Finally, a cheese from Texas! Something that has eluded me and Colleen in the three years since we launched this blog. Thanks again to the magic of mail-order cheese, I was able to procure Grassias, a mixed-milk cheese from Dallas’ Mozzarella Company.

Before you accuse me of butchering the Spanish language and spelling the cheese’s name wrong, please note that it is correct. Inspired by its lemongrass wrapping, the name Grassias came from a Facebook contest. Gracias to the cheese lovers who suggested this creative moniker.

Paula Lambert, who founded the Mozzarella Company 30 years ago, ranks up with Mary Keehn, Allison Hooper and other cheese pioneers as one of the leaders of the American artisan cheese movement, and her Grassias, which combines goat and cow’s milk in 5-oz. button, showcases the ingeniousness and skill of a cheesemaker extraordinaire. Who else would have thought to add a simple belt of lemongrass to a milky fresh cheese to infuse it with a distinct lemon flavor? The tartness is most apparent in the outer edges of the cheese, of course, but the flavor seeps through the body of the cheese to add a subtle tang.

Unlike last week’s Laurier, Grassias doesn’t transform into a liquidy puddle at room temperature; it retains a solid, chalky texture while still spreading easily. This is a cheese for toast or crackers, not for spooning (unless, of course, you enjoy cuddling with cheese). Enjoy with a chardonnay or another crisp white wine.

It’s been a while since we’ve caught up on cheese news in the nation’s capital. The big stories come from across the Potomac, however, where Northern Virginia’s curd-loving community continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

La Fromagerie of Old Town, Alexandria, is now a bistro and cheese shop, serving light, locally-sourced fare and cheese boards six days a week. Visit the website for hours (shop and bistro are closed Tuesdays). The new bistro layout also serves as a tasting space for after-hours events, including the champagne tasting I attended in December. (A port and blue cheese tasting is coming up in February; see the DC events page for details.)

Cheesetique, meanwhile, has both expanded its Del Ray dining room and menu and opened a second location in Shirlington. You can get the C+C favorite grilled pimento cheese and tomato soup — as well as an assortment of other grilled cheeses, mac-and-cheeses and other fare — at either location. Washingtonian has provided an early review of the Shirlington location. Visit the website for hours and menu (Del Ray is closed Mondays, Shirlington is open 7 days a week).

Back in Washington, Carolyn Stromberg of The Cheese Course is teaching monthly classes at Seasonal Pantry. Each class pairs 3 wines and 6 cheeses according to the month’s theme, along with housemade accompaniments by Seasonal Pantry’s Dan O’Brien. The February tasting will pair bubbly wines with cheese, chocolate and French macarons. Check our events page for dates and sign up quickly as they are sure to sell out.

Washington readers, please chime in to share where you’ve enjoyed good cheese lately.

I typically don’t buy cheese via mail order since I prefer to support my fabulous local shops, but recently Artisanal Cheese has been running a promotion offering a percentage off your order as a countdown to the Super Bowl. Never one to turn down a deal – or a chance to taste cheeses that I don’t usually see locally – I placed a large order and have been enjoying the fruits of FedEx ever since. My favorite from the box was this goaty beauty, Laurier.

Laurier is the delicious result of a collaboration between Vermont Butter and Cheese, makers of C+C favorite Cremont, and Artisanal’s director of affinage, meaning you can only find it at Artisanal (that’s where mail order comes in handy). An aged goat cheese adorned with a simple bay leaf to add a spicy flavor, Laurier bowls you over with its dreamy creaminess and full-frontal flavor. How goaty, you may ask? Well, my husband, well-known for his goat-cheese aversion, walked out of the room, and my sister, who prefers goat cheese to all others, found it to be overpowering. Of course, I loved it – mild, delicate chevres are wonderful, but it’s nice to have a button with some heft and spunk underneath that innocent package. Eating it was a – dare I say – sensual experience.

A sophisticated cheese that begs for a glass of wine, Laurier pairs nicely with a white Bordeaux, Gamay or Champagne. No other accompaniments are necessary beyond a knife. This is a cheese that demands to be enjoyed straight up.

Happy National Cheese Lovers’ Day! Jill and I are just tickled pink that there’s a national holiday just for us. I only hope our husbands remember the flowers tonight. And by flowers, of course, I mean a nice leaf-wrapped &/or lavender-flecked cheese package.

