A day at the cheese shop

Dear Readers,

Today I´m going to introduce you to The Brightfields Goat Family.
Welcome to their cheese shop.
 

 This is The Brightfields´cheese shop.

Nancy and Billy provide their customers with the finest selection of quality cheeses. Most are locally produced but they also sell top quality cheese from around the world. They even make their own goat cheese using traditional crafstmaking skills.

All their cheeses are made using only whole fresh milk. Farm fresh milk from the Buttercups´ is also sold at their shop.

There is also a help yourself counter where you can find a good variety of packed cheese and homemade yoghurt.

Fine wines, cheese biscuits and homemade preserves and jams are also available at the Brightfields´s store.

 Today Billy is placing a board at the entrance of the shop. "It´s cheese tasting day".

From time to time they offer their customers the experience to taste the wide variety of cheese they have.

Alex Periwinkle is the first customer of the day. Part of the success of the Blackurrant café sandwiches is due to the good ingredients they use and cheese is one them. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are the best!

"Have a nibble Alex" Billy encouraged. "Of course, I will, Billy!" Alex said looking at the tasty cheese plate.

Cassandra Macavity is also one of their regular customers. Her Italian dishes and her husband´s pizzas have improved since they can choose among such a good variety of cheese.

Today Cassandra needs mascarpone for her famous tiramisu and cottage cheese to prepare her delicious ricotta and spinach caneloni.

"Billy, can I ask you for a delivery to the pizzeria?"
"Of course Cassandra! The same as usual?"
"Yes, please,  mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola, gruyere, cheddar and of course some of your hand-crafted goat cheese. It´s becoming more and more popular in our salads , you know? And add a couple of bottles of good wine too. Alonso wants to add new wines to the wine list."

The Chocolate grandparents are a couple of gourmet lovers who enjoy and appreciate good food. Since The Brightfields opened their shop they often visit them to buy some of their products and to learn a little bit more about the different types of  cheese.

"What do you recomend this week Nancy,?" Patricia asked.
"Why don´t you try some of our goat cheese? We have improved our recipe". Nancy suggested.
"It sounds good,we´ll have some"
"Did you like the blue cheese you bought last week Mr. Chocolate?
Nancy asked Rhys.
"I like it, Nancy, I loved its creamy texture and  rich flavour, savoury, sharp and salty, not as spicy and sour as I expected with a very strong aroma, slightly sour but pleasant, though". Rhys comment made Nancy laughed.
"Oh, Mr Chocolate. You´re starting to talk like a professional cheese taster".
"That´s all your fault" Rhys replied with a laugh too.

" Here is your bag, Mrs. Chocolate" Billy  kindly handed Patricia the shopping bag.
"Rhys! Don´t be so greedy, you already had four pieces of cheese!" Patricia muttered her husband looking at him out of the corner of her eye."Come on Tricia, let me enjoy these little pleasures of life" he said letting the cheese melt in his mouth.

As they were about to leave they had a small chat with Agatha Buckley. Rhys wanted to know how Coco and Freya were doing at Berry Grove School. Both, Rhys and Patricia were very proud to hear their grandchildren were very smart students.

"How can we help you Mrs. Buckley?" Nancy asked kindly.
"I have guests this evening, The Fentons are coming for for dinner and I´d like to offer them something special for an appetizer" Agatha explained.

"What about an assortment of our most popular cheeses? There´s a nice choice to please different tastes."
Oh! A cheese platter!That´s perfect! Agatha was very pleased with Bill´s suggestion.

"You can accompany the cheese with some crackers or cheese biscuits and add some grapes and nuts for decoration. Place everything on a nice plate and you´ll be the perfect hostess"
Nancy adviced Agatha.

"And a bottle of this light bodied red wine will be the perfect match to compliment the flavours in the cheese" Billy said showing the bottle.
Agatha Buckley  was very grateful for all The Brightfields´s recommendations.

