Cheese, please.

Alternate Title: Why I Love WI.

Angie and I have been cultivating our love of cheese for quite awhile. I guess it really started with the poorly planned Sconnie Cheese Tour of 2008. It didn't get serious until this year, though, when most of our monthly feasts featured a cheese course.

Last weekend, we continued our learning and tasting at the Wisconsin Cheese Originals Annual Festival.

We started with a Meet the Cheesemaker Gala on Friday night. There were 35 cheese makers and more than 150 cheeses to be tasted. The unedited pictures. . .

We took three cheese "classes" on Saturday.

First, we learned about "A New Era for WI Cheddar." We heard two cheddar-makers speak about their craft and tasted two-, four-, six-, and ten-year cheddars. The six-year was my favorite.

Next, we learned about "WI Craft Beers and Artisan Cheese Pairings." We taste seven different beers from Potosi Brewery each paired with a unique WI cheese. It was incredible - a completely different experience than wine and cheese. The carbonation of the beer really worked with the cheese.

Our third class was from the owner of Fromagination and the cheese monger from School House cheese. We tasted international cheeses and their WI counter-parts: a gruyere, a parmesan, and a blue. In two of the three instances I preferred the WI cheese.

The final event of the night was a dinner with Andy Hatch, the award-winning cheese maker for Uplands Cheese at the Admiralty Room in the Edgewater Hotel. We had a four-course meal (with wine pairings); three of the four courses featured Andy's cheeses. It was a small group of people, so we had plenty of time to hear about the processes involved in making the cheese.

It's pretty fascinating, actually. Andy studied dairy science (I think) at UW-Madison. Then, he traveled around Europe studying cheese. After that, he was hired by Uplands to make a specific kind of cheese. The owners of the farm studied the type of milk their cows were able to produce because of the location and features of the land. They studied different cheese to select a specific type to make based on the milk. They hired Andy to make that cheese.

And, that cheese (Pleasant Ridge Reserve) has won a "Best in Show" award for three consecutive years. That's some sort of record in the cheese world.

Anyway - Pleasant Ridge Reserve is made only during the months where Uplands's cows are able to graze in the pastures of their farm. It is a farmstead cheese - made only from milk from their own cows. During other months, the cows' milk is sold to other nearby farms. (Until this year when Andy decided to make another type of cheese with the milk.) Then, the milk supply ends until after calving in the spring.

The careful planning, science, and environmentally friendly practices of the whole process are absolutely fascinating.

I ended the weekend not wanting to eat any more cheese for a very long time, but I also ended the weekend incredibly proud to live in America's Dairyland.

Somewhere in there

Can you see me in there?

Can you imagine me balancing my glass in one hand and my camera in another to get this shot?

When I come up for air I will share my pictures and stories from a hilarious weekend filled with amazing friends.

Weekend Fun

The hardest Mondays come after the best weekends.

Nothing too exciting Friday - except the beanboozled incident. Bwahahah.

Saturday morning was a meeting for the Wisconsin State Reading Association Convention (which is bound to be greatly impacted by the impending blizzard). Then, I tried to have lunch at Comet Cafe. The line was out the door, so I ended up at Glorioso's for a sausage sandwich and some Italian cookies.

Saturday afternoon was time for bumming around including:

Coffee at Alterra - they make a honey latte. Why doesn't anyone else make a honey latte? Seriously delicious.

Cupcakes from Classy Girl - one dozen for $12 compliments of Groupon. They make cheesecake cupcakes. I wasn't all that impressed - especially with the frosting. I didn't eat them immediately, though. That might have made a difference.

Cheesehead for Justin - I Googled "cheesehead in Milwaukee" and found out that cheeseheads are actually made in Milwaukee. I stopped to pick one up for Justin (and another for Miri). The one for Justin had actually just been made. It was still warm (and very gross smelling).

Saturday night was time to scrapbook with Em. There was lots of unpacking (I don't exactly travel light), plenty of pizza (and junk food) eating, and some scrapbooking for a little something I have coming up with Midnight Rooster.