You know we’re all about spreading the curd love, though, so we’re marking today’s holiday by kicking off a virtual cheese school series right here. Was your New Year’s Resolution to learn more about cheese? Or maybe there’s a question you’ve been too embarrassed to ask your cheesemonger in person. Well, we’ll give an overview of a different cheese topic each week – and take your questions, in the comments, on Twitter or on Facebook. So we hope you’ll follow along, ask a question, or, yes, correct us if we get something wrong. (Especially our cheesemaker and monger friends out there.)

Alpine, or mountain, cheeses are those made from the summer milk of cows that graze on grassy meadows in higher elevations during the warm season. You know, those lush meadows of Sound of Music fame. They are typically semi-firm, full of grassy flavor that evokes those warm summer days when we savor the cheeses in the dead of winter. Some are perfectly smooth, others are studded with sweet little protein crystals, and the flavors range from earthy or nutty to fruity. Gruyere and Comte are two of the most well-known specimens, and while they traditionally do hail from the Alps, there are a growing number of American cheeses made in the same fashion. Technically speaking, the International Association of Mountain Cheese Producers, Caseus Montanus, only recognizes mountain cheeses as those “produced and affiné above 800 m, or approximately 2500 feet,” according to Artisanal.

Most mountain cheeses melt nicely, making them ideal for fondue or grilled cheese. Their recommended wine pairings range from sweet (Reisling) to robust (Barolo or even Zinfandel). Fromagette suggests pairing Hoch Ybrig with a sparkling rosé. And it would be hard to go wrong with beer, specifically a bock or brown ale. I like to serve them with mustards, salami and pickles. The typical advice for serving a cheese board is to use a range of cheese styles, but if you wanted to host a mountain cheese tasting there are enough subtle variations to make it interesting — particularly if you pair up European classics with some American newcomers. Likewise, try mixing the two for an extra-special fondue.

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Alpine cheeses we’ve reviewed include:

• Appenzeller (Switzerland)
• Comte (France)
• Fleur des Alpes (France)
• Hoch Ybrig (Switzerland)

…and these American mountain cheeses:

• Appalachian (Virginia)
• Ascutney Mountain (Vermont)
• Pleasant Ridge Reserve (Wisconsin)
• Tarentaise (Vermont)
• Madame Fromage wrote recently about Spring Brook Farm’s Reading Raclette (Vermont — see a trend here?)

Next week, we’ll talk about some other winter cheese styles (think woodsy). In the meantime, keep up with our Winter Cheese Board selections on Pinterest — and please let us know your favorite mountain cheese in the comments. Cheers!

What kind of cheese do you need when you’re nursing a broken heart? Thanks to my team’s pitiful performance Sunday, I was left with a grumpy disposition and the need for comfort food. Thankfully, I had just the fix in my cheese drawer – Ascutney Mountain from Vermont’s Cobb Hill Cheese.

There must be an evolutionary imperative for craving Alpine-style cheeses this time of year. Maybe it’s because the sweet nuttiness of these firm, yellow beauties remind us that spring will come once again. And I’m glad I found solace in Ascutney Mountain, which is made by the raw Jersey cow milk by the Cobb Hill community. Led by cheesemaker Sophie Starr, the team at Cobb Hill, “an intentional cohousing community” in Hartland, Vt., has created a cheese that’s hearty in texture but delicate in flavor. It’s aged anywhere from seven to 10 months, and I definitely could tell my wedge had been made with spring milk. I really dug the fruitiness, which made the cheese so sweet it was almost candy-like. Very appropriate, since I crave sugar when stressed or depressed. One nibble turned into two, then three, then oops! my entire slice was gone.

Ascutney Mountain’s crowd-pleasing flavor marries well with most wines, ales and lagers. I enjoyed mine with many glasses of sauvignon blanc this weekend. Next time I’ll try pairing it with my favorite sweet riesling to see if sweet-meets-sweet is too much or right on target. If you’ve had the opportunity to try this fantastic cheese, which pairings did you like best?

Yesterday I joked on Twitter that I’d be serving neutral Swiss cheeses for this weekend’s football play-off games. I’ve tried not to gloat about my home state team’s victory in the Rose Bowl, but this Sunday, Jill’s Green Bay Packers take on my husband’s New York Giants. It’s the first time I’ve been glad Jill moved out of state.

