Cheese blog no. 1

A gut morgn! Today we inaugurate a new feature here at Mormonides Bros. Blog-house and Kvetchery. What is? The cheese blog! Where we write about cheese. Cheese is good, yes? So what's not to love?

Today, we discuss two cheeses. First, myzithra. This is a greek cheese made from sheep's milk and goat's milk. It comes in two varieties: fresh, or soft, and hard, or aged.

I bought the aged kind, and found it delicious. It seems that generally people recommend that this cheese be grated, like parmesan. The texture is certainly right for that, although the flavor is not as strong as parmesan. In pasta dishes, the flavor seemed to get lost, but it worked well in salads with a little bit of sweetness, like apples or dried cranberries. Lots of people describe it as having a nutty flavor, and I think I can agree with that. It melted up nicely in quesadillas or in toasted sandwiches. This really seemed to bring out a richness.

I give aged myzithra four stars. It keeps well, it tastes good on a variety of foods, and it has a nice texture.

The second cheese is Fol Epi. It's a 'Swiss-style' cheese from France, but without the bite I usually associate with what we call Swiss cheese here in the US. It comes in a rind made of toasted wheat flour instead of wax. I actually tried eating the rind, and although it's not nearly as good as the cheese itself, it's not bad.

The Fol Epi was a little bit soft, but not quite soft enough to really spread. If I kept it cold in the refrigerator, I had no trouble cutting it. It's really delicious stuff-- a little bit sweet or fruity, but mostly just a good cheesy flavor. I loved it with everything I tried it with, especially sandwiches. It melts quickly because of the softness, so I loved slicing it onto warm toast.

I give Fol Epi five stars. I can't imagine someone not loving this cheese. Super yum.

And that's enough cheese blogging for today. So, goodbye and gey gezunterheyt!

--MOISHE

What is the Gospel anyway?

Sholem aleycham and vee geyts!

I've been doing some thinking this week about the parable that the Lord tells in Matthew 13 about the guy who finds the treasure in the field, sells everything he owns, and buys the whole field to get the treasure. If you want to read it it's verse 44, but I warn you, there's not much more to it than I just said.

I never liked this parable much. Why would the guy buy the whole field if all he wanted was the pearl? I always figured either the past owner of the field didn't know the pearl was there, so the guy bought the whole field so he could get the pearl cheap (so Jesus was teaching us to scam people), or that the past owner did know about it, and the guy just went nuts and bought everything for fun (and the Lord was teaching us to waste our money on stuff we don't want or need). Neither of these lessons ever sat well with me.

So, this week I was thinking about it and I think I've figured out what it really means, at least to me. Something that rubs some people the wrong way is that there's too much periphery in the church. Boy Scouts and visiting teaching and service projects and seminary and Relief Society get together to knit night and on and on. That stuff is not what saves us, so why should we have to do it? The answer is right there in verse 44. In order to get the pearl (which Christ tells us is a symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven), we have to take all the things that go with it. The guy couldn't just buy the pearl, he had to get the whole deal. Field and all. So, the Gospel itself is the things that will actually get us to Heaven (the Atonement and not much else), but if we're in for a dime we're in for a dollar.

Well, that's my whole spiel. Time for me to get to my Sunday full of meetings. I just have to remember...not to complain...because it's all important...

Herschel

Funny, she doesn't look Druish...

So, we're not really Yiddish. Oyf tsleuchis. We're just Mormons who wish we were Jewish, like all the rest. We really are brothers, though. And our last name really is Mormonides. Also, I got a gold medal in awesome at the rock and roll Olympics.

Nu... Today, in sacrament meeting, this guy gets up to give the last talk, and it's already ten o'clock, which means we have ten minutes to fit in him, the closing song, and the prayer. I was sympathetic to his plight. The previous two speakers had spoken too long. We had cut out the rest hymn (The Lord Is My Light-- which I like) to give this guy time to speak.

Of course he didn't abbreviate-- he gave us the whole megillah, and we were ten minutes late getting out of sacrament meeting. Personally, I find it impossible to feel the spirit after a meeting is supposed to be over. I should, but I just can't. I suppose this is a defect in my character. Feh.

--MOISHE

Meh!

Sholem aleycham to all! I am Herschel. My brothers and I are going to put some of our thoughts up here for all you Goyem, or anybody else who wants to read.

a gute nacht to everybody

Herschel

So blog already

Three years I've been schvitzing about what to post here. Today I decide: enough with this meshugas. Time to get started. So this is the start. Maybe later I blog some more, when I have something to say.

Zay gezunt.

--MOISHE