Twice a day, every day, we give our aging dog his heart medicines. Generally the pills are disguised within a piece of cheese and eaten quite greedily. This got me to think about whether our sweet dog would know an expensive piece of cheese from the cheap brands that he normally is fed. He is currently on a string cheese jag, having bored of American cheese slices. Perhaps he might prefer a Stilton or Gouda. Who knows if he could taste the difference that would bring a cheese to cost 7 or 8 dollars a pound? Then again, I probably have no idea what makes a good cheese versus a bad one. I am not a cheese connoisseur and rarely search out a cheese to consume on its own.
As a kid, we didn't get cheese except the individually wrapped kind that my mother used to make grilled cheese sandwiches. We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic. I do not recall our small local grocery even having choices of cheese.
In college there was an actual "cheese shop" in the "Historic Williamsburg" shopping area. I'm pretty certain that the only thing I ever could afford to purchase there were the bags of leftover bread ends from their sandwich shop. We would purchase the bag along with a tub of some kind of sandwich spread and dip and munch. I never bought any cheese.
After a lifetime of what foodies might dub boring cheese, it is not something that I tend to experiment with. I'm always afraid that I'll spend the money to buy a wedge of some artisanal cheese and find that I do not care for it. Then it will sit in the fridge and go bad. I mean isn't that what cheese is anyway : Milk that has gone bad? What is the big deal that people are willing to spend lots of money to eat curdled milk? If you come over, I will gladly give you some for free. It will give me a reason to clean out my fridge, and I really need to do that.
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Above is my entry for today's challenge. Laughingdaughter decided that it needed a reply and that is her entry for today, as follows:
Sofa-Elevator Person! How could you? First, you send the Goldfish Lady, my best source of cheese, away! And now this! Of course I could taste the difference! What do you think I am, a cat? Even if you didn’t like it, I would gladly finish it for you. If you take me to the store with you, I will even tell you which ones will have a taste that compliments my pills. If you won’t take me, I can tell you about a really fancy cheese: cheese whiz. This will make your life so much easier. Instead of tearing off little chunks of cheese, balling them up, and holding them out for me, you could just squirt it in my mouth!
Why would you give away the yummy milk that the Loud Boys don’t drink? I would eat it! When it curdles, it smells so good! Let me have it! And I will clean out the fridge anytime you want! Just put me in there and when you come back it will be perfectly clean!
Grrr,
Frisbee
P.S. Leftover bread end, plastic wrap, and cheese sandwich! Yum! How could you not love that?!
P.P.S. I don’t eat it greedily! I just don’t want your arm to get tired holding it out, so I eat it quickly!
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Now head over to We Work for Cheese and see who else gave up some brain cells today!
Cheese Whiz works for me. I'm a simple and uncomplicated person. And poor.
ReplyDeleteYay for grilled cheeses! :D
ReplyDeleteI fluctuate between inexpensive cheeses (what I pick up at Aldi) and craft cheeses, and with the latter it's a delicate science.
You may be the first person I know, that comes from a household of non cheese people. I have grown up with cheese of all types. On the plus side, your cholesterol levels won't suffer from eating cheese.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have a lot of the fancy cheese when I was growing up either. We had American slices (not the individually wrapped stuff that tries to pass for cheese). It actually tasted good. Occasionally we would get some block cheese as we called it. It may have been cheddar.
ReplyDeleteChoosing a previously untried cheese is known as an experiment at our house.
"We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic." *snort* :)
ReplyDeleteWhen M needs a pill, I just shove it down his throat and dare him to complain.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't know a lot about cheese either but Cheez Whiz for the dog seems about right to me. :-)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, one of the benefits of having European parents is that they had no idea what the crap wrapped in plastic was. Their best guess? Coasters. Really cheap coasters.
I used to get the soft cheeses all the time until they started recalling them all for listeria. I stick to blocks of Cheddar now mainly.
ReplyDeleteI loved, loved, loved this line: "We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic." I can so relate. My mother was never much of a cook. She used to make tuna fish casserole. Yuck!
ReplyDeleteI give my dog eye drops three times a day because he'has dry eyes. He also gets a pill twice a day for a thyroid condition. I just stick the pill in his mouth and he swallows it. Actually, just stick the pill in the side pocket of your dog's mouth and he'll swallow it.
Laughingdaughter is very smart. When does she start her own blog? I also give my dog her pills in cheese. She prefers American cheese slices, but is up for anything...even gouda. My favorite line in your post: "We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic." Laughed my ass off!
ReplyDeleteI love the whimsy in this post. I also share your hesitance to try exotic cheeses for fear of not having the proper palate for appreciating them. Also, the bit about curdled milk reminded me of something the venerable Stephen Fry once said, "[Cheese] is the celebration of what happens when milk goes off big-time stylee."
ReplyDeleteHere's a relevant clip for your enjoyment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYGDPbzljvI
Ha! "We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic."
ReplyDeleteWait....seriously?
Also, I love the last line: "I'd disown you if you weren't my ride everywhere." I LOVE that line!
I'm actually craving some cheese whiz, Sofa-Elevator person. On saltines. I'm so dull...
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the many pills I have hidden with lunch meat, peanut butter or cheese! That individually wrapped stuff is easy to form, but you have to be careful that the pill doesn't kind of melt out of the yellow ball. I can so relate!
ReplyDelete"As a kid, we didn't get cheese except the individually wrapped kind that my mother used to make grilled cheese sandwiches. We considered it a good sandwich when she remembered to remove the plastic." --- that made me laugh out loud, literally.
ReplyDeleteCheese doesnt last long in our house as I love it. Especially those lovely soft melty ones like Brie.
ReplyDeleteI am however unfamiliar with cheeze whizz so I will take your word for it
:)
I love choosing many cheeses. Sometimes it goes to waste. Most of the time, it goes in my belly.
ReplyDelete