But rather than driving the wedge further, perhaps we can find some common ground: Jill has family from Jersey, and we drive through Jersey every time we go back to New York. Okay, maybe I’m reaching a little. Regardless, I received this cheese at Thanksgiving and have yet to share it, so here we go.

My sister-in-law called me up a few days before Thanksgiving to say she was at a farmers market in the city (NYC) and there was cheese, and should she bring me some. I didn’t recognize the name but of course I said yes. And so I wound up snacking on this cave-aged delight while preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.

Bobolink Dairy (and Bakeshop) is a small family farmstead operation located in Milford, New Jersey. Their cows are 100% grass-fed and milked seasonally. (According to their website, their new Bobolink Black mixed-breed cows, a blend of modern dairy cows with Ireland’s Kerry cattle, will be milking soon.) The natural-rind, raw-milk drumm cheese we had was the autumn drumm; my sister-in-law had sampled the summer version as well. The cheese is semi-firm in spring and fall, but denser in the summer. The autumn drumm was creamy with a bright, grassy flavor.

I’d say Bobolink’s cheese definitely merits a detour off the Turnpike on a future trip north. It seems they also sell whey-fed pork. And the fresh scents of a dairy farm are far better than driving through Newark. (Sorry, Jersey, couldn’t resist.)

Will the belle of the (Cheese) Ball please stand up?

With the help of guest judges Tia Keenan (@kasekaiserina), Vickie McCorkendale (@culinaryvixen) and Kathleen Cotter (@thebloomyrind), we have three cheese ball creators to recognize for their creativity, resourcefulness and, of course, dedication to this holiday favorite. It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but Tia, Vickie and Kathleen were up to the challenge. And the winners are…

In third place, our own Colleen with her Bourbon Bacon Cheese Ball!

In second place, Madame Fromage with her Point Reyes Pine Cone!

And the winner of the first Cheese Ball Invitational is…

Fromagette with her Aged Cheddar + Guinness Caramelized Shallot Ball!

Congratulations to our cheesy friends, and thanks to all who entered. And for those of you who didn’t, start experimenting now for the 2012 Cheese Ball Invitational.

Happy New Year, dear readers! Thanks to all who shared and participated in the 2011 Cheese Ball Invitational here at Cheese and Champagne. We loved the enthusiasm and dedication to the cause of launching the once-lowly cheese ball to new heights of culinary glory. Without further ado, let me introduce the 2011 Cheese Ball contenders.

1. Cheese Chick‘s Holiday Cheeseball with Goat Cheese & Bacon

2. The Fromagette‘s Aged Cheddar + Guinness Caramelized Shallot Ball

3. Madame Fromage‘s Point Reyes Pine Cone

4. Quick Pickled‘s Mom’s Cheese Ball

5.  Just Putzing‘s Festive Cheese Rounds

6. Colleen‘s Bourbon Bacon Cheese Ball

We hope you give one or more of these recipes a try at your next gathering. (Cheese ball Super Bowl party, anyone?) And stay tuned… we’ve asked some guest judges to determine who takes home the virtual crown as 2011′s Queen of the Cheese Balls.

Happy new year! For the second year in a row, my beloved Wisconsin Badgers will be playing for football glory in the Rose Bowl. You may remember last year, when the Badgers played Texas Christian University, I marked the occasion with a Wisconsin vs. The South cheese board, featuring Hook’s 7-Year Cheddar vs. Green Hill. Though the outcome wasn’t in my favor, at least the cheese board was a win-win. But this year, things get interesting, for my Badgers are facing off against a mighty foe – Colleen’s Oregon Ducks. It’s a C+C cheese showdown, folks. Who do you think will come out on top?

For such an important game, I’m taking a departure from the obvious this year and not serving Wisconsin cheddar during the game. Blasphemy, you may say, but I’m confident my selections will see my team through to victory.

Marieke Smoked Gouda

Like Colleen, I also have a curd-averse spouse, but he’s always happy when I bring a smoked cheese home from the shop. And since the Rose Bowl is a family event, I decided the Marieke Smoked Gouda would play a prominent role on our game-time cheese board. Made by Dutch immigrants Rolf and Marieke Penterman, who have a farm and cheese-making facility near Thorp, Wis., this signature gouda exhibits a gentle sweetness and creamy paste that are both heightened by the smokiness coming through the back end of each bite. While it would be excellent on a burger, I prefer my smoked cheeses straight up or in a mac. Today it will be featured alongside gluten-free crackers and crispy apples for a healthy game snack. If smoked cheese isn’t your thing, substitute any of Marieke’s award-winning goudas: The smoked cumin variety has received much recent acclaim, and perennial favorite foenegreek is easy to find.

