I love cheese. And, although I can easily give up all other forms of dairy, cheese is here to stay, although in moderation these days. We currently use oat milk, don’t eat yogurt or ice cream any more, but there are no substitutes for good cheese.
I don’t think we’ve met a variety of cheese we don’t like except for vegan cheese and Velveeta. My favorite section in any market has always been the cheese counter, and I give thanks for the many cheesemongers who have offered me samples and opened my palate to new varieties and tastes. My exposure to cheese varieties were fairly limited when I was young: my mom stuck to American, and longhorn or Colby cheddars. I remember us “discovering” Monterey Jack cheese and falling in love, but Parmesan came in a green can, cottage cheese came from the supermarket, and I didn’t know about mozzarella until I was in my 20s let alone any other variety.
We thought we’d entered paradise when we stepped into our first French fromagerie, or when we had four levels of gorgonzola to choose from in Italy (firm to runny and a couple of steps in between). England’s cheeses were equally amazing, with more varieties to choose from than I could get through in a lifetime and some fun names too, like Stinking Bishop. These days I’m grateful for the varieties that our Costco carries, and the few gourmet (and expensive) markets on the island that carry more of the ordinary varieties, On the whole though cheese doesn’t feel like a big thing here. I long to taste Cowgirl Creamery Humbolt Fog again, or some Rogue Blue or Stilton, or a good Normandy camembert, but we make do with gouda, manchego, brie, Irish cheddar, and the other varieties we can get here.
We enjoyed some great meals last week. The sweet potato enchiladas were delicious and easy to make; the falafel and homemade tahini sauce were perfect; the basil beef stir fry was so good that I’m saving my last packages of ground beef to make it again; and the plant-based orange chick’n turned out to be deep-fried mushrooms in orange sauce and was very, very good – we can’t wait to have it again either. Mabo tofu is always good, and the pizzas and Friday’s cheese platter were tasty as always. The Hami melon was fun to try but I don’t think we’d go out of our way to buy another one.
Sunday: Sweet potato & black bean enchiladas; Hami melon
Monday: Mabo tofu; steamed rice; Hami melon
Tuesday: Falafel sandwiches with tomato, cucumber, and tahini sauce; roasted vegetables
Wednesday: Basil beef stir fry; namasu
Thursday: Mini pizzas with roasted vegetables
Friday: Cheese board
Saturday: Wednesday: Plant-based orange chick’n; fried vegetable rice; watermelon
Desserts this past week were peanut butter-banana baked oatmeal, s’mores, and arroz con leche. I’m planning to make another apple pie baked oatmeal this week.
Below is what’s planned for dinner this week. I haven’t made up my mind whether I’ll make the lasagna from scratch or look for a pre-made one tomorrow when we shop. Right now I could go either way. There isn’t a new recipe this week either as I didn’t have time to look for one last week.
- Spicy black bean bake
- Plant based chick’n sandwiches
- Vegetable lasagna
- Sweet & sour pork
- Spaghetti with meat sauce
- Cheese board
- Mini pizzas
We had another great week of walking, getting in five perimeter walks. Because of the sketchy weather Wednesday was the only day we missed, but otherwise we were up at the park and ready to go by 4:45 every day. There must have been a whole lot of really bad golfers out on the course last week because we found a record-shattering 33 lost golf balls, finding four on Monday, five balls on Tuesday, 10 balls on both Thursday and Friday, and four more on Saturday. Just unbelievable. Brett’s skill is seeing balls sitting off in the distance (it’s amazing how many people just leave balls out on the fairways) while my skill is spotting them hiding in the tall grasses at the edge of the course.
We didn’t get to hike Maha’ulepu this past because I overslept a couple of mornings, and the weather interfered a couple of other days. Hopefully we’ll get out there this week – we need some variety.
Neither Brett nor I has lost any weight lately, but we continue to change shape and thin down and that’s just fine with both of us!
The Occasional Nomads 
Forager makes quite a good cashew-based yogurt (Cashewgurt) if you would like to include some probiotics in your diet that way.
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Thank you! I wonder if I can find it here on the island? We have three small natural food stores on the island, all with VERY high prices, but they may carry this – I haven’t visited one is ages. I miss yogurt though, and haven’t heart of cashew based.
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I love cheese too. Except halloumi. The texture is blah. Having a German mother, we had different cheeses growing up (although most of the German cheeses are quite mild there’s still variety and my mum would buy stinky cheeses occasionally from the deli) which was good, cause while in the 70s and 80s Australian cheese variety wasn’t as bad as America, we mainly had variations on cheddar. I remember meeting some Americans on US bases in Germany in ‘91 and being aghast that they bought gooey cheese in a can. What was that mess!!! That dried “Parmesan” in a shaker jar was/is here too. I thought I hated Parmesan. Turns out I only hate that dried muck. Love real Parmesan. A soup cooked with a rind of Parmesan! Heaven!
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Cheese varieties were so limited in the 70s and 80s, and forget about earlier. Gouda was exotic. The most exotic German cheese we knew was Limburger. French cheeses, forget about it. It was medium cheddar (sharp cheddar was exotic) or nothing much else. I too loved discovering real Parmesan, and so many other flavors. We had extremely limited cheese selections when we lived in Japan, and my mother thought I was nuts (and a spendthrift) when I bought home a bag full of different varieties the first time I went to the market.
By the way, there is a good American cheese that comes in a can, called Cougar Gold, made at a university in Washington State. It is outstanding. The gooey stuff is an abomination.
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Love a sharp cheddar, especially with sweet quince paste. Currently my fav cheese is a mild goats spreadable cheese. And Persian feta. So soft and creamy. With caramelised balsamic vinegar. On sour dough. Heaven.
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My mouth is watering. I love a good sharp cheddar that bites the tongue back! Quince paste sounds delightful, but I also love a thin slice of crisp apple with cheddar. I forgot to add Cowgirl Creamery’s Mt. Tam (goat cheese) as one of my favorites – pure pleasure. I could go on and on.
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Not sure where the rest of that post went…things froze. 🙂
Yes to cheese! My current favorite is the Drunken Goat – goat cheese cured in red wine. I could eat it daily, but it’s pricey and caloric. But I head straight for it whenever I’m making a cheese tray.
It sounds like you have good eyes for lost things. Too bad you’re not walking near the course DH played last week – he lost five balls in one day. LOL. Somehow, he lost his college ring early this spring and has never found it after walking the course, leaving his name at the clubhouse in case someone came upon it, etc. No luck. I felt worse than he did, I think…he’s been wearing it since 1968!
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I have never seen Drunken Goal but now I want to try it!! I highly doubt it’s on the island, but one of these days when we’re back on the mainland . . . . WenYu is my partner in crime when it comes to cheese. She had a very sophisticated cheese palate even as a baby and used to amaze the cheesemongers with what she would eat and ask for more!
That is so sad that your husband lost his ring, but yes one of those things that’s nearly (but not totally) impossible to find again. Hopefully someone else will find it and turn it in. I found a $1 bill out on the course yesterday, of all things, in the grass. Never saw that happening. Our goal for the golf balls is one per day, so we are w-a-y ahead of schedule. Looking for them makes the walk more fun. We plan to sell bags of the balls at our garage sale before we leave.
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