This Week's Tasting Plate: A Vegetable Without A Cheese Does Not Taste As Sweet

Who among us has planned a massive holiday meal (be it for Thanksgiving, Christmas or what have you), or merely considered what to bring to one we were invited to, without thinking, "Hmmm. We might need a vegetable side dish. You know, one without cheese." Then, just ended up preparing something with cheese.

Because as surely as you will be eating a turkey next week, you will also be presented with several dishes awash in, brimming with and capped off with dairy. As the saying goes, if you like a vegetable, then you should put a cheese on it. And of course, we have all the cheese you could possibly need or desire.

For your Southwestern sweet potato gratin, creamy squash casserole and plain ol' mac n' cheese, we're stocked up especially for Thanksgiving with Sarvecchio Parmesan, Dunbarton Blue, Bonne Bouche, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar and Reading Raclette. We have Lucky Layla butter and Blue Heron cajeta for your coffee, ice cream and an extra kick to your pecan pie.

If you're like us and serve cheese as its own course, then you might be interested in our showstopper--the Rush Creek Reserve. Made only in the fall, it features the richer texture of hay-fed milk and the delicate ripeness of a soft, young cheese. It's spoonable, and wrapped in spruce bark, making it lovely for special occasions.

Store hours this weekend will be the same as usual: 10a.m.-6p.m. Saturday and Sunday. We'll also be sampling beer and wine, in the likely event you find yourself in need of that, too.

This Week's Tasting Plate: Desert Island Cheeses

Alright, frankly, if we were stranded on a desert island, cheese would not make it into the top five things we wish we had with us. Aside from being calorically dense, it's not really suited for the situation, seeing that it generally doesn't pair well with coconut. We don't think saying that makes us any less dedicated  dairymaids.

However, in a figurative sense, we definitely have a cheese essentials list and it is in fact posted in our shop. We just updated it this week, and if you haven't tried what's on it--Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Dunbarton Blue and Tarentaise among others--you're definitely missing out. All of them are among the best of their type and generally loved by all, so we recommend having a few handy in the cheese drawer at all times. It's like a party life preserver or even a Wilson-like companion, if you're having one of those nights.

In addition to those cheeses, this weekend we're featuring Beehive's Smoked Habanero Cheddar, Pt. Reyes Toma and brandy-soaked Rogue River Blue. Come by, eat some cheese and ask us about our island survival skills. Haley can do like, 10 pushups (ask her to prove it!) and Elizabeth has probably saved several lives by the time you've finished reading this sentence.