Bleu Mont Dairy Havarti

Wisconsin cheese wizard Willi Lehner is well-known nationally for his bandaged cheddar, but he maintains regular presence at the mammoth Dane County Farmers Market with a variety of cheeses, including one of my favorites, havarti. For those of you who doth protest, proclaiming that havarti is too mild to merit any praise, I challenge you to taste Willi’s version and not become a convert. Yes, it doesn’t have as complex of a flavor profile as the bandaged cheddar, but a chunk of this creamy, sweet cheese with a hearty wheat cracker is pure comfort. It’s not only appropriate for celebrating Badger touchdowns, but it’s also a soothing remedy in case those pesky Ducks are in the lead. (Of course, that’s not going to happen, but I also didn’t think the Horned Frogs would come out on top last year. It’s smart to cover your bases.)

The Dark Side

Not an actual cheese (though wouldn’t that be an awesome cheese name?), but merely my moniker for Colleen’s “Oregon dream team” of cheeses:

Nocciola, Tumalo Farms

Caveman Blue, Rogue River

Up in Smoke, Rivers Edge Chevre

So what do you think, cheese/football fans? Whose team – and cheese board – will emerge victorious tonight? Which cheeses will you be serving during the game?

My husband puts up with a lot as a reluctant curd-spouse. The cheese drawer that overflows onto three shelves of our refrigerator, the endless responses of “no” to his query of “will I like that?”, the abandonment when Jill and I trot off on extended cheese-binges. Sure, occasionally he benefits from cheeses he does like, and he may have voluntarily had second helpings of a goat cheese for the first time ever as a result of said Wisconsin jaunt. But mostly he just watches and worries over our two children’s growing obsession with fine cheese. (Those two tots had to be distracted with candy lest they devour our Christmas platter of Pleasant Ridge Reserve before the adults could get to it.)

And so for my entry in our 2011 Cheese Ball Invitational, I set out to create my husband’s version of the ultimate ball. Smoked cheese, yes — Apple Walnut Smoked Promontory from Beehive Cheese Co. to be precise. There would be bacon, of course, and bourbon. A dash of Tabasco to bring it all together. He could probably do without the toasted pecans, but they seemed the logical outer layer given the ball’s Southern bent. And behold: the ManBall was born. Serve it with bourbon, neat. (For the ladies out there, myself included, who prefer bourbon as a mixer, I’ve included my Ginger Bourbon Smash recipe below.)

Recipe: Bourbon Bacon Cheeseball

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) Promontory or other smoked cheddar, shredded
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
• 4 slices thin-cut, applewood-smoked bacon
• 2 tablespoons bourbon
• 2 dashes Tabasco sauce

Instructions:

1. Set shredded cheese and cream cheese out and allow to come to room temperature while prepping the other ingredients.
2. Toast chopped pecans in a dry frying pan for several minutes, until fragrant. Remove and let cool.
3. Fry bacon until crisp. Remove to paper-towel lined plate to cool, then finely chop and set aside.
4. Place cream cheese and shredded cheddar in food processor and mix until well combined. Add bourbon and Tabasco and mix until incorporated. Add bacon and pulse several times.
5. Remove cheese mixture and shape into a ball. Roll in toasted pecans, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
6. Serve with crackers and bourbon. Makes 1 ball.

(Click more for the cocktail recipe.)

Ginger Bourbon Smash
Adapted from Eric Ripert, originally published at FoodieTots

Ingredients:
1 ounce ginger simple syrup (see below)
2 ounces bourbon
2 slices lemon
2 slices fresh ginger root
ice

Muddle lemon and ginger in bottom of cocktail shaker. Add ginger syrup and bourbon, shake with ice and strain into cocktail glasses over ice cubes. Garnish with lemon peel and sliver of fresh ginger. (Makes 1.)

Ginger Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2-inch peeled piece of fresh ginger, sliced

Place ingredients in small saucepan and bring to boil. Cover and reduce to low simmer for 10 minutes. Strain and cool.

Cheers to you & yours this New Year’s Eve — see you in 2012!