a funny fetish with cottage cheese

COTTAGE CHEESE has become a regular in the Jansen household these days.  When Jon, Jenni, and Carson Smith moved in at the beginning of the year, Jenni brought along her great love for this dairy product, made of cultured pasteurized skim milk, milk, cream and salt.  And so, if you were to look in our refrigerator’s top left-hand corner these days, you would find all sorts of cottage cheese: 4% fat, 1% fat, Friendship brand, even ‘Light N’ Lively.’   Seriously, we are NEVER out of stock!  Oddly enough, I am gladly welcoming this new favorite.  For the entirety of my childhood, I seriously disliked this stuff.  Yuucck…squishy, salty, mushy white stuff.  I just remember my brother, Peter, eating mounds and mounds of it with canned pineapple chunks…and my nose turning up at the thought of it.

But my perspective has changed.  I suppose it is partially because, until this year, I never knew there could be so many uses for cottage cheese.   First, it became a perfume of sorts for our basement.  Carson decided to throw it down the stairs one day, and the whole carton exploded into little cheese curds all over the walls and floor.  To say the least, Jenni and Mom had quite a time figuring out how to get it out of the carpet!  Just kidding.  This is really not a good use for cottage cheese, though it is a funny story.

Secondly, cottage cheese is useful as an actual food (its intended purpose, after all).  Here is a small list of ways it is used in our household these days:

–SNACK: pretzels and cottage cheese (Jenni’s favorite)

–THICKENER: in quacamole (credit to Britt M. for the latter)

–MOISTENER: in morning muffins (the softness of the milk content makes for really moist muffins…)

–BREAKFAST: try it with some strawberries or chunks of pineapple (my brother Peter’s favorite when we were little kids…)

–LUNCH: a tortilla wrap with cottage cheese, cucumber and dill (My idea when the lunch-meat was gone…try it, it’s delicious!)

–DINNER: yes, indeed.  even cottage cheese can be put into dinner.  Mom tried a new recipe tonight: “Sol Yanka”.  It is a mashed-potato, cabbage, and cottage cheese baked dish with paprika and sunflower seeds on top.  I must admit, I was pretty skeptical.  But I just ate it, and it is pretty good…

So, the moral of the cottage cheese story is: give it a chance.  It’s high in protein, and can be eaten at ANY meal, ANY time of the day :)  It’s relatively inexpensive, and can go a long way when you are low on the groceries.

Any and all recipes are welcome, so feel free to share!