Question of the Day, Friday, October 9

Good morning!   And Happy Friday! It's been a very long week and I'm ready for 4:00, although it may be sooner as I have some vacation hours that are burning a hole in my pocket.  

Easy question this morning: What's your favorite cheese?

Around here, it depends on what we're using it for. For toasted cheese, I love a good baby Swiss. For mac and cheese, it has to be cheddar and the more more tang the cheddar has, the better. But I also love a good Asiago. It's decadent. I love Fontina for grating over pizza. And then there's Maytag Blue. Yum. When we were in Vermont, we picked up an Herb-and-Garlic cheese that was to die for. Oh and when I make Fondue Bread, I have to use Muenster as my filling. Hmmm, maybe that question isn't quite so easy! 

There are some cheeses that I want to get at Trader Joe's next week: Cheedar Cheese with Caramelized Onions, Cashel Blue Cheese, and Smoked Chili Cheddar Cheese. I hope they still have them. I think they might be good to put out when we play cards with friends.

We are not cheese snobs. We don't have to pay $44 a pound to get a cheese that we'll eat.

Sometimes on movie nights, Rick and I will slice a bunch of different cheese on a platter with some good crackers and some veggies and we'll munch while watching our movie.

An easy question? Maybe? But, certainly not an easy answer! LOL

There are way too many different cheeses to have a favorite! But there are several that I use on a regular basis. 

Colby and Colby jack are good for snacking on with fruit and a glass of red wine!

Asagio is great when grated over pasta or on a salad, but you have to watch out for immitations! I always make sure it is stamped with the PDO (protected designation of origin) because authentic asagio is made only in 4 places in Italy. 

I use swiss alot too, but there is a difference between aged swiss and fresh swiss. The bigger the holes, the longer it is aged, and baby swiss will melt easier than aged swiss. Aged almost curdles when melted.

Cheddar is a staple in my house. I buy it on sale and freeze it so I can cook with it later. If I am just serving it with crakers, I use fresh.

I use Feta, Ricotta and Cottage cheese in my lasagna. And, right now, I have 4 blocks of cream cheese in the fridge for all my Pumpkin cheese cakes and desserts I will be making this weekend.

Fontina and Gouda make a good fondue.

I use Monterey Jack when making anything Mexican. It melts easily to go over refried beans!  Panela is good for grating on tacos.

And, of course, Mozzarella, Provalone, Romano,Pecorino and Parmesean when making Italian.

Roquefort makes a wonderful salad dressing or just crumbled over a salad.

And herbed goat cheese with Dijon mustard on baked salmon is to die for!

I absolutely love to cook and I am sure there are several cheeses I didn't even add here. I love trying new and different recipes. There is a place in Cincinnati, Ohio called Jungle Jim's International Market and they carry an extensive supply of different cheeses from around the world. For $25, they offer periodic Cheese Tastings with experts available to answer questions and make suggestions for recipes and compatible wines et cetra. 

Goat, feta and brie. I can't pick one.

Provolone, swiss and blue cheese.

For snacking a sharp cheddar.  A cheese can be too sharp for me but I like it pretty sharp..  When it gets to the point that it crumbles when you try to slice it it's a little too sharp for me.

A medium cheddar for sandwiches.

American cheese for grilled cheese and burgers.  Not the processed slices in plastic but an American cheese.  It melts really well.

I use mozzarella provolone and shredded parmesan for the top of baked ziti.  I use mozzarella, ricotta and shredded parmesan for the top of lasagna.

I get a bag of Mexican blend for Tex Mex.  It has the standard Colby, Monteray Jack and two other cheeses.  I don't remember the names of the other two cheeses.

I have tried to like Swiss especially for sandwiches but I don't care for it.  I prefer the medium cheddar.

I do like Blue Cheese salad dressing.  I go back and forth between it and a Honey French dressing, it just depends on which one I am in the mood for.

Can't even answer. I LOVE cheese.  Everyone of them.

Some favs are:

Extra Sharp Grafton Cheddar from Vermont - not the one you get in supermarkets, it's a special one they reserve only for sale up in Vermont.

