1st Anniversary Giveaway (and Mac & Cheese)

We're one year old today! Thats right, we launched exactly one year ago with a short introduction post, no pictures and a link to Eric's personal blog, which he kept up for exactly 3 weeks. Not a very auspicious start, but it was a start none the less. Now, well, we've come a long way. How far exactly? Williams Sonoma and Mac and Cheese far! To celebrate our 1st Blogiversary (get it? a Portmanteau of "blog" and "anniversary". We think we're so funny) we're giving away a $25.00 giftcard to Williams-Sonoma! Yup, free stuff for one lucky follower! Here's the rules: 

• Follow our blog (facebook / Google / Feedburner (email) or ATOM (RSS))
• Leave a comment telling us why you love your favorite kitchen gadget (and what it is!)

We'll review the comments this week and announce a winner on Friday! Make sure you leave some way for us to reach you! 

Now, to celebrate our blogiversary we thought about making a cake but decided that a homemade mac and cheese was more our style. This is actually a unique recipe for one important reason, it is the only mac and cheese that Charisse likes. She hates mac and cheese, right up there with raw celery and pop-quizzes. Once, when we lived in San Francisco Eric (who LOVES mac and cheese) tried his hand at a home made one, which was fantastic and she still didn't like it. So when she landed on a mac and cheese recipe that she actually liked, the skies opened up, angels sang, the cats and the dog began to dance together and hold intellectual conversations with the fish. Okay, maybe we're exaggerating just a little, the cats and the dog don't quite get along yet but you get the point. What really makes this is the bees knees is the toasted bread on top, it adds a crunch and texture you don't find in that certain neon orange kind from the box.

Baked Potato Soup

While Charisse was in Arkansas we both ended up having soup on the same night. We all saw how Eric's turned out while Charisse on the other hand was eating out at a Mennonite restaurant in Gentry and enjoying a baked potato soup. We were talking later that night over Skype and Eric learned two things: Mennonites are people and therefore not edible and baked potato soup is the best thing since the baked potato. Actually, he learned 3 things that night, the third being that canned low sodium soup tastes terrible. Especially if its past its expiration date by a year and a half. So when Charisse came back this was near the top of the southern-cooking-to-die-for-and-may-actually-kill-you-too list and was promptly cooked up for lunch on the first really cold October day. It was actually a great Sunday afternoon food, it really fit our day. We've been having some really unseasonably warm weather this October with temperatures in the 90's for a while so to have this sudden cold snap really kicked up our holiday season anticipation as it finally feels like Fall is here and Winter is coming. We built our first fire of the season and lounged around all day watching movies and eating hearty southern food. since then we've decided that more exercise is needed and will probably be making more... healthy food but that wasn't on our minds at the time. What was on our minds was this soup. It really is like a liquid baked potato. Or more like a twice baked potato in liquid form. We topped it with chopped green onions cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon, but any baked potato toppings would work. So with winter well on its way you should take a day off to hunker down with this soup and just be full.

Cheesy Zucchini Scone

Eric's been falsely accused of many things over the years like forgetting to pick up his clothes, forgetting to do the dishes or being too loud watching Sharks games. Being cheesy is not something he's ever been falsely accused of nor has he been falsely accused of being a big fan of cheese. In reality anything with the word "cheesy" in the title is something he will probably really enjoy. Hence he had 3 pieces of this giant scone, and enjoyed every last bite and was quite thankful to Charisse for getting the idea. Actually the thanks went to our neighbors, Bob and Nancy who grow a number of different things in their backyard garden. When we mentioned in the last post that Charisse's parents lemon tree puts out an amazingly large crop every year, we weren't thinking about what comes out of Bob and Nancy's garden. They have a simple little garden in the backyard, and when the apocalypse comes, were moving in with them, because they always have food growing. Lots and lots of GIANT foods. They are constantly dropping off baskets of tomatoes (or Bob's famous salsa made from those tomatoes), zucchini and any number of other veggies. There is nothing like cooking with really fresh veggies, they always taste better than store bought. Could be our imaginations, but I don't think so. Especially then they come from Bob and Nancy's, which always produces a huge crop, and sometimes huge veg. Our last present was a zucchini the size of a football, which provided more zucchini than we could every use normally. And while zucchini is one of our favorite veggies we can only cook so many meals in a week. After a few days, we had zucchini in pasta, zucchini on the side, zucchini leftovers for breakfast and half a dozen other things, and there was still half of it left. A lot of it when into this giant scone. The rest we had for breakfast the next day. And lunch. And dinner. For 2 more days.

Cheese Fondue

Last weekend we had some good friends Marissa and Lucas over for a summer time Cheese Fondue, one of our favorite meals to do together. For those of you unfamiliar with Cheese Fondue, it is a Swiss dish that is basically a big pot over a small flame full of melted cheese, into which you dip various things that taste good when covered in melted cheese like bread, apples, carrots etc. Fondue can also be done with a wine or oil base and enjoyed with meat and seafood or with melted chocolate for desert. We've always found that the best parts are the cheese and chocolate fondue, so we tend to skip the meat dish (more room for chocolate!).

Unlike most other meals that take all the work beforehand and then you can sit and eat at your leisure, Fondue requires constant adjustment and tinkering, and the eating can last for hours. For a cheese fondue there are two equally important phases, melting and maintaining. Not paying attention, or not being prepared at either stage and ruin the fondue. Before you start, make sure you have your Sterno can, and that it is ready to go, because once the cheese is melted, it needs to stay that way, any attempt to remelt the cheese will ruin it.

The basics of Fondue are so simple, most people don't think twice about how to do it. Heat up the pot, toss in some cheese, eat. Of course most people have also had bad Fondue before too. Eric's family has been doing Fondue for decades, and he's really invested a lot of time figuring out how to do it right, and he's never shared this with anyone, so hit the break for a bona fide top secret recipe.