Gift ideas for Mother's Day

Mother's Day usually entails the following: phone calls, flowers, and mad dashes to the local Hallmark store. If you're like most of us and you've procrastinated on getting something special for the one who gave you life, don't fret. You can still get your mom something cool, something involving cheese, perhaps? (Remember just what blog it is you're reading.) Either way, it beats a lame greeting card with a puppy on the front.


Left to right, row by row:
• Cheese of the Month Club membership ($840/year): It's the gift that keeps on giving!
• The Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins ($16.95): Give Mom this and she'll be well on her way to becoming a well-versed cheese connoisseur.
• Rachael Ray fondue set ($49.99): Oh, hush, fondue is hip again.
• Set of 4 Pewter cheese markers ($50): So gorgeous! If I owned these, I'd make it a habit to serve cheese all of the time.
• Clean slate risers ($30.00-$98.00): A very classy and tasteful way to display your cheese.
• Mouse cheese knife ($5.95): Because mice and cheese go together. You had to have seen this coming.

The fine art of cheese

Question: Which of the following does not belong?
A) Clay
B) Crayon
C) Paint
D) Cheese

The answer is D) Cheese because it is not an commonly used art medium. But try telling that to the following artists who have managed to defy convention and integrated cheese into their work.

Sandy Skoglund is known for her installations, which are oftentimes surreal and vibrant in color. It doesn't get any more surreal than a room, not to mention the people in it, covered entirely in cheese puffs (the supermarket kind, not the pastries) in a piece entitled "The Cocktail Party," as shown to the left.

Sarah Kaufmann is the self-described "Cheese Lady," and for good reason. She has carved all sorts of things about of blocks of cheese, ranging from famous faces to animals, inanimate objects to college mascots. She is a Wisconsin native and had worked for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board before embarking on her career as a cheese sculptor, so it's safe to say that cheese and dairy are practically in her blood.

Champion cheese carver (who knew that there was such a title?) Troy Landwehr turned a 1,200 pound block of Cheddar cheese into an ersatz Statue of Liberty. That is patriotism at its best.

Cheese + bread = genius

Photo credit: hellaoakland

Grilled cheese sandwiches seem to hold a special spot in a lot of peoples' hearts, no doubt because so many grew up eating them as kids. (Yours truly excluded, however, as I didn't have my first grilled cheese until high school or so. I'm a freak, I know.) It's not hard to see why these sandwiches are so popular in households with young children; kids love the cheesy, buttery taste, and they're fairly easy to make. Throw some bread, cheese, and butter in a pan, and voilà! You've got yourself a quick and easy meal.

Or is it really that simple? Participants of the Annual National Grilled Cheese Invitiational don't seem to think so. Here, people use their wits and grilling skills to battle it out in the hopes of being crowned grilled cheese champion. It sounds like a fun and entertaining event, but if you read over the information page, you can see that the event organizers take it Very Seriously. Judging (which anyone is welcome to do, and for free to boot!) is done by the use of standardized ballots, and trophies are awarded to those that place first, second, and third in each catagory, which are as follows:

The Missionary Position: White bread, orange cheese (Cheddar or American) and butter or margarine only.

Spoons: Any kind of bread, any kind of butter and any kind of cheese (or combination of cheeses) but no additional ingredients.

The Kama Sutra: Any kind of bread, any kind of butter, and any kind of cheese (or blend of cheeses) plus additional ingredients.

The Honey Pot: Any kind of bread, any kind of butter, any kind of cheese (or blend of cheeses), and any additional ingredients, but a sandwich that is sweet in flavor, or would best be served as dessert.

I have to admit that it never occurred to me to use cheese that isn't Cheddar or American, but my mouth is positively watering at the thought of all of these tasty concoctions. If you've got the same craving and you happen to be in the Los Angeles area on April 19, make it a point to attend the Invitational and have a few sammiches (their loving term for sandwiches). The rest of us will have to live vicariously through you and hope that the Invitational rolls through our towns sometime in the near future.

While we're on the subject of grilled cheese, here are some more links for your viewing pleasure:

• 10 Tips for the Greatest Grilled Cheese via Yahoo! Food.

• April is National Grilled Cheese Month. I kid you not.

• Grilled cheese sandwiches the Benny & Joon way. Can you really make grilled cheese with a clothes iron like Johnny Depp's character?

• A grilled cheese sandwich bearing an image of the Virgin Mary sold for $28,000 in 2004. I don't know about you, but if I had that kind of money, I'd rather use it to buy lots and lots of non-visaged grilled cheese. But that's just me.