One afternoon this winter, after a day of sightseeing west of the Twin Cities, Melanie and I took a detour off Highway 212 near Norwood, Minnesota to pick up some cheese curds at the Bongards' Creamery.

Now, I have to tell you, I am just plain crazy about cheese curds.  I love their mild, rubbery squeakiness when you bite into them just right.  And even though I don't think there is much difference between the two, I tend to believe the white ones taste superior to the yellow ones.

The cooler in the storefront was plumb full of cheese and there was a platter of samples just waiting to be tasted.  We were in cheese heaven.  And of course, I must make mention of the ginormous cow statue we saw keeping watch over the place.  This cow was HUGE.

It jogged my memory back to my high school days when Danny Louwagie used to call me "Bessie the Heifer, the queen of the cows."  In fact, he used to sing it to me!  I thought that silly little monikor made me sound like a fairly large girl. He said it was an affectionate name, but I never quite got comfortable with it. I guess I'm just funny that way.