282/365: National Moldy Cheese Day*

You’re probably feeling blue if you aren’t into mold, but I’m a fun guy, so I was excited for this holiday. October 9 is National Moldy Cheese Day!

Quit turning your nose up. It’s also National Submarine-Hoagie-Hero-Grinder Day, but where’s the fun in that? Besides, we’ve already celebrated hoagies this year. If the thought of eating moldy cheese disgusts you, get over it. Most cheeses are made with mold! Some, of course, are moldier than others, and that’s the point of today’s holiday. Think blue, gorgonzola, roquefort, or stilton. These last three all carry a “protected designation of origin” in the European Union, meaning they must be made in a particular region or country to be labeled with those names. Blue cheeses without the protected origin name are simply called “blue cheese” (or, alternatively, bleu cheese).

Blue cheese is injected with penicillium mold cultures and aged in temperature-controlled environments. Not surprisingly, it was discovered by accident, when cheese stored in caves developed a harmless type of mold. Hats off to the first person who actually decided to take a bite! Roquefort appears in texts dating back to 79 AD, so folks have been feeling blue for a long, long time. Gorgonzola was created around 879 AD, while Stilton didn’t appear until the 18th century.

I’m a big fan of blue cheese, so I for one was looking forward to this holiday. Tara, on the other hand? Not so much. So I find it highly suspicious that she got sick today and had to leave work early with a bad cold. Hmm. Blue cheese dressing would have been the obvious and easy choice, but I consider myself a bit of a Renaissance man. Which mean, a hamburger topped with blue cheese crumbles instead. Delicious! And to her credit, my “sick” wife did take her requisite bite of the burger. (OK, I’ll take away the quotation marks. She really is sick, poor thing. I’m just glad this was a relatively easy challenge and did not require a trip to a restaurant or a lot of serious baking).

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• Moldy Cheese Day – October 9th (crowarrowinc.wordpress.com)
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• Moldy Cheese Day. (furiousunravelings.wordpress.com)