 

Sunday was a drive home with lots of snacks (including an unphotographed exploded Cherry Dr. Pepper). I managed to finish listening to To Kill a Mockingbird.

Sunday night was Wicked. Stephanie was completely lucky - she won us lottery tickets. We cashed in our balcony seats for second row seats. Seriously. It was so cool. We could see all the details on the costumes and all the spit from the actors and actresses. Even though it was my third time seeing the snow, I was totally enthralled!

 

 

And, today I went back to work. What a bummer.

Weekend Fun

Friday night was quiet. Brad worked late - really late - and I was almost forced to enjoy my pesto risotto and grilled chicken all by myself. He walked in the door right as I was about to eat. I managed to take this picture with the tripod before I got up to clear the table, fill my bowl, and share dinner with him.

Saturday started bright and early with a meeting in Milwaukee to finalize some of the details for the upcoming Wisconsin State Reading Association convention. I am proud to be part of the planning committee. It is one of the ten largest conventions in the state, and it is entirely organized and run by volunteers.

Afterward, I stopped for cupcakes.

And, I shopped for paper.

And, I might have also stopped for a cheeseburger and some custard.

Then, I headed to Aunt Amy's where I learned how to make pierogis. They are a staple at all Novak-family gatherings. I always assumed they were a recipe that was handed down through my grandpa's family. I found out this weekend, though, that they were actually something my grandma's neighbor made while my dad, aunt, and uncles were growing up. Not only did I pick up that little random piece of trivia about a family tradition, but I also got the recipe and a hands-on tutorial about how to make them. I may also have eaten one. . . . or two or three or five. . . . during the cooking process.

After a fabulous dinner, Amy and I headed to Tenuta's. She has seriously been holding out on me. There has been a deluxe Italian deli, bakery, liquor store, and grocery store within 15 minutes of her house the entire time she has lived there, and she's never taken me there. I spent way too much money on random things and never busted out my camera. Sorry, readers.

After Tenuta's, there was a little scrapbooking. I didn't take any pictures of that either.

Sunday morning we headed out for some shopping. I have been coveting a Le Creuset piece for awhile now. I thought I would go with some kind of braiser. I ended up with a 7.25 quarter risotto pot in kiwi. It is beautiful!

I was hesitant about buying anything. The blue was 30% off. The yellow was 60% off. They didn't have pieces in either color that I was interested in. Then, the salesman started talking about how much he loves his risotto pot. It was way out of my budget. He had a magic 40% off coupon in his pocket, though, and when he took it out I could not resist making the purchase.

Of course, I had to make something in the new pot right away.

More on that later.

And, with that another weekend is over. I sure wish the week would go as fast as the weekend.

(Fall) Weekend in Review

Short road trip.

Comfortable temperatures.
Sunshine.
Pretty Leaves.
Pumpkins.
Friends.
A perfect fall weekend.

We stopped for a little dairy on the way to Madison.

Then, Memphis and I dropped Brad off to go to the Badger game with a friend.

I had dinner with my mom and sister and stopped for a little pie and some shopping (tights, cloth napkins, and an Advent calendar).

Sunday was when the real fun was had.

We didn't quite make it in time for the pig races, but we did catch the pumpkin cannon, hayride, and small maze.

Lunch was oh-so-healthy.

Behold, the magic pumpkin cannon. It doesn't look like much, but this baby can launch a pumpkin seriously far. Justin used the lure of the pumpkin cannon to be sure that Brad understood just how cool the pumpkin patch really is.

We took a hayride to find the perfect pumpkins.

Then, we tried the corn maze. Correction - we tried the "small" corn maze which somehow we never managed to find our way our of. Well, that's not entirely true. We did find our way out of the entrance.

Even though she was pretty shy, Miri was totally irresistible all day long.

Em took tons of shots with my camera. I don't usually end up with any pictures of myself, so it was fun to look through and see that there were pictures of me.

 And, a couple more fun fall shots - compliments of Em.

We finished the weekend with a great dinner at home (chicken with pinot noir sauce and mushroom, leek, and lemon risotto).