The Big Cheese!

For those of you who were around this time last year, you might remember when I was invited to participate in a National Dairy Council event highlighting the "3-A-Day" campaign. For those of you who weren't around, you can read all about it here, if you so desire.

I love cheese. And milk. There are few things I enjoy more than a super ice cold glass of milk. And last year's event was tons of fun, so when the lovely Mir invited me to the 3-A-Day event this year, you bet your sweet patookie that I jumped on that opportunity.

And when I found out that the event was being catered by Five & Ten, a local award winning restaurant, well, that just sealed the deal. I mean, get a load of this menu: Spanish tortilla of aged cheddar, local potato and leeks; pain perdue with blackberries and yogurt and maple syrup; biscuits with Georgia gouda and Benton's bacon; local yellow grits with Vella jack cheese, seared skirt stake and poached quail egg; croissant of spice rubbed pork tenderloin with cucumber yogurt raita; peach perfect smoothie and cocoa-berry yogurt tarts.

Excuse me while I wipe my chin. I ate all of those things last night and I still drool when I read about them. Here are some photos so that you can drool, too.




If I had known how delicious the biscuit with the gouda and the bacon was going to be I would have put down the camera, grabbed two of them and headed into one of Mir's closets to stuff my face. Even though I didn't do that I somehow didn't even get one picture to share with you. But trust me, it was to die for.

When we arrived, the lovely Dairy Hosts remembered me from last year (and won my everloving gratitude by remarking on my weight loss!). We gathered in Mir's lovely kitchen for a demonstration on how to make skinny hazelnut lattes and absolutely scrumptious peach smoothies. Here's the recipe for the Peach-Amaretto Frappe:

1 cup fat free or low fat milk
1 large ripe peach, peeled, pitted and cut into eighths (or two canned peach halves, drained)
5-6 ice cubes
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract

Now I will tell you that I drank this fully preparing NOT to like it because of the almond extract, but it was dee-licious. And so refreshing. And the best part is that if you use the fat free milk, it only has 240 calories and 1 g of fat and is 40% of your required daily calcium!

They also had a huge variety of Cabot cheeses and Greek yogurts for us to try. I tried a Cabot pepper jack that was fantastic -- just the right amount of kick and the cheese was so smooth. I'd never tried Greek yogurt before, but the honey flavored one would make a fantastic dessert.


The nutritionist on hand gave us lots of great tips about how to incorporate dairy throughout the day because you know you can't get your 3 servings all in one sitting -- your body won't absorb all that calcium at once. You have to get your 3 servings over the course of the day (that's something I learned last night, can you tell?)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. I would have had a great time even if I hadn't won a fabulous cappucino maker! That was just the icing on the cake. Mir was a great hostess and the Dairy Ladies were super nice. Oh! And Mir's Tuscan plaster wall from hell? BEAUTIFUL! And I'm not just saying that. It really did look fantastic and if I didn't know what a pain in the ass it is to do, I would totally do that in my next house.

So go check out the 3-A-Day site. They have some really great recipes and snack ideas and you can sign up to receive coupons.

Now excuse me while I go grab a muffin and wash it down with some ice cold milk. I've totally flung a craving on myself.