cheese cheese and more cheese

A weekend or two ago (this insanely busy month has already completely blended together), we embarked on our 4th annual cheese party.  For those of you unfamiliar, a few years ago Stefan and I had the GENIUS idea to host a dinner party consisting only of cheese.  While Year One was four courses of cheesy goodness (cheese plate, raclette, fondue, cheesecake), we learned that even the most serious of dairy lovers can fatigue.  Since then, we've opted for three courses, alternating between a main course of raclette and fondue.  This year was fondue.

Per usual, the day-of was jam-packed with errand-running.  
But first up was having a good, solid breakfast to power us through the day:

Donuts while pumping gas

When you've got a baby in tow, things such as proper nutrition become secondary to optimal baby schedule time management. :)

Next up (and most importantly!) was a trip to Cheese Plus for our most essential goods.

Fondue anyone?

My favorite part of the evening is always the first course, a.k.a. the Cheese Competition.  We ask each guest to bring their absolute favorite cheese to participate.  We then all sample and vote on the winner of the evening.  People go balls to the walls in bringing the most ridiculously delicious cheese they ever did taste.  In addition to being insanely fun (who doesn't love some good dairy-laden competition?), the result is that everyone gets to have the best cheese plate of. their. entire. life.

Because of that, I did not waste a precious second of mindblowing-cheese-consumption-time to snap any photos, but rather can share with you the stage being set for the evening's event... 

everyone labels with cheese name, animal and origin

cheese bringer is concealed

soon-to-be-filled cheese boards eagerly awaiting competition entries

prize bottle of Veuve for the "Best in Cheese"

Halfway through Course Two, however, I hit a plateau where I was able to take a break from cheese-eating to snap a shot of the crew in action:

People were pleased.
Stefan especially.

As people finished their fondue and we prepped for Course Three (a cheesecake of course!), we had our guests vote on our "Best in Cheese".  The cheese that won, however, was not the Truffle Triple Cream or the Cave-Aged Alpine Varietal, but rather the Queso. :)

After the night was through we were sure we had seen enough cheese until next year, but amazingly by 12pm the next day, we were ready for some leftovers.

xoxo

KK