Cheese...

When we recently visited Weese and MAW, we had occasion to sample some cheeses ne to us. One had bacon (or maybe ham) and horseradish in it and though I couldn't eat a lot of it because of the heat, I really liked it a lot. Another had some sort of Iris maybe?) stout in it and that was my favorite, and the other, I think, was a type of Gouda.

Did I ask MAW for the names or brands so I could seek them out here? No. We talked about it and I mentioned writing thwm down, but never actually got that taken care of.

I decided it was time to try a few new cheeses anyway, and whie I think that Spec's will have the best array to choose from, that would be the downtown location and I just haven't made it there yet.

The HEB that we frequent has quite an assortment and their cheese staff is pretty helpful. In the past when we have commented that a particular house made cheese ball looked interesting, they immediately cut into ot and prepared a sample. Same for any cheese we might want to try before buying, and thay have also told us that any cheese can be scaled down to a smaler portion just by asking. Nice.

Yesterday we went there to get a pork shoulder to roast away in the dutch oven at 275 degrees. For 4 hours. Can you smell it? It's rubbed with a mixture of Ancho chile powder, cocoa, oregano, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, and sugar. I think that is everything. It's currently about half done and when it is finished it will fall off the bone and be fork shredded for eating with tortillas. Inhale...2...3...4...smell it....

So until it is done, I will quell our hunger with a small array of grapes and cheese and crackers. I got three and while I know Martha and Ina sugget that a cheese platter have a soft, semi-soft and hard, I got three hard. There is Somerdale Tintern which is a cow's milk cheddar with onions and chives. Add to that Somerdale Red Dragon, another cow's milk cheeddar with mustard and Welsh ale. Finally we have Wensleydale with Honey & Figs, also cow's milk, but near as I can tell, Wensleydale is a type of cheese like cheddar is a type. I think all three are from the UK.

Reports on both the pork and the ceeses to follow...