Smoked Mozzarella Madness

Apologies in advance for not having a photo of my cheesy creations, but this all happened last week before my apartment had an internet connection, and my camera was still in the menagerie of boxes that filled my apartment until about Thursday.

Anyway, on Monday I went grocery shopping for the first time since moving into my new digs. I bought a membership to the Bloomingfoods Co-op (Bloomington's source for all foods local and organic or otherwise remarkable), and nearly set my debit card ablaze with the amount of money I spent there. Of course organic and local food is almost alway more expensive, plus I had to buy all the basics: sugar, flour, rice, pasta, baking soda, and what have you. So my roommate and I were perusing the cheese section (cue drooling here; I am a cheese fiend), and I threw some smoked mozzarella into my cart on a whim. Actually, I didn't even realize it was smoked, I just saw the part of the label that said "Mozzarella" and figured I'd make pizza this week or something. Well the next night I was making mac n cheese (come on, even food snobs know it tastes good), and my cheese sauce was looking a little weak, so I grated some of the mozz into it and took a taste and nearly hit the floor because it was SO GOOD. The smokiness was just right in combination with the pasta and existing weak cheese sauce. And I thought, "man, this is some good cheese, I'm going to have to try it in some more stuff." So I did. This was the week of smoked mozzarella cheese. We had it in eggs with garlic and parsley (so delicious we had it more than once), we had it grated into another pasta sauce (yum!) and we finished it off (oh so sadly too) sliced on Breton wheat crackers with some great wine as a prelude to a housewarming dinner I hosted. What a wonderful cheese experience :).

This story ends sadly, however. When I returned to the grocery later in the week to purchase some more of this dairy delight, I couldn't find it anywhere! Alas, I will keep looking, but until then, back to plain old mozz it is, I guess.