I can't say my life has revolved around cheese lately unless you count the gnawing of Cabot Clothbound as a snack while facebooking, but I'm about to embark on an epic cheese adventure. Next week I leave for Des Moines, Iowa for the annual American Cheese Society conference. 10 days of unadulterated cheese. I'll talk about that in a post early next week. Until then, here's what I've been up to and the ways that cheese has found a way in my life even when I'm not actively searching for it. I took a little trip to Portland with my dear friend Dan and his niece Karsten for a show and I had to show them a few of my favorite things about Portland. Los Gorditos taqueria, the Saturday market, and something new to me, Wiz Bang Bar. Salt and Straw is widely known in the PNW for being innovators in the world of ice cream but even as much as I love to try their new flavors, I refuse to stand in an hour or more long line for a scoop. I heard they were starting a soft serve joint in the Pine Street Market and knew I had to get in to that.

I have a bit of an obsession with soft serve. Of course I've always loved it but last year when I was in Provincetown, MA nothing sounded better than a cone. So I had a few. Forward to January when I was in the Bay area and had a soft serve cone made with local buffalo milk and here I am, fully entranced with soft serve. It's actually become a cornerstone in a possible business that I'm thinking about opening so yeah, I was going to go out of my way to hit up Wiz Bang Bar.

I really should have taken a bit more time in snapping pics but I didn't. They aren't the best quality but I was just really in to eating that cone. It was delicious and rich. Woodblock chocolate ice cream with a white chocolate and cardamom hard shell. I love cardamom in almost any form. It's so warm and inviting. The place was cute and a different vibe from the rest of what is in Pine Street Market. I was glad that there wasn't much of a line for ice cream but the madness in the rest of the Market made up for it. It was a bit clustered for my tastes and unless you've been there before, it's hard to tell where to go and it didn't seem like there was any seating for Wiz Bang. We ended up eating our cones in the lobby due to it raining outside and the lack of seating inside. Still, worth it.

Now for the ways cheese found its way to me this week.

We passed by a stand at the Saturday Market and though I wanted to stop because I thought it would be something that my friends niece would like, I was the one that walked away with a print. I couldn't help myself. The artist is Martha Hull.

I happened to be at work the other day when one of my favorite cheese ladies , Kim Iannotti, just so happened to walk through the door. She had no idea where I was working, she was just dropping a friend off and they wandered in. We met up the next week with another one of my favorite cheese ladies, Laure Dubuolouz, who was in town doing trainings for Herve Mons, the French cheese company she works for. It was great to sit and chat with them and eat some deliciousness at Coyle's Bakeshop. We are obviously very attractive cheese women.

Cheese will always find a way in to my life and I welcome any way it comes. Today, though, is National Ice Cream day and I'm about to get out and enjoy the holiday!

Keep an eye out on this space next week where I will be posting about the American Cheese Society conference in Des Moine, Iowa and I have plans of doing as much live blogging through the  conference as I can. I hope you'll join me!