Something Tasty: A cheese pairing to try

Moon Dance

I got to try this and some other cheeses new to me at Cured & Whey in Vegas.

It’s a pasteurized semi-firm goat’s milk cheese aged ~ 6 months so it’s creamy with some nice butterscotchy notes. It’s a Gouda-style cheese made in Holland exclusively for Peacock Cheese in California.

This week’s full moon was called the “Strawberry Moon” and honestly, strawberries or really any other red fruit would be bangin’ with this cheese.

Give it a try! If you’ve had and liked Midnight Moon from Cypress Grove, you’ll love this too.

Something True: A truth about myself

A Long Strange Trip

Here’s the truth.

This week was awesome, but… a lot. The start of summer, a full moon, a beer crawl, a wine night, and a quick trip to Vegas. Yes, it was over 100 degrees every day.

We were there because Dead and Company is doing a residency at the new Sphere. Adam is a big fan of jam bands like The Grateful Dead, Phish, etc, and Dead and Co. contains two original members of The Grateful Dead.

This was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to see something special and spectacular with a ticking timeline. You never know when you’ll get the chance to see them perform again (or how long everyone will be alive, honestly).

Adam is very at home in this scene. I am not.

This is all new for me, but it’s important to him, so I braved Vegas in the summer for it. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

I do really enjoy listening to the music, and I respect it for sure. But I don’t know all the songs, or the dates of specific important shows, or much about the musicians.

The closest I get to being a Deadhead is dead-heading my roses whenever I’m in California.

Doing very new things (especially in places like Vegas) around large groups of unfamiliar people normally drains the hell out of me, but I knew it would be a good time, and I was veryyyyy interested to see the Sphere and marvel at the visuals and the latest performance technology.

And you know what happened? I had a grate time (it’s rare a cheese pun also works as a music pun). AND I was super drained. Just the experience of being in the Sphere alone was spectacular, and the music was amazing. AND I would probably never go to a show like that by myself. I am truly fascinated by these people and the culture built around this band, but I am not one of them.

And that’s okay!

Holding multiple truths at once is always a challenge. Especially when your hot, dehydrated, and tired. But in the words of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter:

Sometimes we live no particular way but our own
Sometimes we visit your country and live in your home
Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone
Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own

I’m always Grateful for the times I experience living in a way that is not my own. It only helps clarify what songs are my own.

Farm to Fable: How food shows up in storytelling 

Jam Bands and Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry’s now has quite a few music-inspired flavors…but doesn’t it seem that they cater to Jam Band fans?

“Cherry Garcia” (named for Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead) was the first ever ice cream flavor on a major market to be named after a music legend in 1987. “Phish Food” makes a bit more sense since both B&J and Phish are Vermont natives. They also have two retired flavors, Dave Matthews Band Magic Brownies, and Freezer Reprise (a play on Phish’s song “Tweezer” inspired by their return to MSG for a 13 night run in 2018).

Maybe they love jam bands. Maybe it’s just good business sense. Maybe both?

The only reason I know anything about this scene is because of Adam (who just released his Scene Zine and there are still a few copies left! You should definitely order one). But even I know that this is one of the largest fan communities in the world. And they are everywhere. And they love merch.

What music-inspired flavor would you go crazy for?

Also Cherry Garcia (or just cherries) would go very well with Moon Dance. Or just eat ice cream or cheese and dance under the full moon. ‘Tis the season! Enjoy!

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 “a skeleton being raised from the dead under a full moon”.

Unimpressed. Especially after the visuals at Sphere. WOW.

www.annemariepietersma.com