gruyere cheese

this is going to truly expose me for who i am...one who hasn't tried many cheeses.  it's sad and true.  (i'm working on it, alright?)  so when i made these mini quiche the other day, i had to buy gruyere cheese.  the thought of using a weirdly named cheese kind of (in a brooke kind of way) grossed me out.  but i pressed on.  i bought it.  yes.

the next step was cutting it up into very fine pieces.  i was nervous that the cheese would smell horrific.  i have issues with strong cheese smells.  let's blame it on uruguay, where i walked into a cheese corner store, and about passed out from the strong olor of cheese.  it even drifted out to the streets.  i couldn't even walk by the place without wanting to upheave my stomach.  (okay, so maybe i'm being a little melodramatic.  who me?)  anyway, i got to cutting my cheese.  i opened the bag to the 3 ounces of cheese i'd bought and was very pleasantly surprised with my new discovery!  not only did i love the way the aroma filled my senses, but i adored it!  i also realized that i'd eaten and smelled this very same cheese several times before in other dishes i'd eaten (but not made myself).  had i only known it's name was gruyere.  i need to stop judging things by what they look like.
 

another example of my food snob-idity (yes, it's a new word)...me being afraid of eggplant.  number one?  the name of it.  goodness, it sounds disgusting, doesn't it?  number two?  the color.  althought it's a beautiful hue of purple/violet, to eat it is a whole other thing.  but recently, a good friend urged me to try some.  and i'm happy to report that it was good!  slimy, but good.  once you get over the way it was prepared (pf changs version) which caused it to be slimy, it was really quite delicious!  like they said on the lion king, "slimy, yet satisfying".  if you too are afraid to try it, i now ask you to be brave.  make it a grand new year and try something that you don't want to.  give it a chance!  you might just be (pleasantly) surprised!