"I´ll have a bite of your artisanal cheese before I go. It´s my favourite" Agatha said.

"Hope you have a lovely dinner Mrs. Buckley."
"Thank you, Nancy. I don´t know about the rest of the dishes but at least I´m pretty sure the appetizer will be a success". 

Shortly later, Daisy Buttercup dropped by the Brightfileds shop. The Brightfields and The Buttercups are very good friends and close neighbours. Hornbull does the milk delivery every morning and some of their cheeses are also made using The Butttercups´ milk. Daisy is always boasting about the good taste and quality of their milk but the truth is she has reasons to be proud of it.

"Hornbull told me about your cheese tasting today. I´m going to try a little bit of cheddar if you don´t mind"
"Not at all Daisy, help yourself. Did you know that this cheddar is made with your milk?" Nancy pointed out.
"Oh! That´s why is SOO good!!"  Daisy exclaimed with pride.

But The Brightfields cheese shop wouldn´t be the same without The Maces Mice Family.  This shop is their paradise and Nancy and Bill always welcome them as the best customers deserve.

"We´ve just met Daisy Buttercup around the corner and she told us about the cheese tasting but we were on our way to your shop to do some shopping " Spencer said. The sight of that plate made his mouth water.

The cheese plate dissapeared in the blink of an eye but Nancy had another plate ready to offer them. "What´s your favourite,John?" Nancy asked placing the plate at baby John´s reach.

At the counter, the rest of the family is deciding what to buy. Billy is already cutting a piece of edam.
 


 Harvey can´t stop looking at the selection of cheese. That counter is a real feast for her eyes.

 

"That portion is perfect , Billy". And can we also have some roquefort, a piece of gruyere, some cheddar, a bit of gouda and..." Spencer Maces kept on asking for a piece of every single type of cheese they had in stock. " And some camembert and manchego cheese too, dad! The twins, Nichole and Lucy asked at the same time.

  
The Maces family left the shop with their hands full of bags and a big smile on their faces.They were thinking about the nice dinner they were going to have!


The Maces were without a doubt the best customers The Brightfields could ever ask for.
Billy and Nancy were very satisfied with the sale of the day so taking into acoount there wasn´t much cheese left they were considering closing the shop a bit earlier.

 Billy was finishing preparing the Macavities´order to be delivered. He was lucky to have nearly everything ready before the Mace´s came into the shop otherwise they would have run out cheese.


 
"I´ll leave the delivery at the pizza restaurant and on my way back I´ll collect the girls from school" Billy told Nancy. "That´d be great. Meanwhile I´ll start tyding up the shop and we can close when you come back" Nancy said helping Billy placing the order on the bike basket.

 Just when she was about to put the notice board away Nancy Waters came into the shop.

Nancy offered her some of their goat cheese. "Mmm, it´s delicious!, Can I have another piece? Nancy Waters liked it so much that she ate  all what it was left.

 Nancy  used to buy at the Brightfields´ shop regularly. Today she is going to buy a bottle of fresh milk and a jar of homemade strawberry jam.

"I´ll also get some creme cheese".  Nancy said."It´s really nice with strawberry jam and biscuits

 

 Sheila Springer and baby Joey visited the cheese shop too.
"How is this beautiful baby doing?" Nancy asked sweetly. "Oh! Sheila, Joey is such a cute baby!" Nancy sighed. Deep inside she hoped to have a baby of her own one day but she was still waiting for the beaver of her dreams.

  "Here is your shopping, Nancy"

 Now, it was Sheila´s turn. She just wanted to buy a piece of her husband´s favourite cheese.
"You´ve been lucky, Sheila" Nancy said "As you can see, there´s no much choice at this time of the day". "That´s a good sign. I´m happy for you and Billy. That means your business is doing well and you deserve it" Sheila sounded very sincere.

Billy was back with the children. Mum! Mandy and Jenny shouted at the same time.

 As soon as Mandy got of the bike she ran to her mother. She was looking forward to show her the good results she got in her music test.

