Contrary to our usual flurry of activity and playing the tourist at the weekend, today we took it easy. After pottering around the house and doing our 4th grader’s helping our 4th grader with his French project, we did a bit of window shopping for outdoor furniture. Then, a welcome stop at our local wine store, the Amanti Vino, to pick up our club wines. We’d been members of the WSJ Wine Club in the early recession days (before newspapers dared to use the R word) but were thrilled to find this great deal close to home đŸ˜‰ Two outstanding wines, from anywhere in the world, specially picked out by the store every month, allow us to try a much wider variety than we otherwise would, and to discover new favorites along the way.

After the pickup, we needed cheese to go with the wine (of course). Reminds me of the kiddy book, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, part of a series by Laura Numeroff, and how the feline wants sprinkles on it, he spills the sprinkles, tries to clean up, gets hot, needs to go to the beach, etc, etc, and winds up back at the cupcake eventually.

Anyway, the need for cheese led us to Tallmadge Cheese Market, recently mentioned in the NYT and which we found were celebrating their first anniversary in Montclair with a cheese sale (go soon, sale ends Sunday and store’s open 12 noon to 4:00pm).

Although I demolished the name of the store (by saying Tall Madge instead of Tal – pronounced like gal – Mij), I did the same with the cheeses too. Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, a Parmigiano Reggiano, Red Leicester and a gruyere-like Vacharin Friborg – they all went down a treat!

Tallmadge Cheese Market is at 38 Upper Montclair Plaza, NJ 07043. (And no, they didn’t ask me to write this up!)