A Well Deserved Night In (And a New Use for Paint Chips)

As I mentioned before (here) Tuesday's Wine and Cheese tradition is the highlight of our week here and after getting another level of the yard terraced we both deserved it. Since we have been having such long weeks with this project I went all out and put together something extra decadent.

Notice a theme? What can I say, after all those weeds I pulled up I was feeling a bit goaty. (seriously?) Whenever I put together a cheese plate I like to have a nice rounded menu with fruits and meats to go along. (Centsational Girl has a good post about this too if you are in to cheese) I like to have 2-3 different cheeses (no more because it gets confusing) with different textures. Usually something hard, soft, and spreadable. Other than that I don't get too fussy making things "go" together, I just pick out what I like. Today I got fancy though and stuck with the goat theme the whole way through. (btw I got everything from Trader Joes).

The Goat Brie wasn't as smooth and creamy as some brie is but it was tangy and delicious all the same. I'm really fond of Brie with a little raspberry jam for sweetness.

The Goat Gouda was nice and firm like a good aged Gouda should be. You could definitely taste the goat.

This was my favorite of the lot (and according to my local TJ's is only around for a limited time). It is really good smeared on a slice of Pear.

I thought it was too cute paired with the "goat" wine which was pretty tasty for a 6$ bottle of wine. I like the red better than the rose but both were quite drinkable (they also have a white which is good).

I don't normally make labels for every wine and cheese but I thought I would for you all. They were pretty straight forward to make.

I took one of my random paint chip strips cut it into three and punched holes in the top and bottom (I have a hole punch that is really tiny that I use for scrap booking but I am pretty sure a regular sized hole punch would work too). Then just write the name of the cheese and thread a toothpick through it (hopefully you have better handwriting than me. When I do this for parties I print them out so they don't look like something a second grader would have written) Like so

It didn't bother me that you could tell they were paint chips but you could cut them down more if you want.

Now lets have one last look at that cheese....

MMMMM... I could eat you right now. The most difficult thing about Wine and Cheese is not having it every single night, which is why it is so much fun. It lets us have a night together that is fun and decadent but little to no work which means we can just focus on each other. We have been having a weekly Wine and Cheese for the last 5 years and we don't plan to stop. I love that we have a night a week where we both put down whatever we are doing and dedicate an entire night together no matter how crazy life is and this week we definitely needed a good break.

Cheers!