when hell froze over

I live in Texas, the land of 100+ degree temperatures and 9 months of summer. I chose to live in Texas to get away from the snow and ice and miserably grey skies of Philadelphia. So please tell me why, what have I done to deserve this?? It just keeps snowing in Texas … we’ve had record snowfall this winter and now accuweather is saying it may snow again next week???

My very first winter in Texas, back in 2005, was “harsh” according to the locals. With temperatures dipping into the 30s and 1/100th of an inch of ice on the roads one morning in January, the Texans were screaming. I, on the other hand, was relishing in 30 degree temperatures; it felt balmy to me, a far cry from the winter of 2004 in Philly where we had temperatures in the single digits for what felt like an entire month (the winter that drove me to drive to Texas). My second winter was my first winter in our new home, I lovingly prepared hearty comfort foods in my new kitchen and built big, roaring fires on our new fireplace … I think the temperature dropped below 40 once. My third winter in Texas, I learned about the Texan interpretation of a sand truck. We received about 1.5-2” of snow, work closed due to road conditions, and I settled in on the couch to spend the day with the dogs watching Food Network and participating in the occasional conference call. Just as Ina Garten was placing her beautiful lemon tart into the oven, Fredo hopped up, ran to the front door, and gave a few of his big-dog barks. Gus followed suit and now I had both dogs barking like mad at the front door so of course I got up to see what was causing all this commotion. Heading very slowly down our street, was a Ford F150 with four guys in the back with shovels, shoveling out sand onto the asphalt as the truck drove slowly down the road. I nearly passed out from laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe.

The winter of 2008/9 came and went, I really don’t recall much about it. And now here we are, the winter of 2009/10 started out great, I had taken the full week of Christmas off from work and spent every day at the park with the dogs, enjoying 70 degree temperatures and beautiful sunny afternoons, grilling dinner in the warm evenings. Then it happened, 4” of snow on Christmas Eve!!! I was not happy, not happy at all. So I did what any snowed in gal would do on Christmas Eve, we went to our neighbors, had a few big girl glasses (well the guys had beer) and drank hot buttered rums until the wee hours of Christmas morning. The snow quickly melted Christmas day and I thought it was all behind us.

Last week, we received the most snow the DFW area has ever received in a single day. Normally on a snow day, I don’t mind it so much because I can just putter about the house, do some cleaning, make a beef stew and bake some homemade bread while watching hour after hour of Food Network. However, this was no ordinary snow day; we lost power for almost 24 hours!!!! Home alone with the dogs and no power, I built a fire to keep the house warm and started brainstorming about what would make a good dinner. I thought back to mine and Dan’s first official/real date and decided I’d make fondue. So after reading almost an entire Twilight book and a good long nap with the dogs, I got everything together to make fondue. Unfortunately, when Dan got home, he wasn’t in the mood for fondue so we ordered pizza. We may not have had power, but at least the local Papa John’s did and they were willing to deliver. FML (well not really) I was craving fondue!

It all worked out a few days later. That Sunday afternoon, I was really craving a grilled cheese but we didn't have sandwich bread or sliced cheese. I did, however, happen to have a loaf of italian bread and bag of shredded cheddar (and of course beer) so I made fondue for lunch!

Recipe for beer cheese fondue:
•2 cups shredded cheddar
•2 cloves garlic, minced
•1 tbsp Dijon mustard
•1 ½ tbsp Worcestershire
•1 bottle dark beer, I like using Sam Adam’s Winter Lager or Bass Ale works too
•2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
•2tbsp flour

If you don’t own a double boiler, and I don’t, you can either do the make-shift way or the microwave way. The only difference is if you’re doing make-shift, use a metal or glass bowl; if microwave, don’t use metal.

Set a pot of water over a fondue flame or on the stove on medium-high heat to let the water gently boil, you don’t want it to boil too hard or you’ll burn yourself.
Pour the beer into a large bowl and mix in the garlic, mustard, Worcestershire and black pepper. Place the metal bowl over the pot of gently boiling water (pot must be smaller than the bowl so the bowl bottom doesn’t actually touch the water) and heat until the beer has warmed and is just barely simmering. Allow it to simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t bubble over. (microwave on high for 7-9 minutes until beer is simmering, stop it at 4 min to stir down the bubbles)

Lower the heat on the stove to low-medium and stir in the cheddar, ½ cup at a time, until it’s fully melted. Stir in the flour ½ tbsp at a time until the mix thickens and is nice and smooth; sometimes I only need 1tbsp, sometimes I need 3, just keep adding a little flour at a time until you get to the right consistency. (microwave, stir in cheese, microwave 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds more, stir in flour, 1 min more, stir and you’re done … you don’t get the same perfect consistency with the microwave but it sure is a lot quicker). Serve hot, with bread and veggies for dipping!