Check out Episode 6 of the new food podcast,
Chicken 'n Waffles!

Ah, smoked chipotle cheddar. Five pounds of dairy product just doesn't get better than this.

Like any good Midwestern gal, I love cheese. In fact, at one point in my life, 90% of my cooking involved cheese products of some sort (coincidentally enough, this was the same time my ass started to looked like it was smuggling a wheel of Parmesan all the time). Now that I've been through a few twelve step programs, had some shock therapy and am finally starting to understand what moderation means, the American Cheese Society had to go host their national meeting in Chicago. Thanks, guys.

Follow up:

Kendall College, home of a culinary school and a big old wad of cheese.

The meeting itself was like, $85 to attend. But the cheese sale they hosted the day after the meeting was free! From my understanding, various cheese companies came to Chicago to display their cheese and see which cheese would be voted top in it's category. Once it was over, they had a crap ton of cheese left, so they wrapped it up, labeled it as best they could, and sold the leftovers to the public, at Kendall College.

If you sell cheese, they will come.

It was cheese as far as the eye could see. A table for cheddar, a table for flavored cheeses, even a table for the stinky cheeses you really need some cahones to eat. And damn, that was some cheap cheese.

Cheese!

More cheese!

Mystery Cheese!

One of the events of the previous day's meeting included a giant sculpture of Chicago made out of cheese. Here is part of that sculpture on sale.

This totally looks like the Sears Tower...or maybe a south side brothel. I'm still deciding.

Hmm, now what could I do with 8 pounds of cheddar? Eat it, perhaps? With a really big cracker?

In the end, we spent $12 for 6 pounds of cheese. We got a 1 year aged cheddar that is pretty good, a jar of cheddar jalapeno spread, some smoked jack cheese, and a colby muffalata, which was basically a colby cheese stuffed with peppers and olives that you might find in a muffalata sandwich. It rocked.

My haul.

Finally, a fellow blogger and former classmate of mine, Sarah, tagged me for a meme. I have to list 6 unspectacular things about myself, and then tag 6 other bloggers and leave a message in their comments letting them know they've been tagged.

So first, let me tag Amanda and Tyler, Anna, Katie, Cari, Jess, and Jen.

And here it is, my 6 unspectacular things about myself meme:

1. I like to watch TV while I floss.
2. I get mad when I smile at random people on the street and they don’t return the favor.
3. I’m addicted to Little People, Big World.
4. I wish they would hurry up and invent a cat that stays a kitten forever.
5. I strongly believe we need to go back to producing soda in glass bottles only. Ask the Mexicans. They know where I'm coming from.
6. I've been known to drink pickle juice for pleasure.

~LTG!