Raining Cheese

Greetings from the flip side, I am now a married woman. Despite what I thought, I do feel different. However, my appetite is still the same.

Our wedding took place during the pinnacle of a nor’easter; driving rains, 70mph winds, power outages, and coastal flooding. In retrospect, I would not have changed the weather. The storm added to the memory. It made the indoors of a 19th century church-turned-restaurant, full of candlelight and fiddles, that much more cozy.

Earlier that day, my fellow cheesemonger and I created the display as we would at the dozens of fundraisers that we have worked together before, just three-fold. Nine cheeses, four cured meats, seven accompaniments, and assorted breads and fresh fruits were set up smack dab in the middle of the bar. It may sound like overkill, really though, it was impressive.

After the ceremony, the “mountain of cheese” as I lovingly call it, was “unveiled.”
Eventually, some of the cheeses were completely consumed because they were delicious, soft and spreadable. Others, I simply served too much, knowingly, because the scale was visually important to the display. There was one cheese in the mix, though, from a tasting standpoint, that “took the cake.”

Boucher Blue from Green Mountain Blue Cheese was the shining star on the mountain. It is an aggressive looking blue, a mottled cave-aged rind, thick rigorous blue veining, and straw colored paste. The texture is semi-firm, moist but not creamy, and cuts easily into both solid pieces and crumbles with a firm knife stoke. The flavor is balanced and complex. The initial zip of pockets of blue is then surpassed by the lengthy finish of sweet toasty nuts. Smack a morsel of this jammy on a dried fig, or soon enough, a fresh fig and you’ve got flavor satisfaction. Green Mountain Blue Cheese is a part of the Boucher Family Farm located in Highgate, Vermont. Check out their blog to learn more about their cheeses and the interesting history of their farm. http://boucherfamilyfarm.blogspot.com/
MM