Fresh Mascarpone with Balsamic Cherries

Recently I took a Continuing Education course at NAIT called "Young Cheesemaking Fundamentals" - after attending Eat Alberta in April, I knew I wanted to come back to the NAIT kitchens as soon as I could. Chef Allan Roote welcomed our tiny class and got started right away. There were only eight of us, which I thought was perfect, as there was lots of hands-on learning and we could easily crowd around Chef Allan and watch his demos closely. Over the course of the night, we tasted and made yogurt, mascarpone, ricotta, mozzarella, and cheese fondue.

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Crack Mix

I love it when you go to a friend's house or have people over, fully intending to watch a movie together, and then you end up just talking or goofing around for 5 hours instead. That has happened to me twice in the past few weeks, and it doesn't bother me one bit that we didn't watch those movies. At both of those get togethers, there was no shortage of nibbles (I happened to make this mix on both occasions) - plenty of fuel for long conversations or epic game nights.

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