Sunday, April 26, 2009

Home sweet home?

The perfect beginning to a fantabulous spring weekend in Seattle; I checked out a new space on 12th ave in the 'hood that really hit the "just right" spot for my inner cheese bear. Then moments after tweeting it, the news popped up on The Capitol Hill Seattle blog, color me stoked! This morsel of free press has been great, every day I'm sifting through new emails from fellow cheese-loving Seattleites, singing the praises of this venture. Thank you all for the words of encouragement, and keep it coming!

Today I signed up for the upcoming Food by Hand seminar: Becoming a Cheesemonger. Come June I'll flee the crazy rollercoaster that is my life here for a few days and immerse myself in everything cheese. Now it's back to the laptop to fine tune the 'ole business plan for this new space on 12th.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Batteries recharged

Whew, it's been a while since a post! Mostly due to the lack of anything going on, which has been a blessing while I've been wrapping things up at the day job. In the meantime, I'm super stoked to attend a couple of seminars at the upcoming Seattle Cheese Festival later in May. I'm checking out "Washington's Artisan Cheese Renaissance", hosted by none other than the fantastic Pacific Northwest Cheese Project blog. I'll be delighted to finally meet her in person and solicit the hell out of the shop. Also on the agenda is "The Cheesemonger(Fromager)" which will undoubtedly be inspiring and very educational.

Speaking of inspiring and educational, I had a couple of drinks and some cheese last night with Shannon of City Stimulus and In Your Head. I needed her help working on my "spiel" and she also got me all set up on Twitter, so feel free to tweet at me to your heart's content! We also shared a delightful toasted goat cheese crottin at Oddfellows, which was prepared very well and served with sliced apples and pears.

Later this weekend I'll be heading back to the farmer's market for some more Naughty Nellie from River Valley Ranch, I just can't get enough of that stuff. It's made in a tomme style, but it's airier and a little more tart than any tomme I've come across, yet it does have that lovely smokey quality that carves a special place in my heart for tommes. I also have a list of some highly recommended wines from a coworker who is no novice to the Washington wine scene, so I'll be holing up inside with my cheese and wine diary and calling it a "research weekend". It's tough, I tell you.