The Stinky Cheese Man

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Does anyone remember this literary gem?



[source]

This book was my absolute favorite Christmas present when I was eight years old. It also foretold one of my favorite Christmas presents this year.

To back up a little — I was running behind this morning, so I brought my breakfast in the car again, to eat when I arrived at school. As I was whipping around a corner turning into a parking space, the bowl of oatmeal slid across the floor of my car and blueberry juice splattered onto the beige rug of my car:

The white flakes are coconut.

For someone who tries to simply savor, I’ve sure rushed my eating a lot this week. Maybe this blueberry stain was a sign that I should slow down a little, especially at breakfast.

Today at school we learned about the food service operations at my school and toured the bakery and the dining halls. Tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff eat at the school every day, so you can imagine that organizing the food service operations is quite a task!

The bakery was as fragrant as you would expect. Every piece of equipment was ten times larger than anything in a home kitchen. This walk-in oven was just one of three in the bakery:

This stand mixer is so large, you need to shift gears while operating it.

Look at all that butter!

I’ve never seen a machine like this before: the baker rolls bread dough flat on a large disk with 36 depressions, then slides the disk into this machine. The top part moves rapidly in a circle, making 36 perfectly round balls of bread dough. What an easy and efficient way to make rolls!

We were also able to peruse some of the bakery’s items:

Look at these adorable hearts for Valentine’s Day:

This blue swirl bread was baked in the school colors:

The Coordinated Program gals at lunch.

The snow came down soft and swift during our tour, but the sun peeked out by the time I started for home.

To continue my new food trend, I decided to make some carrot and daikon radish pickles (the same as I described in this post, only with real daikon this time). What is a daikon radish, you ask? Why, this, of course:

This Asian radish reminds of a large, white carrot, but the flavor is very mild. The recipe I used can be found here.

The daikon was delicious, very mild and crisp, kind of like a non-sweet jicama. We also enjoyed some Delicata squash with dinner.

Of course, before dinner I had to try my Christmas present from my sister:

Mmm, thanks D!

These cheese are from California-based Cowgirl Creamery. I ripped them open right away. This cheese was called Devil’s Gulch, and it had a serious(ly delicious) bite!

This Red Hawk cheese immediately brought The Stinky Cheese Man tales to mind:

The washed-rind gives the cheese an extra-pungent flavor. It’s not my favorite cheese, but it will be good for keeping Peter out of my other cheeses.

My favorite of the three cheeses was their Mt. Tam:

Look at that cheesy ooze.

This cheese was like a very soft brie, only ten times better. Creamy and flavorful.

After dinner, I had to finish my meal with a little more of the good stuff.

8 Comments

  1. yuuum! cheeeeese! and i’m glad to see you finally got your pickled daikon radishes! i’m actually eating my extra large cookie from the bakery today as i type this 🙂

    1. I inhaled all of the chocolate chips out of mine when I got home :).

  2. i love those valentine’s day cookies! did you see that the new conversation hearts for 2010 have sayings like “tweet me” on them and, finally, “fax me” has been retired? lol! love your blog, keep up the good work!

    kimberlyloc

    1. Haha, “fax me”!! That’s so old school. Thanks for the kind words and for stopping by! 🙂

  3. I’m pinching my nose just looking at the second half of this post.

    1. How about some Red Hawk on your rutabaga? 😀

  4. Happiness – thank you so much for your kind words on my Blog – I don’t think you or anyone who left a comment means how much they individually mean. I always read them and always follow your blogs – just don’t have time to comment of course being at the “thing” called work. But you are soooo appreciated. 😉
    And, I ADORE cheese! Just never tried those kinds haha. Mozz, swiss, rice, sliced, chunks, cream cheese, quark, pair it with wine and crackers or bread and I’m there…oh just eating it alone of course…my belly hates me 🙁

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