My whole life, I drank eggnog not even considering what the heck it was. I always assumed the 'egg' in eggnog was the 'egg' in eggcream—no egg at all, and probably no nog either.

I did like it though; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years (and sometimes Chanukah, too) Mom would truck down to Wilson's Farm out in Lexington and bring back a carton or two. Give it a sprinkle of nutmeg, and later on, a shot of whiskey or Southern Comfort, and I was happy. It was sweet, it was rich, what more could I ask for?

Wasn't until my mid-20's that the possibility of actually creating eggnog even crossed my mind. And the tip wasn't eggnog at all, but it's odd and excellent Southern cousin. It was a New Year's party, with a Texas hostess with Tennessee roots. When I slipped into the kitchen for a drink, she was tending a bubbling kettle of froth.

I’m still thinking about the Saint Marcellin from last time.

With that being said, I’m beginning to realize how awesomely I scored with this blog series. I mean, how perfect is it, really? Honest, I’m not an undercover cheese connoisseur and the “discover my inner cheesemonger” blog pitch wasn’t born out of a coy strategy to scamper all over town and taste a bunch of brilliant cheeses—even though that’s essentially what I get to do…I guess all I’m trying to say is that I am very, very lucky.

Anyway, with all of that being said, I’m visited my third location back in Davis, at the Mace Davis Nugget Market with Colby Turner, Nugget’s cheese manager.

Can't say it isn't a thrill when my hometown paper gives my magazine some precious column inches...

There are magazines devoted to beer and wine, periodicals about baking and vegetable gardening, how-to monthlies on keeping backyard chickens and raising beef cattle. Stephanie Skinner decided to do a magazine on cheese and cheesemaking.

She was having dinner with friends a few years back when the idea occurred to her. “Stephanie started pounding her fist on the table and saying, ‘I don’t understand why there’s no cheese magazine,’ ’’ recalls Elaine Khosrova, editor in chief of Culture, the cheese-centric magazine that Skinner published to fill the void...

Last April I moved from a life in the bustling capital of the UK, London, to a windswept and rain-lashed hilltop just outside Ulverston in the Southern Lake District in England’s North West. I now make cheese with Martin Gott and Nicola Robinson at Holker Farm, just outside the village of Cartmel. They have a flock of Lacaune sheep and a few Dairy Shorthorn cows, with what must be the only cow/sheep milking parlour in the country.