Cheese ~ Storytelling ~ Authenticity ~ Creativity

Something Tasty: A cheese pairing to try

Up in Smoke

Fresh chèvre (goat cheese) is a kitchen staple for me, and I normally don’t like smoked cheeses so the fact that I love this cheese actually means a lot. Here are the stats:

Pasteurized Goat ~ Animal Rennet ~ Fresh ~ Smoked ~ Oregon, U.S.

This cheese from River’s Edge is hand-formed and wrapped in smoked maple leaves with a touch of bourbon and smoked over hickory and alder wood. So it’s actually smokey, no “smoke essence” to be found.

It’s a fresh creamy treat that will elevate literally anything. I crumbled it on top of my breakfast tacos the other morning and will continue to do that as long as it lasts.

Something True: A truth about myself

The Fire from Hell

Here’s the truth.

When I was in elementary school, my family’s house almost burned down.

Many houses did burn down- it was known as “The Fire from Hell” the “Grand Prix Fire” and was a part of “The California Fire Siege of 2003.”

It was raining ash for days and the sun was bright red through the thick burnt orange smokey skies for at least a week.

We had a pool in the backyard and a fire hydrant in our front yard so we and our neighbors were very lucky. But we did have to evacuate for a few days.

The cops showed up and said we had to leave immediately. It was living out in real time the exercise many people do to figure out what is actually important to them:

If you had two minutes to grab only one thing from your house, what would you grab?

We filled my dad’s car with what we could, to sleep at a community center to wait out the fire. I think I took my most sentimental stuffed animal, my bible, my journal, and another book. The only other things I remember being in the car were a painting, and all the birth certificates and other important documents my mom grabbed.

This is a story long and full enough to fill a book- but I won’t go through the whole thing today. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the things we buy, make, gift, and keep. What - in the material sense- actually matters.

Spring is around the corner, so as the big cleaning projects and closet purges start, I keep thinking- beyond how much money it cost, or if it immediately sparks joy, or if it’s useful once once or twice a year- how we decide what matters.

As a person that spends so much time with things that are impermanent experiences (theatre and cheese), and a person who is on the line between “collector” and “hoarder” this will be interesting to explore this season.

Farm to Fable: How food shows up in storytelling 

Dante’s Inferno

Speaking of fire - What food is served in hell?

Many religions that subscribe to the idea of hell mention foods like rotten meat and prickly thistles, or eternal hunger as punishment.

When we turn to other hellish literature like Dante’s Inferno- the bigger statement is the lack of any gastronomic writings.

We hear a lot about the gluttonous third circle of hell...but I find it interesting that the act of gluttony is such a huge sin, but no specific foods are named as being good or evil (something we, especially on social media, now tend to do daily).

What food would be served in your personal hell? This is one of my favorite questions please let me know the answer 🙂 

Until next time,

Anne-Marie

P.S. - Sunday Scaries

A terrifying AI image to help us all rest knowing AI bots could never replace a real human artist:

This week the prompt was “Cheese in hell.”

This is pretty funny but mainly dumb- probably because there isn’t any cheese in hell. AI can’t image how that could be.

www.annemariepietersma.com