Any of the goat cheeses from Cypress Grove.

Morbier (great with wine)

Triple cream brie, imported only

Parmesan Reggiano; the real stuff from Italy.

Any very well aged Gouda, when it starts crystalizing.  Love the little crunchy bits in it.

Maytag Blue 

I will confess to being a cheese snob, however, I'm not above using Land O'Lakes white American for an old fashioned grilled cheese or topping on a burger   

I love a lot of cheeses, I don't think I've met one I don't, but my ALL time favorite, and SO hard to find any more is American in the block! It is my favorite to grate for tacos (packaged sliced just doesn't taste any thing like it), and to slice for grilled cheese. I can't even find it on the internet! (at a good price). I travel 90 miles to buy it at a deli in a 5lb block size for 20.00, you can't beat that, and we travel that way at least once a month for shopping. I hate to say how fast I go through it, it shows how many tacos I eat!

Mmm I love cheese!  I eat it every day probably and just chop up whatever is in the fridge to snack on.  My favorite is probably Gouda though.  Where I live in Utah there are good squeaky cheese curds that are fun to eat and pretty yummy too!  

I'm not a big fan, especially if the cheese is melted it grosses me out since I see it as a big fat glob. I consider swiss cheese to be a "stinky cheese" lol, so I will eat pretty much only bland ones like mild cheddar and monterrey jack. My husband and daughter have an allergy to it so I cook everything dairy-free. It's the best for me, too, since dairy produce inflammation which can make my asthma worse.

Sad thing is my husband and daughter LOVE cheeses and can't have them at all. I can eat cheese but rather not. Life is unfair.

So many to choose from!! I can't pick. Love them!

I love a really good swiss cheese on sandwiches, also love provolone.  For a salad dressing I love bleu cheese dressing, not sure that is spelled right.  I love American cheese in scrambled eggs.

I'm not mad on dairy on general. I'm not vegan, but have vegan leanings. Most cheeses actually make me feel sick.

The ones I have in to cook with (for family) are Parmesan, Grana Padano, fresh mozzarella for pizzas, local Wenslydale (with or without cranberries), sharp cheddar and sometimes Leerdamer. Oh, and cream cheese for cheesecakes, frosting and as a quick base for a creamy pasta sauce.

(Asha adores Parmesan and Leerdamer, and Shadow goes mad for Wenslydale with cranberries - never without :lol3: )

I pretty much like all cheeses except for the really stinky ones.

- Camabert 
- Feta
- Gouda
- Dubliner
- Irish Cheddar


 

oh, i love cheese! really almost all kinds of cheese. i'm not wild about swiss though, and @sivyaleah had me LOL'ing with her mention of morbier (which brought back memories for me) -- many years ago i worked in a deli and we sometimes stocked morbier, which most of us referred to as 'morbid air'.

Never saw a cheese I didn't like. I absolutely love grilled cheese sandwich. :lol3:

My favorite is a really strong Swiss called Emmenthaler.  It's probably my favorite because it's so expensive I don't eat it often.  It's a rare treat!

There's a three year old cheddar I really like, Cabot, that I get at Costco.

The best cheeses I ever had I ate many years ago.  A friend married a woman from Italy.  Her father was a cheese exporter in Italy.  I doubt I will ever eat Parmesan like that again!

I'm not big on cheese. The supermarkets here are useless. I use pecorino for pasta and Mac and cheese.

I like cheese . My favorites are a very sharp cheddar, chevre (soft goat cheese), and shredded Kraft triple cheddar with cream cheese added. . .mmm!

Ooh cheese!!! Let's see.... I like sharp cheddar or colby jack by lucerne or tilamook. I love provolone on sandwiches. I like fresh parm on salads. Not too fond of the one you buy in a can and put on pizza or pasta. I like cream cheese on crackers or bagels. My least favorite is blue cheese, though. It's just too strong for my liking. And I don't like swiss so if I am going to have a Reuben sandwich.. I will use provolone instead of swiss.