Cheesy

I’m hungry and have been gnawing on the nearly kaput edge of a wedge of parmesan. I’m the kind of person who eats parmigiano-reggiano for a snack, and I don’t entirely know what that says about me, other than that I’m a pretentious snob. We eat a lot of really expensive cheese, but since we’re also hippies, we save the rinds in the freezer for cooking.

We had friends over for dinner, and Brooke had made an excellent white bean dish that involved simmering the beans with rosemary and a parm rind. “Can you even believe it?” Brooke asked them. “Whole Foods sells parm rinds! Ha ha! What a rip-off!”

Our friends’ faces froze with subtly embarrassed smiles, and one asked very quietly, “So, um, where do you get your rinds?”