Veien å gå deg stor ost

                                                       

Way back in the olden days when I was visiting Norway I learned a phrase that I thought was very complimentary and I would use it every chance I got.  Until one day some one asked me why I was calling a very respectable gentleman, “the big cheese’?  “Um, because that’s what they taught me to say as a greeting” I said, as I swung around pointing my finger at a group of giggling teenagers.  They got me, I had been greeting each and every one I met, with: “How ya doin, ya big cheese?” in my weak Norwegian. What I thought I was saying was, “Hello, it’s very nice to meet you”.  More often than not,  I would get a hearty hello and a big grin in return. Dur, now I knew why all the bigs grins.

Being in Norway, was perhaps my first run in with foreign cheese, even if it was only in the form of a word.  Growing up in Idaho the most exotic cheese we had in the house was sharp cheddar, or the parm that came in a green can.  But then again a salad was a wedge of iceberg lettuce and a knife. As I grew up and moved away from home,  I worked several Christmas’s at Hickory Farms while in college and learned more about cheese when I became a full time employee with a store of my own.  And yes I was a sample girl. That’s a whole other blog post.

I’ve morphed my way through many jobs involving food and most specifically the grocery industry.   For the last several years I’ve worked as a food broker.  We are the people that set up grocery stores.  What? You thought that just happened overnight by a group of fairies?  I wish I could bring you all along so you could experience the process of outfitting a new store, but then with all those people standing around you would be put to work stocking beans or sweeping floors.  And yes, we are also the people that mess up the grocery aisles and move your favorite peanut butter so you can’t find it. It’s generally not vindictive when things are moved, there is some logic involved.  Somewhere.  Really.  I’m sure of it. And yes we are those people that tease you with things to eat while you shop as you try to contain your children in the cart after a hard days work.  That’s me and about 125000 jillion other people.

So I come by my exposure to cheese honestly.  In fact I was compelled to share some of my bounty with a fellow blogger yesterday.  Kathy at the Junk Drawer  was cleaning out her fridge the other day and found four jars of Parmesan cheese and posted a picture of her findings.  I knew the instant I saw her photo that I had to take a picture of the cheese in my drawer and email it to her.  I wasn’t bragging, I simply had a surplus.  But I took it a step further.  I loaded up a bunch of goodies, surrounded them with ice packs and sent them off to her. I get lots of samples, samples that can’t be sold, but are shown to buyers or used in food shows or simply for tasting and there is always a bit left over.   Is it any wonder that I’m known as the “Cheese lady” in our neighborhood?  So why shouldn’t I be the cheese lady to an unsuspecting person every once in a while?  After all, half the fun of a surprise is how much the recipient likes it.  I wish I could do it for everyone, but I guess that’s why we have grocery stores isn’t it?

 

 

Cheese from my Fridge