Age is Not Important Unless You're Cheese

The T-shirt reads 'Save Water, Get Dirty'; the perfect belated birthday gift to assuage my fanatic longings for a better world!

'Merci Beaucoup' my beautiful blond friend, Stacy Pavlus!

Last night, at my house, not only did Deb, Carrie, Karen, Stacy and me save water by toasting to bottles of vintage vino but I also shopped at Albany's Honest Weight Food Coop on Central Ave., saving me the frustration of dining sans raclette cheese. Drinking water with raclette interferes with the digestion of the cheese, so, thanks to Gustov, the Capital Region's best cheeseman, I found enough to make a meal of it for 5 hungry friends.

I caught onto the Raclette cheese craze while in Switzerland a few weeks ago. Raclette is a semi-firm, salted cheese that's heated using an electric table-top grill with small metal trays underneath the coils. It takes minutes for the cheese to melt and seconds to scrape over grilled veggies and meat.

My friends were new to the experience so I showed them how. Their taste buds did a triple lindy on grilled potatoes, onions, eggplant, artichokes, green and red bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, jumbo shimp and free-range chicken swimming in melting raclette. It was a true winner.

Finding the perfect Raclette Grill was easy too. There are plenty of department stores in Switzerland selling them but for $300... I didn't think so. Rather, like a mouse in a trap, SkyMall magazine lured me into a cheaper model. Who hasn't found themselves tempted by some screwball invention or pseudo-science wellness gadget in SkyMall magazine? In this case, the Raclette Grill was worth the money spent.

Last nights Raclette soiree went over so well I'm determined to make a habit of it every month. All mice who bring bottles of Long Island red and Finger Lakes white are welcome!