Be original this Valentine's Day, and take candy matters into your own hands. These tasty morsels are easy to make, but appear super impressive when finished:

These seem to be everyone's favorite holiday candy recipe. Could be the melt in your mouth texture, or perhaps the sweet peppermint taste. Could also be the fact that this is the easiest candy recipe around! If stored in airtight container, these can be frozen for a couple months. These can also be made into pretty shapes by rolling in granulated sugar, pressing into candy molds, and dropping them out.

Ingredients:
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
2 drops peppermint oil
any color food coloring paste (optional)

See recipe instructions here

Madame Fromage has a cheesy alternative to going out this Valentine's Day. I think I like it:

With the economy in the toilette, it’s an awfully good year to be a loving spendthrift. Instead of bedazzling a sweater and going out on the town, I suggest you bedazzle some goat cheese and stay in with some Steely Dan.

It’s as easy as picking up these chevre hearts—available at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal—or making your own. Come on, you can find some fresh goat cheese and figure out how to press it between sheets of waxed paper for some easy molding. Pete Demchur of Shellbark Hollow rolls his cuties in fresh lavender buds and pink peppercorns, but you could roll yours in some paprika, craisins, or za'atar. That a grrrl, Martha.

Read the full post here

Max McCalman has been watching the American cheese movement grow over the past years, and is doing a bit of comparison between then and now. Hint: now is better than then:

Our friends at Huffington Post are recommending “rare” cheeses! Most of them are produced right here in the U.S.! We have witnessed dramatic improvements in artisan cheese making here, especially within the past decade. As we have been saying – this is where the excitement in the cheese world is occurring, right here within our shores.

There was a time not that many years ago when superior domestic cheeses were harder to find; they simply were not that many! I recall thinking that I could skip the American Cheese Society’s annual conference every other year; the cheeses were all pretty much the same: some excellent cheeses could be found but the dramatic improvements in cheese making were just beginning to take hold.

This delicious recipe is sure to become a favorite – kick it up by cracking an egg onto the center of the pizza prior to baking.

Preheat oven to 475° F.

Whisk together garlic and olive oil and brush over pizza crust.

Evenly distribute cheese over crust, and arrange asparagus, prosciutto, and red onions on top of cheese.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Recipe courtesy of Emmi Roth USA

In Russell Simmons' book cow's milk just doesn't cut it. So much so that he's taken the issue up with governor Cuomo:

Music mogul Russell Simmons wants New York's governor to pull the plug on milk from cows.

The hip-hop impresario writes in a letter to Andrew Cuomo (KWOH'-moh) that milk should no longer be the state's official beverage.

Simmons, a vegan who has taken on several animal rights causes with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, says milk from cows is less healthy than milk from rice, almonds or soy.

Read more here

Alistair Coleman has a thing or two to say about the conflict arising between Russia and the Ukraine over cheese exports. He's also got plenty of snark leftover for American cheese:

It turns out that notorious cheese-criminals Russia and the peaceful cheese-producing nation that is The Ukraine* are on the verge of a major trade war over cheese exports.

Cheese!

It is - in my barely considered opinion - just as bad as the spat the two countries endured over gas and oil exports, a dispute that ended with former glamour-puss turned mad cat woman Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko doing seven years in stir for dodgy corruption charges. Then there was that nasty business over a less than flattering review left in TripAdvisor ("Moscow seems OK, but the hotel maid didn't fold the toilet paper into a point"), after which all hell was let loose.

Heather Christo Cooks knows something about low-maintenance savory baking, and it shows in this recipe for cheese and onion monkey bread. Check it out:

I love traditional monkey bread, but I had to put a twist on it with savory flavors. I made this in the fall for some friends, and they have been asking ever since for me to do a blog post so that they could have the recipe.

Soft, I mean really soft, buttery rolls smothered in cheddar cheese and onions baked into a lovely bread.

Cheese and Onion Monkey Bread, serves 10
2 large cans of biscuit dough
1 Tbs of butter
1 yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 Tbs of fresh thyme
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup butter

See the full recipe and images here

Cheese Underground has the story on Holland's Family Cheese's expansion plan, and the unexpected opposition they are facing in their community:

One of Wisconsin's best-loved farmstead cheesemakers thought building a new cheese factory, a 300-cow dairy farm and farmstead retail store with an agri-tourism focus would be welcomed by their entire local community. They thought wrong.

Holland's Family Cheese's Marieke and Rolf Penterman, along with their five young children, are facing opposition and open hostility from a very small but vocal group of Thorp residents, who argue a "factory farm" within city limits will lead to water contamination, air and soil pollution, and an increased risk of children developing asthma from the dust and odor of a working dairy farm.

For the French speaking cheese lovers of the world, here is a great video from Daily Motion about the rise and fall of French and American cheesemaking. Any translations welcome:
Read more here

La guerre des fromages qui puent by tzetze

You may remember our recent interview with LA-based chef and Top Chef fan-favorite Fabio Viviani.

Well, Fabio's got his own TV show now with Yahoo!, cooking simple, Italian-inflected dishes and goofing around with his trademark style, and he's featuring the much-requested ricotta fritters he mentioned in his interview, along with a nice prosecco cocktail to keep the party cranking. Check it out:

"If Superman could transmute into a dessert, it would be ricotta fritters..."

;