As we all know, Cheese Crime continues to run rampant worldwide - theft being its most common manifestation. The latest incident was in Salt Lake City, where thieves broke into deli and made off with the best meats and cheeses they could find. The Deseret News has the story:

Troy Petersen, manager of the market and deli at 1516 S. 1500 East, said the theft was discovered Monday around 7:45 a.m. The lock to the storage’s walk-in cooler, which has an exterior entrance, was broken.

“They cleared us out of all our artisan salami,” he said. “I think we had about five or six legs of prosciutto in there and cheeses and other types of cured meats. They just took all that out. It was barren.”

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Cheese Is Alive was sad when chocolate bars studded with gouda suddenly disappeared from her life, but lo and behold, she found a new treat!

Laughing Moon Chocolate from Vermont makes some very delicious chocolates and they have a bonbon/truffle/callitwhateveryoulikeitschocolategoodness that is blended with Bayley Hazen Blue from Jasper Hill. As you all know by now, Jasper Hill makes some of the most delicious cheese around. Their Bayley Hazen Blue is a natural-rind cheese with a crumbly dry texture that can make cutting it into pretty wedges a bit challenging at times. It has a lovely butteriness to it and tastes kind of fudgy. Yup. It's a cheese that already tastes a bit like chocolate and has that dense, chewy fudge texture.

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Traditional stuffing gets taken to new heights in this irresistible dish combining the nutty aromas of Comté with sweet apples, tart cranberries and fresh herbs. Serve the stuffing alongside roasted meats at your next holiday table, or as part of a vegetarian spread!

Preheat the oven to 275°F. Put the bread pieces on a large baking sheet and bake 20 minutes, or until crisp. Transfer to a large bowl.

This video is from Riverford Dairy, and was filmed this last March when they let their cows out of their winter lodging. As you can see, the cows are very excited to get back out to pasture after having been penned up all winter. Have you ever seen cows run so fast?

See the video on Youtube

Looks like Kraft just got some healthy competition. Organic Valley made this big step just two days ago. We're really interested in seeing the long term results:

Organic Valley, the nation's largest cooperative of organic farmers and a leading organic brand, today announced the launch of Organic Valley American Cheese Singles-unprocessed, 100 percent real organic cheese slices, as opposed to "processed cheese food," perfect for grilled cheese sandwiches, lunches and snacks. Organic Valley is the only national brand to produce unprocessed, organic American Cheese Singles.

Ella Lawrence, on Bay Area Bites, recently visited Barinaga Ranch, where she learned a bit about both the cheese and Marcia Barinaga - even a little family history. I think we'll all agree that she had a good time:

Barinaga herself traveled to the Basque country for the first time at age 12, and has since returned five times. “My family there doesn’t speak English, and I don't speak Basque, so we communicate in Spanish--which they speak well, and I speak poorly," she says. "There's a limit to the degree we know each other, but there's love and a great affection.”

And so it was these shepherding cousins that Barinaga turned to when she decided to try her hand at cheesemaking. Shepherding is synonymous with cheesemaking in the Basque country--it would be unheard of to have sheep there and not make cheese from their milk.

Things are moving along for the Clock Shadow Creamery owned by Robert Wills of Cedar Grove Cheese, and as Milwaukee's first cheese factory is setting a good example in many ways:

As Robert Wills waits for the equipment to arrive for his new artisan cheese factory in Walker’s Point—the first ever in Milwaukee—he is thinking about more than profit and loss. His new enterprise is also about “green” enterprise, social responsibility and healthy eating.

Wills’ new enterprise is located in an environmentally friendly commercial building developed by Kaufmann LeSage LLC. The building’s developer set a high bar for environmental sustainability, striving for the rarely attained “Living Building” certification. The building didn’t meet the requirements, but is a cinch for Platinum LEED certification, design architect Dan Beyer of Continuum architects told the Journal Sentinel.

CBS this morning took a trip down to Latte Da Dairy in Texas, where they found some well cared-for goats and some excellent cheese:

read more at cbs

With the recent popularity of craft cocktails, it's no surprise that bartenders and mixologists are reaching for exotic and nontraditional ingredients to create unique concoctions. This bartender took drinking to a whole new level when he rose to the challenge of using a Kraft mac and cheese flavor packet:

Challenged by Justin Anderson (Branch 27, the Bedford, La Sirena Clandestina) with the cheese packet from a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, Naha bartender Steve Carrow looked north to the land of cheeseheads for inspiration. The name of the cocktail he concocted derives from diner slang: "wilbur" is bacon, "cackleberry" egg.

Check out the photos and get the recipe here.

Paul Franson from the Napa Valley Register got a behind-the-scenes look at Redwood Hill Farm in California, and came away with a good grasp of the health benefits of goat's milk yogurt, kefir, and cheese, along with some great recipes.