Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Just Because: I Love Cheese

I know it's bad for me, but I love the hell out of some good cheese. I think I'm mildly lactose-intolerant, but I just can't help myself. Something about a salty/smoky/savory hunk of funky dairy just speaks to the innermost depths of my soul. My boyfriend knows this about me. So when we were visiting Tennessee a few months ago with some of his family, he and his dad told me about an amazing cheap shop that used to exclusively supply the White House with dairy delights. And fortunately for me, the cheese shop was only a thirty minute ride from our hotel. So we hurried to Simonton Cheese House in Crossville, since we knew the shop closed in a little over an hour. Along the way, we saw a lot of beautiful land and hills. We even cruised through a supposedly haunted area right at mile marker 10. When we arrived, it didn't look like much from the outside. But all amazing gems are hidden, aren't they?

The local lore is, a bus of schoolkids died at this mile marker. So when you shift your gear to neutral, you can feel the car being pushed uphill.

As soon as we walked in, I started breathing heavily. Dear heavens, it wasn't just cheese. There was a huge selection of local honeys, spreads, fudge, and other treats worth inhaling. The best thing about this place was at every display were jars you can sample the items from. My excitement was through the roof. I grabbed Brad's niece and made her try all the samples with me. Halfway through sampling various cheeses and spreads, she was starting to "get" my excitement. I'm the kid and this is my candy shop.

The view right as you walk in.

But towards the back corner was the pièce de résistance- the cheeses. Now, I wasn't particularly hungry. If anything, I could stand to not eat for a good while at this point. But once I saw the huge selection of cheese (standard and specialty), I did a little bit of drooling. Like, mouth-breather status. 

This was just the small display against the side. Mainly cheddars and gouda, If I remember correctly.

They even had little tupperware containers with toothpicks so you can sample to your heart's content. I admit, I zoomed too quickly through this part due to my eagerness. So I decided to get out the way so everyone else can have fun.

Brad's dad and sister, with her husband and kids.

There were also gifts available for purchase. The wooden display had everything you need to create your own cheese gift basket.

Unfortunately, I got a little too overwhelmed with the huge variety of offerings so I only got myself a container of honey from a local apiary. It would have been hard to handle cheese on a long road trip anyways (what I say to make myself feel better). When we were checking out, they were only accepting cash at the time. I'm not sure if this is their policy or the system was just down, but there were small samples of fudge close by so I didn't pay too much attention. Overall, it was a nice little side adventure during our short stay in Tennessee. I definitely would like to visit that place again once I'm well prepared. They do take orders online and ship across the country, but the shipping fees are crazy compared to what you're actually buying, so I'll just hold off on that.

I'm not sure why I felt like creating this post since it doesn't really "fit" with everything else posted on here. But it's my blog and I love cheese so who cares.

Simonton Cheese House
2278 Highway 127
#101
Crossville, TN 38572

xx May

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