Day Seventy - Seven: Strawberries and the French Marriage Mondays

For this week's edition of Marriage Mondays, I decided to focus on a fruit seeing as the weather is getting nicer, I know I certainly am getting excited about fresh local fruits, not the winter time variety, although a treat at the time, we all know are shipped from the tropics. Fresh fruit to me screams Spring and Summer!

I thought on this lovely Tuesday afternoon as I play catch up I would choose the lead contestant to Ms. Strawberry and would provide you all three cheeses that could potentially win the chance to be featured with Ms. Strawberry in today's recipe! Before we get going, let me just remind you that our contestant, Ms. Strawberry is an excellent source of Vitamin C and flavinoids so any of our three choices would be lucky to have the chance to be paired with her!!

And now, without further ado:

Contestant Number One: Saint Maure -- One of the key Loire Valley blue mold covered pasteurized Goat's Milk Cheeses this is a citrusy, lemony, goaty, fresh mouthful if I've ever tasted one. As this cheese ages, as with other goat's milk cheeses, it becomes firmer, flakier and deeper in flavor. Once it has gone through it's aging process, you get that fresh goatyness mixed with a piquant and almost walnutty flavor from the blue mold on its exterior. It is important to mention Contestant Number One's namesake town was pivotal in the development of the Loire Valley goats cheeses we know and love worldwide. Why you may ask? Well, that's becase the birth place of this cheese is also the location of the defeat of the Arabic Saracens and they are the people who brought the goat and cheese recipes that we know and love to this day to that region of France.

Contestant Number Two: Camembert -- Moving to another area of France, this contestant hails from the region of Normandy. A grown up version of the supermarket Camembert's you might find, this is  mushroomy, earthy, unctuous, creamy, gooey and decadent -- an excellent specimen of pasteurized cow's milk bloomy rind cheese from France.

Contestant Number Three: Bleu d'Auvergne -- The last stop on our cheese tour of France, this contestant hails from the south central region of Auvergne. It has been made there since the nineteenth century and is a traditional middle of the road cow's milk blue veined cheese. Most consider this cheese to be the Prince to Roquefort's title of King. Piquant, grassy, delish, spicy and classically blue, you can't go wrong here!!!


So which contestant do you think will win???