What are you carrying?

“What are you carrying? It looks heavy.” - Random Man in the Atlanta Airport

I was carrying cheese. Fancy cheese from Boston to Memphis for my family’s Thanksgiving cheese board. My mom gave out tasks to each one of us; I was assigned the cheese board. That should tell all you need to know about my cooking skills.

I should start at the beginning with my brother texting a month before Thanksgiving to asking me go to Boston to his FAVORITE cheese shop. At first, I thought he was joking, but then he sent a link and told me, “Don’t to ruin the cheese, it’s your one job.” Basically, he challenged me and I was going to win Thanksgiving.

Thus begins my journey. I planned a trip the weekend before Thanksgiving to Boston to visit my friends which made it the perfect opportunity to get the cheese. (evil laugh)

I arrive in Boston with my soft shell cooler and ice packs. The cheese is calling my name. “Come get me! You will win! I am the best, nothing is so delicious as me!”

Finally, I make it into the cheese store. Formaggio Kitchen is everything you need out of a cheese store with wines and cured meats to pair. I brought my best friend, Audrey, with me. We walk up to the counter to meet Mark the cheese man. He was amazing, he picked out great cheeses and meats. I was fully confident that Mark was on my team. I won’t say the employees at Formaggio Kitchen were thrilled with my bubbly personality, but they were beyond helpful and even vacuumed sealed the cheese. Mark was doing everything possible to not make me the smelly cheese lady on the plane. To be honest, I wasn’t against being that person.

By the end of our cheese store experience, Audrey was on the other side of the store pretending to not be with me. The fact that I was the person in the store FaceTiming my brother and making Mark speak to him explains why the employees were a little annoyed with me.

Now I have the cheese. It stayed in Audrey’s refrigerator until I was ready to leave the following day. I get the cheese back home safely and the cooler was chilly when I opened it. I kept the ice packs in the cooler longer to see if the cheese would survive the plane ride. My little experiment worked, the ice packs were still frozen!

It’s time to go to the airport. I reviewed the TSA rules about getting my cheese through security all comfy cozy with the ice packs. I was surprised, but you can actually bring ice packs through security as long as they are completely frozen.I packed up the cheese and headed to the airport.

I get through the scanners and TSA decided to check inside my bag. The TSA employee is looking through my bag and picks up one of the cheeses. At this point, she knows the would reason behind my cooler of cheese. She says, “This cheese better be delicious for $25”. We laugh, and discuss how we both could spend wayyyyy too much money on cheese and it would be worth it. With my charm and my ability to follow the TSA rules, I am able to pass through security with all my cheese.

SIDE NOTE: Honestly, my bag gets pulled pretty much every time (one time I had a hot glue gun, the next time I had beads, and the another time a candle). Sometimes, I like to put weird things in my bag to see what will happen, but every time the TSA employee and I chat, laugh, and talk about life.

I carry this cheese through the airport like a champ. Luckily, I had a long layover so I did not have to run with the 20 pound cheese bag. I finally land in Memphis. I hurry home to get to a refrigerator and the ice packs were still cold. The cheese was safe.

It is finally Thanksgiving day, I watched the parade with my older sister and played Mah-jongg. It was time for the unveiling of the cheese. My win is in arm’s reach at this point.

Each piece of the cheese board is put in the perfect position, presentation is everything according to all of those years of watching the Food Network Competitions. My sister was nice enough to help create the labels the night before, to create the finishing touch on my winning food entry. Every aspect of the charcuterie board was done to perfection. It was time for the reveal. I am jittering with excitement. I present the cheese board.

“I am glad you didn’t go to Costco for cheese. We all thought it.” - my brother

They were all raging on my love of Costco. It is an amazing place and one day would love to be influencer for them. The pajamas! The pizza! The large quantity of snacks! It is everything!

Anyway, everyone finally talks a bite of the cheese and they are very happy. At this point, there low expectations makes my victory even more sweet.

The rest of Thanksgiving meal was amazing, but I decided that I won. No one told me that it was untrue and my sister laughed so I took that as a sign of agreeing with my win.

I am now on Cheese Boards every year. Now I just need to get a job in Italy, and I will forever be the winner!!!