The inconceivable is happening in France: McDonald's is using real AOC cheeses on their burgers. It's almost enough motivation to get me on a plane over there just to try it. Here's hoping that the next step for McDonald's will be Rogue River Blue and Pleasant Ridge Reserve on Big Macs throughout the US. For now, we'll have to watch enviously from across the pond as French burgers get all-star treatment. The question is, will McDonald's experience a boost in sales?

A well-timed counterpoint to the recent anti-cheese campaigns in New York and Wisconsin, DCI Cheese Co. has made a sizable donation to Action for Healthy Kids, thanks to their holiday sales of their Black Diamond line. Here's hoping that goodness prevails, and cheese is not permanently relegated to the bad food category:

DCI Cheese Company has made a donation of $50,000 to Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) in support of the organization’s efforts to improve nutrition in America’s schools. This donation represents a 25¢ contribution for every piece of Black Diamond purchased from November 1 to December 31, 2011.

AFHK is the nation’s leading nonprofit and largest volunteer network working with schools and families to fight childhood obesity and undernourishment.

Saveur is going all out this Valentine's Day with this insanely luscious recipe for Coeur à la créme, accompanied by caramelized strawberries. Impress the socks off your special someone with it:

We based this classic French heart-shaped dessert on a recipe from our friend Wes Martin. A perforated coeur à la crème mold is traditionally used to form the heart shape, though a mesh sieve makes a fine substitute for the mold.

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE COEUR À LA CRÈME:
6 oz. fresh goat cheese
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup honey
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. confectioners' sugar

Read the full recipe here

Photo by Todd Coleman

With such a dramatic name, how could anyone resist being intrigued by these tasty morsels? This recipe from Kitchy Kitchen is easy and wildly delicious. Check it out:

These bites used to be the hottest appetizer of the 70s and are way overdue for a comeback. Possibly named after Norman warriors who terrorized southern England, these little treats are ugly as sin but oh so delicious. They will be hoovered up in a minute so definitely have some extra floating around. The toothpicks, while kitsch, also make them an extremely convenient hors d'oeuvres. Enjoy!

20 medjool dates (or any large date), pitted
10 strips of bacon, cut in half crosswise
1 small log of fresh chevre
toothpicks

Read the recipe here

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.