The hard, soft and stinky goodness of Cheese

Just remember now, I never promised this was a diet kind of blog. This post is dedicated to my love affair with cheese. I blame this affair on my dear dad, who also loved cheese. Together we'd eat the stinkiest cheese possible and love every bite of it. The last cheese we ate together was on New Year's Day, it was a chipolte cheddar. Cheddar was his favorite, so I start with a favorite cheddar recipe (but I'll walk you through some yummy variations too)
Baked Mac N Cheese
Boil one large box of elbow pasta or penne or ziti or ditalini or whatever you have in the pantry
In a medium sauce pan melt 2 Tablespoons of butter
Then add 2 Tablespoons of flour and cook in the butter for a couple mins over a med/low heat.
Next add 4 cups of whole milk. * I add 1 teaspoon of onion powder and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder along with 1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard powder to the milk. Working over a medium heat stir the milk frequently as you warm the milk to just under a boil. As soon as you see bubbles stop, remove from heat and let it sit for just a min. (You don't want to scald the milk or add the cheese to milk that's too hot or everything will seperate, blech) Finally stir in 4 cups of shredded cheddar.
Pour the mixture into a 3 1/2 quart corning ware dish. In a seperate bowl combine 1/4 cup of bread crumbs and 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar, sprinkle over the top and pop the dish into a preheated 350 oven.
Bake for 45mins - 1 hr.
**Modifications: Use Mozzerella chesse in place of Cheddar and Italian bread crumbs instead of plain for an Italian twist. Add a Tablespoon of taco seasoning to the milk mixture and some pepper jack cheese for a Mexican version. Add a can of diced tomatoes to the pot when mixing the cheese and noodles, and top with links of sausage for another twist.

Soft cheese, not the best for you, but ummmm so so good tasting.
Baked Brie (We don't celebrate anything with out this on the table)
Take a puffed pastry square from the freezer and defrost, roll out on a cutting board with a little bit of flour. Place a wheel of Brie in the center and top with half a jar of apricot preserves. Fold sides of the pastry up and seal by pressing with your fingers. In a seperate bowl whip one egg with 1 tablespoon of water, using a pastry brush brush the top of the pastry dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Bake in the oven according to the pastry dough box. Let it sit for about 15 mins so the cheese can firm back up some. We enjoy this on crackers, sliced green apples, and with grapes and strawberries....pretty much anything.

Grape and blue cheese truffles
I ate these at a new friends house. They were scrumptious so I had to make them for Christmas. No one else liked them, but they reminded me of my dad because he'd have gobbled them up in all their strong, stinky glory! First, you need a bunch of BIG green grapes. 1 block of cream cheese and 4 oz of blue cheese (or gargonzola) and 8 oz of chopped pistachios. Mix the two cheeses together really well, then using your fingers wrap the cheese around a grape and roll it in the nuts. OMG! It's that easy, and they are ridiculously good!

I could go on and on, but I'll save some more for a later date. Can't give away all my secrets at once.