My oldest first cousin, Jane Murdock Snaidas, a devoted home cook with vegan tendencies, also shared Misa’s disdain for cheese. When Jane came to visit us in California for one of our family reunions, she was horrified by the amount of cheese that appears on restaurant menus in the Golden State. When I pointed out to her that California is one of America’s primary cheese-producing states, second only to Wisconsin, she was even more upset, as though cheese should be outlawed as a dangerous substance. It is true that cheese is high in calories, salt and saturated fat, but cheese is also packed with protein, calcium, phosphorous, zinc and probiotics.