 "Look mum! I got top marks and Mr. Fenton congratulated me. He said I´m very good at playing the flute".

"Oh, Mandy, I´m so proud of you!. Nancy kissed her daughter. "This deserves a bit of a celebration" she said and Mandy was  very quick to react "Mum! Can we go for pizza? please mum!, please!" she begged excited. "Ok, Ok, we´ll go,but first we have to tidy up the shop and cash up". The truth is that Nancy was tired today and she just felt like sitting back and enjoy some nice food instead of cooking it herself.

While her parents cleaned and tidied up Mandy played with her little sister. They got on very well.


 
Finally, Billy and Mandy cashed up before leaving. "It seems we made a lot of Sylva today" Bill said with a glow of satisfaction. "Let´s go to the pizza restaurant, we have one more reason to celebrate" Nancy said with joy.

I´m sure some of you will recognize these "sylva notes". Thank you Kyra :)

Before closing the shop Billy got another tub of masccarpone for Cassandra Macavity. "She asked me for some more when I had her delivery done".

Cassandra seemed very pleased to see The Brightfieds at her place."Oh Billy! You rememberd! Thank you for the mascarpone!" Cassandra said cheerfuly. "Why don´t you sit down and have something to eat? It´s my treat". Cassandra offered.
"Actually, that´s what we mean to do .We promised Mandy we´d have dinner in your restaurant." Nancy said.
"That´s perfect!. Take a sit, then" Cassandra told them.

" Have a look at the menu.I´ll be back in a minute to take your order. "

Cassandra gave them a few minutes to choose and asked if they were ready to order.
"Yes,I´ll have the vegetable lasagne with extra cheese" Nancy said.
"Pizza, pizza, Jenny pizza!!" baby Jenny exclaimed.
"I´d like pizza too" Mandy had  already made up her mind a while ago.
"Ok, so a large pizza then. " Billy ordered.

Some time later Cassandra approached their table.
"Here is your lasagne. Mind yourself. It´s very hot" Cassandra warned Nancy.
"Mmm, it smells delicious."  Nacy couldn´t wait to dip her fork in it.

"Your pizza is ready!" Alonso said loudly when he was about to take it out of the oven.

"Here are your drinks and your four cheese and vegetable pizza" Enjoy your meal!" Cassandra and Alonso were delighted to serve The Brightfields.

After a while Cassandra and Alonso wanted to make sure their friends were enjoying their meal.
"Is everything Ok?" Alonso asked.
"Perfect!" They all said.
"Your choice of cheeses makes a big difference to our menu. We´re so happy you opened your store...you can´t imagine!" Cassandra said with gratitude.
Then, Mandy said "And you can´t imagine how happy we are you opened your pizza restaurant to eat such delicious food. Mamma mia! This pizza is the best I´ve ever had! Mandy´s compliment made everybody laugh.
"You´re right Mandy, indeed, you´re right!" Nancy and Billy agreed with her daughter and they kept enjoying a lovely dinner.

.....................................................................................................

And this was my story for today. I hope you liked it!
 

As you can see the cheese shop is not a proper shop.I know it´s nothing to tell home about in comparison to the lovely things other crafty people make but I kind of like it when I had it all set up.

As I don´t have a house for all my families I like to give them at least a job. When I bought the goat family last summer I thought a cheese shop would be a good business for them and it was then when I made this shop.

I just wallpapered and decorated two pieces of cardboard (from a box of nappies , hahaha! :)I made the floor , the cupboard, all the bits and pieces of cheese,the cheese boards, the pots of yoghurt ,the tub of mascarpone ...

I used fimo to make the cheese.The day I made the pieces of cheese we had pizza for dinner. I remember putting them in the oven to let them harden after taking out he pizza.

That´s probably why I ended my story with The Brightfields having dinner at the Macavities pizza restaurant.

Once more thank you for reading and for the nice comments you always leave. They really cheer me up and motivate!

Lots of love