It's the Cheese, of course!

I am now friends with my fromager. It's a total cliche, I know, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. We all like cheese but don't indulge on a regular basis. However, since our recent onslaught of visitors, I have had to make an unholy number of pilgrimages to the cheese shop in order to obtain the much desired and sought after "French" cheese! When I visit my cheese guy, I linger a bit too long to get a small french lesson in with my order. Might as well, lord knows the cheese costs enough! I think my cheese guy likes me too. I like him, not only because he holds the cheese but because I think he may be gay and I'm always looking for a new gay boyfriend. But, he may not be gay and that is perhaps why he likes me. Doesn't matter really, as long as he's willing to indulge my endless questions about firmness, texture, smell, taste and origin, it's all good. My last trip there, I decided to sample some butter. We've been here long enough that it was time to delve into something tastier than the supermarket brand. We're in France for crying out loud! Can you fault me for wanting to experience the sensuous world of farm fresh salted butter! On my way home I bought my new favorite food item, bread with dried fruit and nuts. Example: bread with almonds and apricots or raisins and hazelnuts. If there was a way to add more delicious carbs to a slice of bread, the French have figured it out and I have dutifully fallen in love with it. Honestly, one of the most beautiful things I have eaten here is a lightly toasted piece of fruited bread topped with the salted farm fresh butter. And if I'm feeling crazy, a dollop of black cherry jam. Really, just unreal. Fruited bread with goat cheese comes in at a close second. If you can, do it! Go now! Don't walk but run to your local farmer's market (or Whole Foods) and get some delicious bread, the more carbs the better, and some fresh butter with plenty of salt, get it home quickly and swiftly into the toaster, pop it out and watch the butter melt into the nooks and crannies of your toast (if you can wait that long) and then... enjoy!