Unhealthy

Name about any food and you will probably have been told that it is bad for you. The pleasure police and health food folks have been busy. Meat, milk, bread, eggs, cheese, fruit juice and anything that contains sugar are all on the hit list. And even the few items that aren’t on the “bad for you” list are scary. Romaine lettuce harbor E. coli, and fish is laced with mercury. Eating anything these days appears to be detrimental to one’s health.

So it was with great pleasure that I saw this post on Manitowoc Minute the other day. “Whoever is making those cheese commercials can save their money. We’re buying cheese, and we’re never going to stop buying cheese.”

Being a true daughter of Wisconsin, I’m all in with that statement. One of our local dairies has a small retail cheese store. It’s located on a bucolic country road and features over 100 varieties of Wisconsin cheese. The dairy also churns out tons of butter which is sold for the amazing price of $2.39 a pound. After the hard work of selecting a sackful of cheese, there’s another treat in store. A full-size ice cream cone costs 25 cents. The dairy even provides a small picnic area across the road where customers can consume their cone and cheese curds in leisure. The pleasure of the senses beats out food fear every time.

It’s time to cast food in a more favorable light. In that spirit, here are some of my favorite cheese quotes.

• “You can’t make everyone happy. You are not cheese.”
• “Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures.” M.F. K. Fischer
• “The secret ingredient is always cheese.”
• “When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say”? George Carlin