Free Range Friday (on Thursday) From the mystical to the sublime

Wow. Some days are too full of goodness and I should be exhausted but instead I'm just wired. Starting with the eagle wings this morning, then onto a facial dermabrasion, which sounds scary but hey, I said I'd do it and the vision of dremels and sandpaper wheels wasn't going to scare me off. Instead it was this pretty cool little tube thing filled with sand or something gritty, but it was like a tiny vacuum. Shawn just ran it up and down our faces and then rubbed some cream on and then used some other little machine that did something else, I'm not sure what, and we were done. I did not look 30, 20 or even 10 years younger, so maybe I should go for the dremel the next time.

We met up with Ryan for a wonderful Vietnamese lunch and then he headed home to work on eagle wings, and we went to buy some milk. One bottle of milk and I'd be back messing about with wings.

We stopped at one store but didn't go in; it was as if our fate was decided. No, we went to the Dillon's down the road (Dillions is sort of like Publix, if you know Publix...a pretty cool chain grocery store here in the mid-West). And there...innocently going about his work (or not, because he might be the Evil Tempter of Cheesy Passions), surrounded on three l o n g sides by the most glorious cheeses, was Brian the cheese guy. Or, as he became over the next HOUR we spent with him, Monsieur Fromage.

It was a menage a trois of cheese lovers which started, I swear this is true, with Michelle and I expressing, to each other mind you, our fondness for a particular type of cheese we saw. As we were fondling holding another type of brie and blue and wondering what it was like, the cheese guy said, would you like to try this, it's a lot like what you are looking for. Of course, we said yes...and continued to say yes as he led let us into temptation sample about six kinds of cheeses...and I mean samples, not smidges.

He'd put little chunks of cheese on giant crackers and say, the cracker is your plate, you can eat it or just use it. We were having little flavor orgasms moments of joy when Brian said, 'Yes, you should taste my brie cake...I put...' and proceeded to tell us about the brie, the fig spread, the caramel, the almonds, oh, not just any almonds but Marcona almonds. which he just happened to break open before tossing a few into our hands, which were somehow open and ready.

Back behind the Caloric Cheese Counter of Pleasure he goes (fyi, he's literally half run out, maybe five times, to bring us samples) and starts to work...creating...heaven on a plate. But he's making it to give himself (or his boss) an excuse for why he is making US two mini cakes.

Good god. And there they were. Delicious. Like every other damn cheese he brought us. I said, ok, we'll buy the big one and give it to Ryan for a pre-birthday treat. I was a bit concerned because the piece of brie alone was as big as my head...ok, not really but it was of a size, plus being covered in fig paste and fruit...plus, once he brought it out to us it now had those almonds and god knows what else on it.

How much, I asked. Well, I like you both...$5.65, he said. I thought he said fifty five...and thought SHEEEEET! but then I looked at the label and realized he'd practically given it to us. We fell on the floor, the cheese between us hugged. Michelle did not hug him as she felt she was already half cheating on Ryan, whether with the cheese or the Monsieur Fromage she didn't know, and it didn't matter. We were in cheese comas but safely waddled made it out of there...and Ryan loved it. I took a photo but my hands were still a bit shaky.

We did a couple of other things, one big one was meeting a few of Michelle's friends for drinks, and I adore them. And I made the family Cuban black beans and yellow rice like my Dad made for us and everyone loved it. Hooray! But I'm too full of cheese to write more about that right now.

So...this is the blog for Free Range Friday, even though here it's only 18 minutes into that new day and it was still Thursday when I started. The recipe is in the post and I'd make it more clear for you but I need to sleep, as I believe we have an estate sale to get to early in the morning. To sleep. And dream. Enough cheese, please; I'll go with the eagle.