Rainy Weather ~ Easy Dinner

Another rainy weekend in Southern California. Didn't we just spend last weekend digging out the weeds? Our poor garden  ~ a new crop of weeds has been birthed just during this last week of rainy days. After attacking the new upstarts today...who wants to cook or go out ??? We're pooped out! It is the perfect weather for Cheesy Fondue. We have been making this recipe for scores of years now in one form or another. The original, which we have veered from was given to us by a friend. You can make this in 2 whole sourdough boules or individual sourdough rolls such as the Pioneer brand. 

Yes, weeds were trying to hide amongst the herbs!

Determination was called for...we are taking back our plot...weed free!

Here are the ingredients for family style fondue.

This recipe makes enough to serve 8-10. Cut the amounts in 1/2 or freeze half for later use, if your family is smaller.

2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

2 cups Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

1 stick butter (8 tablespoons), cut into cubes

1-8 ounce (1 cup) can tomato sauce (not paste)

3 heaping tablespoons finely minced sweet onion

3 heaping tablespoons finely minced red bell pepper

dash cayenne pepper

(2-3 pieces of crispy bacon, crumbled would be a nice addition-we did not do this in today's recipe)

2 14-ounce Sourdough boule (we bought ours at Trader Joe's), slice off the top, and hollow out the bottom by running a knife around the bottom edge being careful not to cut through the bread. (You can see by our pictures how it works) Carefully remove the insides and cut into cubes to use to dip into the fondue when ready to serve. (You should have a bread bowl with a top when you are done)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use a lower heat if your oven tends to burn easily. In a large saucepan over medium high heat, add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the onion and bell pepper. Cook until the bell pepper and onion are soft, but not brown. Add the tomato sauce and stir to combine with onion and bell peppers. Remove from heat and add the cheeses. Stir/mixture will still be chunky...it will not  become creamy until it is baked. Fill the boules with the cheesy mixture and replace their lids. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake approximately 15-20 minutes. Lift the lids a little to peek under and make sure the cheeses are melted. At that point, we like to remove the lids and turn the broiler on--broil until the cheese begins to bubble and brown a bit. Remove from oven, replace the lids and serve. 

**Suggestions~ This is how we completed our presentation today....we took a baking sheet...drizzled olive oil over the surface. Cracked sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder over the oil. Then we halved some red, yellow, and blue baby potatoes (enough for 2-3 per person)...popped them in the microwave for 5 minutes...removed them...rolled them in the oil/seasoning mixture on the baking sheet then placed them cut sides down into the hot oven. We also roasted the remainder of our sweet onion cut into chunks right along with the potatoes. Right next to the potatoes, we place our foil covered boules of fondue. The potatoes roasted for about 15 minutes and then we added some thin asparagus tips...we rolled them in the same olive oil mixture and continued the cooking process for another 8 minutes. Meanwhile we julienned some red bell pepper, grabbed a handful of baby heirloom tomatoes, and diced some chunks of leftover tri-tip beef, and began composing our serving platter. We removed the roasted vegetables and then popped the boules back under the broiler as mentioned above. You can see by the picture below that we served everything on one big platter. It is a lot of fun to eat this type of communal meal...it elicits conversation-everyone participates. It's a good thing!

Cleanup after a meal like this is pretty easy!