Cheddar Cheese Fondue

For all you long time readers of the blog, you know that I've posted a few fondue recipes in the past. I gave this one a try this weekend and it's a real winner too, so I thought I would share.

This is a traditional cheddar cheese fondue, so your kids will probably love it. (Mine sure did.)

Super easy to whip up!

Cheddar Fondue

1 cup white wine

1 teaspoon chopped garlic  

16 oz cheddar cheese, shredded 

2 Tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper 

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder 

Bread, pretzels, fruits, veggies for dipping - (apples, pineapple, carrots, broccoli)

1. Simmer wine and garlic in fondue pot over medium-high heat for one minute. 
2. Add cheese, flour, pepper, and mustard powder to a Ziploc bag and shake. Add mixture to fondue pot 1/4 pound at a time. 
3. Stir after each addition to incorporate until cheese is melted. 
4. Serve with cut-up bread, fruit, and veggies.

Notes: 

For those of you who don't want to use wine (or quite frankly don't happen to have a mere 1 cup of it laying around unused), you can substitute apple juice.

Don't forget our other tried and true fondue recipes. All of these make great recipes for snow days or for upcoming Super Bowl parties:

Pizza Fondue

Swiss & Gruyere Cheese Fondue

Enjoy!

Mermaid Tail and Shark Lapghans

Did you craft anything as a gift for Christmas? Well, I did.

I decided that for all the kiddos on the Harris side of the family, I would crochet them matching lap afghans (or lapghans). You may have already seen the popular mermaid tail and "eaten by a shark" personal afghans floating around on Pinterest and Facebook.

With sharks being all over the news this past Summer and with our family's association with The Little Mermaid having been well documented time and time again, I thought that sharks for Aidyn and Jaxon and mermaid tails for Charlotte, Emma, and Lexi would be perfect.

I used these free crochet patterns and adjusted them for sizing: Eaten by a Shark Pattern and Mermaid Tail Pattern.

Here's the whole motley crew. I know, Lexi, you have crazy cousins! ;-)

But she soon figured out what to do with it . . . 

Of course, my boys wanted to show you what it looks like to fend off a shark attack:

And also what it looks like when you lose (silly boys):

Pattern Modifications

For the smaller mermaid tails, I only completed each half tail until there were 16 stitches left. This made a smaller tail that looked more appropriately sized for a smaller mermaid tail.

For all tails (both mermaid and shark), I only completed the very last row (12 or 16) with one row of stitches. That way, the matching row on the other half tail would complete the two row pattern that all other rows had formed. If you complete two rows on both sides, then when you sew the two half tails together, you'll have four of the same sized rows together in the middle, which I thought would look odd.

For the mermaid tails, I used this decorative stitch around the top edges: *7dc in same space, skip a stitch, repeat from * 

For shark teeth, instead of the bobbles, I used this decorative stitch to form triangle "teeth" around the mouth: *hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, skip two stitches, repeat from *

Measurements

You'll note that both patterns walk you through the bottom portion, which includes all shaping, and then instructs you to complete the rest of the pattern "to desired length." Well, since these were for gifts, I had to sort of figure a way to ask for measurements so that I would have something to work with.

For the mermaid tails, I asked for the girls' measurements (standing) from floor to waist height and then I added to that measurement the length of their feet. This will give them room to move their feet around at the bottom of the tail, and for the little girls, will give them some "growing room." I crocheted to this length in each instance and then added the final decorative stitch in the contrasting color.

For the sharks, I measured the boys from underneath their arms (standing) to the floor and then added to that measurement the length of their feet. I crocheted to this length in each instance and then added the jaws.

Yarn Choice & Colors

For the mermaid tails, I used:

• Red Heart Super Saver Turqua (body)
• Red Heart Super Saver Grape Fizz (tail and ruffle trim)

For the sharks, I used:

• Caron One Pound Soft Grey Mix (body, fin, tail)
• Caron One Pound Black (eye)
• Caron One Pound Scarlet (blood)
• Loops and Threads Impeccable White (eye/teeth)

(Note: You certainly don't need one pound of the black, red, or white color for the shark pattern. These were just leftover from another project, so I put them to good use for these projects to accomplish some stash busting!)

All in all, I would certainly recommend these patterns, as they are very beginner friendly. They do take some time with the finishing (for the sharks more so than the mermaids), but the majority of the work is a simple Granny Stitch. Easy peasy!

Add these patterns to your Ravelry queue:

Eaten by a Shark

Mermaid Tail*

Note: Designer is the same for both the Eaten by a Shark and Mermaid Tail lapghans. Eaten by a Shark is featured on Ravelry, but that link will also take you to the free Mermaid Tail pattern on her website.

Enjoy!

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Vintage Pink Nursery Rhyme Glassware

Just in time for our next grand holiday, Valentine's Day, I present to you my latest and greatest vintage pink glassware treasures.  As I have shown you before, I like to use pink depression glass in my Valentine table setting each year.  I actually spied these pieces last summer and brought them home to store until now.  It's time once again to decorate for Valentine's Day, so these beauties are making their debut for the very first time this year.  

This little set includes six pieces: a small pitcher, two glasses, one handled mug, a divided plate, and a bowl.  And each piece actually depicts old nursery rhyme quotes and images.  And while I was instantly drawn to this beautiful pink glassware, it's definitely not depression glass, which is fine by me.  I still love it just as much and will mix it right in with my other pieces. 

Here are the drinkware pieces.

And here are some closeups so you can see what drew me to these super sweet pieces in the first place.  Humpty Dumpty graces the side of the handled mug. 

Here are the two juice glasses.  They are a matching pair of "Jack and Jill" glasses. 

One side of each of the glasses has the actual rhyme on it. 

And the other side is an image of the characters themselves. 

Here's the small pitcher.  It's a really solid little piece, in great shape and features two nursery rhymes on it. 

One side is "Mary had a Little Lamb".

While the other side is "Jack Jumped over the Candlestick".

Then finally, we have the dishes.  This is the divided plate, and it features a couple more rhymes: "See Saw Margery Daw" and "Where are you Going My Pretty Maid?"

The bowl was super difficult to photograph so you'll have to take my word for it.  The image in the bottom of the bowl is of Mother Goose, while "Little Bo Peep", "Three Blind Mice" and "Little Miss Muffet" are printed around the edges of the bowl. 

So there you have it.  Another vintage find and I'm a happy girl.  These will be tucked right into the Valentine's decor in my dining room this year.  Stay tuned to the blog for more Valentine's decorating in the coming weeks!