention of stealing off to my office and writing up a new blog and recipe that I had made earlier in the week. But alas, I was invited over to my neighboor’s house for a “glass” of wine. This is really code for “let’s chat and drink a bottle of wine”. Since Carol was kind enough to supply the bottle of wine, I could not arrive empty handed, so I pulled out a nice piece of cheese that I had been saving for a special occasion. So pehaps, this was not the special occasion I had in mind, but wine, cheese and good neighbor’s company would suffice.
I walked into Carol’s house with the immediate disclaimer that the odor she may smell was not me. Many times it is me of course, because after a day in the kitchen with onions, garlic and other offending smells, well, you get the picture. In any case, the slightly funky smell was from my prized block of cheese, that I brought to share. This cheese is one of my new favorites and was of course introduced to me by Chef Nancy. It is called Morbier.

Morbier is a semi-soft cow’s milk cheese from France. It resembles a blue cheese, but the vein running down the middle is actually thin layer of tasteless ash. The cheese was still cold out of the refrigerator when we first tasted it. It was delicious of course, but the flavor was not yet fully developed. As we sat and talked over the next couple of hours, it was great fun to see how the taste of the cheese changed and improved as it warmed up to room temperature. Needless to say, the time passed, the wine was gone and all that remained of the Morbier was a lifeless rind sitting on a plate.

Yikes! I had spent the entire evening eating cheese and drinking wine. No time for a blog this evening. I had to walk home and make some dinner for the kids and get everyone organized for school and work the next day.

I hated having to tell Nancy that I had no new blog for her on Friday morning, but I kept my fingers crossed that she would see the humor in the picture of my “dead soldier”, shown above. She is afterall, a Partyologist! Luckily, she did, and I ended up getting a blog out of my evening, albeit a week late.

So, the next time, you feel the urge to procrastinate and or just spend a nice evening with a friend, take along a nice slice of Morbier to share. I buy mine at the Buford Highway Farmer’s market and have seen it at Whole Food’s and occasionally Costco. Oh, and if you need to bring the wine as well, try a nice Pinot Noir. Enjoy!