An American raclette cheese?

For years, I’ve been considering myself lucky to find raclette cheese from Mifroma, Emmi (Switzerland), and Livradois (France). Because authentic alpine raclette is strictly regulated by origin, these major exporters dominate American specialty cheese counters and online gourmet retailers. 

The primary imported brands are categorized below by their country of origin. Swiss raclette cheeses are traditionally made in the alpine regions (particularly Valais and the Emmental valley). They are said to carry a dense, velvety consistency with a deeply savory, nutty, and slightly sweet flavor profile that holds up remarkably well when melted. 

As for the French, its raclette cheeses, predominantly hailing from the Savoie and Auvergne regions, tend to be slightly softer, creamier, and carry a more robust, pungent aroma with a fruity or earthy finish. The downside of all of these cheeses is their sporadic availability and their astronomic price (around $25 per pound (45€ per kg) or even more!) 

As an alternative to that “dear” raclette, I discovered last week at Costco, the Whitney, a US-made alternative to these pricey specialty cheeses at $15 a pound. I just couldn’t believe it and was reasonably skeptical. 

The product is made by Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro Bend, Vermont. Whitney is an award-winning, raw-milk raclette-style Alpine cheese. Its name is no other than Tim Whitney’s, a long-standing employee and pioneer affineur on the Jasper Hill team. 

It’s a semi-firm, alpine-style, raw cow's milk (from the farm's own Ayrshire/grass-fed herd). It’s said to be aged for 3 to 6 months in the farm cellars at Jasper Hill. We tried it the other night and were pleasantly surprised. 

Aside from its stark white appearance when it melts and some visible emulsion on the edges, it tasted good, we digested it very well and it might become an affordable alternative for us to its Alpine counterparts, as long as Costco keeps stocking it!

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part Three)

Around the corner, as always, there’s still one question left that we must absolutely address and that’s if we lived in a smooth, totally perfect universe in which all days feel perfect, what would happen to us poor humans as we would get everything we can wish for, and some? 

How would it feel to have lives that would be endlessly smooth, easy and happy? Would it finally be the bliss we all seek and call happiness? 

I’m not so sure! We’d get terribly bored very quickly and soon we would grow into folks that are impossible to satisfy. Even if our lives are pretty good, a down day or a few difficulties, some mild suffering or strong frustrations remain a blessing because they’ll make us fully appreciate the comfort and ease of all our other days. 

So let’s remember that when a not-so-good-day gets our attention, we should see it as simply and innocuously as a bright punctuation mark into a smoothly written text. It simply calls our attention to how lucky we are to only have to deal with episodic traumas, dramas and inconveniences. There is a deeper lesson here that I think is particularly worth exploring as we grow older: happiness may depend less on how many good days we accumulate than on how well we learn to recognize them. 

We can spend a great deal of time waiting for something exciting to happen, for a new achievement, a special occasion, or an exceptional experience. Meanwhile, the ordinary days pass by almost unnoticed and often totally ignored. Yet those quiet days often make up the greater part of our lives. 

We don’t need perfection to be totally happy as a little “texture” helps us remember that Formica was unwittingly created to quickly become boring and out of style! 

If we can lodge that reflex response into our mind it will go a very long way and at the very least remind us to be super grateful for all the other days that would even fall into the “boring” category! 

We can’t guarantee ourselves a life without down days. But we can work toward a life in which down days create less influence in our minds, while good days shine a much warmer light into our hearts.

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part Two)

Now that we know and accept that down days are here to stay and are fully part of our lives, why not make more out of their occasional presence? 

Can we even seriously think about leveraging them? I think we could, and at least that’s what I’m trying to do every time I’ve got a chance, when I don’t blinded by the pain and forget. 

In reality, these are perfect opportunities to practice patience, strengthen our resilience, discover what really matters, and remind ourselves that we are fully capable of navigating life's inevitable bumps. 

We may not have chosen the difficulty, but if we’re smart, we can sometimes choose what we can extract from its teachings. At least, this is what I force myself to do. With a little practice, we might even learn to appreciate the ordinary days we once dismissed as boring. A peaceful morning, a familiar routine, a pleasant conversation, or simply a day without bad news can be a wonderful gift. 

What we call an uneventful day may actually be a very good one that has escaped our attention. So, the next time a down day comes knocking, let's open the door, deal with whatever it will show us, and remember that the tinge of pessimism we feel is just a visitor, not a permanent resident. 

And why not going even one step farther and be grateful for those ordinary, uneventful, even supposedly boring days. They may well be among the greatest luxuries our lives have to offer! Knowing this, we’ll conclude this series by wondering how life would be if everyday was smooth, uneventful and just perfect. Stay with us!

Welcoming and leveraging “Down days” (Part One)

What would happen if our lives were continuously smooth, easy, and happy? Wouldn't we eventually become terribly bored, perhaps even take our good fortune for granted? After all, how can we fully appreciate the sunshine if we have never experienced a cloudy day? 

Even when our lives are going pretty well, an occasional down day, a few difficulties, some mild suffering, or a strong frustration can serve a useful purpose. They remind us of the value of all those other days when things go smoothly, when we feel good, and when life doesn't demand too much of us. 

