Cheese, Princeton, and Dragons

I usually am the sucker for anything new and exciting.  Hubby downplays new flavors and limited edition concoctions, in fact, he basically avoids them.  Therefore, I was floored when he pulled me into a cheese store we had never visited in Palmer Square (Princeton) because of their sign outside.

Perhaps it wasn't exactly new in the limited edition sense, but it was certainly new to us.  

Fancy grilled cheese sparks our interest the same way that fancy hot dogs do.

We like them.

Link to: Hubby in LA

We like them a lot.

Hot dogs in Baltimore, Maryland

After staring, then drooling, at the sign for about five minutes, we walked into the store: Olsson's aka Cheese Heaven.

Immediately, the man behind the counter, who I can only assume to be the owner, asked me how I like my cheese.  

Sharp.

Extra sharp?

Oh yes, extra sharp.

As soon as he knew my preference, I was taken on a tour of what seemed to be every sharp cheddar cheese in existence.  I was given a healthy sampling of each as well as a little history behind some of them.  Hubby had to cut into my sharp cheese party by asking the man about the Red Dragon cheese we had seen on the sign outside.  Technically, it could have been included, except I had been experiencing strictly sharp cheddar cheeses that had robust and distinct flavors, but no additional flavors such as what the Red Dragon offers.  The Red Dragon cheese is a cheddar base with mustard seeds and ale mixed in.  

Translation: AMAZING.

I found the cheese to be a little softer than the typical cheddar cheese and discovered on Olsson's website that the creaminess comes from the ale.  It is absolutely incredible.  Added to a grilled cheese sandwich it is mind blowing. 

We had dinner reservations around the corner and though it was tempting, we resisted ordering a sampling of their different grilled cheese sandwiches that they make in the store.  Instead we bought some of the Red Dragon and the Fontina cheese Olsson's uses on 'The Dragon" grilled cheese so that we could recreate our own at home.  We also ordered a hunk of a seven-year-old super sharp cheddar cheese.

Here's what I loved about this little cheese shop that you could easily walk past and completely miss out on all the deliciousness hidden inside: they want you to sample before you buy.  I wish I could do that everywhere.  There were tons of different jams at the counter.  The wild strawberry caught my eye, probably because of the gold medal winner tag hanging off of it.

I grabbed a jar and placed it beside my cheese to purchase, but the owner still insisted that I try a sample first.  It tasted like someone had just pureed strawberries behind the counter.  Sweet, satisfying, and absolutely fabulous.

I planned to make my own sourdough bread for our grilled cheeses, but hadn't anticipated the length it was going to take me, so we went with store bought.  

I baked the bacon in the oven which is my new favorite thing to do.  It takes some playing around based on the type of bacon, but typically in a 400 degree oven I'll bake bacon on a rimmed pan lined with aluminum foil for seven minutes, then flip it and bake it for seven more minutes.

Grilled cheese just might have become my new mission in life.  It is such a simple meal, but one with the potential to be gussied up and transformed from the nothing-left-in-the-fridge-weeknight-family-dinner type of meal into a let's-serve-this-to-a-party-of-dinner-guests masterpiece.

La Mezzaluna in Princeton, NJ

We spent this past Saturday in downtown Princeton.  To my surprise, for dinner hubby wanted Italian food.

This is a groundbreaking experience for me.  I always want Italian food and usually I'm bringing hubby along kicking and screaming.  (Okay, not literally, but it's not his first choice.  Ever.)

Of the few choices available, we went with La Mezzaluna.

(P.S. Sorry about the quality of these photos.  This is what happens when you only have your phone to take pictures with).

It's not too much to look at on the outside, but I'm of the philosophy to never judge a book by its cover.

We started with mozzarella sticks.  The cheese was the perfect texture.  It was thick and not too stringy to bite into.  The sauce was sweet and didn't overpower, but paired well with the mozzarella.  

Hubby ordered the gnocchi.  It came with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, and garlic olive oil sauce.  I wonder if their gnocchi takes a long to make as mine did.  Theirs was delicious.  The sauce was outrageous although I had my apprehensions.  Sun dried tomatoes can be a good choice to add extra flavor to a dish so long as they are not over dried.  These sun dried tomatoes were flavorful and definitely not at all overly dried out.  

I ordered one of the daily specials.  It made me feel complete.

I'll admit it.  I feel bad when a waitress goes through a list of specials and I have no interest in any of them.

This one sounded like everything I wanted in life and I'll tell you why: four cheese sauce.  I didn't care about anything else, all I heard was four cheese sauce.

However, I got even more than I bargained for.  I'd never ordered a risotto dish before, and while I had an idea of what I was getting, I was more than thrilled with the overall meal.  Aside from the four cheese sauce that the chicken risotto (made with perfectly moist chicken) was coated in, it also came with asparagus.

I first fell in love with asparagus, wow, over 15 years ago on my first ever visit to Princeton with my mom.  Therefore it's very nostalgic for me to get something with asparagus when in Princeton.

I wish we could have stayed for dessert, but bellies were overly full and plans had already been made to go to the House of Cupcakes.

I would have loved to try their ricotta cheesecake or tiramisu.  Next time...for sure.