sweet dreams are made of cheese

about a month ago i found a recipe for some garbanzo bean/swiss chard concoction in the new york times that i had intended to make. that intention morphed into my transcendent soup-making experience from two weeks ago [any excuse to throw garbanzo beans and swiss chard together, really.] the original nyt recipe called for a 'parmesan cheese rind' to be added during the simmering process. i thought about that while making the soup, but ultimately had to leave it out because (a) it was a last minute cooking experiment and (b) i don't have cheese rinds just laying about the house. about a week after i made my soup i had a dream involving a parmesan cheese rind: specifically, me trying to purchase one. how would one go about purchasing said product [short of buying a hunk of cheese], i pondered sub-consciously. in my dream i visited deli counters and olde world shop[pe]s on the quest for this elusive ingredient. i was unsuccessful. my dream soup was cheese-rind-less.

this past sunday i set out for wegmans to purchase more soup ingredients [as once i find a recipe i like, i tend to make it over and over. see also: meat sauce and from-scratch macaroni & cheese.] picked up the swiss chard, the beans and the broth. i had also been instructed to pick up some parmesan cheese for spinach-artichoke dip, so i headed over to the cheese counter. i shuffled through the tubs of grated cheese, looking for the right blend. picked up one container that felt lighter than the others, peered into the plastic bowl to view its contents, and thought i was seeing things -- for therein was a CHEESE RIND. wegmans was selling a parmesan cheese rind. am i kidding you? no. i most certainly am not. [also? it was forty-two cents! FORTY-TWO CENTS! you cannot buy anything, short of a postage stamp -- and who knows how much longer that will even be possible -- for forty-two cents. bliss!] i added the rind to my cart and proceeded to the check-out, severely aware of the randomness of both the find and the purchase of the rind. went home, made my soup [now with more rind!] and basked in the tiny coincidences and joys of life.

[also? i think i can predict the future.]