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Did you know that "Rarebit" also means "rabbit?" When I was a kid I used to joke around and call the meal "Welsh Rabbit." I had no idea I was actually right.

I also had no idea there were so many variations on the Welsh Rarebit recipe I see my roommate make all the time (and by "make" I mean "cook the frozen dinner version he bought at the supermarket"). A Buck Rarebit has a poached egg on top. The Irish Rarebit is topped with onions, vinegar, and pickles. And English Rarebit has red wine added before you melt the cheese.

Here's the recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats show. And here's one from Cuisine du Monde. I don't think I've seen two Welsh Rarebit recipes that are the same.

I find cookouts rather boring (as I've said here before, I'm not a fan of summer, cookouts, parades, or humidity - bring on the fall!), but if I were going to throw one, I'd try to find different things to make other than the usual burgers and hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob. Or at least find a way to do a different spin on those mainstays.

Over at AOL Food, there's a recipe for Inside-Out Cheeseburgers from EatingWell. The cheese -- both cheddar and Gruyere -- goes on the inside so it can ooze out. However, I think if they really want to make these cheeseburgers inside-out, they'd find some way to put the bun on the inside too!

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If you are sitting around with nothing, and I do mean nothing to do today, you may just be bored enough to watch some cheese ripen. A website showing nothing but a large block of English cheddar has garnered enough attention that over 1 million viewers have checked in to watch it slowly ripen. No, sadly, I'm not joking.

The cheddar, from West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers, has been in front of a webcam and displayed on cheddarvision.tv since December, and has apparently attracted viewers from more than 100 countries.

In case you missed it, there is now a You Tube time-lapse video, so you can catch up on the ripening process to date in under a minute. And if that weren't quite enough excitement for you, you can also suggest a name for the cheese, if you feel so inclined.

As someone who's had the pleasure of making ricotta and usually keeps a hunk of double-crème brie in the fridge I can't possibly see why anyone would be opposed to a cheese museum.

Apparently New York State legislators and pundits don't feel the same way. When the state paid over $100,000 in 1986 to help create the New York State Cheese Museum in Rome, N.Y., many cited it as an example of pork-barrel spending. State Governor Pataki even came out against  "cheese museums" last fall when  talking about the budget.

As it turns out, the museum in Rome has been less than successful. But now $5,000 has been earmarked by the legislature for a museum in Cuba, N.Y. At one time the national price for cheddar was set in the town. Pork and politics aside, I hope this  museum is more successful than the first.

[photo: The New York Times]

The penne pasta is al dente and hanging out in a colander on the counter. When I was growing up, my mother whipped me with a wet noodle if ever I forgot to rinse cooked spaghetti under cold water. Only recently have I found out that this is actually a bad idea (thanks, Mario, though I'm not exactly sure why it's bad), but still, I feel a little weird about leaving my penne unrinsed.

Now begins the sauce part, but here is where I have learned lesson #648 about Holiday cooking. Never assume that the satellite kitchen in which you're going to cook the Holiday ham ("satellite" meaning not your home base) is going to have all the equipment you need.

But in the deep recesses of my mother's "tupperware cabinet," I found a Benriner, the Japanese version of a mandoline. I grated a block of medium cheddar and Monterey jack that had been shoved in the freezer for a half hour to make it easier to grate to make 5 cups of shredded cheese. On the Benriner, the cheese actually came out looking more like long, flat noodles.