Sometimes, we need a little bump in the road to remind us how fortunate we really are. So, the next time a not-so-good day demands our attention, why not try to look at it differently and positively? 

Instead of treating it as a major disruption, we could see it as a punctuation mark in an otherwise smoothly written text. It might be a comma asking us to pause, a semicolon reminding us that the story continues, or even an exclamation mark calling our attention to something we had overlooked. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that we should enjoy every difficulty, pretend that suffering doesn't hurt, or passively accept circumstances we can change. Some problems require action, some disappointments need time to heal, and some experiences are simply painful. But there is a difference between experiencing a difficult day and allowing that day to convince us that our entire life is going in the wrong direction. 

Perhaps the real challenge is to develop a new reflex: when frustration, disappointment, or discouragement shows up, we acknowledge it, deal with it as best we can, and then remind ourselves that this is only one passing moment in a much larger picture. We don't have to turn every inconvenience into a drama or every setback into a verdict on our happiness. 

We can even go further by leveraging our down days and we’ll discover how we can make it work in a next blog….

The French High School revolt

Even before last weekend’s riots in France, much had been said and written about the current wave of demonstration at French high-schools and all the discussion I have heard seem to miss a few crucial points. To begin with, I wonder why does the French government seem reluctant to bench-mark its secondary education with that of its other European counterparts? 

This is what should be addressed in priority; namely, how does French secondary education actually perform compared with Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, etc.? This should not just been seen or measured in test scores, but by carefully comparing academic achievement, mathematics and reading, school dropout rates, vocational vs. academic education, university access, teacher compensation and working conditions, student-to-teacher ratios, school autonomy (vs. centralization), hours of instruction, learning facilities, youth unemployment after secondary education, student satisfaction, social mobility and transition from school to employment. 

I must say that I’m quite shocked by the lack or the insufficient attention these comparisons appear to have contributed to the public debate. Next, I’m also asking myself why does France cannot grow up and still needs to solve its problems through recurrent waves of violent? I know my home country well enough to understand that France has a strong historical tradition of street protest, strikes and demonstrations; that students have historically been important participants in political movements; and too often the French governments has been forced to retreat after intense public mobilization. 

In other words, protesting is not an exceptional political tool in France—it’s part of the country's culture and it often works! Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if that revolutionary heritage mellowed out some and France rejoined the concert of Nations?

Finally, while I can understand that adults have an inherent right to demonstrate in public place, should kids be given the same right to do it on their own, given their physiological development and social experience be placed face to face with police forces? 

Does a minor's right to political expression automatically imply the right to participate physically in a potentially confrontational demonstration and likewise should society allow minors to assume the physical risks and responsibilities associated with adult civil disobedience? I personally don’t think so. 

till, I recognize that a teenager may have opinions, and perhaps a legitimate desire to express them, but there’s a big difference between having a political voice and being placed in the middle of a confrontation with police. 

I strongly feel that when a political protest places minors in a situation where they may be confronted with riot police, tear gas, projectiles or other serious risks, why shouldn't parents and other adults take the physical place of the children while preserving the children's right to have their grievances heard and being their spokespersons?

Time to vote

In our household, the mid-term voting process has never been as fast as this time. 

Perhaps we were impatient to accelerate some change in the American political landscape, but suffice to say that we received our mailing vote kit on October 14 and the next day we had already cast our votes and dropped them in one the collection boxes set up for that task.. 

We had to pick a few political candidates. One Representative among 434 others that will be part of a new Congress and a State Congress person for the State of Utah, plus some other County officials. What did we look for? Expertise, track record or other typical traits? Not really, our overwhelming concern was NOT to vote for a GOP Republican. 

We consider these people being Trump fanatics (Taliban-type) who have long given up their common sense, good judgment and traded it for a life of lies and hypocrisy, just like their boss, the man with the red hat who no longer controls what comes out of his mouth. 

We’ll see if our efforts will pay off...

Who is really behind the French riots?

What was shocking about last Saturday’s French riots, was how widespread into the country they were and how early they broke out. All this was evidently pointing towards a well orchestrated movement.

The next logical obvious question is who has the most to gain from such an enormous and frightening unrest: To me, the response is obvious: Marine LePen. She is clearly the greatest beneficiary of this terrible as, just like Trump, she can now pose as the logical “Law and Order” candidate at the upcoming presidential election. 

At the same time, she can blame all the unrest on the Left extremist Jean-Luc Mélanchon who is the perfect boogeyman for the circumstances. Now who might also be pulling the strings of this revolution? Who else but the nefarious Vladimir Putin. At least that’s what I intuitively believe. 

On the one hand, it’s undeniable that Russia has a long history of information operations that are effectively aimed at destabilizing Western democracies. At the same time, French intelligence has repeatedly warned about Russian disinformation networks amplifying social tensions and Russian state media often highlights French unrest as the perfect example illustrating Western decline. 

On the other hand, there is no confirmed link yet between the recent riots and Russian direction, funding, or coordination. Still, my speculation is understandable as Putin has motive, precedent, and capability but, I do agree that motive alone is not proof. 

In conclusion, while my intuition is emotionally and geopolitically plausible, it still remains hypothetical and would have to be demonstrated if the French government and both the world intelligence and media can confirm it.