praise cheese us!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; perfect storm of getting overly busy (panicked?!) and not having much to say I guess. But at least I'm glad to have a new post that was worth the wait. Well, at least it was for me. Saturday was the return of the National Grilled Cheese Invitational Championship! A glorious golden day of melted cheesy goodness! This years even was held at Griffith Park, though they still had a limited number of people allowed in, so my friends Heith and Pat and I went early. Once the grilling commenced, it was cheesedemonium. They had a long curved row of tables that the crowd gathered behind. As competitors finished a batch, they brought them out to the screaming crowds. When you were lucky enough to get one, you stepped back to enjoy the cheesy creation and then scored it using the attached ballot. There were four categories - Missionary: white bread, orange cheese, and butter or margarine only; Spoons: any kind of bread, any kind of cheeses, and any kind of butter, but no additional ingredients; The Kama Sutra: any bread, any cheese, any butter, plus any other ingredients; and the Honey Pot: same as Kama Sutra, but one that is sweet in flavor and would be best served as a dessert. One bad side to the outdoor location (aside from no alcohol allowed), was that by dusk it was getting dark and cold, and we decided we had enough cheese, so I have to admit that we didn't stick around to see the champions. I have to admit that my favorite was one of the simpler ones - pictured above: "Lord Cheesypants": parmesan cheese, butter, tomato basil bread, mozzarella cheese, and provolone cheese - perfected by a layer of slightly crusted cheese on the outside. Yummmmmmmmm. That's cheese we can believe in!