Quick Cheese Fondue

Ah ... cheese fondue. It combines my two favorite things in the world. Cheese ... and a really sharp object (the fondue fork). Ever go to a place like the Melting Pot and wish you could make something similar at home? Hell no ... but here it is anyway. I'm only posting this because it is Valentines Day ... and chicks dig a good fondue and a vacuum cleaner for a valentines gift.

Here is a simple recipe that I thunk up all by myself. Tastes pretty good if I do say so myself. Hopefully you have a fondue pot ... if not, a double boiler will do. And if you don't have that ... then a regular sauce pan is fine. Just don't burn the cheese.

This is what you need for the magic to happen:

16 oz shredded Mild cheddar cheese
1 cup beer
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
pinch of black pepper

Put the fondue pot on the stove and turn it on medium heat. Pour a cup of the beer into your fondue pot and promptly chug the rest of the bottle. No miller lite or other crappy beer like natural light. A nice lager is good. Heat that up until it is nice and hot. Toss in the minced garlic and let that cook for a minute or two. Start adding your cheese while stirring a bit. Once you get all the cheese in and it is melting, add the worcestershire sauce and a little black pepper. Mix it up and make sure the cheese is melted. Take it off the stove and put it over the heat from the fondue pot base (I'm assuming that you have a sterno lit to keep it warm). Make sure you have some good stuff to dip into the cheese. My favorites are pumpernickel bread, granny smith apples, carrots and celery. Feel free to come up with your own stuff to dip.

Play clay

One of my buddies is having a kid and that got me thinking of stuff that you can make at home that can entertain a child. Take that a step further and get your kid involved in the making processes. That way they can make it and play with it. I have this recipe for kids play clay that is sort of like playdough. Why does a grown ass man have that recipe? Aight ... so I like playing with playdough ... shut it!

Here's the instructions:

1 cup salt
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
your choice of food coloring

In a medium saucepan, mix salt and 1/3 cup water over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and add cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Add a few drops of the food coloring. The mixture will look like mash potatoes ... yummy ... don't eat it (yet). Stir it until it thickens, let it cool, then knead on a board or something flat with a little extra cornstarch on it. Voila! All done. Play wif it.

Once you are done, you can store it in the refrigerator in some tupperware with a damp sponge so that it doesn't dry out.

Let your little sculptors loose!

Chicken Devine

Yummy ... simple ... fairly healthy. Here is a great little recipe for a chicken casserole. It can be modified to be a little "healthier" if you want. I like the not so healthy version since I'm a gigantic fat ass.

4 chicken breasts
2 pkgs. frozen chopped broccoli
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach
1 c. mayonnaise
3 cans of cream of chicken soup
12oz package of grated mild cheddar cheese
2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers
1 stick of melted butter

Cook chicken breasts however you like. You can pan fry or boil. After chicken is cooked, cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and set aside. Thaw out broccoli and spinach. Mix together. Layer casserole dish with thawed and drained broccoli/spinach mixture. Layer cooked, boneless chicken over broccoli and spinach mix. Mix mayo and cream of chicken soup together. Pour soup mixture over the broccoli and chicken. Top with the grated cheese. Crush up the 2 sleeves of Ritz crackers and pour the melted butter in and mix it together well. Place that over the cheese topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

So the healthier choices would be to boil the chicken instead of pan frying it. I usually use olive oil to pan fry, so it is still ok. You can loose the Ritz cracker thing altogether if you want or substitute with bread crumbs if you are looking for a crunchy topping.

Eat up!

Too Many Easter Eggs?

I got a little coloring happy this past weekend. So what ... I only made 3 dozen hard boiled eggs. Now I gots to eat all those friggin things! I'm a big fan of a hard boiled egg ... but there is only so many I can eat with some salt slapped on it. The gas alone can kill you! I'm trying to mix it up a bit and make something different than the plain ol' egg. I made some kick ass egg salad today. Kind of strange though because the food coloring stains the egg whites, so I had a "festive" egg salad. Here is a simple recipe that I use.

4 Hard-boiled Eggs, peeled and chopped
¼ cup Light Mayonnaise
1 Celery Stalk (no ends or leaves), finely chopped
2 teaspoons Red or Sweet White Onion, finely chopped
1 ½ teaspoons Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed if possible)
To taste: Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper (about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of each)

Instructions:
Gently toss the eggs and celery together in a medium-size bowl.

In a smaller bowl, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, onion, salt and pepper. Fold into the eggs and celery. Season to taste with salt & the ground black pepper.

Chill for an hour or so before eating. For each individual serving, spoon 1/2 cup onto a lettuce leaf or spread on bread.

I did modify this a little. I don't particularly care for the lemon juice ... so I bypass that. Also, I hate raw onion, so I swapped that crap out for a little onion powder instead. Anyways, if you need a quick little recipe for egg salad, there ya go.