Manchego, Week 2

Lessons learned this past week:
1) Having a cheese blog makes me think about cheese a lot. When I say a lot, I mean it. I felt the need to eat cheese, any kind, everyday. The more people I told about the blog, the more I absolutely had to have it.

2) I bought too much cheese last week. Comte was great, but Comte with six meals in a row was a tad overwhelming.

3) Seriously, why did I eat cafeteria mac-and-cheese last week? Cheese cravings.

Follow-up questions about my blog:

1) How often will I be writing/trying new cheeses?
A) One cheese per week. I will post every Sunday. If I have leftover cheese, then I will probably write about it the following week.

2) How do you pick your cheese-of-the-week?

A) I don't have a system...yet. Feel free to leave a comment with a suggestion. (You don't have to have a Google Account to do so.)

3) Are you judging the cheese by itself or by its use in a recipe?
A) Just plain. I'll get a cool matrix of cheeses up soon.

4) Why Ready, Set, Kate? Do you have a cheese nickname?

A) I picked out readysetkate.blogspot.com way before I thought to blog about cheese. I just thought the title sounded fun and had recently decided to go by the name Kate. (That makes me Kate, the blogger formerly known as Katie.) I don't particularly have a cheesy nickname, although I was addressed as "Cheese Girl." My initial reaction was not positive. If you leave a comment written to Cheese Girl, I won't respond. (But secretly, I would still be thrilled to have comment!) Cheesekate was another nickname mentioned to me. I do like cheesecake. This is a "possible" for approved-by-me nicknames.

That said, I had no particular inspiration for this week's cheese. In spite of thinking about cheese all of the time, I ended up picking one out at random at Harris Teeter. Without further ado, I present:

Manchego

Price: 19.99/pound

Smell: Good! Fragrant and oak-y

This week, I decided to make a hearty brunch and more importantly, use all of the cheese! I did not use a recipe, but I'm fairly certain that this is, thus far, "Kate's Ultimate Omelet."

Step One: Shred Cheese. All of it! (.35 lb) Sorry about the fuzzy picture, having some weird problems with the the good photo of the shredded cheese. Blame my excitement and ridiculous amount of sugar and caramel syrup in my coffee.

Step Two: Melt a generous Tbsp of real butter and caramelize half of a yellow onion. (This smelled fantastic! I am a sucker for the melted butter smell, and was super excited for omelet time.)


Step Three: Add chives to onions when they are translucent. Remove from pan and set aside. Whisk 4 egg whites and three eggs together with a splash of milk for omelet base. (This was too much egg goo, I would use one less of each next time.) With heat on low, pour eggs into pan. Salt and pepper it up for fun. Once the egg sets up and looks just about firm, add shredded Manchego (save some for on top) and onion-chive mix.

Step Four: The Flip. The most nerve-wracking part of omelets for me is the The Flip. Typically, this results in The Flop-- a scrambled egg and stuff concoction that tastes yummy but looks super messy. I used two flippers and was extra careful just so the blog would look pretty. Score!!


Step Five: Top with leftover Manchego and chives. I also had cantaloupe (buy one get one free, folks!) and fresh-squeezed Honeybell orange juice. Honeybells are the fruit of the month from Hale Groves in Florida. Kate <3 Citrus. Enjoy!

Result: Manchego > Comte. Manchego was firm, mild, sweet, and smelled nicely. Also, I tried the rind-- it was a tasty snack!

Thanks for reading!