So, I broke in my shiny new gadgets over this last week. I made pizza dough in the Kitchenaid and hummus in the Cuisinart. Unfortunately, the yeast I used for the dough was dead (oldness), so it never rose. Fault of the ingredients, not the recipe or equipment. And the hummus turned out well (No. 1), although I didn’t have quite the full amount of sesame seeds. I was going to make up the rest with tahini, but I couldn’t find it. I think I left it at my parents’ house, so I’ll get it when I head over there sometime this week. So I used peanut butter. It was fine.

On Saturday, I went down to Mountain View and hung out with Rob and Jer. There was much Katamari Damacy and snacking. Jer and I went for pho. I’d never had it before. Big ol’ bowl of beef broth with noodles and meat and veggies. Not bad, especially when you glopped a bunch of hot sauce on it.

Last night, I went over to Jon’s to witness the making of fromage fort (we were inspired by the recipes of Jacques Pepin and Alton Brown, but this recipe seems closer to what we made). If you’ve never heard of it, it’s what to do if you’ve got a bunch of different leftover cheeses. You cut them up into chunks (removing the rind and any mold, of course) and put them into a food processor with a bunch of garlic, salt, pepper, and some white wine. Process until creamy, and use as a spread on bread or crackers. However, we learned that maybe you shouldn’t just use wine, that you should cut it with a little water. Because our comment while tasting and tweaking seasoning was, “Well, it’s definitely got enough wine in it!” So yeah, a little on the boozy side. And I reek of garlic today. ^) ^

I think I might be coming down with something. I’ve started coughing. Hm, better make some chicken soup. Yay!