Making Things Difficult

This past Sunday, my friend Jerry and I made Swiss cheese fondue for a few friends. It was a good evening. We ate chocolate covered strawberries, drank some home-vintage wine, and, of course, ate a LOT of cheese. It all worked out well and good, but we clearly could have planned better.

One hour before people were scheduled to arrive, we were still poking around in tide pools at the beach and had yet to even buy the necessities, namely cheese. It's tough to make fondue without cheese! We made a mad dash to the store, got the cheese, bread, garlic, strawberries, and chocolate and rushed back to clean the apartment a little.

With just a few minutes before guests were supposed to arrive, we couldn't find the fondue pot! It's probably even harder to make fondue without the pot than without the cheese. Thankfully, after some worrisome scrambling, the pot showed itself. Next task: shred a few pounds of cheese. Sure, that sounds easy enough, unless your only cheese grader is of the 3 inch by 4 inch variety. Sheesh! But like I said, it all worked out in the end. The fondue was tasty, and a good time was had by all. I can say with some certainty now, however, that my next kitchen purchase is going to be a bigger cheese shredder.