We all love the efficiency and ease of the one-pot wonder: a meal that’s made in one vessel – thrown together and baked or cooked – ready for the after-skiing (or in my case, snowboarding) meal.

A steaming hot pot of spicy chili was always on the menu, waiting for my family when we got home from the mountain – the best thing to fill my hungry tummy after a long day of racing. Thawing out to a great comfort meal is an important part of life here in the Northeast, and we Vermonters certainly participate in plenty of bone-chilling cold-weather winter activities.

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Remember Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche, that 1982 fun-poking paean to masculinity?

Well, thankfully, that statement was never true.

I mean, think of the King, with his “four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie” – surely that savory (to say nothing of copious) filling qualifies the King’s pie as quiche.

Pie doesn’t have to be sweet. And when it’s not, it’s often called – you guessed it – quiche.

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Come on, people, raise a hand and show your age.

How many of your are like me, and were born in PST? No, not Pacific Standard Time. I’m talking Pre-Salsa Time.

That’s right, there was a time, especially for those of us on the cold, dark East Coast, when salsa was unheard of. PST was also PBT, and PNT as well…

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Sweeeeeet!

Toooooooooo sweeeeeeeet….

Your pantry is packed with panettone. The counter is crammed with Christmas cookies. Even the foyer is filled with a flood of “ripening” fruitcakes…

Sugar high!

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Zucchini muffins.

Check.

Zucchini bread.

Check.

Zucchini chocolate cake, and cookies, and caponata, and frittata, and dip, and…

Check, check, and double check.

Is there anything, any combination of zukes, flour, eggs, and herbs and spices and sugar and butter and [fill in the blank] we haven’t thrown together to put a dent in the ever-growing pile of zucchini outside the back door?

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What IS it about hot, melty cheese, anyway? I mean, you see a picture like this, and you NEED THAT PLATE IN FRONT OF YOU RIGHT THIS INSTANT.

From Gruyère Stuffed Crusty Loaves and Garlic-Herb Mac & Cheese to Sausage Cheese Biscuits and the meltiest cheese dish of them all – Cheese Fondue – some of the most popular recipes on this site feature hot melted cheese.

All involve cheese that goes into the oven (or onto the stovetop) solid and stolid; and comes out a glorious, lava-like, aromatic mass of pure oozing cheesiness. Cheddar, Jack, Swiss, mozzarella… doesn’t really matter what kind, does it? So long as it’s warm and soft and on your plate. read the rest of this entry »

I’ve no doubt baked many hundreds of different recipes in the 35+ years I’ve been baking on my own. But there are certain ones that I bake over and over again: fudge birthday cake, almond puff loaf, whole wheat pain de mie, and a host of others that never fail to win accolades from whatever audience enjoys them. read the rest of this entry »

Cheese bread.

Oxymoron, –noun: contradictory terms used in conjunction, e.g., deafening silence; genuine imitation.

If there’s an opposite of oxymoron, that’s what the words “cheese bread” would be.

Because there are no two words in the bake-o-sphere that fit together quite so nicely as “cheese,” and “bread.” read the rest of this entry »

Sweeeeeeet!

TOO sweeeeeeet…..

Holiday baking got you down? Has an overdose of sugar made you blanch at the thought of yet another Christmas party rife with cookies, awash in eggnog, and overflowing with candy-coated treats of all descriptions?

Then it’s time for a break.

A cheese break, to be precise.

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Melted cheese.

To use a totally oxymoronic phrase – it absolutely screams comfort, doesn’t it?

Pick up a piece of pizza, and swipe at the mozzarella stretching from pan to plate. Cut into a grilled cheese, and watch the cheddar oooooooze. Dig into a bowl of mac and cheese. Pour thick, smooth, golden cheese sauce onto toast.

So – do you find yourself relaxing, heaving a giant sigh, wanting to walk away from your computer and curl up in a warm blanket?

That’s melted cheese: bliss on a plate.

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