h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You know the song 'Sweet dreams' by Eurythmics, right? Well, if you don't, here's a version on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

Part of the lyrics go:

'Sweet dreams are made of this
Who have a mind to disagree?'

I had to laugh when I saw this spinoff:

http://distilleryimage8.s3.amazonaws.com/244e3020524211e3a47812f9925f2146_8.jpg

I've loved cheese for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are from around the age of 3, so that's as long as I can remember.

It started out with plain cheeses. In Sweden, we like to slice our cheese thinly and put it on our bread.

The cheese slicer has to be one of the most versatile kitchen tools in the world.

Here's a picture:
http://produkter.westmans.se/bestick/1534.jpg

You can use it to:
Slice cheese
Cut a cake and also to lift the slice of cake onto a plate
As a spatula when frying things
Peel vegetables or fruit

Sorry about that sidetrack, but a Swedish cheese slicer is a very useful tool.

Anyway, back to cheese. As I grew older, I learnt to like more mature cheeses, with more flavour, and cheeses made from other than cow's milk.

Feta (goat and sheep). A simple tomato salad with thinly sliced red onion, Feta, tomatoes, a handful of olives and a garlicky dressing with olive oil and vinegar...

Mozarella (the real one, made from water buffalo milk) is also good together with tomatoes, roughly ground black pepper, a bit of olive oil, red onion...

I was a bit dubios about the moldy cheese to begin with, but approached them carefully, starting out with

Brie, white mold. Lovely if you leave it out in room temperature for a while so that it goes all creamy...

Cambozola, a blue mold cheese and a milder variety of Gorgonzola. When I found the Cambozola Garlic, I fell in love.

Stilton. Usually only available in Sweden (except in special cheese shops) around Christmas. A pity really, since I love the crunchy crystals inside of a good Stilton.

Parmegiano (Parmesan), of course, to shave thin slices off on most dishes.

Manchego, that I only learnt about a few years ago. It's sort of a very aged Feta.

Bavaria Blue...

Taleggio...

One of my favourite snacks is dicing a cheese, rolling the cubes in paprika powder and frying them on low heat in a frying pan until they go a bit soggy.

Fondue is another favourite. As is Raclette. Heck, give me melted cheese in any shape, and I'll be in 7th heaven

I love a mature cheddar toasted sandwich (on white bread) cut into fingers and dipped in tomato soup.

I was given a pot of stilton for Christmas last year. I'm not a big fan of the blue cheeses so I wasn't sure what to do with it. Well...some of it was crumbled onto some of those big field mushrooms and grilled. Oh my that was good. The rest of it was used for broccoli & stilton soup. The real home-made deal is like technicolour compared to the black and white of shop bought, even the big brand with the London market name.

I'm very partial to brie with bacon on a baguette.

I love cheese, but it's one of the few things I have to measure carefully on my current diet.

Deb

Brie and bacon combined? Haven't tried that before, will definitely give it a try, thanks deb!

[Amy P]

I love cheese. The blue cheeses I aquired a taste for when I matured (cheese reference?) but my favourites have always been the English hard cheeses, cheddar, cheshire, wensleydale, double gloucester.

Sadly I have ended up in a country so obsessed with soft cheeses that they have a selection of around 2,000 varieties in my local supermarket, and not a slice of cheddar in sight.

Guess what I bring back in my suitcase from trips back home.

I tried the double Gloucester for the very firs time quite recently, a fairly nice acquaintance.

So tell me, what godforsaken place have you ended up in, with soft cheeses?

And now I've discovered that you've started an entry too, to gather your NaJoPoMo writings pebbles (I hope you don't mind me calling you that for short). Argh, so many writings to catch up with once November is over.

Cheese is the food of the gods I've been known to have nearly 2 KG in my fridge, quite regularly, just as a normal week by week amount

The brie and bacon; espeically in a baguette is gorgous; nice chrisped up bacon, put into the baguette , then thinly sliced (or just spooned in, if its ripe enough) brie, and I useually don't close it up fully; instead put under the grill, to help th brie melt more, before rapid consumption

The toasted (even better fried), cheddar cheese sandwishs, for dipping into tomato soup is another fav too! or, to be honest, just give me a knife and a plate with three or four various cheeses on it, and perhaps a few crackers
Sadly most of the cheeses one sees being sold, are inferiour, and double sadly, most of the ones I'd like to buy, are too* expensivefor me, most of the tme tilton is fabulus in soups (leek potato ad stilton is the one I do sometims)
Sometimes simple is good though; grated mature cheddar, diced red onions mayo, two slices bread, plenty of butter damnit... I wasn't going to have supper tonight, now I feel I have* too

Sorry 2legs about making you feel you might just need another meal before midnight - but you can never go wrong with can you?

Leek, potato and Stilton soup sounds delish!

exactly... and I might just have to have some butter with it too... and toast

The Stilton and leek and potato, is gorgeous, and proof if any be needed that vegetaria doesn't* mean bland, or unsatisfying/unfilling.... even for a devoute meat eater, it should be more than sufficient, when eaten with some decent bread (and butter), and its very* warming, so ideal for this time of year I always have to be careful when making it, not* to use too much potato, as you just want enough to help thicken it, without making it entirely* the same as leek and potato soup, with just* the addition of Stilton.... I like to make the soup up, blend it quite* smooth; then reheat, until its bubbly hot; then* add the \stilton... just crumbling it in, so it melts, from th heat of the soup, and sort of forms stringy bits, or globules of the \Stilton in the soup

Which reminds me, another good cheese N soup pairing, is of course, French onion soup, accompanied by a baguette, sliced, toasted, and with cheese put onto the baguette slices, to melt, and then just throw the toast/bageuttecheese into the soup definatly another one for the very cold weather too damnit, not made any soup in ages

[Amy P]

Titania et al: I am located in Bretagne, a small country in Europe bordering the sea, that most French mistakenly believe is part of France.

Sadly they are oppressed by their larger neighbour and not only don't stock proper cheese but also refuse to sell good quality wine, I mean Australian and New Zealand vintages.

But at least they do make quality premade lasagnes with genuine horsemeat!

I nearly bought a small bakery/bar in your country a few months back! yeh... I just kinda fancied the idea of making baguettes and selling them to the not-quite-French baguettes with cheese

In Bretagne, 2legs? Talk about a small

2legs....don't do it. This country is so heavily taxed that you pay 50% to 60% of your profit in taxes and social charges. The only people surviving are the rich (and careful pensioners).

Things are getting so bad that I am thinking of opening a soup kitchen for my neighbours this winter. Or I could just let them eat

I think it was there... I'll go try check... (top of FRance, kinda North, but a bit inland I think, was in too small a town/village to have worked, but dirt* cheap; could just about have bought it from my savings, wihtout having to sell my house!)

ahh, it says; Pays de la Loire, Mayenne, Ernée, France
which means very little to me... my geography of the UK is pretty dredful, and any further afield... I'm utterly hopeless