Today was my sister Judy's birthday. We got together at my mom's house and had fondue. Judy's some kind of fondue nut. This was the sixth time she's done fondue in the last year and the second time this week! She made some really good cheese fondue. I had hot oil in a wok and the Bagna Cauda. It's a sort of Italian fondue and it was unbelievably delicious. It was fun.

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 small tin anchovy fillets, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
salt & pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Raw vegetables for dipping: celery sticks, red and/or yellow bell pepper strips, carrot sticks, fennel strips, radishes
Steamed vegetables for dipping: asparagus spears, artichokes
Cubes or slices country style bread, for dipping

Instructions
In a saucepan, heat 1/4 cup of the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant and soft, about 1 minute. Add the remaining oil and the butter and cook gently, stirring, to melt the butter. Add anchovies, lower the heat to low, and cook, stirring, until the anchovies dissolve, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Serve in a fondue pot.

Still looks good. And, believe it or not, I tasted it. It tasted good. I'm still hopeful.

Graham Cracker Crust
1 paper-wrapped package graham crackers
5 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar

Filling
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest (about 2 limes)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice

Topping
1 cup whipping cream, chilled
3 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch pie pan. Break up the graham crackers: place in a food processor and process to crumbs. Add the melted butter and sugar and pulse or stir until combined. Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake the crust until set and golden, 8 minutes. Set aside on a wire rack.

Beat the egg yolks and lime zest at a high speed until very fluffy, abut 5 minutes. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to beat until thick, 3 or 4 minutes longer. Lower the mixer speed and slowly add the lime juice, mixing just until combined. Pour mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the filling has set. Cool on a wire rack, then refrigerate. Freeze for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Whip the cream and the confectioners' sugar until nearly stiff. Cut the pie in wedges and serve very cold, topping each wedge with a large dollop of whipped cream.

Ingredients
1 pound carrots, peeled and trimmed
1 pound fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and cut lengthwise in halves
1 pound parsnips, peeled, trimmed, and cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices
1 medium onion, trimmed, peeled and halved, each 1/2 cut into quarters
1 whole head garlic, separated into cloves, unpeeled
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon sage
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Put all the vegetables and the herbs in a large baking dish. Season well with salt and black pepper, drizzle generously with olive oil, and toss them with your hands to coat them evenly.

Put the baking dish in the preheated oven and cook, stirring the vegetables occasionally, until they are tender and golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Ingredients
10 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tablespoons capers, drained
salt and pepper

Instructions
In a food processor, combine tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, and garlic. Stir in capers and season to taste.

Okay, I've had the curds in the press for five days. Here it is straight from the press.


This picture has the cheese cloth removed.


Let the molding begin.


So far, so good.

Really good stuff from a jar.

I finally threw out the blue cheese. It's the worst thing I've ever made - a total disaster. It was so bad I gagged when I took this picture. You cannot imagine the smell. Please don't try.

Take a deep breath. Don't puke. I admit, the picture makes me feel a little queasy. But, it makes me laugh too - so it's not all bad.

I was so excited about making cheese that my mom gave me a cheese press for my birthday. That was before I discovered how scary bad cheese could be. But, I'm not easily dissuaded from foolish endeavors - especially when I have specialized equipment. So, I'm trying again. Hope springs eternal...

There's cheese in there. I'll take a picture when I take the cheese from the press in a couple days.

I made nothing new today - sort of. I made things I've made before but I changed a few things. For breakfast, I made buttermilk biscuits for the boys


...and sausage gravy for me.

I've got the biscuits down. They're one of Nick's favorites.

For dinner, I made buttermilk pancakes. Yes, breakfast for dinner. We'd do that a few times a year when I was growing up. It's fun. Recently, a friend told me how she would eat pancakes with an easy-over egg between them. Okay, I'll try it. I also sauteed some chunked apples in a little butter with some brown sugar and served the pancakes with maple syrup. They were the best pancakes I've ever made.


After dinner, I made oatmeal cookies with cranberries. Good.

I spent $110 at Trader Joe's yesterday. My goal is not to go to the grocery store for the next two weeks - for anything. I need to eat down some supplies from the freezer and pantry. I almost didn't post this because it's not repeatable. I brought home so much stuff from TJ's that I needed to clean some stuff out of the freezer. I bought a Trader Joe's Indian Stew. To that, I added from my freezer, spinach and green beans. From my pantry came some dried split-peas that I simmered for a half-hour. Finally, it needed a little extra curry powder. I served it over jasmine rice and deep fried tofu strips with some TJ's Mango Ginger Chutney and frozen Naan. Excellent.

Alex helped with this one too. I think he has a chance to be a decent cook. He doesn't freak out when he makes a mistake and he learns quickly. He likes to taste the food to try to figure out what it needs. I let him smell two different (but really good) curry powders to decide which to add. We were in total agreement. It's fun having him cook with me. He's really looking forward to eating this dish as cold leftovers at school tomorrow. I wonder if he'll tell his friends he made it.

Nick had a piece of naan and some Trader Joe's pierogi. He proclaimed them "Better than Mrs. T's." I don't know if that means they're good or not.

Okay, it appears Alex is only going to cook when he's not playing computer games. That's okay. This was really easy. The recipe I used had me separating one third of the noodles and deep frying them in olive oil. That wasn't worth the work. I used organic vegetable broth, garbanzos, and noodles. There wasn't much salt in the broth so this needed a decent amount. I used a little sea salt when I served it. Alex loved it. It was surprisingly good for how simple it was.

Ingredients
2 cups vegetable stock
2 cups water
2 cans rinsed and drained garbanzo beans
salt and pepper
1# wide noodles - cooked and drained
extra virgin olive oil
parmesan cheese

Instructions
Simmer beans in broth and water and season with salt and pepper. Add noodles. When nice and hot ladle into bowls and float some olive oil on top and garnish liberally with the cheese.

Alex wants to start cooking. He said to me, "I don't want to be helpless in the kitchen when I'm older. Can I help?" Imagine my delight. I showed him how to measure a teaspoon of thyme in his palm and guess how much 1/4 cup of olive looks like. He did all the work on this with me helping over his shoulder while I cleaned up a mess in the pantry. This turned out delicious. I was so proud - and so was he.

Ingredients
2 pounds potatoes, scrubbed and boiled until cooked but firm - cut into large cubes
1 pound green beans, trimmed and steamed

2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions
In a large bowl toss together warm potatoes, beans, herbs, dressing and salt and pepper to taste. Serve salad warm or at room temperature.