Cheese: Beer and Cake

Last weekend, we had a couple people over for an April Fool's Day gathering. It was more low-key than expected, but there was still an ill-advised piñata (filled with liquor and inflammables and glass things and candy and tinned meat products) that we busted open with swords and a broken tail pipe.

There was also cheese.

Image by Michael CotéEarlier in the day, I stopped by my favorite local cheese counter. This is always a dangerous proposition. The prime danger, of course, is that I would buy some St. Andre. I did. I also saw one of the most beautiful cheeses I have ever laid my eyes on. It looked like it was made of stained glass, with a rich, dark brown leading between panes of cream. I asked about it. It was an Irish cheddar, Cahill's Porter Cheddarto be specific. I'm occasionally a sucker for presentation, so I snagged some of that, too. I did taste it first. It was good, but subtler than I expected. The porter taste is definitely there (look at it - how could it not be?), but it is far from overpowering. It was a cheddar, but not a super-sharp one. I wanted a third cheese for the plate, something with bite. I might have gone with a goat cheese, but Angela is (sadly) allergic to such things, so I got a really nice, intense fontina.

When I got home, I made an ill-advised cheesecake. I needed to make something that I was ashamed to like. I decided to hide it. So I made a cheesecake, inside which I placed eight Cadbury creme eggs. It was somewhat gratuitous and wholly appropriate.

A few days later, the leftover porter cheddar was turned into the grilled cheese sandwich of the gods. Have you ever seen dark brown melted cheddar? Beautiful.

Also, Yoo-hoo can be used as the base of a damn fine White Russian variant. Do not contradict me on this.