Let your creative flag fly in this 36 hour comment contest. Tell Artisanal what you would do for an Affineur's Collection, and you could actually win an Affineur's Collection:

In honor of National Cheese Lover’s Day, Artisanal Cheese is holding a 36-HOUR COMMENT CONTEST FOR A FREE AFFINEUR’S COLLECTION!!

Tell them…”What Would You Do For An Affineur’s Collection!” in the comments below the picture!

Be Funny, be clever…be a little crazy!

NO Profanity / NO Violence.

All submissions will be judged by their blue-ribbon panel of Cheesemongers including the Master himself, Max McCalman. Submissions will be judged on originality, cleverness and relevance to National Cheese Lover’s Day!

The Contest is open until 9:00 pm tonight January 20th. Artisanal Cheese will gather the submissions and a winner will be announced at approximately 9:00 pm EST on Saturday the 21st.

Max McCalman is once again blogging about cheese over at Artisanal, and this time he's got some scotch to go with:

The editors at Kitchen Daily decided to find out if Philadelphia cream cheese really is the only good brand out there. The results are in, at Huffpo Food:

When people refer to cream cheese, they are almost always talking about Philadelphia. The Philadelphia brand has over time become synonymous with cream cheese itself. This product has been on the market for over 100 years -- and was first produced in New York despite what the name may suggest -- and so its strong position in consumers' minds is understandable.

But, of course, with this kind of cheese monopoly in play, the editors at Kitchen Daily wanted to know: is this sort of blind devotion really deserved? Do we buy Philadelphia because it truly is the best, or just because it has been around the longest? Can people taste the difference between Philadelphia cream cheese and a generic brand?

A happy January 20th, or Cheese Lover's Day to everyone from Nina over at the CBS New York blog. It's good to have something to celebrate:

With the deepest part of the winter doldrums upon us, it’s important to put a little extra effort into making life feel more…well…lively.

For some of us, that means spending as much time as possible in sweatpants experimenting with precisely how much of one’s necessities can be delivered to one’s door in 48 hours or less with the click of a trackpad. Er, but not me! That’s not me. That’s some guy I know. Sad, right?

Anyway, it’s always nice to have a reason to celebrate something, and losing two pounds of water weight is starting to wear thin as an excuse. That’s why I am thrilled to inform you that today is National Cheese Lover’s Day!

Meadowood Farms of Cazenovia, NY is looking for an experienced cheesemaker starting this April to help with production of their artisanal sheep's milk yoghurts and award-winning cheeses.

Check out their listing and apply for the job on Good Food Jobs

The results are in for the second annual Good Food Awards, held this year in San Francisco in tandem with the Fancy Food Show. Congratulation to all the winners!

The second annual Good Food Awards recognized 99 tasty, authentic and responsible craft food products from 26 states in an awards ceremony on January 13, 2012 at the San Francisco Ferry Building. The crafters, their food communities, judges and media attended the standing room only, 400-person gathering. The evening was a celebration of regional diversity and momentum, energy and collaboration surrounding a maturing artisan food movement. American food producers were honored for enhancing the country’s agricultural landscape by strengthening their own local food communities, and creating food and drink that epitomize American craftsmanship.

The BBC has the story on these goats who produce spider silk on a farm at Utah State University. Follow the link below to learn more and to watch the goats being milked:

Prof Randy Lewis shows Adam Rutherford genetically modified goats at a farm at Utah State University, US, which produce large quantities of a spider silk that is among the strongest substances known to man.

The transplanted gene means the goat produce milk containing an extra protein, which is extracted and spun into spider silk thread.

Watch the video here

How Sweet it is has really outdone most other food blogs today with this recipe. Check it out:

Add roasted grapes to the list of my most recent obsessions (oh hi Rob Lowe). I can’t get enough. And that is how this weirdo combo was born. I also really like to watch things burst in the oven. Easily amused much?

So what do we classify this as? A snack? A side dish?

Lunch? Breakfast?

I just know that I want to eat it every day for the rest of my life. And then again. Twice.

Plus, this whole mess is stuffed with goat cheese, which is like… a law of life. Cheese belongs everywhere people. Everywhere I tell you!

See the recipe here

The ladies at Cheese And Champagne share thoughts on Cobb Hill's Ascutney Mountain:

There must be an evolutionary imperative for craving Alpine-style cheeses this time of year. Maybe it’s because the sweet nuttiness of these firm, yellow beauties remind us that spring will come once again. And I’m glad I found solace in Ascutney Mountain, which is made by the raw Jersey cow milk by the Cobb Hill community. Led by cheesemaker Sophie Starr, the team at Cobb Hill, “an intentional cohousing community” in Hartland, Vt., has created a cheese that’s hearty in texture but delicate in flavor.

Read the full blog post at Cheese and Champagne

Stuart Elliot at the New York Times has the story on Kraft Foods' extra expensive ad campaign and how they plan to roll it out. The focus? Cooking at home:

Kraft Foods is reviving a vintage marketing recipe with a campaign that promotes five Kraft cheese products together as well as separately.

With the theme “Make something amazing,” Kraft Foods is introducing a campaign for five cheese products that will include online ads like these.

The campaign, now under way, carries the theme “Make something amazing,” with Kraft advising consumers that they can fix outstanding meals and snacks when they use the five products: Kraft Singles, Kraft grated parmesan, Kraft shredded cheeses, Kraft Natural Slices and a newcomer, Kraft Fresh Take.